Cladding a car in plastic bumper and wheel arch extensions is nothing new - premium marques have been doing it for years with posh, rough-road friendly estates. Cars like the Ford Fiesta Active have brought the idea to a wider audience, jazzing up hatchbacks to look slightly more like budget off-roaders.
The benefits are aesthetic more than anything else, but since the Ford Fiesta is already a great small car, the Fiesta Active is too. Less than an inch of extra ground clearance won’t get you much further off the beaten track but if you crave more visual interest in your small cars, it’s worth a look.
Ignoring the Rover Streetwise, which applied the same idea two decades ago, more recent superminis to dress in off-road garb include the Skoda Fabia Scout, Honda Jazz Crosstar, and Hyundai i20 Active. Regular small crossovers like the Nissan Juke may tempt you too, along with the Ford Ecosport or Ford Puma.
The Ford Fiesta Active doesn’t really offer that much more utility than a regular Ford Fiesta, but that doesn’t mean you should steer clear of one. For some buyers it’ll be the perfect half-way house between a supermini and small SUV, with a fashionable rugged look that makes it a bit more interesting than the regular car, without any notable performance or fuel economy penalty that comes with a taller, heavier vehicle.
Fiesta Actives sit a modest 18mm higher than the regular car, and four-wheel drive wasn’t an option - so it doesn’t exactly turn the nation’s favourite small car into an off-roader. But it does result in a slightly improved ride quality (not that a normal Fiesta is bad in this respect), and it’s 18mm extra peace of mind for potholes or the odd rough track.
Save for a few different trim options the cabin is much like any other Fiesta, which means the passenger space is ideal for a couple of adults and a couple more kids, but a tighter squeeze for adults in the back, while the 292-litre boot is nothing special for the class. The small increase in ride height means you’re not quite sitting at the same eyeline as actual SUVs, either.
Few SUVs are as fun to drive as the Fiesta though - it scoots around corners with the best of them and does a reasonable job of letting your fingertips know what’s going on too. The 1.0-litre Ecoboost engines are thrummy little things too, and don’t tend to guzzle much fuel - though ensure they’ve been comprehensively serviced.
The Honda Jazz Crosstar and Skoda Fabia Scout go down the same pseudo off-road route as the Fiesta Active. Neither is quite as fun to drive but both are slightly more practical. Hyundai made an i20 Active too, while Ford itself offers the Puma, and until recently the Ecosport, if you prefer a crossover to a crossover-style car.
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In later years of the Fiesta Active you got a choice of 1-litre turbocharged petrol engines, in three outputs. The 155PS variant is only available in the range-topping Vignale model, which has some fancy equipment but won’t exactly change your life, so we’d suggest seeking out the mid-range 125PS Ecoboost instead, which has enough power to put a pep in the Active’s step, and was the only engine offered in manual and automatic forms, so should cover more buyers’ needs.
The Active is itself a trim line of the regular Fiesta range (albeit more heavily differentiated than most, much as the ST hot hatchback is), but it did come in two trim lines itself, a regular model and a more luxurious Vignale loaded with extra equipment. Both were offered with the 100PS and 125PS engines, but only the Vignale also offered the 155PS unit.
The Ford Fiesta Active’s dimensions are:
The Ford Fiesta Active’s boot size is:
Whichever Fiesta Active you go for, you’ll end up paying a flat rate of VED or ‘road tax’, currently costing £180 per year. This is liable to go up with changes in the tax year.
A Ford Fiesta Active with the 100PS Ecoboost engine starts in group 13, rising to group 17 for the 125PS engine. That’s around three groups higher than non-Active versions of the Fiesta with the same engine.
Read our full Ford Fiesta Active review