After nearly 50 years, the Ford Fiesta is dead, so long live the... wait, which of the current crop of superminis should we go for?

WORDS SAM BURNETT PHOTOGRAPHY OLGUN KORDAL

RIP – after 47 years of ubiquity Ford’s Fiesta has come off sale (cutthroat business this, no room for sentimentality) thanks to barely controlled inflation. Not the economic kind, though that can’t be helping, rather the fact that cars are getting too big. People want high riding SUVs, or more spacious, well appointed hatchbacks. Throw in ever stricter emissions rules and making a supermini at lower volumes is getting too expensive. Can’t blame Ford for deciding it couldn’t be bothered.

The Fiesta was long the default choice – you could recommend it to anyone and they’d be happy. There’s no obvious natural successor, but we’ve brought together the cheap one, the all-rounder and the current UK bestseller (although it was dethroned by the Ford Puma while we were writing this) to see if the crown fits any of the rivals, or whether the Fiesta’s demise marks the end of an era. The cheap one is the £14,795 Dacia Sandero in top spec (as if it makes a difference) Expression trim, showing off its recent facelift courtesy of the budget brand’s nimble lifestyle-oriented pivot. Not the kitesurfing and spelunking that rivals seem to think we get up to at the weekend, but rather tramping about in the woods with the dog while the kids ride their scooters into a tree.

“THE BUDGET PRICED SANDERO IS THE SPREADSHEET CHOICE FOR YOUNG FAMILIES OR THE ELDERLY”

Practical cars, rather than desirable ones...

Dacia’s new lifestyle logo looks like a Christmas cracker

Ice scraper in the fuel filler cap present and correct. Everyone else wishes they’d thought of it

You don’t often see an exhaust pipe these days... Corsa’s will end up being swapped for something noisier