2011 Ford Fiesta Titanium 1.4 petrol from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Cheap to run, ideal first car

Faults:

Mostly wear and tear, no breakdowns or major problems. There is a rumble from the rear suspension that will need attention. Radio hesitant to switch on sometimes. Clutch judders a little but has not failed yet.

The car has been looked after well, bought used with full history, mostly by Ford garages.

Battery failed, replacement was cheap enough.

Some rust appearing here and there, but it is 15 years old now!

General Comments:

2011 Fiesta in black, Titanium model, alloy wheels, tinted windows, very smart little car for its age.

Well equipped with electric everything. Interior still feels quality after all these years.

Nice to drive, 1.4 petrol is punchy enough and also manages around 40 mpg. Certainly it is also a simpler and more reliable unit than later ecoboost petrol engines.

If you need a cheap run about, a Fiesta from this time period makes sense for those on a budget. Buy carefully, there are a lot of rough overpriced cars out there, take your time to find a nice one.

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

Review Date: 2nd February, 2026

2011 Ford Fiesta SES 1.6 inline 4 from North America

Summary:

Dependable but small for long trips

Faults:

The transmission had a leak at 370,000km.

The car currently has a charging system light that won't go out, and a recent light show that resulted from a cut wheel speed sensor.

The rear alignment is scrubbing the tires a bit, and several alignments have failed to bring it under control.

There's rust on the rear quarter panels from 300000km of living on a gravel road.

General Comments:

This car is my parents' car, and has been the longest-serving car they've ever had. It regularly racks up 1800km a week, and fails so infrequently that it's the most reliable car my folks have ever owned. It rides a little rough for washboard gravel roads, and it can be wearing on longer highway trips, but it reliably goes 700-800km on a tank, which counts for a lot in this time of soaring gas prices. My dad does all of the maintenance, and I don't think the car has been down for the last 2 years for more than a weekend. It's cramped, though, for tall people like my dad, and access to the rear wheels is tight, which becomes a problem on gravel roads, because the rear alloy wheels are very wide, and collect enough grit to unbalance them regularly. This car has done very well for my folks, and I think it'll probably pass 500,000km in their hands. That makes it the highest-mileage Fiesta I've seen. Too bad Ford decided they were done making small cars.

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

Review Date: 6th June, 2022

12th Jun 2022, 01:57

"The rear alignment is scrubbing the tires a bit, and several alignments have failed to bring it under control."

This is intriguing in that the rear suspension is a twist beam which is usually free from subjecting the tires to angles that noticeably affect tire wear - e.g., scrub from the tires from unfortunate Camber and Toe-In/Out angles.

Please let us know how this develops as time goes on.

In reply to 12th Jun 2022, 01:57

30th Jan 2023, 07:13

The car's at about 493,000km now, and a few of the issues have been fixed, but I think that the alignment issue comes largely from the fact that the owner (my dad) won't get expensive work done. It might be a fixable issue, but the local (small town) Ford dealer was stumped, and so he left it at that. The battery light that had been on for the last 30,000km turned out to be an unplugged lead. The tires wear prematurely, at about 20,000km a pair. They wear from the inside out, to the point where the inside is bald, but the outside has 7/16 tread. I suspect that at some point or other the torsion beam got bent out of shape. Once my parents are done with it, I'd happily take it as an upgrade to my car. The only new issue is that the Bluetooth won't pair with my parents' phones any more.