1990 Ford Fiesta S from UK and Ireland - Comments

It is hopeless in wet weather, whenever you stop at a junction it will cut out.

The rear panel by the fuel cap has had to be replaced due to rust, after a £500 respray last year.

Road holding had deteriorated over the last 6 months. First I thought it was the tracking but that was fine. Then the suspension was checked by a main dealer and that was fine, but I am still having problems with handling when the car is on anything less than a perfectly smooth surface.

Apart from the above, it hasn't got bad performance although when pushed it will struggle to 30 mpg. I can keep up with 205 GTi's and beat Nova SR's.

You couldn't come close to a 205 in that car.

A 205 GTi would seriously leave you in your Fiesta!.. Are you talking about 1.1 205's?

Hi.

When your car cuts out at junctions, mine did that, I have a Fiesta Si. Interestingly enough, it hasn't done it now in the cold any more, I had a mate round and he spent 3 hours for £15 labour to flush all the anti-freeze out as it had gone brown, it took 10 attempts to clean it all out until we saw just pure water coming out. Even with the engine on too.

Now with 2 bottles of anti freeze in there it does not have cutting out anymore!!

Tim.

Ps I'm on the 1995 review with the hundreds spent on my Si.

I own one of these.

It's not nearly as fast as my old XR2 (mk2) but it's fast enough.

As for 205's.. No way. Not without mod's.

MY XR2 used to keep up with them easily, but not the 1.6s!

As for Nova SR's... a kid on a skateboard could whoop one of them!

Apart form the above the 1.6 is a great little car. Just about pokey enough for some good fun and modern enough to be nice and smooth.

The cutting out is a well known fault. Try what the other guy said and also keep your air filter element clean!

It's got great potential. With a few small modifications you could return the engine back to it's XR2 glory days... as for the body style it's a great shape for kits. Slap on some SI bumpers and turn some heads.

Jon dunk.

Hi

how good are the Mk 3 fiesta as a first car

alastair.

Silly!

SILLY!

A Fiesta is a cracking first car! I used to own a 1.6 S a few years ago now, (I've since upgraded to a Honda Integra Type R with a turbo) but I had that Fiesta for 3 1/2 years and I learnt a few things while I had it.

Small mods of exhaust, manifold, filter and cam made a HUGE difference to the performance. Lower the suspension and add a strut brace transforms the handling too.

It would eat XR2's all day long with no problems. I had 2 friends with XR2i's, and it was quicker than both of them too.

I had another friend with a Nova GTE that was closer in a straight line, but I had him every time as soon as it got twisty.

On a certain stretch of road near me (about 8 miles long that I knew very well), I beat lots of cars that had more power than me

i.e.. BMW 320

BMW 323

Astra GTE (8 valve)

Audi 90 (2.0 16 valve)

Several XR2i's and XR3i's

Nova SR's and my mates GTE

306 XSI

Those are just to name but a few in over 3 years of ownership.

I also added a ecotec valve to improve fuel economy, and my word it made a massive difference.. not sure of the mpg because back then I didn't know how to work it out, but I gained about 25/30% extra mileage.

My girlfriend at the time owned the newer 16v Si, and not only was mine easily faster, but on a long run to Taunton we used to do all the time (about 130 miles round trip) mine would get better fuel economy every time.

I sold the car for a pitance at the time to replace it with a boring Saxo VTR, which was a huge drop in performance and handling. Had that car for a year, replaced it with a Civic 1.8vti, had that a year and replaced with my Integra Type R. After 2 years I still have that now.

But for enjoyment and cheap fun, my Fiesta will always be my favourite car I've owned... silly really when you think we pay all this money on newer faster cars, when sometimes the old cars we owned as youngsters live longer in our memories.

Oh, and just in case some people are thinking I was barely out of school and didn't know better back then, I owned 4 cars before the Fiesta and was 22 when I sold it.

I used to have a modd'd fiesta 's'. I now own a leon cupra running at 225bhp, but it isn't as much fun down country lanes and round town as the fiesta. Definatley get them lowered on a decent full sports kit for the most fun.

(I used to have a 5" exhaust on the fiesta which kind of ruined it really)