The Ford Fiesta now comes with electronic stability programme as standard, making it the first volume-selling “supermini” on the Irish market to have this acclaimed safety aid as standard.
Indeed Irish motorists will be hearing a lot more about ESP in the coming years as the EU has issued a regulation which decrees that ESP will be compulsory on all new vehicles from November 1, 2011.
ESP is a system of sensors that detect a deviation of the vehicle's motion from the driver's intended path, and brakes one or more wheels to get the vehicle back on its desired path. At least 40 per cent of fatal road accidents across Europe are the result of skidding. Studies show that ESP could reduce skidding accidents by up to 80 per cent.
On the Irish market, Ford has the broadest range of vehicles that now come with ESP as standard, including Galaxy, S-MAX, Mondeo, C-MAX, Focus, and now, Fiesta models.
Eddie Murphy, managing director of Ford Ireland, said: “Our Focus was the first compact family car to have ESP as standard and now we are delighted to extend this to our award-winning Fiesta. When you consider the great benefit that ESP can bring - a possible reduction of 4,000 fatalities across Europe if all cars had ESP - the onus is on car makers to make it available as standard on all their vehicles as soon as possible.”
The Fiesta Style with ESP as standard is currently available under a special scrappage deal from €11,995, including alloys, front fogs, spoiler, central locking and electric front windows.
