(first posted 2/26/2013) In the depths of the gloomy American automotive winter of the late seventies, the Fiesta’s brief appearance brought a ray of sunshine into our deprived existence. She was like that cute, skinny little foreign exchange student, who appeared one day at high school and dazzled us with her algebra, physics, gymnastics and fencing abilities. The big jocks didn’t know what to make of her, and their girlfriends cast disdainful glances her way, but those of us who favored taut agility over big hips and padded vinyl tops fell hard for her. And when she suddenly disappeared just as mysteriously as she’d arrived, she left behind the kind of memories that last a lifetime.
Just a few years ago, Ford had the same problem it did in 1978. Its compact car had been in production almost a decade. The market was shifting to ever-smaller cars. CAFE standards were tightening. The Asian brands were cleaning up in the segment. What to do? Well, its Fiesta was going gangbusters in Europe, so bring it here, and quick. Sound familiar? Well, history has an annoying habit of repeating itself, especially in the car biz.
So if history does repeat, what does the 1978 Fiesta tell us about the current Fiesta? (Update: The new Fiesta is gone too) The former Fiesta was a ball to drive; in fact, it was flat-out the most bang-for-the-buck fun on four wheels available in the U.S. at the time. And for that we can thank VW’s bone-headedness.
The Rabbit/Golf MK1 had arrived three years earlier fitting exactly the same description: light, zippy and toss-able. The early Rabbit delivered an unparalleled package of Euro-spec delight. But in 1978, VW opened its first U.S. factory (here’s history again repeating itself) and hired ex-GM exec James McLernon to run it…into the ground. He knew exactly what Americans wanted in a Volkswagen: a “Malibu-ized” Rabbit with a softer suspension, “American-ized” interior and an engine reduced in size from the zippy 1.6 liters of 1977 to a substantially weaker 1.45. And then, he crowned his efforts with a set of full wheel covers looking like they’d come straight from the GM parts bin. Nein Danke!
Willkommen Fiesta! Coming straight from the Cologne factory in undiluted and unadulterated form, it actually was even better than what the Europeans got, having a bigger engine than was offered there, (until 1981’s XR2 came along, anyway). While Europeans had a choice of 900 cc, 1.1- and 1.3-liter engines, all U.S. versions came with a 1.6-liter; regardless of their displacement, all of them were revised versions of the old Kent OHV engine–perhaps not quite as smooth as the VW EA827 OHC unit, but a lusty little mill, and very easy to tune for even more power. But even in stock form it got the job done, and quite zippily at that, especially since the Fiesta was a whole size smaller than the Rabbit/Golf and weighed only some 1,700 pounds.
image: hemmingsblog
The Fiesta’s roots go back to a stillborn Ford world-car concept from 1963. The idea sprang back to life at the beginning of the seventies in response to such popular new Euro hatchbacks as the Fiat 127 and Renault R5. At the time, the European Escort was not only still RWD but destined to get bigger, so Ford put out the call for a contemporary FWD design. It was answered by Tom Tjaarda of Ghia.
After “Project Bobcat” was approved in ’73, Ford set up assembly lines, capable of building up to 500,000 units per year, in Spain, England and Germany. And ever since, the Fiesta has been a mainstay of Ford’s European ops. While it had never been planned for the U.S. market, the energy crisis, VW’s Rabbit and the madly successful new Civic forced Ford’s hand. A few quick modifications to meet U.S. crash, safety and emissions standards got it here; however, the Fiesta ended up as just a three-year stopgap until the all-new FWD Escort arrived in 1981.
Unfortunately, Ford followed VW’s Rabbit footsteps, drastically dumbing down its new FWD, global-platform 1981 Escort for the U.S. (in truth, Ford way outdid VW in that respect: CC here). So did the Fiesta end up being an automotive-enthusiast mayfly: Here today, gone tomorrow. I don’t know the numbers, but I suspect that Ford didn’t import nearly as many as they might have, probably because they were losing money on each one due to the then-weak dollar (think Saturn Astra). That’s also why the new Fiesta is hecho en Mexico.
The Fiesta was one of the few rays of sunshine for driving enthusiasts during the Great Brougham Epoch–and especially so in bright yellow, like this one. It’s just like the one my twenty-year old sister-in-law bought used, sight unseen, and without knowing how to drive a stick. I got the honors of bringing it home from Pasadena and then teaching her how to drive it. Fun times.
She was a pretty quick learner, despite the unambivalent clutch. And the Fiesta was pretty quick too. Zero-to-sixty came in about eleven-or-so seconds, which was enough to worry some of the strangled V8s then coming out of Detroit. With 66 perky ponies on tap, street light drags were harmless fun–but tight traffic and edgy canyons were Fiesta time. It was one eager little puppy. No wonder some Fiestas are still hard at work auto-crossing.
The owner of this Fiesta has a bright green “S” model that he uses for that purpose (I caught it on the go in 2016). The Fiesta’s Kent engine is eminently tuneable, the English equivalent of the Chevy small block. And Euro Ford’s long-running rep for good handling was already established. Attention to detail pays off.
I think the owner told me he also has (or had) a third one. They’re probably the last roadworthy Fiestas in Eugene. How about in your town? Parts are getting iffy, he told me; he’s having to reach out to Europe for things like a throttle cable. That’s how it is when it gets near the end of the line for certain imported cars that were once so plentiful. There comes a time where it just gets too hard, at least for a daily driver like this example.
PS: My apologies to our overseas readers for such a U.S.-centric post about a seminal small car that has played such an important role for so long overseas. But I’m sure you’ll be filling us in on the Fiesta’s role elsewhere.
Was looking around the U pull lot (back in 1990) for 3 point seatbelts I could retrofit to replace the US design lap belts in the rear of my ’80 Jetta. The Jetta had the threaded mounting points for the 3 point retractors in the trunk, along with the slots in the package shelf for the belt pass through to the top mounting point on the C pillar, which had a threaded plastic plug in it.
The front Fiesta 3 point belts were the same German Klippan brand as the VW’s, the male portion of the Fiesta’s belt fit the rear lap seat belt buckles perfectly. They easily bolted right in, looked and worked just like the rear factory 3 point belts the MK1 Jetta used in Europe.
“66 perky ponies on tap”. Exactly the same as our Euro-spec 1979 Fiesta 1300S. To be fed with leaded premium gasoline (“super benzine”), of course.
In 2014 and 2015 the Fiesta was the number 4 in the European sales charts, after the VW Golf, VW Polo and Renault Clio. And damn, that little Ford has been around since I was 10…
Ah……. Memories….. I bought a 79 in light blue in 84, First stick shift car ever. It was bullet proof and a blast to drive. Two things I will never forget about this car, moving a bunch of furniture (including a bed) with it, and another time when the brakes went out during rush hour traffic. I learned the value of a stick on that adventure. Overall a great little car, got out of it what I paid for it. Great gas mileage Still wish I had it some days. Life, and cars were a lot simpler then.
Mk1 Fiesta crash test against a pole:
https://youtu.be/eaKgW8sZb9A
Gimme a Brougham any day…
Although I was too young to drive at the time, I remember the Ford Fiesta. I remember being disappointed when it was discontinued after only a couple of years on the North American market. I remember thinking why would Ford do that? There’s already a Honda Civic and the VW Golf (Rabbit), why not one more?
The three principal issues were European production capacity; exchange rates; and, surprisingly, CAFE. This was before the EPA came up with the separate domestic/import fleet calculations, but there were already political concerns about replacing American-built cars with imported ones. The EPA told Ford, “If you import more than about 75,000 Fiestas a year, you can’t count the additional ones in your fleet average.”
So, it made more financial sense for Ford to replace it with a locally built version of the Mk3 Escort, even if the Escort wasn’t nearly as fun to drive.
My aunt had a silver one. It was very plain and ugly like a rabbit or omni. The engine blew in it just out of warranty and it got replaced with a Nissan pulsar.
And now Ford’s unveiled the next generation, complete with the inevitable crossover-ized one which should sell like warm bread.
IMO it should replace the sedan; if there’s still people who don’t want to be seen driving a hatchback, why spend tens of millions on engineering, compliance and tooling for sedan sheetmetal, and sell that for $500 per car *less*, when you can stick on some gray cladding and taller sidewalls for a quarter mil across the whole line and charge a grand a unit extra for it?
..”if there’s still people who don’t want to be seen driving a hatchback”…
I certainly don’t want to bee seen driving this, unless my name is the Late Oleg Popov.
As a hatchback aficionado in the ’70’s, I never understood the appeal of the first few generations of Jettas, or Civic 4-doors; and almost 40 years later I feel the same way about be-trunked Fiestas and Focii. OTOH, the Civic and Jetta just seem like normal sedans now.
And history might repeat itself here: apparently, the new Fiesta returning to North America is not entirely certain. I thought it sold well in NA?
Cheap gas has hurt sales lately.
The current Fiesta ST is a blast to drive. My girlfriend has a black one with the 6 speed. She lets me drive it once in a while. The sounds it makes approaching redline…she frowns at me me when I do that but I can’t help myself.
I had 2 Fiestas in the 1980’s, first a 1978 S model (the sporty model) in the same maroon red shown here and then a 1980 base model…they were so much fun to drive and well built! The last one I did a very 1980’s thing to it…I painted it zebra and tricked it out, drove it for 3 years like that, always got attention!
This is the first domestic that interested me, but being a HS student I stuck with my cheap used SAAB 96 & 97s. In 2011 we purchased a new Fiesta 5 speed hatch. We loved it, fit all our stuff, quiet and comfortable, with back seats are better then they have any right to be in such a small car. Got high 40 mpgs on road trips, just over 40 for it’s life, including lots of winter miles with a low of 500′ to a high over a 1500′ elevation commuting to my winter job at a ski resort.
We traded it in just over a week ago for a new C-Max. Not as tossable but more “refined”. We had planned to go another 3-5 years on the Fiesta, but when we went to get an estimate for fixing a couple dings we decided not to pass up getting a $30k car for under $20.
I went to work for a major direct store-door food retailer in 1977 and at age 22 was completely ignorant of corporate procedure. When, in 1978, my company car refused to run (a Chevy Nova, what else?) I had it towed to Townsend (Mass.) Ford and got a Fiesta for a rental for three days. I caught hell for not going through Corporate but I didn’t know any better and time off the road meant lost sales.
Anyhow…once I got past the MASSIVE torque steer this little pocket rocket had, and the offset steering wheel (the steering column was above the driver’s right knee when seated) I fell in love with the thing. Turns out, it was at the end of its rental life and coming up for sale…the dealer made me a ridiculously sweet offer – $1400 – to get it out of their inventory and needless to say, this 22K-mile, dealer-maintained Kelly green (black and white interior) 2DR coupe was mine. I found out later that Ford couldn’t GIVE this model away, for some reason, in central Mass. Dunno why; it was roomy, zoomy (for people in Leominster and Fitchburg, that means FAST) and easy to work on. I kept it for six years, until the road salt finally got to it.
0-60 in eleven seconds? – that is suspiciously high. I never drove a car that hit the redline so fast in first and second gears. That includes my old turbo Corvair, 1965 vintage. Just hold the wheel with left input, to counteract its tendency to aim for the curb under full throttle, and you were good to go and going like hell.
The mean of five contemporary instrumented U.S. road tests was 10.974 seconds, with the range being 10.4 to 11.9 seconds. (That incidentally is very close to the Corvair Corsa turbo.) Keep in mind that speedometers are not usually all that accurate, so a speedo-and-stopwatch observation will often seem quicker than it actually is.
In the “real world” of say 40-90 mph acceleration, as experienced in Showroom Stock road racing these cars at Sears Point and Laguna Seca, the Fiesta was comparable to most other cars in its class, the 1500cc Rabbit, X1/9 and 1600cc fwd Colt, in acceleration. At other tracks outside California, the Fiesta seemed a bit less competitive than the Rabbits. I think a really good driver who could handle the Colt’s twin stick shifters might do better keeping in the powerband than the Fiesta’s very wide ratio transmission. The car that could always pull me out of slow corners was the 258 cu in Gremlin 🙂
For a late ’70s subcompact, 10.5 to 11 seconds 0-60 was really not bad at all and there was more power to be had from the 1.6-liter Kent. (The “Mexico” version used in the Mk1 Fiesta XR2 and various Escorts had 19 hp more than the U.S. engine, and there were aftermarket turbo kits and other hop-up stuff for those so inclined.) I’m just wary of rose-colored memories based on speedometer readings rather than fifth wheels.
To federalize the Fiesta Ford stuffed its famous 1.6L Kent engine into a car that most of Europe bought with a 1.1 or 1.3L. They went with a 2bbl carb which was another surprise, the Kent-engined Pintos and Capris made do with a 1bbl.
The light weight and torquey engine made the Fiesta a real hot-rod. In a Car and Driver comparison it was quicker than the more expensive 1st place Rabbit, which had SOHC and FI. The lightweight construction came at a price though. I remember that the hard track testing caused the front wheels to re-align themselves into a positive camber condition. In the Fiesta you could squeeze the exterior and interior door panels together using one hand at the top of the door sill. The wheels were only 12″ and because of the oddball bolt pattern there were few aftermarket 13″ upgrades available. As I said in my previous post here almost four years ago the 13″ alloys on the feature car look fantastic.
I had checked out new ones many times at the local dealer as a kid and was an expert on the workmanship (excellent) and four trim grades. In 1984 I finally bought a Fiesta, a 1980 Sport. Two things it had plenty of… torque steer and noise. If you owned one of these you will no doubt remember the door closing sound as there was practically no insulation. It was incredibly roomy and got pretty good mileage, although not as good as my 78 Scirocco. I believe the tank size was 10 gallons with the fuel filler right behind the driver’s door. Idiosyncrasies like the fuel filler location, pushrod engine and clamshell opening hood made it utterly charming and I missed the car when I sold it. As has been mentioned Ford pulled the plug because US Fiestas were German-built and with the poor exchange rate there was no profit in it.
Base engine on the European car was actually 957cc — the 1,117cc version was a step-up option. The 1,298cc Kent didn’t become available until about a year after launch. The low-compression 950 LC had only 39 hp (40 PS) and 47 lb-ft of torque, so you can see the difference
The Car and Driver test car you mentioned (from July 1978) had suffered some kind of alignment issue prior to testing; it was definitely messed up, but it was from some previous damage rather than the wheels just shaking themselves loose. (Press cars tend to get the crap kicked out of them.)
With the Mk1 Fiesta, Ford did a lot of its signature “more sound insulation as you go up the price ladder” tricks. The Ghia got the most, the S and L somewhat less, and the base cars — well…
I forgot about the wicked torque steer. Since the car was developed with smaller, lower torque engines, the 1600 Kent in the US model was a bit too much.
Ford actually gave the Kent-engine cars equal-length halfshafts to try to reduce torque steer! (The smaller engines didn’t have them.)
I’ve not seen a Fiesta on the road in many, many years, and I’m not even in a salty part of the country. The last was one owned by a student at the university where I used to work–this was probably in 2007 or so.
When I was a kid I thought them to be buzzy little tin cans, but if I do ever see another I’ll pay it better attention!
“Just a few years ago, Ford had the same problem it did in 1978. Its compact car had been in production almost a decade. The market was shifting to ever-smaller cars. CAFE standards were tightening. The Asian brands were cleaning up in the segment. What to do? …”
Now, a lot has changed in 8-10 years. Market is moving away from “ever-smaller cars”.
Cheap gas, truck sales through the roof, and makers dropping car models [Chrysler]. Also, who would want to get into a wreck with a SUV in a “sub 1900 pounds Rabbit”?
…Also, who would want to get into a wreck with a SUV in a “sub 1900 pounds Rabbit”?…
I foresee a golden future for a PACCAR built ne plus ultra SUV / pickup.
Who wants to get be in an SUV that gets hit by a PACCAR built real truck (Peterbilt/KenworthDAF)? Or for that matter, who wants to be in a Peterbilt hit by a train? I guess as a motorcyclist and bicyclist I don’t totally get that argument. But I do understand it sells a lot of cars. I did go off the track and hit the embankment at speed, when my Fiesta broke its left front wheel in Turn 2 at Sears Point. I survived. The car was always about 1/2″ shorter on one side even after a little straightening, though.
My first car was an orange 1978 Fiesta that was handed down from my parents. It was an absolutely great car. I’d stop-light race with my classmates in cars with much bigger powerplants and win every time. The car was a trooper, surviving until well over 150,000 miles. It was funny, just before it finally died, the transmission started dying a slow death and it only had 3rd and 4th gear with no reverse, so I’d have to gingerly accelerate out of stops; oddly enough, it still had decent acceleration. If I parked nose in somewhere, I had to “Fred Flintstone” it to back up. Even with those issues, I still loved that car.
I took it with me my first year out of college, and would probably still have it stashed somewhere if it hadn’t been utterly destroyed by a snow plow one winter.
These things were everywhere in Britain in the 70s and 80s, very much the type of car used by little old ladies to go shopping in, or learner driver cars. More often than not in basic, stripper “Popular” (read base model) trim, with the athsmatic 957cc engine-all of 44 bhp.
I wasn’t a fan. To keep weight down, the bodywork metal was wafer thin, any thinner and you could have wrapped it around a Turkey for roasting. You could make the centre of the door skin flex with moderate pressure from one finger. Even the door glass was reduced in thickness to save weight. This didn’t normally present a problem with the little Kent engines-unless you crashed your fiesta, whereupon it folded up like wet cardboard- but worryingly, later fiestas could be had with a more substantial 1.6 litre Diesel engine. The extra weight of this engine would cause stress fractures on the inner fenders just aft of the front suspension turrets, where the front of the car was literally trying to break away from the body. To drive, they always felt insubstantial and wobbly, teetering on those tiny 12″ wheels while you were lamenting that you couldn’t afford the bigger Escort. Just about any supermini of the era- Austin metro, Fiat 127/8, Renault 5, etc was a better car. A miserable, cheaply and cynically conceived bean tin of a car, sold by virtue of being the cheapest Ford model you could get, back when the Ford name enjoyed huge brand loyalty in Europe.
I know I’m way late to this party, but the Fiesta post makes me think of a story (yeah, I’ve got lots). Back in the spring of ’78, Chevy set up a Ride and Drive event at PIR (Portland Intl Raceway). We had a product presentation, and then were able to drive our model and competitive products around the track. The focus of this presentation was… wait for it… the Chevy Chevette, America’s finest small car. At least to the Chevy guys. The other products present to compare with were 1. Honda Civic (with an Auto) 2. Dodge Omni (Auto) 3. Toyota Corolla (2 dr. Auto) 4. Ford Pinto 2 Dr (Auto) 5. VW Rabbit (Auto) and… a Ford Fiesta. Bright Orange, manual (which the Chevy guys were saying was a HUGE disadvantage).
Off we went to take these beauties for a lap around PIR after the typical “our’s is great, their’s isn’t” presentation. The Fiesta shocked the heck out of all of us. As mentioned, it was fast, fun to drive, cornered reasonably well… I mentioned fast, right? Adding insult to injury, all the little cars were Automatics except the Fiesta. It literally ran circles around every other little car there. Heck, one guy even lapped a Chevette! It was patently obvious to everyone there (including the Chevy reps) that the Fiesta was the star of the show.
That was also the last R&D event we had at PIR until the 5.7 IROC was out.
I bought a red ’78 Ford Fiesta Ghia, brand new. I was driving 55 miles each way to my job and that commute was from one rural city to an even smaller rural city in Kentucky. My route followed a river through the country. Perfect car for this. This was a twisty two lane. On the interstate at 60 ish MPH it would deliver 42mpg. I installed 4 rather large driving lights under the aluminum front bumper from JC Whitney. Where else were you going to buy such items in 1979? Looked like a rally car – I tried to live up to the look with my driving style. I knew the road, every corner, pot hole and passing opportunity. I drove the shit out of this car, working second shift, flipping the couple of hundred watts of driving lights on and off when I met oncoming traffic.
I installed the driving lights after several near encounters with deer and other nocturnal critters. I popped over a little rise in the road once at 70 mph with 6 or 7 deer standing in the road looking at me. 30 something years later and I am still not sure how, who or whatever made that scenario not go very badly.
On one commute I did hit a deer big time. When I saw the deer to my right just in my peripheral vision I hit the brakes, fully saw the deer and went to full brake lock. Wham. Later review showed about 7′ of straight locked skid marks, then the skid marks went 45 degrees to the left for about 3 ft. I remember not wanting to go off the road with the wheels locked and let off the brakes. Still drove the car to work and back home, the impact was to the right corner and did not damage the radiator.
Two other deer encounters. A single deer ran across the road one evening, no on-coming traffic, I moved left fast to swerve around the deer, heard contact. Stopped to inspect and the right front yellow parking light lens was broken. Another time a deer bolted over the guardrail on the left side of the road, the deer’s hoofs slipped on the road, I swerved right, felt a big impact. I remember thinking hell another deer has torn this car up. There was a tuft of fur on the drivers side, left side of the rear bumpers edge.
Best commute ever. Knowing this road, the passing areas and sight lines on a well known country road back in the day. Got a run on a Pontiac Trans AM, passed him just as the road straightened out, he muscled back up to me running side by side but then the straightaway ran out out and he had to tuck in behind. For 25 miles on this twisty road he tried and tried to get by this pesky little red car. I knew the road and corners and there was not enough straightaways for him to power past. He finally powered by on a straightaway, I knew this was coming. But I knew the roads. When we came through Gratz. KY I knew there were two ways through the very small community, When he took the one route, I stayed on the throttle, barely braked, screamed around a couple of corners and got back on Hwy 355 ahead of the Trans AM. He actually went sideways in a corner at some point soon after that. I saw him just stop and sit there sideways in the road and I motored on in this 1.6L Fiesta.
There was one long section of two lane highway that straightened out for 8 miles going into Carrollton, KY and on many trips I would let the Fiesta go, it would run about 95 to 97 mph at WOT for several minutes. 5800 ish rpm in 4th gear, 4 speed OD. It felt good and settled in at that speed. This is nothing for current cars, But I drove Chargers, Camaros, Corvettes and cars of this past era and none had as sophisticated handling or braking as current cars do.
This little Fiesta was a solid car. I drove it hard, kept the oil changed, could pop front brake pads on it in about an hour, never rotated the tires, just change the fronts.
It is indeed a small world. I’m a Kentucky boy myself (Lexington is my hometown) so I know well the roads and towns of which you speak. But my only personal experience with one of these Fiestas was overseas. When I was a brand new baby Airman just moving to the UK as my first duty station in 2001 I picked up one of these as a cheap get-around car. £500 I think maybe, if that, from another Air Force cat I worked with. 1986 model, 1100cc, 4-speed, manual choke and all. Black on grey cloth. Agreed that it was a tough, fun little car. I shall never forget hearing word of the first airstrikes on Afganistan from the BBC in that little Fiesta on the night of 07 OCT 01 and suddenly understanding real quick that war is indeed serious business. It seems / sounds trite now nearly 20 years later but that’s how it crossed my brain at the time.
Anyway – As I recall I didn’t keep it very long and moved into a big Euro Ford next, 1986 Granada Scorpio 4×4, but that’s a story for another day. Incidentally, also a tough, fun car – when the 2.8 Köln V6 wasn’t leaking oil like a sieve and/or the air conditioning was working. Ah, good times. 🤣
As I had written earlier, the imported Mk1 Fiesta was a fun, tossable, lightweight car. It was definitely one of the few bright spots in the mid-to-late seventies auto world. But a lot of that was due to there not being much to them. Plus, vehicle/drivetrain choices were limited to a 3-door, 4-speed, and 1.6L engine. I’m not sure, but I don’t think A/C was even available.
One thing I distinctly recall was a suspended accelerator pedal that had a bracket underneath it that prevented the pedal from going all the way to the floor. I don’t know if removing the bracket (it was tack-welded on) would have improved acceleration, but I do know that, on mine, the pedal eventually bent over to the right side. As one might imagine, all that was required to fix it was bend it back by hand.
One unusual option for such a basic car was the availability of a flip-open sunroof that included both a smoke plexiglas panel ‘and’ one made of steel that was body colored. I don’t really understand the point of two sunroof panels (and never really have, like on the Corvette), but it was definitely odd for such a cheap car.
I remember them and being favorably impressed. Granted never drove one, but between visual appearance, specs and very good reviews if one had just happened to be available and priced right, I would have gone for it. Not impressed enough to go look for one, but if I happened across one…
Crashes and crash testing. The current infatuation with not just pickups, but big, jacked up pickups and large heavy passenger trucks might skew the equation. 6.000 pounds or more with a bumper at head level definitely changes traditional running into things crash testing. Ah, there I go again jousting at that windmill.
Maybe I heard wrong but I thought I heard on the news the Current Fiesta will be discontinued in Europe? In favor of the Ford Kuga and Ecosport. Apparently In Europe, and the UK, like the US, is passing on these for CUV’s as well.
You heard right. It’s on its way out.
It’s unfortunately, although there’s a certain irony, given how reluctant some senior Ford people were to build the Fiesta in the first place, that it’s one of the longest-lived model nameplates in the Ford portfolio, and it’s outlasted almost all of its original European Ford contemporaries other than the Transit.
No harm done in buying a car with a stick without ‘the knowledge’. Oh sure, I know enough to get under way and manage the test drive but the day I bought my first car with a standard, I’m sure I drove more miles than in all prior manual-transmission adventures.
I figured “I’m learning, or I’m walking.” More motivation – visiting my date at the time meant negotiating a stop sign at the top of a steep upgrade after the on ramp.