One thing we all learn about car ownership, sometimes with a first car, sometime not, is knowing when to change. Sometimes we time it right, sometimes not and sometimes we no choice. Some people work to a timetable for changing every 3 or 4 years, others flex around other circumstances. But when you get a car that suits you, the decision might be postponed, to the extent that an end date is not set or even really considered. So, what’s it like to have a long term ownership of Britain’s, and one of Europe’s, best seller, the Ford Fiesta, over 5 years and 135,000 miles?
I learnt to drive on a Fiesta, though that was a 1978 957cc Mk1, with dual controls. The car has subsequently come a long way, through five definite iterations (and as many as seven if you could major facelifts and reskins) over 40 years. The current model has been Britain’s best seller since 2009, and is now giving way to the sixth (or eighth version), retiring at the peak. Typically, the Fiesta accounts for 5-6% of the UK market, selling perhaps 120,000 units a year in the UK.
Although I learnt to drive on a Fiesta, we are not historically a Ford family. I grew up with Rootes, Chrysler Europe and Talbot products in the family drive way, followed by VW Jettas, whilst my Uncle worked for Vauxhall and drove a new Vauxhall Viva, Victor, Velox or Cavalier every year. For whatever reason, back in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, we never looked for a Ford. For me that changed in 2002, when I bought the first to two Focuses, based partly on the press accounts of the transformation between the Escort and Focus, both of which proved to be great cars and great buys.
I have always bought used, never new, for the value for money reason. If you’re buying a car like a Focus or a Fiesta, then that need not limit your ability to get the car you want in terms of specification. This was the third car in a row I purchased through the Ford Direct Approved Used scheme. The actual process of choosing a Fiesta was actually pretty quick, unlike the initial choice of a Focus 10 years earlier. Although the Focuses (Foci?) had both been great cars and had turned me into a Ford fan, circumstances suggested that the (Euro) Focus Mk2 had actually been more than large enough, for a car that spends probably 90% of its life one-up and rarely sees rear seat use. The large boot was great though.
But Ford had served us well, the car looked good, the dealer experience had been about good enough and the value was there. A couple of dealer visits checked out the size relative to the likely needs and that Mum could get in the back easily enough. Add that to the best in class in ratings the Fiesta gets from the press made the choice pretty straightforward. I did look at some others, but nothing fired me up.
It was February 2012 when I bought the car, and petrol and diesel were both around £1.35 per litre, or around £5 for a US gallon, so you can see that a car that reduced fuel bills was attractive. That drove the choice towards a diesel, which the Fiesta then offered as a 1.4 litre, 8 valve turbo diesel, giving 70 bhp and 118lbft of torque, and came with a five-speed gearbox. This engine also appears on various Peugeot, Citroen, Mazda and Suzuki vehicles. For Ford, the engine is built in Dagenham, England and the car was assembled in Cologne, Germany, using a French gearbox. The Fiesta may be sold worldwide these days, but at heart it is European supermini or sub-compact.
Picking the exact specification took a little longer. The UK gets 3 or 5 door hatchback Fiestas, with no saloon option, and at that time there were basically five levels of trim for the Fiesta in the UK – Studio, Style, Zetec, ST and Titanium. Studio is a base level, designed to get you into the showroom, albeit with electric front windows and mirrors, Style offers more with air conditioning as an option but is still fairly plain and Zetec is really the level aimed at the owner-chooser, with alloy wheels, air conditioning, a better stereo, fog lights, trip computer, ambient lighting, an electrically heated windscreen, some chrome effect trim and slightly smarter interior trim. ST is a fairly aggressively specified sports version and Titanium has all the toys, some unnecessary. Zetec stood out as the level to go in at, albeit with a couple of options, one a very popular one.
There are many Ford dealers to choose from, all with access to the national Ford Direct inventory, so sitting down to finalise the specification and identify the actual car was easy enough. I did this with two dealers – one the dominant regional Ford chain and the other a bigger semi-national but multi-brand chain. The small but more local dealer was easily ruled out on price – although the car was coming from Ford Direct the actual price is set by the dealer, as is the trade-in valuation.
For some reason, both started by offering me a choice of grey, silver or black cars. Those who know me well will know that I do not go for those sort of colours on cars – I was set on Coloardo red. I like strong colours on cars, and red cars, I like Colorado red and it looks great on the Fiesta, especially with the chrome effect window trim you get on the Zetec. With a slight sense of surprise (did they assume I wanted grey?), both then offered me a choice of the two same cars.
Ford Direct takes cars not just from the retail turnover but is also the route Ford use to move ex-fleet, such as rental and Ford management staff lease, cars through to the retail market. On the basics of Zetec diesel, red, five door, I had identified the options of Bluetooth phone and music connectivity with voice activation (call out “Phone Home” and it will) and rear parking sensors. The latter brings automatic folding door mirrors as well, and Zetec also has some features like footwell and ambient lighting that you may not associate with a supermini and certainly weren’t in the 1977 Fiesta. Another plus is the electrically heated windscreen, which on a frosty morning could clinch a sale for Ford in two minutes flat.
The lead choice offered by both dealers had these, plus wider than standard, lower profile alloy wheels and tyres (more on them later), additional curtain airbags and rear privacy glass. Then comes the haggle, and the reason for going to two dealers.
Two rounds each, to get to best and final cost to change. A basic negotiating tactic maybe, but by playing one off the other, I saved an additional £500 and ended at a figure that valued the car at around 65% of its new, options included price. It was then eight months old, had 2300 miles on the clock, with Ford as the first owner on the registration document. Why buy new?
I took delivery on a Friday evening in February, and on Sunday morning started the first insurance claim. Parked outside a friend’s house overnight Saturday to Sunday, it was keyed down one side, along both doors and the front and rear wings. The panels were OK but the paint cut deeply enough to need a respray. #nothappy.
Into daily service, on a daily commute that consisted of 22 miles of motorway, plus some minor roads at one end and airport access roads at the other. Fuel consumption was consistent from the first tank at 53-55 mpg (Imperial). Weekend use is obviously fairly varied – sometimes short and local, sometimes a 400 mile weekend on family duty, over motorways or perhaps 200 miles on more mixed roads. If you go with the 70-75 mph flow on the motorway, then 50-53 mpg is still achievable. Put your foot down and try to cruise at 80-85 mph, if the road is clearer, it comes down below 50 mpg, and this rate is also apparent if there’s a headwind. But it’s still well ahead of the Focus petrol.
In town performance is great too – there’s torque in the diesel and the car is still pretty compact, although visibility out of it is not as good as the driving school’s 1977 Mk1. Yes, you are aware it’s a diesel, especially on start-up and when accelerating hard but it is by no means intrusive. The gear shift is a little long but easily managed and difficult to wrong slot, the steering nicely weighted and the clutch easily managed, unlike the 1977 car, which had a clutch so sharp it must have been supplied by Gillette.
On the open road, the car has more than adequate power and torque to maintain a good average speed and for overtaking. It’s not going to set A to B speed records – you need a Fiesta ST200 for that – but it can more than keep up, and the handling and roadholding are both definitely up there with the best in class. Pedal weighting seems well judged, steering weighting is nicely compromised between ease of town use and feel on the open road. You can truly enjoy driving this car on a bendy road.
Demerits are a smaller than ideal, and smaller than some competitors, rear seat and boot, although we have taken 5 people in it – the car has three full rear seat belts and ISOFIX mountings. The ride is fairly firm and controlled, rather than soft, but by no means uncomfortable and is consistent with the sharp handling, and long journeys are not a concept to be avoided.
The biggest gripe has been partly of the Ford’s making, partly of others, including fashion. The tyres on the optional alloy wheels are 195/45R16 – 45 profile on 16 inch wheels, and I have had to replace one wheel and three tyres for damage incurred on potholes and damaged expansion joints. The Ford dealer was very pleased to be able to sell me a new wheel within 4 hours, but slightly surprised that I was disappointed when they said it was a four day wait to have the (undamaged) tyre fitted to it. The local tyre shop did the job, and eventually the relevant council’s insurers paid for it. This all leaves you wary of any pothole, of which the UK has a world leading selection to choose from.
Interior wise this Fiesta is contemporary, or was for 2008, and predominantly grey as is the wont these days. The instrumentation (speed, revs and fuel by gauges, anything else by warning lamps, including coolant temperature) is clear and easily read. It is always lit, so a couple of times I have missed turning on the headlights in low visibility and rain as the instruments were already lit, whereas in the Focus Mk2 it was the other way round – I turned on the lights early to help with the instrumentation.
Some have criticised the Fiesta for the standard of the materials used in the cabin – perhaps they aren’t as good to the touch as a VW, but nothing has broken, rattles or been damaged by routine use. The front doors have padded armrest areas and the contact points are fine, though the lighter grey door card itself is not indulgent. The rear door has no padding at all.
The heater controls, in which you rotate the rim of the controller rather than turn it more conventionally, are perhaps more robust and functional than they are elegant, but on the other hand the column stalk movements are as good as any I’ve used, and more logically configured than some, including VW. Yes, you can see the red window frames inside the car, but you can do that in a BMW 2 series MPV as well.
I referred to one of the options being very popular – the Bluetooth phone and music connectivity, which has worked very convincingly from the day I got it, and gets used almost every day. The car has an auxiliary music input I’ve never used, a USB socket which is also useful and a CD player that gets used about twice a month, as I have a preference for BBC speech radio and subsequent downloads over recorded music.
In addition to the voice control for programmed regular numbers (“phone home” for example), the driver or just as easily the passenger can dial up numbers on the dash top buttons, and the car will readily connect to the phone without prompting. A very convincing piece of equipment that transforms the practicality and safety of a mobile (cell) phone in the car. The UK has (rightly in my view) a strictly enforced and popularly supported ban on drivers using hand held phones, so this is a great solution. I have proved you can make successful calls whilst sitting on an iphone.
The voice activation is activated by prodding the indicator stalk, and the car asks what you want it to do. The system will also work to select specific radio pre-sets, CD tracks and the like, but my attempt at configuring it was frustrating – it would accept voice activation for a specific frequency but as national FM radio stations have a range of frequencies, asking for “93.7 MHz” will not reliably get you the station. I prefer the digital method, pressing the button with my finger. Likewise, swapping from radio to CD or to Bluetooth is a single button press.
The audio system is monitored through the separate dash top display, which is perhaps the most dated part of the car, at least visually. The display is orange LED and relatively small. However, possibly through familiarity, possibly because I am yet to use a large touchscreen I really like and don’t find to be distracting, I find it perfectly OK. It tells me the time, the radio station, CD track and shows my phone contacts and call lists clearly enough. Models with sat nav have a larger (or maybe less compact) display that is still smaller than many clip-on sat nav displays.
The parking sensors and folding mirrors work just as you’d expect, with the added bonus that you can tell visually, from the mirrors, if the car is locked, and add a bit of theatre. OK, so it’s not the doors on a McLaren or even the rising gear shifter on a Jaguar XF, but it is bit more than just a flash of indicators. The mirrors incorporate the side repeater and the driver’s side mirror was clipped and pushed back a few weeks ago by a hasty VW driver pushing along a narrow road, breaking the indicator lens. A popular online site (not that one but the one that sells books) sold me a new indicator lens for £12, which clipped straight in. I comfort myself with the fact that the other guy had to buy a VW part.
The privacy glass initially didn’t bother me – I probably wouldn’t have chosen it I had been speccing a new car – but after a while you get the point. It allows you to leave something like a jacket almost obscured on the rear seat, maybe helps keep the car cool in the summer and visually goes well with Colorado red. I haven’t tried the additional airbags and don’t intend to.
With one exception, other issues have been few and far between. One of the front fog lights was knocked off its mounting within the bumper/valence by a piece of tyre rubber bouncing down the motorway. A cable tie fixed that. Incidentally, fog lights may look good but seem to make little difference in actually seeing in the fog. I use them more for spotting potholes. Rear foglights are absolute life savers, though.
The car was clipped on the right rear corner by an airport coach squeezing its way through the car park queue, and who didn’t stop, technically an offence. Another insurance claim, and fortunately the airport police were able to put me in touch with the right person at the coach company to confirm it happened – I had the coach’s registration number and he had CCTV – and accept liability. A new bumper and rear fog light were needed. Other than that, two headlight bulbs (in close to 400,000 miles of Ford motoring the only bulbs I have only ever replaced are headlight bulbs) and a replacement windscreen fitted on a Sunday morning, after a stone chip became a long crack. The cambelt was replaced last autumn, at around 120,000 miles. The car has successfully passed the annual MoT inspection each year since 2015, without issues.
During March this year, there developed a noise that sounded like a failing wheel bearing or similar coming from the front left wheel. It persisted and seemed to get no worse but one morning it most definitely was and changing gear became difficult and ultimately not practical at all. A breakdown truck was called, and an inspection suggested some form of gearbox failure, something apparently not unknown on this gearbox. A week later, a reconditioned gear box had been fitted, along with a new clutch as a convenience and precautionary measure, and normal service has been resumed.
Gearbox incident aside, the car has been completely dependable. The car is on its original battery, exhaust system and rear wiper blade, the pedal rubbers still look good and a polish still brings up great colour. It has been to many corners of the UK, to France twice, to work, on holiday, across central London and mountain passes, to the shops and to the household waste tip. It still brings a pleasant sense of anticipation on opening the door in the morning or evening, short or long drive. I would unreservedly recommend it to anyone looking for a similar car. A driver asking for a bit more power or a user wanting a bigger boot are as common as an owner wanting more economy and are familiar features in almost every car ownership story.
The car has now done 136,000 miles, in a just over six years since its first registration. It still feels tight, performs as advertised, the interior is, shiny steering wheel apart, pretty well unmarked and it gathers admiring glances from the combination of the attractive Fiesta shape, effective colour/wheel/trim combination and sunshine. Would I buy another? Well, Ford are now selling the new Mk8 Fiesta in the UK, which is closely derived from my car, both technically and visually. Is it different enough to tempt me to change? I don’t know – maybe the interior would seem a step ahead – but size wise it seems very similar to the old car, and that is probably the biggest issue the new car has.
But the bigger issue for me, as it seemed to be for JP Cavanaugh with his Honda Fit, is this – is there a need to replace it at this time? 136,000 miles may seem quite a lot of miles and at one time it was, but is it now? There’s no corrosion to speak of, there aren’t any rattles or clatters, no oil is required between services, and it performs as it always has done. The car living opposite (a 1999 Audi A3 diesel) has done over 300,000 miles, our friends’ 2005 SAAB 9-3 has done 345,000 miles. I suspect they’d say the Fiesta was barely run in. And that’s sort of where I am with it too. It feels like a long term relationship. And that is as a good a recommendation as you can get.
I guess I’m sticking with the Fiesta. He answers to the name of Felix.
Gives a whole new meaning to the term “butt dialing.”
That was a great COAL! I knew about the Miata but don’t think I realized you dailied a Fiesta, in red as well. I see Fiesta’s occasionally here in Colorado but not nearly as often as when I’m over on your side of the pond or in a large city such as Seattle. The Focus is vastly more popular over here as I don’t think it ends up costing much if any more after discounts…
I spy a Saab 9-3X SportCombi (with the black cladding) in one of your pictures, that’s a very rare bird, it was only sold over here for a very short while before “The End” for Saab…Probably the third shortest production run variant after the 9-4X and the last 9-5.
Jim – that’s my SAAB 93x TTiD4, called Sportwagon in the U.K. It is indeed rare – it’s a U.K. 2012 registration that I bought to replace a 93TiD 180 Turbo Edition which replaced a 93TiD150 Vector Sport, and was one of the last 4 new SAABs sold by Scotland’s only SAAB dealer, as the last rites were being read.
All were great cars, and maybe I’ll try to write them up one day. But voice controlled Bluetooth phone dialling never worked on them either.
It’s a looker, to my eyes the cladding really rejuvenated the (by that time) slightly dated styling. Enjoy it, I can’t imagine what you’d replace it with after that lineage of priors.
No, it is definitely not, though that’s a popular misconception. Handsfree-only laws are a non-solution pushed by the mobile phone industry so as to create the appearance of Doing Something About The Problem™. In fact, handheld/handsfree is irrelevant; the safety problem is primarily cognitive, not physical. People don’t crash because they’re talking on a handheld phone, they crash because they’re talking on a phone. Compared to a conversation with someone physically in the car, the cognitive load of a conversation with someone who’s not there is much greater. So is the cognitive load of shifting attention back to driving in between chunks of remote vs local conversation.
I suspect that the ban on using a handheld cellphone while driving may have more to do with the much more widespread usage of manual transmissions. Holding and talking on a handheld while trying to drive a manual transmission at the same time would seem to be a whole lot tougher than with an automatic (which is overwhelmingly the transmission of choice in the US).
But, yeah, handsfree doesn’t solve the root-cause of the problem. Distracted driving while talking to someone, whether on the phone or in person, is still distracted driving.
Sorry, no, it does not reduce down to “distracted driving is distracted driving”. The cognitive distraction from talking to someone not in the car—even on a handsfree phone—is much more severe and dangerous than the distraction from talking to someone in the car.
And the handheld ban in the UK isn’t significantly different to handheld bans in the variety of North American jurisdictions that have them. If anything, I would expect a handheld ban to be of greater safety benefit in a place with more automatic transmissions, because with a manual transmission the phone’s physical distraction itself limits the driving task (drive a stick-shift car or use a handheld phone; it’s largely either/or) while with an automatic it does not.
Trust me, you can absolutely drive a manual car and use a handheld phone. Is it sensible? No, but I regularly see people do it, despite it being dangerous and illegal.
Back in the early 2000s when I was active on ham radio there was a local guy with a stick F150. He’d have the mic in one hand and have to shift sometimes. We’d always hear “hang on, I have to shift” and he’d use his mic hand to change gears.
Mmm…nope! You can sit in the driver’s seat, and you can be going down the road, and you can claim to be driving, but you’re not.
Totally agree, Daniel.
Have to agree with Daniel. When I took Bondurant in 1974, which is before car phones, the biggest thing I took away from that for daily driving was both hands on the wheel, eyes on the road, scan and know your car. That will maximize my attention and therefore control of the vehicle. Compromise those first three things and I would then compromise attention and control. Things cannot only happen in a split second at Sears Point but also in a split second on a freeway with many untrained drivers.
Today, my much hated cell phone, goes into my briefcase and then into the trunk when I am driving. Passengers, that includes my wife and son, are not permitted to talk to me when the car is moving.
I thought it was just me! I turn the radio off, and have trouble hearing passengers anyway.
Perhaps but it is still safer for one to verbally call out the person’s name to be called and have it automatically dial it for you than to hunt and peck for it on a portable touchscreen such as a modern smartphone.
It also allows you to keep both hands on the wheel and to actually look over both shoulders as needed/desired.
Yes, having a phone conversation is still distracting but it’s better via bluetooth than it was/is while also handling the device. But for that matter, any phone conversation of mine is less distracting than three kids in the back seat so I don’t know where it ends. Bus passes for everyone?
I think one of the main points of the law though is to reduce/eliminate the frequency of texting which is obviously a very dangerous practice while driving. Just banning the handling of a phone entirely while driving makes the whole thing easier to enforce.
It must be safer (if only marginally) to use hands free, if you “must” speak on the phone when driving, especially when driving a manual, as noted (which about 90% of UK drivers do). Some people in the UK have been given tickets for eating an apple when driving, among other things.
Try passing a practical driving test while eating a donut or sniffing a carnation and see what the examiner thinks.
I drive appallingly when I’m trying to conduct a “handheld” phone call.
I agree 100%. In the other hand, now that anyone can talk whenever they want at least hands free/Bluetooth removes the fiddling on a screen that is even worse for safety. I don’t ever really need to talk in the phone for my job and most people in my age range (I’m 39) text rather than talk so 90% of my actual talk time is talking to the >70 year olds like my mom and aunts who don’t text. I find the newer systems in cars to be great for this as I can ask it to read me the text, then reply by voice. But honestly unless something important is going on I pretty much ignore any phone stuff while driving. Apples new Do Not Disturb While Driving system is ideal for this.
In my state they recently change the cell phone use laws. Previously the rull was you couldn’t hold it to your ear while driving. So we had lots of people holding their phone in front of their face on speaker phone or holding it in front of them to look at the navigation or something else.
The new law says it is illegal to hold your phone while driving but OK to do a tap or swipe while it is in your console. So things are much worse because people are now looking down taking their eyes off the road for much longer periods of time.
Looking at it from an absolutist PoV, Daniel is of course correct but, extending that logic, there should be a blank prohibition on even talking while driving. I think the UK laws (and in Israel and Austria) offer some realistic compromise.
It is not just talking that can be distracting. Along with that new law that makes holding a phone in any way while driving a primary offense they also made, eating, drinking, grooming and smoking as secondary offenses so they can tack some extra $$ on to that ticket for speeding, not signaling a lane change or any other “valid” reason to pull you over.
My summary on phones in cars
1 – if driving solo, the best place for them is in the boot.
2 – OK in the hands of a passenger, ideally in the back seat.
3 – Hand-held use by a driver is a definite no-no and justifiably illegal in many places
4 – Like speed limits, there are strong red lines on use and especially on hand-held use. Like speed limits, we can debate if these are always the right answer, but the red line removes any ambiguity and enables effective enforcement (if there are traffic officers…).
5 – Use through Bluetooth and speech recognition is OK, and speech recognition is better than scrolling through menus. Some screens have favourite buttons (VW Golf for example) for regular calls – not a bad solution.
6 – Any user, hand-hand or hands free, should recognise the effects on cognitive capacity and use the phone only as necessary, briefly and be prepared to abandon a call. Many of us will say “are you OK to talk” when calling a mobile for precisely these reasons
Phones while driving? illegal here but its quite legal for my base to call me on the twoway fleet link or either the truck iphone or my own phone which are bluetoothed to the truck and I can talk on my CB with other drivers all while carting a 26tonne liquid load, which can be tricky stuff in those quantities.
Then there’s texting. An 18 year old girl was killed last week near my place when she ran off the road and hit a tree at 100km/h. According to the emergency services guy who cut her free, there was a half-completed text on her phone at the time of the crash. According to an oncoming driver, she was looking down when she crashed.
No amount of Bluetooth or other connectivity aids seem to stop the young from trying to text while driving. She must have known it was illegal and dangerous (she’d just got her licence, and it’s part of the training), but…..
Very sad.
Until they treat texting like drunk driving, I don’t think people will smarten up, and probably not even then.
CC is obviously USA-centric with Paul being based out of Eugene, but it’s still refreshing to see these OCONUS reviews, particularly when they’re of a model that’s also available in the US so we get to see the differences. One of the things that strikes me is the availability (standard equipment?) of motorized folding mirrors on a lower-tier vehicle. I like them, anyway, and it had never occurred to me that it would be superb way of knowing your vehicle was locked. Of course, the flip-side is that thieves would soon learn which makes were unlocked, as well.
As well as keying cars, another popular sport in the UK is for drunks to kick your mirrors off on the way home from the pub. A friend of mine used to live in the city centre and lost 2-3 mirrors a year. I always think folded in mirrors are less likely to be booted off.
When this generation of Fiesta was first sold in the US I read a Popular Mechanics article which suggested the driving dynamics were inferior in the US spec model, due to different suspension settings and tyres.
I had driven these in Australia (mostly manuals) and really enjoyed them, and then shortly after reading said article, my American mother in law bought one – a 1.6 automatic. I hated it, largely because the transmission was terrible, but it may also just not have been ideally suited to Minneapolis driving conditions. Ford Fiesta is apparently now the best selling nameplate in British history and assuming you don’t need anything bigger they are probably ideal.
I remember those early negative reviews of the latest US Fiesta. I think the problem might have been the similar Mazda2. The Mazda got a tauter suspension while the Fiesta was softened up a bit. In fact, at least one reviewer tried to claim the Mazda2 was the latest iteration of the ‘poor man’s BMW’ (at least in tight, urban city traffic).
Now that the 2 is no longer available in the US, I suspect the Fiesta’s suspension has been tightened.
My parents have a Mazda2 five-door contemporary with this Fiesta. I’d have to drive it back to back with a U.S. Fiesta to compare, but the Mazda’s ride and handling balance is extremely well-judged. It’s quite nimble (the main limitation on its mountain road is the four-speed automatic, which doesn’t have manual controls) and its highway ride is excellent, particularly considering the modest wheelbase.
One significant factor is probably tires. The Mazda2 Touring came with 185/55R15 tires, which are an unusual size — they’re kind of hard to find — but provide quite reasonable grip while remaining light enough and compliant enough to not feel jittery on broken pavement.
I’ve driven both the US and the European Fiesta, the former first. It left me wondering why the press was raving about it. Soft suspension, annoying autobox, downmarket interior. Then I rented an EU Fiesta twice this summer, both with the 1.0 3-cyl. Fantastic little cars. They handle superbly without nervosity, handily compact and economical to run, and look good doing so. And it they’re big enough for a road trip around Wales for 2!
Illustrating the point.
You won’t find an in-depth review like this in a British car magazine.
Thanks for posting this.
R
I’m not sure that I completely agree with that statement as the British magazine CAR runs several long-term tests concurrently. Each month there is an update on every car in the fleet…even if just 2 or 3 paragraphs long. The fleet incluses 12-15 vehicles at any one time.
I well remember the razor clutch n the Mk 1 Fiesta. I drove my brother’s ghia quite a bit and never got fully comfortable with it. In stop/start town traffic every start required concentration and care, not very relaxing!
Besides the hair-trigger clutch, my most vivid memory of my Mk1 Fiesta was the ease with which the accelerator pedal actually bent over to the right. It was a strange thing because their was a ‘U’ shaped piece of metal that kept the pedal from going all the way to the floor.
Roger, this was an enjoyable read and it sounds like the Fiesta fits you to a tee. It’s also good to see another Ford-fan extolling the plethora of virtues of the blue oval!
As I type this, I’m starting to form a mental picture of your Fiesta parked near Stonehenge, with Lancasters flying overhead.
Nice write up.
I had a 2012 Fiesta for 2 years. It was lime green and had a 5 speed manual transmission, sunroof and the sync system.
I loved the car but hated the sync system. It never worked right even after Ford replaced the module with another one.
Other then that the car was a good car in the time I had it. Would I buy another one? No, I should have spent the extra $1000 for the Focus as it was more roomy.
In 1980 I bought a new Fiesta, in (nearly) this same shade of red. In 1980 it was the equivalent of today’s Style specification and I have always felt it was a great example of an inexpensive car that that didn’t look all that cheap.
Reading the write-up I am surprised by the differences in specifications between the U. S. Fiesta and the U. K. Fiesta. In the U. S. the cheapest Fiesta has manual windows, and may be the last new car sold in the U. S. with that “feature”.
As a previous commentor noted, Focuses are much more numerous here than are Fiestas. It’s a guess, but with quoted fuel economy numbers of the 2 cars being the same, and prices (after negotiations) being nearly the same on similar vehicles…American buyers go for the bigger Ford.
That said, Ford REALLY damaged their possible good small car reputation when they fumbled the automatic transmission in the Focus… and by extension the Fiesta (yes, I know they use different automatic transmissions).
I traded my Fiesta at 3-4 years with 56,000 miles because I wanted a car with factory-installed air conditioning which Ford did not offer on the 1st generation Fiesta (though dealer installed air conditioning was available.
BTW, what’s the “deal” with needing 2 or 3 days to get a tire fitted in the U. K.? Many British car magazines have mentioned the need to wait several days to get a tire installed.
I’ve never been unable to get a tyre same day – I can only assume they were an unusual size.
I tend to buy tyres from a website which allows you to peruse tech specs and reviews for tyres, delivers them to a local fitter and saves you a fortune. Even that only takes a day or two.
My gripe was that the dealer was pleased with himself for having provided a wheel, and then surprised I wanted a tyre fitted, and even more surprised I was disappointed that there was 3-4 delay to getting a 15 min task completed.
But, hey, he lost the business and maybe he’ll learn.
I usually buy tyres from the mobile fitting guys – price is often better, fitting is where and when I want it and lead time normally about 2 working days. Fine for non-urgent replacements
I did not know it took so long to get a tire in the UK. I just drop my car off at the local Mr. Tire or NTB. The longest I have waited for a new tire is a full day(Drop off car in morning and pick it up after work)
“The relevant council’s insurance paid for it.” Contrast that with the story, told to me by a reputable source, of a former Governor of Louisiana who had prided himself on imposing strict fiscal discipline during his tenure in office. On retirement from politics, he went back to his previous law practice. Soon after he took on the case of a man who had lost control of his vehicle and wrecked it, allegedly as a result of travelling over a poorly maintained section of one of the state’s highways. The ex-governor sued the state on behalf of his client, arguing in court that the man’s loss was as a direct result of the state’s negligence in discharging its responsibility to maintain safe and well-maintained public thoroughfares. The man won his case, and the ex-governor cemented his reputation ever after as a “smart lawyer.” I do not know if this story is true, but I spent several years travelling Louisiana’s highways, fortunately on cars with steel wheels, and I have my own opinion.
The original Fiesta was such a nice looking car…
My partner was looking at Fiestas last year when shopping to replace his rusty 2006 Focus hatch. When he opened the driver’s door and “fell” into the driver’s seat, the decision was made – not for him. He’s early ’40s with a bad back caused by a serious fall a decade ago and did not want a vehicle he has to fall into everyday. He found a nice red Honda Fit instead.
I like the sounds of this Ford Direct re-marketing program. Over here you have to look dealer by dealer if you are looking for the right used car. It would be great to be able to search all of the available examples of a particular model and have it shipped to the dealer of your choice/whoever will cut you the best deal. Seems like it would work well for all parties involved, the buyer gets easy access to a wide choice, the dealer has it sold before it hits the lot avoiding floor costs and eliminating the risk of picking a car that ends up being lot poison, and Ford can likely get a little more on each sale as well as reduce holding times.
Ford Direct is offered in the U. S. as well as the U. K. Go to Forddirect. com and you can look for pretty much any make/model of used car at any Ford or Lincoln dealer. I haven’t used it in quite some time but suspect you can “segregate” certified used Fords from run-of-the-mill trade-ins. It allows a search radius that can encompass the whole U. S.
I don’t see any way to shop for a used car through Ford Direct, only new cars via being directed to the standard Ford site.
What I want is a chance at the cars when they are still in the re-marketing system, which is what was described here, sounds like to me. Hopefully it would be before the Franchisee only sale when some of the best units are still available.
Roger,
I’ve been in the all-new Fiesta 3 months ago, and if you like touchscreens, the interior is lovely. The door panels and switches felt awesome, the dash top is also soft to the touch, and I loved the trip computer. This week I’ve been invited by Ford to go for a test drive. I’m waiting for the dealer to call me booking it!
Great review Roger. My only gripe with these (not having driven one) is what I consider the ‘pinched C-pillar’ look with too much going on visually in that area. It is one of several largely unsuccessful homages to the original Focus styling in that area (which is exemplary).
These are good lookers and very sweet to steer though I agree the ride is a little stiff. Modern automatics are too often whole box of unpredictable and expensive tricks by that mileage, but not manuals. I’d regard that “not unknown” failure as a major disappointment, let alone expense. What on earth was wrong with it?
As regular readers will recall, I ran my ’00 New Beetle to around 218K miles before selling it to a local young man, who is still driving it around Peoria over four years later.
VWs from this era had some notorious quality issues, and my NB ticked every single box from the list. I came *that close* to selling it on a couple occasions, but never pulled the trigger. After a rash of problems around the 125-150K mark, the car actually was virtually trouble-free up until the point the welds in the exhaust rusted out and the bushings in the suspension were past it, both around the 200K mark. $1500 or so set both issues aright, and it was again quite trouble-free up until I sold it.
All that to say that, while you may hit a round of stuff wearing out around the 150K mark, if it’s repairable at reasonable cost, it’s probably worth it to press on, particularly if you enjoy the car.
My father used to say that the time to buy a new car was when monthly repairs price exceeded or equaled the monthly payment on a new car.
Question for Roger is how are you taking care of the exterior of the car? Tough environment in the UK along with a red car that granted has a clear coat like other colors but always seems to show failure sooner.
On another note I don’t think 150,000 miles is a big deal. My 2004 Focus with 2.3L and manual is just over 156,000 with only a broken passenger side motor mount which is typical. Heck the car is still on it’s original disc brake pads even though the car was faulted for wearing them out too soon. I expect another 150,000 highway miles.
I will say one thing I envy and that is your mirrors can swivel while mine are fixed. You should see what happens when a sloppy drivers hits the driver’s side mirror. I lost two smashed that way in a matter of minutes when picking my son up from his first school. Annoying as hell but at least a OEM Ford mirror was only $59 and easy to install.
Right, our kid, here goes. Obviously you got a bargain, at 65% of list and 2300 miles, which makes others in the family with their new Golf habit look indulgent. I can also confirm it is fun to drive, but my extra inch of height pushes into ‘a bit tight for tall drivers.’
Your issues (apart from being an accident magnet): the dash – dated, way too many hbuttons, tiny screen for the data, overvstyled. The mpg – I’ve just done 150 miles on the M6 in my Seat Leon FR TDI (a Golf GTD in a stylish body) at 75mph and 60mpg – you need a sixth gear.
If the voice control doesn’t work, it probably doesn’t answer to anything
Please tell me you don’t listen to the Archers.
But great vfm, and defo the right colour!
It is good to read a review on this car, one that I have not paid much attention to. When you can enjoy driving a car when your other car is a Miata, well that is an enjoyable car.
Nice write up Roger, I’m currently looking for another car my freshly renovated Xsara will become my daughters when she passes her test, I’m looking mostly at PSA cars in diesel but the Fords using the same powertrain are on my radar but currently out of my price range I pay cash for cars my circumstances between jobs dont allow for payments so I simply dont bother. But any diesel hatch or wagon will become my next vehicle, the only thing that has ruled itself out is Holden Commodores/ Falcons as we have a fleet of ex managers cars for runabouts and yeah nar I wouldnt buy one, third world comfort and roadholding isnt for me anymore sorry.
A good sensible write-up Roger; life with the car as opposed to what it’ll do around a track like the magazines do.
I too went from a mk1 Focus (Zetec TDCI) to a mk7.5 Fiesta ST. I’ve also spent time with a Zetec 1ltr Ecoboost, which is just as much fun. Not sure what gearbox the diesel uses, but the IB5 used on the Ecoboost is terrible; vague and like stirring treacle.
I have the later Sony branded audio system, and the voice activation never works for me, and I don’t have a regional accent!
On the tyres, you should be able to up the profile to a 195/50/16. Will improve the ride and give more protection from the potholed filled UK roads. Such is the suspension set-up of the Fiesta that it wont ruin the handling.