Ford Fiesta MK III

...yourself up a brand new Ford Ka for £7,000 from a dealer today!

The other added extras on the car will also make your journey more pleasant. The ABS for example, which I know is fitted on most cars these days, will really make a difference to your braking. The only time I have skidded was on a wet road when a roundabout appeared from no where and gave me a small surprise! The electric windows work well, with the buttons located on ...
...the boot, though this can only be activated when the ignition isn’t switched on, pretty sensible really if you ask me, the only bad thing about it is that it doesn’t shut it again for you, you actually have to do that manually! How inconsiderate!

- THE INTERIOR

The interior is also a step above the popular plus models. The sears are a different shape, to give you more support, and also the cloth is a completely ... more

I went and did it didn’t I! I went and bought myself a fiesta. Now, as many of you will already know, I already owned a fiesta, and indeed, had the pleasure of owning 2 up until last weekend, so why did I buy another one? Well the fiesta I have recently bought is a MKIII fiesta, which was first introduced to Britain in 1989. We see loads of them around, but there’s one thing that makes mine a bit different from the rest, it is the Ghia version. What this means, is it’s got a sunroof, electric windows, ABS, a 1.4 engine and other groovy little enhancements. It was basically the top of the range fiesta you could buy back then. Mine is a G reg model, bit crazy when you think my other fiesta was an F reg, and was built in 1990, but still, I think it looks rather groovy parked next to even a brand spanking new beamer (ok, so I like to think it looks good!).

First of all I will give you a basic run down of my car, then tell you a little more about it. The car cost me £1100 to buy, it had 96,000 miles on the clock and now has 99,000 on it, all in the space of 3 weeks (yer, sounds bad don’t it, wait until you see my fuel bill!). The insurance for it costs me £84 a month, fully comp, and I don’t have any no claims bonus to rely on and being only 21, this doesn’t really help! The only problems I have had with the car so far is that it didn’t like water, an the distributor cap thingy was replaced and the central locking seemed to have a habit of unlocking itself without any input from myself, though box of these problems now don’t occur, and I also have a 2 month warranty on it, so it’s all been put right free of charge.

- THE CAR

The first thing I noticed about this car when I first started driving it is how smooth the drive was compared to the MKII fiesta I was used to driving. Those nasty bumps in the road were not such an obstacle anymore, and the whole car didn’t shake if I went over a crack in the roads surface. Also, the noise of the car wasn’t as prominent, in fact, sometimes I wonder if the engines still ticking over if the radios on quietly and I’m sitting at the lights. I don’t want you to think that all MKIII fiestas are made like this though, because they are not! You can still hear the distinctive tinny noise in some MKIII’s, but generally speaking this is limited to the 1.1 popular plus models, the 1.4 has a completely different engine, and you really can tell!

So, lets get all the boy racer stuff over and done with. The first thing my mate said when he sat in the car for five minutes was ‘this thing goes like s**t off a shovel*, and yes, it does! It’s no sports model or anything like that, but due to the weight of the car, there really is some acceleration stored in that accelerator. Having said that though, these not that much mid range power in fifth gear going along the motorway, it’s more the first 3 gears that really pull you along. It does 0-60 in about 11 seconds, apparently, I’ve never actually tested it as the only time I do use the power is if someone wants a race at the lights and think they are in for an easy time due to me sitting in a fiesta. I’ve only ever been beaten once, and that was because the other driver was suicidal! The power is helped along by the rev’s, a maximum of 7,000 I must add which is pretty nice for such a small car, and very useful for when your going up a very steep hill, that’s when those revs really kick in and pull you up that hill in seconds.

The body of the car is in pristine condition, which most ghia’s of that age are, if looked after properly. The only bit of rust I have found is right behind the back wheel on the fold of the body work. There are a couple of scratches, but this was due to it being a company car, and them using a roof rack. Oh, that’s another thing I should tell you. This car cost £11,000 new in 1990, that’s quite a lot of money for back then if you think you can pick yourself up a brand new Ford Ka for £7,000 from a dealer today!

The other added extras on the car will also make your journey more pleasant. The ABS for example, which I know is fitted on most cars these days, will really make a difference to your braking. The only time I have skidded was on a wet road when a roundabout appeared from no where and gave me a small surprise! The electric windows work well, with the buttons located on the centre console, along with an extra button for opening the boot, though this can only be activated when the ignition isn’t switched on, pretty sensible really if you ask me, the only bad thing about it is that it doesn’t shut it again for you, you actually have to do that manually! How inconsiderate!

- THE INTERIOR

The interior is also a step above the popular plus models. The sears are a different shape, to give you more support, and also the cloth is a completely different cloth. Considering that the car has done 99,000 miles and there are no rips or signs of fadeing, I’m pretty impressed.

The dash is also quite nice. I’m one who likes little places to put stuff, and this car has plenty of places, with the glove box, 2 compartments above this, a compartment by the drivers right knee and also one just behind the gearstick (which is the perfect size for a mobile phone!) this car has loads of places for my tapes, fags and used car parking tickets. I still seem to get stuff all over the place though! The display has a rev counter, speed counter (There is a proper word for that one, I just can’t remember it!), fuel gauge, temperature gauge and also a mileage counter and a mileage counter you can reset. It also of course has the usual warning lights which are there to panic you if they ever light up! The heating controls are easily accessible, but don’t like up in the dark, which is a bit of a bummer as you have to find the right slider to raise or lower the temperature!

The doors are covered in a nice soft fabric, as are the rear doors, this being the 5 door version. The only thing I would have liked is a cover to go over the sunroof, but hey, I can’t be too picky can I! There are four speakers as standard in the car, and as far as I’m aware, the speakers I use at the moment are the speakers that were in the car when it was new. The front ones are located in each door and the back ones are at either side of the parcel shelf, although they are all hidden, so it doesn’t look like my old fiesta which had 4 speakers mounted in a seriously concaved parcel shelf! The back ones would be easy to replace, but I’m not to sure about the front two. However, I’m not going to bother replacing them, they are fine for what I want and can cope with a good bit of bass too. Another reason is that I’m not bothering to buy a decent stereo as all that happens is they get nicked! It’s happened to a lot of people I know, so I’m not going to bother!

- OVERALL

I love this car! It’s a bit expensive for me being only 21 with the insurance premiums, but I’m happy to spend the money on this car which not only makes me look a bit better than the old one did, but also makes me feel better, and also, a lot safer as I do 60mph through the narrow roads we have in Devon! I’m not sure on the fuel consumption figures at all, but I know I have done about 180 miles on £20, which is both urban and country driving, so it’s not really too bad, just not as good as the 1.1 I had!

What made me buy a G reg fiesta though? Simply reliability. My old one served me well, and I see a lot of the old ones still on the road. It’s also practical. It’s nice to have a car that you hardly ever see on the roads, but it’s also a nightmare to get your hands on replacement parts. With the Fiesta, you can go to nearly any garage and they will have the parts for you, and also you don’t need specialist garages, you can go to any old garage and they will at least have a rough idea on the fiesta, it’s one of the countries most popular car’s and is still very popular, with a whole new version of it coming out soon, which I must say I don’t like, it looks too much like the Focus for me!

If you drive a 1.1 fiesta, either MK1, II or III, and get into a Ghia, you will have a really nice surprise. What’s more, the body keeps itself pretty clean, don’t ask me how, but the dirt doesn’t seem to stand out all that much! Bonus!

 

...less