A week with the 2014 Ford Fiesta ST, the true fan favorite

Every so often, automakers will lend us a car for a week's worth of evaluation. Here's our take on seven days spent with the 2014 Ford Focus ST:

Day one: The first test I gave the Ford Fiesta ST isn't an autocross route or trying to burn up as much rubber as possible. It's picking up an 80-year-old grandmother from the airport, where I have to explain who Recaro is and why his seats are so strange.

That the ride across freeways and side roads turned out not just survivable but enjoyable for her speaks to one key reason why the Fiesta ST has become one of the most popular entry-level hot hatches. For all the performance it holds, the ST demands few sacrifices over a regular five-door Fiesta. Yes, the suspension barks more frequently about road seams, and the brakes grab with an urgency that can catch you off guard, but those are minor prices to pay for this much grip.

Day two:

I realize that I'm falling well short of the published fuel economy figures because my foot suddenly feels 11 pounds heavier. People of a certain age fondly remember the Honda manual transmissions of the '90s, and this is the closest I've ever felt to that in an American car: just the right weight, just the right resistance/acceptance of throws.

The owner's manual helpfully tells me that for maximum fuel economy I should shift from 4th to 5th at 41 mph — and then shift from 5th to 6th at 42 mph. Who has time for that?

Ford also sends Fiesta ST owners a bit of a mixed message from the glovebox; read the manual far enough and it will note that Ford's performance engineers do not recommend racing the ST. A few pages earlier, however, it helpfully notes that if you are going to run above 100 mph, you should add 3 psi to the Bridgestone Potenzas.

Also, I have my first argument with Ford Sync's voice commands.

Day three: Despite Ken Block's Gymkhana tie-ins, Ford can't sell a full set of Monster Energy-inspired graphics for copyright reasons. But it will sell you vinyl decals of bacon that can be stuck on your Fiesta; the Bacon racing strips are $191; the Side of Bacon is $318. Were I to ever see this on the street I would immediately start building a basement shelter and buying stockpiles of pelletized food, for surely the end is nigh.

Not all Fiesta ST mods require so much cash. Ford builds the ST with a "sound symposer" — basically a hollow plastic box on the engine that pipes more engine sound into the cabin around 2,500 rpm for a bit of go-fast rumble. It works well, but if you prefer your speed without distraction, Fiesta ST owners will show you how to easily disable it, gratis:

Day four: A query arrives over IM: "If you could fit a car seat and two others on booster seats in the back, I'll buy it. Go now. Test it. Let me know." The Fiesta will properly baby: there are four LATCH points in the rear, and Ford optimistically builds in three seat belts. But that center seat-belt position will fit no one who passed third grade, and the slight bolstering on the edges of the bench means you could fit two baby seats or boosters back there, but not three across. Sorry, Alex.

This is the day I have my second argument with Ford Sync's voice commands.

Day five: As I'm tooling around in the Fiesta, I have a Murilee Martin-quality down-on-the-street moment in my suburb. Stashed among the minivans and family sedans sits a 1969 Dodge Charger, green with white rally stripes, with a few for-sale signs hanging in the interior. I feel about these cars the way other people feel about pet adoption drives, and briefly consider some kind of financial shenanigans to fund a rescue plan, despite its visible rust spots, mismatched modern wheels and paint peeling like a rookie lifeguard.

If that Charger had the base 318 cubic-inch V-8 as it likely does, it would sport a power-to-weigh ratio of 14 lbs/hp in good tune. The Fiesta ST has a power-to-weight ratio of 14 lbs/hp — and in my week of driving I averaged 27 mpg. That Charger would need a 383 V-8 to compete with the ST on a drag strip; on an autocross course, the Fiesta ST would walk away. Yes, that Charger has it all over the ST in style and menace — but it can't really back it up.

Day six:

I find myself running ownership numbers, and realizing that on top of whatever I'd pay for a Fiesta ST I'd also have to pay for a set of non-summer tires, which would require an extra $700-$1,000, depending on how fancy I'd want to get with wheels in snow. There's also the question of paying for 93 octane gas for maxium performance and the additional hit to insurance.

I'd also consider what I call the Corrado factor: There may be no such thing as a good used Fiesta ST. Every owner who buys this car will likely wring it out properly and then some, making detailed maintenance and record-keeping a key part of any used deal. Such was the fate of the previous-gen Ford Focus SVT, whose owners rarely surrendered the keys before 75,000 miles.

I give up arguing with Ford Sync and just leave the radio alone.

Day seven: Why has the Fiesta ST become the go-to, real-world car among the auto cognescenti? First of all, it's within the realm of a writer's salary — $22,000 base, and $25,015 as tested with the Recaro upgrade. The Ford Focus ST costs $5,000 more, and while that extra room makes it more utilitarian, it also makes it less tossable. But there's a deeper, more elemental reason. In a world choked with SUVs and Priuses, no car offers more fun for the dollar than the Fiesta ST.

The closest competitors have either more flaws, fewer doors or both. The Fiat 500 Abarth isn't as well polished; the Mini Cooper S costs more; the Subaru BRZ/Scion FR-S twins have more grace but need a bit more power, and the Honda Civic Si is not only bigger and more expensive but also less well thought out.

But that's about it. Ford has two performance small hatchbacks; General Motors and Chrysler have nothing to compare. Neither does Nissan, or Mazda (where have you gone, Mazdaspeed?). The popularity of the Fiesta ST suggests a business that has focused so much on utility and comfort that it's forgotten about people who still want to have fun driving without having to pay top dollar.

Ford execs know what other benefits the Fiesta ST brings. Every time I hear an auto exec worrying about why young people aren't buying cars, I want to show him (almost always a him) a Fiesta ST and ask "Then why aren't you building something like this?"