Ford Fiesta is 35 years old (likes comfortable slacks)- 56K? go make a cup of tea.. - Page 2 - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

lunarhighway · 08-01-2011, 10:57 AM

Quote:

You also get the strange Yaris sedan

try the swift sedan,

i've seen dogs leave things on the sidewalk that where better proportioned than that.
in that respect the fiesta sedan is a thing of beauty

gone-ot · 08-01-2011, 12:05 PM

...my Dad had one of the first-year Fiesta's in USA, the one with the 1.6L Kent (FOB) engine that was (basically) same engine as in the first-year Pinto.

Arragonis · 08-01-2011, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lunarhighway

try the swift sedan,

i've seen dogs leave things on the sidewalk that where better proportioned that than.
in that respect the fiesta sedan is a thing of beauty

I suppose the advantage of driving it would be that being inside you wouldn't be able to see the outside...

larrybuck · 08-02-2011, 12:03 AM

My 1st experience w a Fiesta came for me as the Courier Company I worked for from the mid-70's to the mid 80's bought 4 of them to work along side w Econoline vans, and a couple of Fairmont wagons ( the 302 was fun )

In addition to city type runs, I got to drive one on a 8hr. shift some 240 miles or so on a route going to, along, and back from the Oregon coast to Portland.

It was light, fun, spunky, and good w gas.

I liked it well enough to buy my own years later in about '98 or so, and kept it until I was enjoying an '82 Diesel Quantum wagon more bought around '02.

The Fiesta served me very well. I only wish that the pedals had been designed at a slightly different angle, as all day driving became a little tiring w my 6 "4 frame in it.

I had a white on tan '78. I spent a week on vacation taking mostly back highways to Glacier National Park and back, heavily loaded, and got up to 49mpg. with it!

I certainly had no fear in buying one. The in house mechanic that we had at the Courier Company, said that the only thing that was Fiesta repair related, was that he had to once in a while replace the wiper motors.
Keep in mind that it rains alot here, and these cars were used all day 5 days a week on day, and night shifts. It wasn't unusual to see 500 miles a Day!

It's sad that so few remain today, and that most people mistake them for a VW Rabbit!

I took the bumpers off of mine, so that it would look like a tough Rally car.

I built custom round turn signals in front, and additional taillights in back , by changing round clearance lights into the functioning park/signals. These lenses were epoxied into a short white PCV collar, which in turn was epoxied on the sides, and tapped back into the round bumper crash strut reciptical for a fine tight flush fit that looked Euro factory!

winkosmosis · 08-02-2011, 12:27 AM

This one looks the best. Nice and clean. Remember when compact cars had clean styling?

gone-ot · 08-02-2011, 11:17 AM

...as compared to the current Fiesta's "catfish mouth" design!

Arragonis · 08-02-2011, 11:57 AM

There's a Mk1 on fleabay about 10 miles from where I live. MOT (safety test) passed too. If only my garage was not full and my wallet was...

shovel · 08-03-2011, 06:01 PM

Maybe I should just google it but didn't we get the mk3 here as the Mazda 323? Kinda looks like it in that pic.. I don't know much about 'em except that I haven't seen one on the road in years so they must not have been very reliable...

bhazard · 08-03-2011, 06:22 PM

Nope the Mazda 323 was a completely Mazda car. The 88-90? Mercury Tracer was a 323 copy.

A lot of people confuse the ford festiva with the fiesta, also completely different cars. The fiesta being a ford and the festiva being a mazda-based Kia.

Any of you euro/brits see a lot of Mazda 121/Kia Pride's over there?

Arragonis · 08-03-2011, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shovel

Maybe I should just google it but didn't we get the mk3 here as the Mazda 323?

The Mk3 wasn't the same as the 323 AFAIK. The Fiesta Mk3 based Mk4 did form the basis of the Mazda (Europe only) 121 with it's Yamaha 1.25 and 1.4 16v Engines. This one had a rethink of the chassis and steering which kind of turned it from totally useless to actually, well, ok.

The Mk3 Fiesta was an absolute dog which lived on as the Fiesta "Classic" far beyond the time it should have been put to death.

I don't know if anyone remembers the 1990-ish disaster of marketing called the Ford Simulator, a CGA/EGA DOS based driving "game" for PCs based on the Ford range at the time. The US one included the Mustang, Thunderbird - er, yeah, etc.

The European version included the Ford Fiesta 1.1 Ghia... 0-60 in 16 seconds.

The Mk2 1.1 Ghia could do this in 13 seconds.