Fiesta 1600s (Ford Fiesta (pre-1995))

Member Name: dunketh

Product:	Ford Fiesta (pre-1995)
Date:	24/10/02 (1061 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap as chips (£400), Good Looking, Pretty Darn Rapid!

Disadvantages: Horrible Basic Trim, It's got NO bodykit!

I'm writing this just because I can never find out any information about the 1.6s Fiesta.

I myself own one of these decafeinated XR2's and would just like to say its great !
Its cheap to insure, petrol's not bad at around 35mpg - if you drive like a granny.
Performance is pretty good for a 90's Fiesta, coming in at around 90bhp and accelerating almost as well as the XR2i model.

If you want an XR2i but can't afford the insurance buy one of these.
You even get XR2i brakes, boot spoiler and front and rear anti roll bars - so you can banish that rumour about Fiesta's being 'wallowy'.
The car uses the old mk2 XR2 engine with the same crappy carb (ok, so it aint perfect) and a new exhuast setup.

However, the car feels a lot more refined than the old XR2 and starts first time even in the worst weather. She'll hit 100mph without too much trouble and feels completely at ease at 80-90. 0-60 time is rated at around 10 seconds... which isn't bad for the age.

Things that have gone wrong? Well she's getting rusty, despite Ford's original 6 year rust warranty which would hint some confidence in their own steel work. The clutch has been replaced (£150 fitted), I found two oil leeks and replaced the break pads.
All this is pretty minimal though, considering the 120,000 miles the car has covered
The brake pads (and discs for that matter) really are a doddle to replace, as with most mechanical work its confidence as much as skill that is required.
The rust isn't too bad, on the mk3 fiesta both ends of the sills ten to rust, the bottoms of the doors rust (usually because some idiot has FILLED over the drain holse in the bottom of the doors) and the panel around the filler cap ALWAYS rusts, lthough I haven't worked out why.

The oil leaks I found are around the rocker cover (common on the CVH) and at the distributer. The reasons behind these were a loose rocker
cover and NO gasket between the distributer and the engine block. Doh! So- no fault of the car then.
The other mechanical components are pretty much bullet-proof having been tried and tested since the early 80's in the mk2 car.

BAD things (yes, there are some)
Sometimes, after just starting, the car will cut out. Its that crappy auto-choke weber carb. No problems when warmed up though.
The interior is horrid, orange and blue check!
There is no centre console, no electrics (windows, locking) and very basic trim - It's based on the base L model.

In short - if any car can go on for 120,000 miles with as little wrong with it as this baby then I would recommend it to anybody.

Summary: