I purchased a Ford Fiest Zetec-S from Hamer Ford, West Bromwich back in September 2000 for a total of £11,500 including two services, a years fully comp insurance and a three year Ford Warranty. Fitted out in Panther Black with a Grey/Red interior,I can still remember it as vividly as the ... Read review
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Advantages: Well built, high levels of equipment, awesome handling, good mid-range performance. stylish appearance. Disadvantages: MPG not that great, small fuel tank. not an RS1800 Turbo of old, dreadful attitude of Ford HQ.
I purchased a Ford Fiest Zetec-S from Hamer Ford, West Bromwich back in September 2000 for a total of £11,500 including two services, a years fully comp insurance and a three year Ford Warranty. Fitted out in Panther Black with a Grey/Red interior,I can still remember it as vividly as the day I picked it up at the height of the fuel crisis. So no free tank of petrol as I'd been promised and by the time the petrol strike was over the deal was done ... ...forget it. But along come Ford with their Free Comp Insurance-saving me £800 on insuring my Zetec 1.4, and along vame my best friend (of Valentine One etc fame) and started "negotiating" with the salesman. Suddenly the deal became VERY tempting, and finally Hamer "lost" a further £100-DONE! £6000 + my green Fiesta Zetec for the Fiesta I'd always wanted.
The thing I noticed immediatly on being handed the keys was ... more
I purchased a Ford Fiest Zetec-S from Hamer Ford, West Bromwich back in September 2000 for a total of £11,500 including two services, a years fully comp insurance and a three year Ford Warranty. Fitted out in Panther Black with a Grey/Red interior,I can still remember it as vividly as the day I picked it up at the height of the fuel crisis. So no free tank of petrol as I'd been promised and by the time the petrol strike was over the deal was done and Hamer Ford didn't want to know! Sad eh but welcome to the world of car sales. Having said that, I was given a generous £5500 part ex allowance on my year old Fiesta Zetec 1.4 so maybe I shouldn't grumble.
Well, the thing I noticed about this car was the less subtle styling than with the 1.4. Lowered suspension, alloy wheels,front skirt, close-ratio transmission all added up to a Fiesta that meant business for the first time since the long discontinued XR-2 and RS1800 Turbo of early nineties fame. Famed as well for being nicked, having sky-high fuel consumption and sky-high insurance. Those with no no-claims like me had better forget it. But along come Ford with their Free Comp Insurance-saving me £800 on insuring my Zetec 1.4, and along vame my best friend (of Valentine One etc fame) and started "negotiating" with the salesman. Suddenly the deal became VERY tempting, and finally Hamer "lost" a further £100-DONE! £6000 + my green Fiesta Zetec for the Fiesta I'd always wanted.
The thing I noticed immediatly on being handed the keys was the bigger key fob. Not much to worry about in one sense, but it was bigger for a reason . Full remote central locking which turned out to be a boon . Driving position was identical to the previous car with the driver being high up in front of a nice leather covered three-spoke steering wheel c/w an Airbag, a neat instrument cluster inc speedo and rev counter finished tastefully in black on a white background plus all the usual controls etc. Fitted as standard was a reasonable Ford 6000 Double Din sized CD player with a removable front panel (for security) and had a six-speaker system included. My car also had Air conditioning fitted-an extra which turned out to be a real life saver in the sweltering summer of 2001.
On the secuity side, the car was also fitted with deadlocks as well as an industry leading immobiliser. No need for an after-market system like Clifford and the system was rated as Thatcham Catergory 2. Had I opted for it, I could have paid extra for the Ford Security Package which would have added an alarm and upped the rating to Cat 1, but there has to be a cut off point somewhere. Besides, I would have had to wait another two weeks as Ford had IMO deliberatly limited supplies from Spain to keep the price up. Another feature of the car market...
The interior was compact, with plenty of room in the front for a large adult like me. The front seats were bucket shaped in appearance and proved very comfortable on a long journey. Real space wasn't quite so good but I virtually never had passengers in the rear seats so it didn't matter so much.
Performance was brisk. I would accelerate from 0-60 in about 10 sec-not quite an RS1800 Turbo but better than the 1.4 I'd owned and considerably better than the 1.25 I'd driven before.Top speed I'm led to believe goes into three figues...but I wouln't know that would I ?However, the biggest improvement I noticed was in the mid-range acceleration which was very useful when overtaking slow drivers,lorries etc (pet hates of mine!). As a result fuel ecomomy wasn't brilliant-about 25mpg urban but better on a long run. I managed about 40mpg on a drive down from Wolverhampton to Barry which involved long distance driving M6/M5/M50/A40/A449/M4 etc as usual I wasn't standing still either.
Handling and gear change were also improved on the high standards experienced on the 1.4-so it proved exceptionally agile with a taut, sporty ride. The 5sp gearbox had been modified and had a closer ration than previous versions-more gear changing but better,sharper acceleration as a result.
So overall, a very nice, stylish and sporty package with more versatility than it's alternative (Ford Puma 1.7), yet more perfomance and stylethan other Fiestas in the range. Surely a winner....
Well almost, until mine suffered a major failure. I was accelerating to overtake a white pick-up track on St John's Ringway, Wolverhampton when I heard this almighty crash as I attempted to change from 2nd into 3rd. Suddenly the gear change went limp and the car continued to move as if no gear was engaged-oh dear, I was in trouble. And it continued to go until it came to rest at a very convenient place-outside Birmingham Rd Police Station. on with the hazards and out with the mobile. one call to the RAC (something else Ford had thrown in) and it was towed to Reg Vardy Ford on the Birmingham Rd, Wolverhampton. Trouble was I was now off the road for the weekend as Reg Vardy Ford were off till Monday and Ford UK were as well. A call from Reg Vardy informed me the clutch had failed. Failed? After 3,000 miles?... a manufacturing fault and i was entitled to an exchange by law. But Ford were a law unto themselves. I demanded an exchange but Ford refused as did Hamer Ford. After all my thud and bluster the thing I ended up with was a replacement clutch, no gestures NOTHING! The technical report Reg Vardy did indicated metal particles in the gearbox oil. So unless I did 7000 rpm and slammed it into 4th, I can't see how it could happen apart from a manufacturing fault. Possession is cetainly 9/10ths of the law. Yove been warned. Another aspect of the Car industry....
Apart from that disastrous incident, the Zetec-S proved reliable though I never ever had a smooth change from 2nd into 3rd again. Vardy couldn't find a fault apparently. Maybe it was my imagination...
Finally, I lived with that foible and had a £4000 car hifi install supplied by Bass Junkies in Wolverhampton-which sounded awesome as you would expect. I grew to love that car and drove it on every possible opportunity, kept it clean and serviced. In fact it was better looked after than some humans. But sadly personal circumstances were about to deal a cruel blow. I ended up selling the car in the vain attempt to keep my wife, but sadly it was already too late though I didn't know it. The car went and my wife followed in quick succession-the money going to pay off a loan she'd taken out for a previous capital purchase. The divorce papers followed and eventually I lost my house and almost my life.
Eventually things picked up and I was back on the road with a very different Audi 80-but that's another story.
There will always be a special place for that beautiful black 'pocket rocket' that was such a cracker-but was snatched all too quickly...
...The courtesy car is a Ford Fiesta Zetec which is 8 months old being an '04'.
If you are into lots of specs, don't continue to read as this is not for you!!
I collected the car this morning, as I said, in the pouring rain. 'It is black' is all I could tell my work colleagues as the car made little impression on me.
During the course of the day, I have been driving about, so can now give a more detailed, if layman, view of the vehicle. First off, ... ...One bonus is that Ford created the heated Windscreen, and have patented it for their cars only (according to my sources) which is great for frosty mornings/evenings.
Another fact about small cars is that the car behind is so close to me. My accident has made me feel rather vulnerable to shunting again and I feel very unsafe when cars have been dashing up behind me. It makes me question the amount of women with young children who would drive this ...
orlando 18.11.2004
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: very helpful Review of Ford Fiesta Zetec S
Advantages: Nippy acceleration, Superb styling looks, Great fun to drive Disadvantages: Inside is cramped for passengers, Not the best MPG, Higher Tax
...it down to your nearest Ford dealer and ask them to put it right as though its under warrenty!
Another commen failure found on this car is the coil pack in the engine bay which can cause misfiring and lack of power.
The first signs of this is if the car struggles to start first time or when you first start it up it idles funny and keeps droppping its revs.
Leaks can also be apparent unfortunally. So when you go to buy or take a look at one feel ... ...side. Be better to arrange a viewing after a night of heavy rain. Obvious signs would be steamed up windows inside the car when its just parked up.
I thinik iv named most of the info i know about the car itself but even tho there is all the bad points you know as well as i do the good comes with the bad.
Iv tried to be as honest as possible tell you the majority of the bad points with the car because thats what you really want to know isnt it...what ...
heyheyrich 20.01.2006
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: very helpful Review of Ford Fiesta Zetec S
Advantages: Fun to drive, decent equipment Disadvantages: MPG not that great, cramped in the back
...car gave me this baby ford to run around in.
I have to be honest, at first I was not that thrilled with the prospect of driving around in it. How wrong was I!
First impressions of the car when I got the keys were ok. The shape is unoffensive, if a little dull for what was at the time the sporty modle. The alloy wheels did make a difference after comparing it with others on the road. When you get inside though, it is really good. Everything seems ... ...the quality of the materials was really wuite good for such a car. I did feel that the while the space in the front was good, the back seats were too cramped and since a lot of the buyers of this car will be mothers for the school run, this may cause a problem.
The equipment level was good too. It had an integrated stereo cd player (which sounded great), full electrics as well as air conditioning. the absense of a sunroof did annoy though as I had ...
drewboy 14.05.2004
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: very helpful Review of Ford Fiesta Zetec S
Advantages: Good Looking, Reasonable Performance Disadvantages: Noisy
...car a brand new 2006 Ford Zetec S in metallic grey. The 2006 model cars can be identified from previous models externally by the new "Nissan Micra" style bubbled lights on both the front and back of the car, which my partner and I think looks really good. So far we have only done 700 miles in the car so this review will be a work in practice. Here are my first Impressions of the car:
1) Exterior Looks
The car looks absolutely fantastic in dark ... ...on the bumpers and side door stripes, making it appear that the grey plastic was specifically designed to go with the grey paint (which it of course was not). The 16 inch alloy wheels look very nice and fill the wheel arches quite well. They are of a multi-spoked type and are the standard wheel for the car. The "S" also comes with a rear roof spoiler and different front and rear plastic bumpers to other models in the range. Overall the look of the ...
stobbie66 06.05.2006
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: helpful Review of Ford Fiesta Zetec S
Advantages: CD Player, cheap to run Disadvantages: servicing can be expensive..
I bought a 04 plate Ford Fiesta Zetec 1.4 3dr about 2 years ago. I am a fan of Ford cars, had a little KA before. Hence, this purchase. Best things (from a girls point of view!) - Is that it has really good heating and A/C, heats up all nice and toasty but also lovely in the summer with the A/C on a long drive. At the moment with this cold weather, I hate it if it takes me ages to de-frost my car but this is great, does the front and back as normal ... ...I have just the standard ford CD player. Nothing special from the front but has this brilliant thing of knowing how noisy your car is so if you are on the motorway it increases the volume and then if you stop and some light it will decrease. Love it!!
The not so good bits... to be honest I can't really think of anything. It has never let me down. If you get is serviced via ford it can be a bit pricey but I wouldn't say that it is really worth it. ...
emmaj13 24.01.2009
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: helpful Review of Ford Fiesta Zetec S
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I bought a FordFiesta 1.6TDCi ZetecS in October 2006 from my local dealer. 2 years later I am still delighted with the purchase.
Mine is Sea Grey, which suits the car shape and style perfectly and has full leather seats and heated front screen as extras. The heated screen was £100 option and has been worth every penny, especially in the winter months.
In terms of perfromance there are no complaints. The car is a little sluggish in low revs 1st & 2nd gear compared to petrol but after 3000revs it has fantastic, big car power.
The ride is comfortable at any speed and the car is at ease on motorways and country roads alike.
One of the key positives for me are some of the running costs. Just £35 for 12 months tax and well over 50mpg fuel economy with a tank giving me between 440-480 miles.
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Advantages: Nippy little car, easy to park, economical and cheap on insurance. Disadvantages: none.
It's a FordFiesta Ghia with manual transmission and runs on unleaded fuel. I have only owned it for a week and it has been the best car I have ever owned. It starts first time every time and never stalls when idle. It also is VERY economical with petrol as it WILL do 35 mpg. I find it is a big enough car for me. It is a car to look after for life and I intend to do so. When looking for a used car you should bring someone that knows a bit about cars with you when viewing the car. Although I was very lucky with the Fiesta as I got it from e-bay and just trusted the sellers having spoken to them on the phone and e-mailing them, they seemed good people and were. Overall the car was and still is brilliant. If you are looking for a 5 door, small, easy to park little car then the 1997 FordFiesta is for you! ...
buttons172 02.11.2008
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Ciao members have rated this car review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Ford Fiesta 1.25
Advantages: cheap and fun car. Disadvantages: Not much space on the back seats but its a fiesta not a limo.
The FordFiesta 1.25 is a great car, ford first brought the 1.25 zetecfiesta out in 1996 on the mk4 fiesta, and from that day they put zetec engines in all the fiesta they brought out. The fiesta is still one of the best reliability and cheap car today.
The 1.25 engine is a nippy car and is great for young students who what to drive and buy their first car, but also older people who would like a cheap car.
i've got a fiesta 1.25 zetec and never had no problems with it so far.
In my opinion the Fordfiestazetec-s 1.6 engine is the best car and would love to have one soon as i saved lots of money up.
The space in the fiesta could be limited for some people but for me there is plenty of room being on my own.
with a fiesta you have to get power streering because its so much easyer than not having it. makes life so much ...
jbt1990 02.06.2009 (04.06.2009)
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