1987 Ford Fiesta Reviews - Page 2 of 3

New exhaust just after buying the car for £44 brand new fitted!

Nothing else needed in the 2000 miles so far apart from a basic service.

The car is outstanding value for money at £170 for an '88 E-reg with less than 80,000 miles on the clock.

Insurance costs are very reasonable and performance excellent for such a small engined car. It's easily capable of 110MPH.

Better value than a Nova SR.

Fuel economy is brilliant at 38MPG around town and up to 48MPG at 70 on the motorway.

The bonnet hinge next to the support has just corroded, takes two people to open and close.

The exhuat pipe at the manifold has just blown. it was cheaper to replace the whole thing for eighty five pounds.

Rust has just started to spread over the whole car. Rear passenger wheel arch, (common problem on mk2 (fiestas)). Rust all over the front of the car.

The driver side headlamp fell out when the bonnet was first open and smashed. cheap ford replacement at £5.

In the damp or wet when you put the rear wiper on it turns on the rear de-mister.

Also when you go through shallow puddles in the road it tends to cut out, or worst jumps!

For the age of the car it is generally in really good condition, especially the velour interior.

The first owner had it thirteen years and my sister had it one. so hasn't really been driven hard.

It is quite nippy going on the motorway, it does do 90 at a struggle.

But the car does do 100 miles with every £10 of petrol.

Head gasket blew at 64000, 84000, and 100000 miles.

The floor pan went rustier than the Titanic as did the inner arches (had more holes as well).

Replaced the rear wiper motor.

Wouldn't tick over when cold.

Electrics have a habit of breaking on a regular basis (which is a bit scary on a country road at midnight when everything goes black).

Replaced front disks, pads etc.

General wear and tear.

If you are going to buy an XR2 and you can't weld, lift the carpet up and check the floor pan or it could cost you a fortune.

Handling is predictable and stable, and you really have to do something daft to bin one (unless your lights go out at 80mph at midnight on a country road).

The XR2 is a very easy car to work on, I've rebuilt 2 and am currently working on a third. The Haynes manual wasn't very helpful.

Parts are cheap and every scrappy in the country has got at least one Fiesta in it, and usually an XR2.

They are cheap, but be careful, they are rot boxes.

Check the body work chassis etc with a magnet, if it don't stick, don't buy it as anything other than a project.

Minor rust developed around the rear wheel-arches and bonnet front.

Rear wiper motor burnt out whilst trying to clear snow off window. (oops)

Gear lever spring broke, this meant it was difficult to engage 3rd gear as stick wasn't sprung to centre and flopped around in neutral.

Good spec for such a small old car with 5 speed gearbox, rev-counter, sunroof, posh velour seats and decent stereo as standard.

The car was quick due to the punchy 1.4 engine, (the same as in an XR2 but bored down to a 1.4 not 1.6)

Amazing handling, you got the impression you didn't need to slow down for corners, infact you could go faster and it just went round.

The car looked and went really well after a little work to cure the rust problem but sadly met its end in a traffic accident.