1990 Ford Fiesta Bonus review from UK and Ireland

I bought the car without any real inspection as it was being bought from a friend. It was bought to be a cheap first car for me.

I took the car to my local mechanic after the car just spontaneously cut-out on the motorway out of Belfast! It turned out that the engine was probably replaced at some stage and a cheap electric pump was fitted because a mechanical pump could not be fitted. I had a universal fuel pump fitted and it's never broke down since.

I have had the clutch replaced as it was getting quite long. It judders now, probably because it has not been fitted 100% correctly by the mechanic.

I've also had the tappets replaced/adjusted along with an engine tune-up. This was done because the engine was particularly noisy.

I've replaced all four tyres from the supplied remoulds to Firestones as the front tyres had to be replaced due to wheel mis-alignment causing substantial uneven wear, so I decided to replace all four.

There are two oil-leaks (one at the gearbox and one at the sump) still unfixed.

Brakes are fine, but squeal when applied at certain pressures.

The car has been a great car for me to have as a first-time car. It has served me well. The recorded mileage couldn't possibly be right, it must have gone round the clock to that figure. approx 30000 miles on an 11 year old car? I don't think so!

On the plus side, it's reliable and starts first time every time (even in cold weather).

The interior of the car has been well looked after and is quite roomy and comfortable. The bodywork is good, no real rust problems.

On the downside, the car is quite noisy (I think all the old Fiesta's of this age are) and it only has 4 gears which makes the engine noise greater at higher speeds. Performance seems non-existent, 65mph seems the absolute maximum without feeling like you are really pushing it beyond its limits and getting to that speed seems like an eternity. The car is also very rattly, lots of noises come from the dashboard (rattles and squeaks).

Overall, the Ford Fiesta (1990 model) is a decent reliable car which is great as a no-frills run-about car, but it suffers from lots of little problems which might put off most people. It's been great as a first time car, but I have been searching for a new car since. My brand new Fiesta 1.25 Zetec will be delivered soon which seems like a lightyear ahead of this model!