Ford Fiesta ST now with 5 doors for a more family friendly ST option – costs from £19,495

The Ford Fiesta ST – Ford’s hottest take on the Fiesta – will now be available with five doors as Ford tries to make the ST a more practical car for families.

The Ford Fiesta ST may be getting a bit long in the tooth – as is the whole Fiesta range – but it’s still an absolutely cracking little car to drive. Trouble is, as a three-door it’s a bit of a pain for families.

So having managed to create the new Focus RS as a five-door only model, Ford no longer has any qualms about making the Fiesta ST seem more pedestrian by fitting it with an extra pair of doors, and from now on you’ll be able to buy a five-door Ford Fiesta ST – a car we first saw as a concept five years ago.

The news comes a bit late for a member of the Cars UK team who has just swapped out from a three-door ST to a MINI Clubman because of a baby on the way, but next time round there will at least be the option of a family friendly ST.

In all the ways that matter, the five-door ST is the same as its door-poor sibling, with 180bhp from its 1.6 litre turbo engine, enough for a sprint to 62mph in 6.9 seconds. It seems economy is a bit worse at 46.3mpg, but you’ll not notice any difference in the real world.

With prices from £19,495 and available as an ST 2 or ST 3, the new five-door Fiesta ST is available from Ford’s UK dealers from October.