1990 Ford Fiesta XR2i review from UK and Ireland

Where to start...

When I bought the car it had a leaking sump gasket that the previous owner told me about... got that fixed no problem. In cold weather there is a 2-3 second delay between turning the key and the engine firing. Driver side window motor seized. Starter motor exciter switch kept coming loose (car was lowered 60mm all round so didn't like speed bumps), no fixed with electrical tape!! Fairly recently the speedometer has stopped working, as has the mileage counter... so 104000 isn't strictly true, it's stuck on that for 2 months! Also the alternator had to be reconditioned due to the oil that had seeped in due to the faulty sump gasket. Over winter it kept blowing fuse relays (one in particular, the reverse light, heater, and radiator fan fuse). Typical rust around the petrol cap etc etc. Oh yes one last thing, 6 months after replacing the sump gasket, it's leaking oil again, so engine wear is looking a very likely cause.

Reading the "what's wrong" section it sounds like the car is a wreck... it's actually not that bad, and thankfully because it's a Ford spare parts only cost a few quid. Besides I only paid £290 for the car, and I work in a garage so did a lot of the work myself.

There aren't many XR2i's out there that aren't in a similar sort of state (especially with sump gasket problems), they've all been abused by boy racers at some point in their lives.

As I said the car was lowered a lot, and testing it's limits on corners is a laugh. I stuck a K&N 57i and a power-valve on it... not sure how much of a difference it made though.

Overall it's been fun to drive, and I paid next to nothing for it so it doesn't owe me anything. I'm getting rid of it in the next week or two, it's being replaced by a Honda CRX.