1995 Ford Fiesta Azure 5 Door from UK and Ireland - Comments

The steering was vague and had an alarming inch of free play from day one. amazingly it never failed an MOT on this.

The car was frighteningly sluggish with the extra weight and catalyst making performance and economy a joke.

The rear shock absorbers failed twice. Once at 30000 miles and again at 58000 miles, fitted ford OE parts too.

The car used about 1 liter of oil every 1000 miles, and this was deeply worrying seeing as it had a catalyst as the engine had no leaks, it was being burned.

There were numerous small electrical faults, such as the interior courtesy light catching fire. The radio tape player had a mind of its own.

No matter how many times we had it tracked the inside edges of the front tires always wore badly - it was like this from when we took delivery.

The drivers door lock failed about a day after delivery, this was replaced, then the passenger lock failed, then the boot lock.

The quality of the paint was very poor, it scratched as soon as you looked at it, and bird poop ate it!

This was my fourth Ford fiesta, having had a MK 1 which covered 150,000 miles with no real problems. A MK 2 which covered 101,000 miles (and I still see it about) and another MK 2 I had to buy as an emergency stop gap when my Rover 200 Gsi Gearbox failed within 4 hours of delivery from the dealer (nice one Fred Coupe Nissan - ("it must be the way you drive sir, no one sticks to 30 MPH"). This last one cost me £40 and had half an exhaust, and yet it lasted for weeks and never failed to start once.

I was therefore more than a little dismayed with the reliability of this MK 3 car. And the sad thing is whilst I replaced this with a lovely Renault Laguna (heater matrix went) I have since gone out and bought a H reg 1.1 Pop Plus Fiesta with 40,000 miles (one owner from new). And whilst its got more "oomph" than the N reg one (no catalyst you see) its already starting to give me annoying little problems...

Your comments make a lot of sense to me.

I've had some of the same problems. High oil consumption,

premature wearing of inside edge of tyres, and slack in the

steering. The last two problems failed it on its MOT. They fitted

new wishbones and did something to the steering rack (I'm not sure what exactly), and new tyres and so far, so good...!

Its always a case of touching wood with the fiesta. I

haven't really had any electrical problems though.

I do agree about the performance, or rather, the lack of it.

Its just totally gutless at most speeds. Economy is reasonable though, in my opinion. About 45mpg mixed driving.

It doesn't like the cold or wet either, and sometimes won't start or run well at all for several minutes. I've been told that's a typical ford trait!

It's a car that doesn't offer much, but I've found it does the job, and that's it! Nothing special.

We've had five Fords (two Escort Estates, a MkII Fiesta, a Mk III Fiesta and a Mk IV Fiesta) and they've all had tracking problems.

Unfortunately, the only way, in my opinion to get the tracking right is to adjust it yourself, and carry on adjusting it until it feels right (normally the steering wheel will not be on straight after this, so you will need to shorten one and lengthen the other track rod end). It takes time (it took me an evening of circling the housing estate where I live) but it makes a big difference.

The tracking has to be exactly right and I'm unconvinced that adjusting it using a laser alignment gauge is an alternative (I've seen it adjusted to within the Ford tolerances and it still doesn't feel right).

Unfortunately, while I appreciate there are some good garages out there, I personally have only been to one and if your OE dampers are throwing in the towel after such a low mileage I am inclined to think that they probably didn't fit OE dampers.

A stillson (plumber's) wrench will probably be needed to loosen the track rod end.

My Fiesta's done 114000 miles and I've had nothing like the problems which some of my friends have had with newer Fords.

I have a 1.3 cat N reg, 9,000 miles (yes). was passed down to me by my grandma who sadly died. while I haven't had virtually any problems with it, it seriously lacks 'go' in a huge way. I noticed a change in engine sound recently, which I'm not all that sure about. radiator fluid seems to disappear, the windscreen sprays are pathetic, as are the speakers, and the seats (very bad for posture). in conclusion, the car is an old person's shopping trolley, but ideal as a first car :)

All above comments have been made on the slower end of the fiesta market. I have a MK4 1.25 and it will blow away the new 1.2 corsa and it still has it cat on it!. I have had 3 fiesta's including a standard, ghia and xr2i and have never found any of the above problems to affect me, sure the steering has a bit of play and the shockers on fiesta's are not good (proboaly as there not designed to be taking corners that fast) the bottom arms are always bent when you buy a new fiesta and the tracking ends break quite often, but other than that there mint! Easy to fix not the slowest of cars (even the 1.1) xr2i is fast and handles well. Cheap insurance. Smaller engine sizes don't drink much fuel. Parts are available everywhere for them. GOOD LITTLE CARS, I will not hear a bad word said againsed them.

I Have owned three Fords so far.

Two MKIII Escorts:

A 1985 L 1.3 Hatch 3-door and 1987 GL 1.6 Hatch 5-door.

The first, I stayed with it during 1988 to 1991 and the second I stayed with it during 1991 to 1994.

The first Escort I bought as a replacement for an overrated and unreliable 1980 Volkswagen Golf.

They were lovely cars and turned me as a Ford Fan; I never had any kind of serious problems with them; While with the Fiesta I had to replace twice the Gearbox, first time at at 12.000 and second time at 23.000, a snapped cam-belt, that required a new engine at 37.000 and a occasional engine cut out at 33.000 that, until I sold it, the car still was without a solution form the dealer.

Then, in May of 1994 I made the silly mistake of buying a 1994 MKIII Fiesta LX Hatch 5-door 1.3i.

I Thought I was doing a great deal buying, that piece of junk; but at only 5.000 miles, I noticed that the things started to get messy and when I sold it with 50.000 Miles on the clock, I have had so many problems, that when I tell to the other people, no one believe me.

That was my first brand new Ford and last Fix Or Repair Daily Car, I will EVER buy!

I dumped it in July 1997 for a brand new 97 Vauxhall Corsa LS 1.4 16V Manual Hatch 5-door and in these almost seven years, my experience with Vauxhall has been great.

In 2000 I replaced it for another Corsa: This time a GLS 1.4 16V Hatch 5-door (still form the old model) and last year I bought a 2003 Corsa SXi 1.4 Comfort Hatch 5-door. All with manual gearbox.

Apart, what people usually says, that the Fiesta is better than a Corsa, I have to disagree. I now many people that, owns Corsa and most of them usually owned a Fiesta previously and they say that the Little VX is a better car than the Little Ford.

Fords? Those Found On Road Dead cars??? No, Thanks! Not for me. Now on only Vauxhalls!

Oh come on, the Corsa is a pile of junk. Turgidly dull with naff handling.

My sister-in-law had a GSI 16v which went like stink, but had a "wooden" feel to all the controls that seems exclusive to Vauxhall, and understeered like a pig if you remotely attacked a corner. It was also poorly built and chronically unreliable, locking her out twice, throwing its cambelt off at 27k, and finally developing an engine management fault which nobody could fix without replacing parts at random until they found it. And yes, that included Vauxhall dealers.

I know Fiestas can be troublesome, but they're better to drive than the Corsa, and they don't scream "I know sod all about cars" to everyone who sees you in one!

I am currently looking to buy my first car and have been looking at a couple Fiestas. After reading the reviews on this site (and I hope no one takes offence) it appears that the MK3 is terrible, but the MK4 is excellent! I will be avoiding the MK3 like the plague after reading all the things that seem to go wrong with every one after about 60,000 miles and even from new it seems.

However, the MK4 (Thankfully what I am looking at) has almost all good reviews (especially the 1.25 Zetec engine models and the SI (again thankfully I am looking at a 1.25 SI at the moment).

Having read the reviews it has made me realise something. Out of the ones I have looked at the MK4 ones have all looked quite OK as far as bodywork is concerned - no rust etc. But all the MK3s I have seen have been either very rusty or have had at least enough rust to put me off buying it. I hadn't made this connection before and it now seems clear that the MK3 or Classic/ Quartz etc apparently have a major rust problem!!

Therefore I think definitely a MK4 Fiesta or Vauxhall Corsa for me. I am not really fussed I just want a car for about £1000 that I can insure for about the same, but I know those 2 are good cars. The Ka is also good apparently, but I am not to keen on them - a bit ugly.

BTW - My friend has a MK4 Fiesta Zetec with the 1.25l 16V Zetec petrol engine and he loves it! It is comfortable and nice to drive he said and it has got some guts whatever people say, he can pull away pretty well believe you me!

I agree with most of the comments above, but I still think the mk3 was a big improvement over the mk1+2 (basically the same car) which always felt like it was made of tin foil.

Mk4 Zetec powered fiestas are the ones to go for, avoid the sluggish and premature-wearing 1.3 valencia/endura engines, get either a 1.25 or a 1.4. bodywork is more durable on post N reg cars, although paint is still poor quality and easily damaged. shock/suspension/tracking problems remain, not helped by wide 14 inch wheels on some. even zetecs use oil, so regular checking is essential as is changing the cambelt on time. apart from that, the mk4 is the ultimate development of the fiesta and is a capable and reliable car.