Ford’s smallest hot hatch hasn’t cooled its heels in the time taken to get here.

Base price: $35,490.
Powertrain and performance: 1.5-litre turbo-petrol three-cylinder, 147kW/290Nm, 6-speed manual, FWD, fuel economy 7.0 litres per 100km (source: WLTP), 0-100kmh 6.5 seconds.
Vital statistics: 4068mm long, 1469mm high, 2493mm wheelbase, luggage capacity 311 litres, 18-inch alloy wheels with 205/40 tyres.
We like: Characterful engine and chassis, so much fun.
We don't like: Recaro seats better for short distances than long, chintzy interior.

WHO wants a sensible, straight-laced small car?

Yeah, not many hands are being raised these days. Understandable. For better or worse, the models that used to be pick of the litter are now struggling to be noticed.

So, it’s really not that surprising that the latest Ford Fiesta won’t be emigrating. If too few bought the old one, why bother bringing in the new, right

Except that’s not quite how it goes. Ford NZ hasn’t left the party entirely. For fans of the hotshot ST, it’s still very much Fiesta time. In fact, from now on playlist entirely fixates on the performance model.

Which is … well, a ‘fascinating’ strategy. No dissing the ST, it’s a great car. A really great car. But if this is a pitch to pep up the model’s sales pace …. well, history suggests it’s not going to work.

Hot hatches are select choices. Hot hatches with manual gearboxes all the more so. Ford learned as much with the previous ST. Though the best of the bunch, it also pulled in the fewest registrations of all the variants.

So, clearly, Ford here has been affected by some sort of madness. And, personally, I hope they never find a cure. If they’re happy to sell simply it on the strength of vivacious verve and not give a thought to actual volume, then assuredly their risk is your gain.

As oxymoronic as it might seem, the ST is all the better for being tailored to the tastes of a maniac few than to the mainstream many. In saying that, this car is so tailored to the push-on enthusiast you wonder how on Earth its development team got away with achieving sign off. Quite potentially, they might never get to do so again.

All power to those motorsport genes, right? Erm, actually … no. One of the ST’s naughty secrets is that the marketing pitch lending impression of firm association between this hot hatch and the machines that fly the Blue Oval flag in rallying is not quite true. In fact, it’s barely credible.

This ST wasn’t in circulation when the full-out WRC and R5 Fiesta cars that gravel smash for Blue Oval glory were developed. Malcolm Wilson’s M-Sport crowd, which isn’t so much a works outfit as a works-supported one, developed its wee titans off the Fiesta ST-Line. Basically a standard car in sports shoes.

Not that it matters one way or the other because, on technical grounds, the race and road products clearly rally to different causes. Good luck trying to buy from a dealer a Fiesta with a tricky sequential gearbox and four-wheel-drive, let alone enough horsepower to frighten Ferraris. You can’t. Indeed, if any production Ford comes even remotely close to that formula, it’s the Focus RS. Which has just been axed.

No matter. It’s not as if the ST has been neglected under the bonnet. True, the 1.5-litre three-cylinder is the smallest engine ever committed to duty behind the ST badge, but it’s no shirker.

If anything, actually, this is exactly the right ingredient for these times. If you want a fast, agile, eager powerplant that hits the target for requisite social responsibilities in regard to economy and emissions, yet still manages to feel properly old-school raw edged and loud at all the right times, then this engine is it.

The outputs are a very senior and serious 147kW and 290Nm of torque, which is 15kW and 50Nm more than the predecessor’s 1.6-litre created, most of which is thanks to a new, bigger, turbo and some fuel injection and exhaust manifold trickery. Power peaking at 6000rpm suggests you’ve got to work it, yet that’s not quite case – yes, it loves a good rev, but with torque laying out from 1600-4000rpm, it also delivers very broad pull.

And though thrift is potentially going to take a back seat to its thrust, it is quite clever in hitting good economy thanks to a clever fuel-saving cylinder shut-down system, which can reduce this to a two-cylinder car. That trick occurs only under light throttle loads so, you know, will probably be something many owners only get to read about rather than actually experience, yet it’s a tweak that keeps it on the right side of Green worriers.

But, anyway, it’s a real tribute to the three-cylinder programme that all began with a 1.0-litre that also debuted in Fiesta and was also a fantastic thing. Like that one, the 1.5 only occasionally betrays its odd-numbered cylinder count with a curious thrum. Generally, though, you'd otherwise never guess it's been down-sized. There's minimal turbo lag, it pulls strongly right throughout the rev range and also snarls and gurgles and gets a bit deep-throated.

Could it do with a direct shift gearbox with paddle shifts? Assuredly that kind of tech would straight away broaden the car’s appeal and undoubtedly a good one would elevate its attractiveness for push-on driving. And, yet, the ST is also all the more of an experience from having a hand-shifted snappy, slightly meaty, six-speed in marriage with this gem of an engine. Manuals demand dexterity, but if you’ve got the talent, this one just really ‘engages’ with the experience.

And wow, what an experience. Drive hard and the ST becomes, as a colleague put it during a pre-coronavirus lockdown run, “effing quick, with a capital eff.” All the more so when slotting into the Sport or ultimate Race mode – which, you can use quite easily on a decent road despite being warned it’s really just for tracks (mainly that’s Ford covering its butt because the traction control is disabled). In either mode it really rockets. So much so that the time of 6.5 seconds to 100kmh almost seems understated. It certainly feels faster through the gears. For all that, I dunno if it really needs the Launch Control. Yes, it contains the wheel-spinning hooliganism on hard-out releases, but also seems to somehow sanitise the take-off experience.

Read up on this car and you’ll find different opinions about the steering. It has become lighter and has a slightly artificial feel now. Is this Ford trying to broaden the car’s appeal to a wider audience? You’d have to think so. You’d think that’s also why the the ride, while still very firm, is definitely softer and, for all its the ST is, overall, more refined.

Yet only within the parameters of what it is. Outside of those, it remains a very feral and involving car, requiring more dedication to driving duty than your average Fiesta. Which, as I say, is what makes it great – and yet, of course, is what will make it too much for many.

Anyway, the steering gains real feel and feedback when you’re hoofing and, in fact, the car’s whole attitude changes. For one, it has decently good balance. That's helped by the Quaife differential, which can help you tuck the nose into a tight corner. And it also has suitably decent tyres, with 18-inch 205/40 Michelin Pilot Sports, though those on the test car – an Ireland market model they nabbed to raise interest ahead of release of actual NZ-market models – were pretty close to being shagged. And, yes, the four-disc brakes are excellent, too.

I suppose you can argue that this car sells on its family-minded practicality, and sure enough the cabin is roomy for the class and the boot is big enough to make it practical. Yet the provision of Recaro front seats is a pretty telling indicator in its own right about this being the most driver-centric Fiesta by far.

As much as all the spending on performance bits likely makes this model a bottom line burden for Ford, it is hardly matched by attention to broader design detail. I’m not saying the car feels cheap but, on the other hand, it’s apparent Ford has a different approach to ambience and detailing than VW does with the Polo. There’s no sense of ‘premium budget’ here. Too many cheap plastic parts inside for that.

Might that pin it back? Only if you take the wrong attitude and try to measure it against others in the category that are similar sized and specced, but haven’t the same shove. Against them, the Fiesta will seem something of an extravagance. Yet if you can view it for ewhat it actually is – a performance model foremost – then it surely positions in a pretty sweet spot, given everything else that ticks the ‘fun’, ‘agile’ and ‘truly fiesty’ boxes all cost more.

There’s just one annoyance about this car and it’s this: The time it’s taken to get here. Basically, we’re being introduced only now to a variant that has been cutting up UK and European roads since 2018.

Fair dues, it’s not Ford NZ’s fault. The delays in getting the car here are all down to Ford Australia. As is so often the case, Ford head office considers our two countries as one yet, when it comes to determining spec, it’s the larger of the two that has all the say.

In this instance, the whole delivery process has been grievously held up by specification quibbles. The Aussies wanted as standard an active safety kit that’s optional overseas. This all meant a first quarter 2019 launch became a Q4 2019 launch, which in turn became a Q1 .. sorry, make that Q2 … 2020 launch.

Okay, it’s a good news story in the end, because it means the car is loaded. In Europe, Fiesta STs are available in ST-1, ST-2 or ST-3 guise, with an optional Performance Pack on top of that, but our cars get the lot.

So, keyless entry and start, an 8.0-inch infotainment touchscreen with smartphone mirroring and SYNC3 connectivity, a 10-speaker Bang & Olufsen stereo, heated leather steering wheel, heated Recaro front seats, auto headlights, auto emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, forward-collision warning, lane-keep assist and more. Plus the big wheels, the diff, launch control and shift lights, all of which constitutes the Performance Pack that’s an option overseas.

So it’s all worked out well in the end. But what a palaver! Now all Ford NZ has to do is buy it. Were the allegiance so far sworn by every motoring writer who has so far sampled the test example to turn into actual sales – and it won’t, because I’m in the minority within that group as being an actual new car owner – then the ST would have its best year here yet. Something to think about.