This is pretty much what I feared from C&D. They tend to be a Honda shill - they've tilted comparos in the past to ensure Honda would win, for example in 2003 when they tested a loaded Odyssey EX and a base/midlevel Sienna LE, the Sienna outranked the Honda everywhere (and this was the new-for-'03 Sienna against the circa-1998 design Odyssey, mind you) but the Odyssey won the comparo because they gave it a higher score in the "features/gadgets" category. Well of course it would have more features, it was the top-line model!
I'm surprised it's a "distant third" to the others, though. The 2 I could see beating the Ford because, from what I've read, it has that "raw driver's car" feel that would appeal to C&D despite inferior gas mileage, interior quality, noise suppression, etc. But all those disadvantages of the Mazda should mean it's a slim victory at best. The acceleration thing is interesting too - C&D usually posts
by far the fastest acceleration numbers of any car magazine, so the fact that their Fiesta number was lower than others while the Mazda's is higher is rather suspicious to me. I'm about to go out and run some errands so I'll stop by the bookstore and pick up a copy to further investigate.
EDIT: Well the bookstore doesn't have the October issue yet, but I did go back to look at C&D's short take road test of the Fiesta sedan from a few months ago, and found something interesting: the 0-60 time there was
9.3 seconds. Now how could that be? The sedan is heavier than the hatch and should if anything be slower, but it's actually nearly a full second quicker than in the comparo? Hrm...
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/...take_road_test