13 things we learned about the new Ford Fiesta

Ford took the existing platform and the best of the engines, sure. But scroll through the following pages and you'll see that the engineers and designers have had a serious go at fixing what needed fixing (cabin, mostly), and even what didn't (chassis). The range is wider. And you can spec it with a bounty of big-car features. The way Ford tells it, because the old Fiesta was the number-one-selling small car in Europe, and people still like the design and love the dynamics, then it's "earned the right to evolve" rather than needing a total reinvention.

You'll see them on the road from July next year. Which of course gives the opposition time to match some of what Ford claims are the Fiesta's 'unique' features.

At first look, the design has been simplified: a couple of bonnet creases have gone, and the big arches above the wheels. The headlamp outline is calmer.

But actually there's a lot going on in the surfaces. A strongly convex section in the doors causes an extra reflected line that runs downward form roughly the front of the front door (depends on the light) towards the top of the rear wheel. It contrasts with the upward-moving crease that runs through the door handles, making an arrowhead shape along the side of the car.

To achieve this, the doors have pretty deep pressings. To make them open without fouling each other, new hinges had to be designed.

The lights and jewellery have had some love. Most versions get LED outlines for the headlamp and tail clusters.

It's not just the old glasshouse. The base of the A-post has gone backward a bit, to lengthen the bonnet. The rear glass 'uptick' is more pronounced. And there's more high-strength steel in the pillars, for crash safety.

If you've rented a Fiesta lately you'll have been shocked by its gritty blue dot-matrix screen and mosaic of buttons. Now, finally, Ford is consigning that to the museum (and to the Ka+).

It's all about the touchscreen now. They say it wipes 20 buttons off the dash, though they've sensibly kept as hard keys a few useful shortcuts and climate controls. The systems can do iOS and Android phone mirroring as well as running apps including Spotify, Aupeo, Glympse and AccuWeather.

Top-enders, including anything with built-in navigation, rock an 8in tablet. Even the mainstream ones have a 6.5-incher in the same housing.

In Ford language these use the Sync 3 operating system, as per Ford's big cars. It's connected, for traffic and apps, via your phone's data plan, rather than having its own embedded data SIM.

Base Fiestas versions have a 4.2in colour screen plus a dock to mount and charge phones.

The front seats are based on Focus items, and they slide back further now, and adjust for height. The steering column goes up-down-in-out so the driving position should suit just about anyone. In the back there's slightly more knee-room, found by re-jigging the rear seat back.

The Fiesta comes in four flavours. Zetec and Titanium are the mainstreamers. It's Vignale for posh, ST-Line for sporty and Active for the urban crossover look. Recognise them by their different front bumpers, lower grilles and foglight surrounds. The ST-Line has its own suspension, lower and stiffer than standard, and an aero body lit. The Active too runs unique settings, with a 19mm height increase. It's clad in dark plastic around the lower body, and has a black roof with bars.

Inside, each has its own trim scheme and dash parts. Also, even within one of these lines, you can spec different coloured dash and door inserts.

The reason for this is that the supermini market is diversifying. Every year more people are buying either base versions (Ford has the Ka+ for them) or hi-spec or premium-brand small cars with lots of custom options.

Well, some of them. The good ones remain from the old car. So the Ecoboost triple is still here, in 100, 120 and 140bhp settings. The 1.25 N/A – which seemed oh-so modern 21 years ago – has been put out to pasture, replaced by a 1.1-litre nat-asp triple of 70 and 85bhp.

Diesel buyers, of whom there aren't many in small cars in Britain, get a 1.5-litre as before, but at 85 and a much higher 120bhp rating with VGT and claimed excellent refinement.

The manual gearboxes are new, with a six-speed at last on the mainstream versions, and a new five-speed too for the 1.1-litres. The low-power Ecoboost can be had with a six-speed auto.

Only a year after launch, in 2018 the Ecoboost engines get a cylinder deactivation system. No other car maker's triple does, so far. This should make them more economical in real driving. But their quoted consumption will be worse than the original versions, because by then the industry will be switching to the more realistic WLTP test cycle instead of the laughably optimistic NEDC test used now.

Wheels start at 16in and rise, on the ST-Line and Vignale (pictured), to 18. Even today's ST200 runs only 17s. So the engineers tell us to expect more grip, especially because the front track is 30mm wider to make space for those big wheels.

Any Fiesta with 100bhp and above gets disc rear brakes where drums did the job before. The result, Ford claims, is better feel than before and stopping distance from 62mph similar to a last-gen 911.

A panoramic glass roof is on the options list for the first time in a Fiesta. The panes are almost the full width of the roof, and the front one slides back over the rear.

An optional B&O sound system uses ten speakers. Among them are a front centre mid-range cone, and a sub in the boot. It's all driven by 675 watts of amplification. Digital signal processing gives you surround sound options, and aims to give a good stereo image to everyone in the car.

Spec all the assistance systems and a Fiesta images its surroundings via two cameras, three radars and 12 ultrasonic sensors.

The collision-mitigation system uses radar and cameras to 'see' ahead for 130 metres, and can even detect pedestrians at night by the light of the headlamps.

The self-parking system doesn't just steer the car and tell you when to brake, as others do. It will brake itself if you don't. Ford found that many people, using this device for the first time, are so bowled over by the experience they're too paralysed to hit the pedal, and bash the adjacent vehicle.

For reversing out of spaces, the Fiesta is the only small car to have cross traffic alert.

Adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist and blind spot alert should keep you out of other cars's way at a cruise.

The speed limit sign warning can spot and memorise the different speed limits on different lanes of a motorway, as displayed on gantries. Then if you change lane, it'll change the indication to tell you the speed in your new lane.

Ford refuses to announce this officially. But we quietly asked Roelant de Waard, Ford of Europe's sales and marketing boss and a true petrolhead. He pointed out the ST is the best-selling small hot-hatch in Europe. "We'd be crazy to walk away from that."