Lots to watch out for - but mainly things wearing out. Rust can appear earlier than you'd like on the older cars. Things tend to go wrong around 60,000 miles. These include: shocks (replace), clutch (replace), cambelt should really be replaced at 60,000 miles (some say more often is even better, like every 30,000 miles).
Front tyre wear is heavy, original lower front suspension wishbone bushes have a design fault that means they work out of position - replace the whole lower arm and get new ball joints at the same time - I've seen a Fiesta ('90 H)with collapsed front suspension on one side due to the ball joint not being replaced! Nearly everything that has gone wrong with mine has been due to things wearing out rather than anything failing suddenly.
A bit thirsty - about 30-32 m.p.g. normally. Bit slow off the mark unless you feed it about 3500rpm - not the best for the clutch. Shifts from about 15 mph and onwards though. Mid-range grunt brilliant for a small car. Best handling Fiesta ever apart, perhaps, from the latest 1.4Si, which feels much slower.
Only wish Ford had seen fit to give it 100BHP - a sub 10sec 0-60 time would have been nice.....
I have a M reg Si, but there's no way it handles better than the Fiesta Turbo.
Girlfriend had a mint si and it handled terribly any where near the limit... OK if you drive 40mph everywhere it felt solid, but push it along and the back end tries to step out. i had a 1.6 s on lowered springs at the time and the handling difference between the 2 cars was like night and day.1 corner I could take in mine at 90 with no problems not even any tyre noise, with the si at 80 the back end tank slapped me!!
The Ford Fiesta Si is a brilliant little car. It handles brilliant just as standard, so if you put on some wider tyres and lower it a couple of mil, then you'd think it was on rails. Much better than RS, but unfortunately not as fast.
Yeah, bottom wish bones and ball joints are a problem, but they do wear out just like every other.
The only down side I think is rusty arches n seals, but nothing an RS body kit can't hide ha ha.
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