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Its hard to find fault with anything except the price and then you look at the competition and see that there is not a better value for a car that mixes performance with decent utility.

The Focus ST with the reduced prices are close but the extra 500 lbs is hard to swallow unless you need a bigger car.

The Scion FRS is close but the rear seat space is tiny and it doesn't have the torque that makes the Fiesta ST so eager to perform.

Unfortunately I think the price is just high enough to scare away people who are looking for basic transportation. If it started at $19,995, more people would look.

As of now, I've never encountered another on the street despite the fact that its 1.35 tons of fun and does everything else you expect from a hatchback.

 

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Its still Ford's smallest car with the lowest base price.

The ST is certainly an upsell from the base car but I know I justified it.

I know a lot of people with more money than me who aren't "car people" that wind up with boring Hondas and Toyotas because they are shopping on price and perceived reliability. They don't consider an ST because they don't know it exists and they don't know it exists because its outside of their price window. They are the type of people who go to a Toyota dealership looking for a Corolla and leave with a Camry (that costs more than an ST) because the salesman hooked them on a bigger car.

A quick car is wasted on some people I usually call them "traffic" but a lot of people would have fun and usually that's hard to put a price on but in this case its a matter of comparing monthly payments.

My commute and other driving makes me spend about 40 hours a month in my car and my payment is probably $200 more than a base Fiesta or one of its competitors, so $5 an hour for fun (roughly).

 

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Sorry , 40 hours a month.