1994 Ford Fiesta LX (Equipe) 1.3

Faults:

Lots. Friday afternoon job. Owned from new it has had 1 new cat, 2 new exhausts after one year, 3 new power steering pumps, 4 new brake discs, 5 new idle speed control motors.

General Comments:

Nice car to drive. Optional power steering is bliss. Dealers have been good on the whole with most work done under warranty. Best comment so far was "Your brake pads are fine but your discs have worn out", apparently Ford used too hard a brake pad compound on some cars.

Car was running badly on and off for 18 months, cutting out and over-revving. After 3 attempts (no fault found) eventually diagnosed the idle speed motor. so if they can't find this annoying fault on your car try this.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 23rd October, 1999

1994 Ford Fiesta Si 1.6 16v petrol

Faults:

Lots to watch out for - but mainly things wearing out. Rust can appear earlier than you'd like on the older cars. Things tend to go wrong around 60,000 miles. These include: shocks (replace), clutch (replace), cambelt should really be replaced at 60,000 miles (some say more often is even better, like every 30,000 miles).

Front tyre wear is heavy, original lower front suspension wishbone bushes have a design fault that means they work out of position - replace the whole lower arm and get new ball joints at the same time - I've seen a Fiesta ('90 H)with collapsed front suspension on one side due to the ball joint not being replaced! Nearly everything that has gone wrong with mine has been due to things wearing out rather than anything failing suddenly.

General Comments:

A bit thirsty - about 30-32 m.p.g. normally. Bit slow off the mark unless you feed it about 3500rpm - not the best for the clutch. Shifts from about 15 mph and onwards though. Mid-range grunt brilliant for a small car. Best handling Fiesta ever apart, perhaps, from the latest 1.4Si, which feels much slower.

Only wish Ford had seen fit to give it 100BHP - a sub 10sec 0-60 time would have been nice.....

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 3rd August, 1999

19th Feb 2001, 09:08

I have a M reg Si, but there's no way it handles better than the Fiesta Turbo.

14th Aug 2006, 11:43

Girlfriend had a mint si and it handled terribly any where near the limit... OK if you drive 40mph everywhere it felt solid, but push it along and the back end tries to step out. i had a 1.6 s on lowered springs at the time and the handling difference between the 2 cars was like night and day.1 corner I could take in mine at 90 with no problems not even any tyre noise, with the si at 80 the back end tank slapped me!!

14th Jul 2007, 13:11

The Ford Fiesta Si is a brilliant little car. It handles brilliant just as standard, so if you put on some wider tyres and lower it a couple of mil, then you'd think it was on rails. Much better than RS, but unfortunately not as fast.

Yeah, bottom wish bones and ball joints are a problem, but they do wear out just like every other.

The only down side I think is rusty arches n seals, but nothing an RS body kit can't hide ha ha.

1994 Ford Fiesta Si 1.6 petrol

Faults:

Nothing at all mechanical, it sails through it's MOT. The CD player was a bit dodgy though, at least it was under warranty, kept skipping and took ages to fix as dealer forgot to do the work. I gave up on getting the fade to work correctly, it's fine left alone though at L=R, F=B.

General Comments:

Uses a bit too much petrol but isn't too bad, the colour coded body bumpers get alot of stone marks on country roads, the sports seats are really comfy. It is my first car so the insurance is high, probably not ideal at £800 but I've found it is much easier to drive than the Nissan Micra I learnt in. It has a drivers air bag, power steering and ABS. It's a great car I don't ever want to sell it.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 26th July, 1998

16th Feb 2001, 05:59

Never had ABS on this model.

6th May 2001, 12:29

ABS was an optional extra!

7th Feb 2002, 03:32

Who are you with for your insurance? I have a throbbing 1.1 power-plant and CIS see it fit to charge me £832 for my annual premium!

Cheers, Brian (brotherhoodofbrian@hotmail.com)

27th Jul 2002, 14:41

I have had my fiesta 1.6si for three years and had no problems!

Would have expected more grunt considering the power to weight ratio, but that was put right with K&N induction kit and full system exhaust pushing the BHP from 90 to 135BHP and the car is now a true pocket rocket!

Since having the induction kit and exhaust I have been able to keep up with bigger cars such as a BMW 320i!!!

I would recommend this car to anyone looking for a car that does not only have great performance, but also great looks!