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Performance – Both the Ford Fiesta and Volkswagen Vento are offered with petrol and diesel engines. Lets talk about the diesel first. The diesel Fiesta uses a 1.5-litre Duratorq diesel engine which produces a modest 91 BHP and 204 Nm. The diesel Vento on the other hand uses a 1.6-litre TDI engine which produces 105 BHP and 250 Nm. As can be seen here, on paper the Vento should be faster and indeed it is. The Vento’s diesel engine is quick and refined. Once the turbo spools up, you can have ample fun in the Vento diesel. It reaches triple digit speeds very quickly and stays very relaxed even when cruising. The Fiesta diesel doesn’t feel as powerful, nor is it as much fun as the power delivery is quite linear.
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Coming to the petrol powered variants, the Vento’s 1.6-litre petrol engine produces 105 PS and 158 Nm. The petrol Fiesta uses a 1.5-litre engine which produces 110 BHP and 140 Nm. The petrol Vento’s gearbox needs to be worked around to extract the best performance. Smack the throttle and the Vento doesn’t have much to offer. The engine is not as refined either and gets terribly vocal post 4000 RPM. The petrol Fiesta’s power delivery is linear and one won’t find as quick a response from the petrol motor as from say the Honda City. Overall there is little to chose between the petrol powerplants of these two cars, with both offering average performance.
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Coming to the Automatic gearbox variants of the petrol Fiesta and Vento, it is the Fiesta which simply blows away the Vento with its fantastic 6-speed dual-clutch PowerShift automatic gearbox. While the Vento uses a 6-speed automatic as well, the gearbox zaps crucial amount of power from the vehicle. There is significant lag between gearshifts, hampering power to a great extent. The Fiesta’s dual clutch box is super quick with shifts and is able to accurately judge which gear should be next. This gives the Fiesta a massive edge in terms of performance and fuel economy. Real time fuel efficiency of the Fiesta Powershift is almost the same as that of the manual, while the Vento Automatic see a drop in the efficiency compared to its manual sibling. Ford is using a dry clutch in the Fiesta Powershift and claims that this gearbox needs absolutely no maintenance for a good 10 years.
Head over to the next page to read about the Fiesta vs Vento conclusion.
