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2011 Ford Fiesta SES shown
2011 Ford Fiesta SES - Click above for high-res image gallery

Remember when economy cars offered few concessions beyond roll-your-own windows, rear window defrosters and AM radios? It was only a handful of years ago that features on our 2011 Ford Fiesta SES tester would've qualified it for premium car status - if indeed items like Bluetooth, SYNC, a capless fuel fill and knee airbags were even available.

There's no denying the steady trickledown of luxury goods into workaday iron, and the Fiesta is rolling proof.
As you might also recall, back about 10 years ago, Ford executives and those charged with its British outpost, Jaguar, worked themselves into a froth over the possibilities offered by 'The Democratization of Luxury' - boldly and conveniently overlooking that when a premium feature becomes affordable to everyone, it ceases to be a luxury at all. And while this sort of marketing doublespeak was the undoing of the ill-conceived Jaguar X-Type - and perhaps the undoing of Ford's ownership of Coventry's favorite feline altogether - there's no denying the steady trickledown of luxury goods into workaday iron, and the Fiesta is rolling proof.

Of course, any automaker can lash a bunch of features onto a car and call it a day, but it's not a real value unless all of those baubles and braze-ons are bungeed to a platform and drivetrain whose creators have that whole engineering 'special sauce' thing figured out. In other words, the democratization of luxury is one thing - but does the Fiesta deliver the democratization of fun? Click through to the jump to find out.


Gallery: Review: 2011 Ford Fiesta SES


Photos copyright (C)2010 Drew Phillips / AOL

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Review: 2011 Ford Fiesta SES promises the democratization of fun originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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