2011 Ford Fiesta

2011 Ford Fiesta

Thanks to Hurricane Earl's impending arrival on the East Coast, we had to cut our 2011 Ford Fiesta World Tour a day short. Our final day began in Boston, and we spent the morning driving south to New York City by way of Connecticut.

We were in New Jersey around lunch time, shooting pictures of the two Fiestas in front of the iconic Manhattan skyline. Once that was done, we headed to the Bronx to meet Aston George Taylor Jr., better known as Funkmaster Flex.

The rapper and DJ owns a collection of classic cars, and a handful of them are stored in a non-descript garage in a working-class neighborhood in the Bronx. He also spearheaded the giveaway of a custom Fiesta through his Web site, and a post with more details is forthcoming.

After the stop at the garage, we headed to Manhattan to drop off the cars, and to head to the airport. I appreciated the Fiesta's nimbleness in rush-hour traffic as we manuevered through jam-packed midtown streets.

A wrap-up of the tour is coming tomorrow, along with a photo gallery. In the meantime, my final thoughts on the Fiesta after spending four days driving across the eastern half of the continent are as follows.

I've said it before, but I think Ford needs to go to the Tim Allen route and add more power to the Fiesta. Otherwise, it offers a lot of content for the money, a strong ride and handling balance, and a better highway ride than one would expect from such a small car.

Lack of power notwithstanding, the Fiesta is a pretty good compact car, and most people probably won't need to drive cross-country to figure that out.