Top Banana! (Ford Fiesta 1.4 Zetec 3dr)

Member Name: jonatkins

Product:	Ford Fiesta 1.4 Zetec 3dr
Date:	20/05/03 (1989 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Engine, Handling, Looks

Disadvantages: Rear room, very common

In June 2000 my wife and I decided to look for a nearly new car (only criteria being that it was supermini size approx), and went out shopping with an open mind. We looked around a number of local dealers and it became clear quite quickly that due to the discounts already at that stage being offered on new cars and the fact we were not trading in that we would get a better deal buying new than a year or two old. Since my wife was going to use the car more than me, she had ultimate say on what we purchased and we quickly narrowed down the choice of a Fiesta Zetec 1.4 or a VW Polo 1.4, these were the only two cars we looked at that she felt totally comfortable in and I was happy either way.

Due to the significant discount being offered at the Ford dealers and much smaller offering at VW we started negociating at Ford. Now we both knew that the Polo would be worth more than the Fiesta when we came to trade in after 3 years or so so were under no illusion about the true discount levels we would need to make the Fiesta a better buy. In actual fact we managed to negociate a discount including cashback of approx 25% which basically blitzed the paltry offerings from VW. We were very soon the proud owners of a metallic State Blue Fiesta Zetec 1.4 3dr.

This little car has sat on our drive and served us well for the last three years. We had one initial problem in that the dealer fit sunroof leaked the first time it rained but that was put right without fuss. Apart from that we've had absolutely nothing go wrong with the car and it's only been back to a Ford dealer once (for it's first annual service), I carried out the second annual one myself as it was easy enough and Ford were only offering a one year warranty back in 2000 so it wasn't necessary for warranty cover.

This car has an excellent engine in the 1.4 Zetec that seems to provide just enough power to put a smile on your face (90bhp) in a pretty light car, without tempting you

to overdo things and get yourself in trouble. The Zetec engine is smooth and very rev happy pulling really well from 4,000rpm upwards while not becoming too noisy in the process. The other thing that impresses in the Fiesta is the handling, it suffers very little body roll without being too harsh and is ideally set up for twisty flowing roads, it seems to encourage the driver to stretch the engines capabilities wherever possible to get the benifit of this well balanced chassis.

On the downsides there isn't much room for rear seat passengers and there could be one or two more gadgets to play with to keep idle fingures happy on long trips, but I think that to focus on that would be to miss the point of this car, it was for a long time aknowledged as the drivers choice in the supermini class and desevedly so.

It's interesting to note that after driving this cars replacement recently Ford seemed to have lost some of the driver appeal that made the outgoing car such fun when updating things and left the new car feeling a bit bland in comparison.

Summary: