With adequate maintenance and conscientious use, a Ford Fiesta can push 200,000 miles before falling apart. However, most people rarely use the car past 150,000 miles before changing it.

I never found it to be overly firm, either, and quite happily completed long trips in it without feeling fatigued. In fact, I’ve driven this car farther than most of my vehicles, having covered well over 4000 miles in it and averaged a fuel economy figure of 43.9mpg. Car of the Year-winning Puma small SUV.

Virtually all current production vehicles’ published road braking performance tests indicate stopping distances from 60 mph that are typically 120 to 140 feet, slightly less than half of the projected safety distances.

NHTSA data for these problems include four crashes, one fire, and seven injuries. Owners experienced engine stalling, lack of power, slipping gears, shuddering, and lurching. As with transmission issues, Ford failed to provide resolutions to these problems for the owners.

The ST didn’t feature in the most recent What Car? Reliability Survey as a model in its own right, but the regular Fiesta did. It finished in a respectable 10th place in the small car class. Ford came 18th out of 31 manufacturers in the same survey.

The Focus is one class bigger than the Fiesta, which brings along all of the advantages of extra space along with it, but that also makes it more expensive and less efficient. Both cars are available as either a sedan or a hatchback. The extra size of the Focus makes it a good car for small families.

The Focus ST has the 2.0L EcoBoost turbocharged engine that puts out a nifty 252 hp. The Fiesta ST has the smaller 1.6L EcoBoost 4 cylinder with 197 hp, comes with the six-speed manual and gets marginally better mileage at 26/33 mpg.

The Ford Focus Reliability Rating is 4.0 out of 5.0, which ranks it 27th out of 36 for compact cars. The Toyota Corolla Reliability Rating is 4.5 out of 5.0, which ranks it 1st out of 36 for compact cars. The average annual repair cost is $362 which means it has excellent ownership costs.

Is Toyota or Ford More Reliable? Consider the 2017 J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Survey: Toyota scored 5/5 for Overall Dependability and 5/5 in Powertrain Dependability. Meanwhile, Ford scored 3/5 for Overall Dependability and 2/5 in Powertrain Dependability.

Best small car: Ford Focus v Holden Astra v Honda Civic v Hyundai i30 v Kia Cerato v Mazda 3 v Peugeot 308 v Subaru Impreza v Toyota Corolla v Volkswagen Golf.

Are Toyotas Cheaper than Ford? Generally, new Ford cars are more expensive than Toyota cars. This is not surprising, as Ford cars often contain special features that are lacking in most Toyota cars. The cheapest Ford car costs about $21,000, while the cheapest Toyota car only costs about $16,500.