(first posted 2/26/2013) In the depths of the gloomy American automotive winter of the late seventies, the Fiesta’s brief appearance brought a ray of sunshine into our deprived existence. She was like that cute, skinny little foreign exchange student, who appeared one day at high school and dazzled us with her algebra, physics, gymnastics and fencing abilities. The big jocks didn’t know what to make of her, and their girlfriends cast disdainful glances her way, but those of us who favored taut agility over big hips and padded vinyl tops fell hard for her. And when she suddenly disappeared just as mysteriously as she’d arrived, she left behind the kind of memories that last a lifetime.
Just a few years ago, Ford had the same problem it did in 1978. Its compact car had been in production almost a decade. The market was shifting to ever-smaller cars. CAFE standards were tightening. The Asian brands were cleaning up in the segment. What to do? Well, its Fiesta was going gangbusters in Europe, so bring it here, and quick. Sound familiar? Well, history has an annoying habit of repeating itself, especially in the car biz.
So if history does repeat, what does the 1978 Fiesta tell us about the current Fiesta? (Update: The new Fiesta is gone too) The former Fiesta was a ball to drive; in fact, it was flat-out the most bang-for-the-buck fun on four wheels available in the U.S. at the time. And for that we can thank VW’s bone-headedness.
The Rabbit/Golf MK1 had arrived three years earlier fitting exactly the same description: light, zippy and toss-able. The early Rabbit delivered an unparalleled package of Euro-spec delight. But in 1978, VW opened its first U.S. factory (here’s history again repeating itself) and hired ex-GM exec James McLernon to run it…into the ground. He knew exactly what Americans wanted in a Volkswagen: a “Malibu-ized” Rabbit with a softer suspension, “American-ized” interior and an engine reduced in size from the zippy 1.6 liters of 1977 to a substantially weaker 1.45. And then, he crowned his efforts with a set of full wheel covers looking like they’d come straight from the GM parts bin. Nein Danke!
Willkommen Fiesta! Coming straight from the Cologne factory in undiluted and unadulterated form, it actually was even better than what the Europeans got, having a bigger engine than was offered there, (until 1981’s XR2 came along, anyway). While Europeans had a choice of 900 cc, 1.1- and 1.3-liter engines, all U.S. versions came with a 1.6-liter; regardless of their displacement, all of them were revised versions of the old Kent OHV engine–perhaps not quite as smooth as the VW EA827 OHC unit, but a lusty little mill, and very easy to tune for even more power. But even in stock form it got the job done, and quite zippily at that, especially since the Fiesta was a whole size smaller than the Rabbit/Golf and weighed only some 1,700 pounds.
image: hemmingsblog
The Fiesta’s roots go back to a stillborn Ford world-car concept from 1963. The idea sprang back to life at the beginning of the seventies in response to such popular new Euro hatchbacks as the Fiat 127 and Renault R5. At the time, the European Escort was not only still RWD but destined to get bigger, so Ford put out the call for a contemporary FWD design. It was answered by Tom Tjaarda of Ghia.
After “Project Bobcat” was approved in ’73, Ford set up assembly lines, capable of building up to 500,000 units per year, in Spain, England and Germany. And ever since, the Fiesta has been a mainstay of Ford’s European ops. While it had never been planned for the U.S. market, the energy crisis, VW’s Rabbit and the madly successful new Civic forced Ford’s hand. A few quick modifications to meet U.S. crash, safety and emissions standards got it here; however, the Fiesta ended up as just a three-year stopgap until the all-new FWD Escort arrived in 1981.
Unfortunately, Ford followed VW’s Rabbit footsteps, drastically dumbing down its new FWD, global-platform 1981 Escort for the U.S. (in truth, Ford way outdid VW in that respect: CC here). So did the Fiesta end up being an automotive-enthusiast mayfly: Here today, gone tomorrow. I don’t know the numbers, but I suspect that Ford didn’t import nearly as many as they might have, probably because they were losing money on each one due to the then-weak dollar (think Saturn Astra). That’s also why the new Fiesta is hecho en Mexico.
The Fiesta was one of the few rays of sunshine for driving enthusiasts during the Great Brougham Epoch–and especially so in bright yellow, like this one. It’s just like the one my twenty-year old sister-in-law bought used, sight unseen, and without knowing how to drive a stick. I got the honors of bringing it home from Pasadena and then teaching her how to drive it. Fun times.
She was a pretty quick learner, despite the unambivalent clutch. And the Fiesta was pretty quick too. Zero-to-sixty came in about eleven-or-so seconds, which was enough to worry some of the strangled V8s then coming out of Detroit. With 66 perky ponies on tap, street light drags were harmless fun–but tight traffic and edgy canyons were Fiesta time. It was one eager little puppy. No wonder some Fiestas are still hard at work auto-crossing.
The owner of this Fiesta has a bright green “S” model that he uses for that purpose (I caught it on the go in 2016). The Fiesta’s Kent engine is eminently tuneable, the English equivalent of the Chevy small block. And Euro Ford’s long-running rep for good handling was already established. Attention to detail pays off.
I think the owner told me he also has (or had) a third one. They’re probably the last roadworthy Fiestas in Eugene. How about in your town? Parts are getting iffy, he told me; he’s having to reach out to Europe for things like a throttle cable. That’s how it is when it gets near the end of the line for certain imported cars that were once so plentiful. There comes a time where it just gets too hard, at least for a daily driver like this example.
PS: My apologies to our overseas readers for such a U.S.-centric post about a seminal small car that has played such an important role for so long overseas. But I’m sure you’ll be filling us in on the Fiesta’s role elsewhere.
My older sister test drove a used Fiesta in the early ’80’s and liked it…but ended up buying a ’76 or ’77 Honda Civic instead. Too bad. It would have been the first Ford in our driveway. I drove the Civic a few times and it was okay, but I think the Fiesta would have been a little more fun. Fiestas were fairly common here in Canada, but I’m sure our salty roads got most of them. I haven’t seen one on the road in a long time…and I would definitely take a Fiesta over a dumbed-down US built Rabbit any day.
Ah, the tiny Fiesta – what a (mostly) underappreciated little car. Thanks for the neat write-up! They’re getting scarce in Europe now, too; I don’t know when I last saw one, must be some years ago.
I really don’t know much about the role it played over here though, aside from it being a major rival of the VW Polo, along with the Opel Corsa (all then-modern FWD subcompacts that are probably unknown in the states). For a brief period of time, I regularly rode in one though. I had a summer job in the mid-nineties where me and a few other temps had to help move the contents of an off-site parts warehouse to the main facility. Every morning, we would pile into the foreman’s car to drive out to the warehouse; it was a tiny red Fiesta just like this one (well, it’s European-version brother), already pretty rusty and clapped-out. Must’ve been almost twenty years old at the time. This was in southwest Germany, an area thick with late-model Mercedeses and other shiny cars, so the little old Fiesta really stood out. It had a pretty confident-sounding bumper sticker though – “let’s make this clear: the road is mine!”.
I guess that’s what happens when you tell a rustbucket that it’s a seminal car with an important role.
Aaahhh those memories… my first car! A sunburst red Fiesta 1.1. It was not as quick as lightning but really agile in Madrid’s congested streets in the early 90s. I still miss it
More than 30 years ago I was in a carpool with 2 other people who lived at my apartment complex (the other 2 got married)…the guy had one of these in the same color, ’78 but without the “Starsky & Hutch” stripe. Of course we were all much younger then and more limber, but I now laugh that all 3 of us in the carpool had small 2 door cars, I had a ’78 Scirocco, his (now) wife had a ’79 Datsun F10. Back then most really small cars had 2 doors with hatchbacks; now it seems like 4 doors predominate even for really small cars (if they can fit in a rear door nowdays it seems like they do it, rather than making it a 2 door, guess that keeps insurance costs lower?).
Anyhow, our commute was short enough (just a few miles), and I guess we were young enough that we didn’t seem to mind…we rotated and drove in our own car every 3rd week….I think we did it more for the preferred parking at work than the fuel savings now that I think of it…we all worked in a very large manufacturing building in the Northeast which is now idle (guess I made the right move 30 years ago this month leaving that “secure” job to move to Texas, where I’ve been ever since. My former carpoolers still live in that area (just a few towns away from where our apartment was).
Whoops, should have checked this a bit more before posting. He had the “S” model of the Fiesta (not sure what that got you back then, I think it had same engine, probably not alloy wheels (12″?) but maybe a few more gauges (back then they were better about that than now, you could often get them by paying a bit more). She had a ’79, but it wasn’t the F10, but the 310 which replaced it, she had the “fancy” 2 door coupe (I forgot the F10 was gone by 79, but her car reminded me of the F10….also forgot there were some 4 door versions of the 310 but they were very rare). Hers had the velour interior and had other upmarket (for that time) stuff like rear defroster and radio standard (and 5 speed)…I think it was her first new car she bought when she got her first “good” job out of school, she was pretty proud of it (she had named it “Florence” for some reason).
We all had front-drivers by this time (1980), which we take for granted now on small cars, but back then few of the domestic small cars were FWD yet (except the GM X cars, but they were actually bigger cars, more like compacts or almost mid-sized) and the Chrysler Omni/Horizon (car brought over similar to how the Fiesta was done by Ford). As we lived in snow country and FWD was being hawked as being better in slippery weather (at least in a small car) I’m sure that was part of the reason we bought FWD models.
I also remember after that when I was moving to Texas, they also transported my Scirocco in the same moving van with all my other possessions (the new company was paying for the move and I was flying) weighed something like 3800 pounds (and that would include quite a few books I’d still kept from school). Probably didn’t save the company that much money because of the distance, but if they charged by weight they probably saved a bit…I think the Scirocco was less than half of that (1800 pounds?)
Baby seats and aging population have killed 2 door cars.
It is too hard to try to get a kid in and out of a car seat of a two door car. Anyone I have known that has had a two door car has gotten rid of it after they have had kids.
It is too hard for older (and less limber!) people to get in and out of the back seat of a 2 door car.
I think child car seats are an underappreciated factor in this. I haven’t tried any research, but I would guess the arrival child seat mandates and the decline of coupe sales are in pretty close sync.
It is true. When I was a little kid in the early 60s, the conventional wisdom was that parents of small kids got 2 doors because the ingenious little darlings could not open a door by themselves and fall out. It happened. I’ll wager that about everyone of my age knew of at least one kid that rolled out of a car when it turned a corner. This was why my parents got rid of a compact wagon and bought a 2 door 64 Cutlass. The 4 door came later, when the kids (and their friends) got big enough that constant crawling in and out of the back seat got to be a pain for the driver.
Wasn’t it during the 1970’s at some point that child-proof locks on rear doors came in too?
My sister still has the Subaru 2.5RS she drove when her daughter was born. My favorite neice is now 10. (And no, she didn’t cheat by driving a different car.)
Not gonna lie, one of the advantages of a small two door is we never get asked to cart anyone’s kids around. 😉
I recall how much better they looked than the 77 Rabbit I had just bought. Argh!
Then again, several friends bought them as “the hot ticket” in SCCA Showroom Stock C, then there was a rash on instances of the wheel centers breaking free of the rims out on the track — instantly, all sold their Fiestas.
Actually, the early imports had a shipping tie-down issue. They cinch down the tie down chain so hard, it would bend and stress crack the Panhard rod. There were two other areas of concern. The disc brake pads were subject to early wear. But they were the simplest pads to replace… nearly as simple are replacing the brake pads on you Schwann 10-speed. The other issue was the nylon practice window crank. It’d break whenever someone was too aggressive in cranking the window.
But the good traits thoroughly masked those nuances. Great handling, visibility, and package efficiency. Comfortable reclining seats were not found on but a small number of cars. The shear simplicity of the Fiesta made it very easy the maintain.
I sold a 1977 Thunderbird and bought my orange 1978 Fiesta sport in the summer of 1978. People, including friends and family, thought I was nuts. But I got a car that was faster, had more rear seat leg room, and was much more fuel efficient (30+ mpg vs. 13 mpg). When gasoline prices doubles that winter, those same critics thought I was a genius.
My sport had the cloth seats with the nicely coordinated striping, the pop-up roof with two roof panels (glass with solar dots and body-painted steel with its own insulated liner), pivoting vent windows, power brakes (it did not need power ateering at all), tinted glass, AM radio, and aluminum wheels. The AM was replaced with a Ford factory AM/FM Cassette stereo. The single rear quarter trim speaker had a reversible bracket which permitted easy installation of a junkyard bracket and second speaker to the opposite side quarter trim. The wimpy 12″ wheels were replaced with 13″ Enkei mini-lite look-alikes. A set of springs from the BAT catalogue completed the rally look. Ah, the memories!!!!!
One interesting footnote with the Mk 1 Fiesta is that Ford got Donald and Geoff Healey to do a single prototype for a Healey Fiesta. It was an interesting piece, with a massaged suspension, unique cosmetics (green paint, gold wheels), and the 1.6-liter Kent engine with a “Mexico” head. The prototype still exists today.
I have the original press release and black and white publicity photograph of the Healey Project. Came in a packet of Ford Of Europe stuff I got from a vendor friend of mine a few years back. All in English. Press release says this:
Ford European News Public Affairs, Ford of Europe Inc., Brentwood, Essex, England.
High Performance “Leisure” Fiesta’s from
the USA and Germany
High Performance leisure models of the Ford Fiesta have recently been developed for possible sale in both the United States and West Germany.
In the USA Donald Healey, one of the world’s most famous manufacturers and designers of sports car’s- Healey and Austin Healey- has produced an exclusive 2-seat dark green Fiesta. In Germany the country’s largest Ford Dealer- the Schwaben garage in Stuttgart- has begun production of an off-road estate car model of the Fiesta, based on the Ghia designed Tuareg which was exhibited at the 1978 Geneva show. (I don’t have publicity photos of that one).
Now a resident of California, Donald Healey started with the 1.6 litre Fiesta which is sold so successfully in North America and Japan. By removing all the statutory North American exhaust emission equipment and by modifying the cylinder head, camshaft, pistons and carburetor, Healey has increased engine power output to more than 100 horsepower.
Other changes include fitting wide alloy road wheels, increasing the size of the front spoiler, removing the rear seat to fit a roll over cage for competition driving, and relocating the spare wheel in the space vacated by the rear seat.
The front seats have also been changed to high back competition models. There is a small padded steering wheel and additional instruments-voltmeter and oil temperature gauge- built into the centre console unit on either side of the clock.
Square headlamps have been fitted in place of the more usual circular units together with twin halogen auxiliary lamps set into the radiator grill. And there are distinctive winged Healey badges at the front and rear of the Fiesta.
The model is finished in a dark green colour with contrasting yellow pin stripes.
(The following is about the Tuareg but I am writing the complete press release as it is written) Working entirely from photographs of the Ghia of Turin designed Tuareg concept model of the Fiesta, Schwaben Garage has built a working prototype model in near record time.
Designed essentially as an off-road leisure vehicle, the Tuareg is available with a choice of four different engine in varying states of tune. It is equipped with four auxiliary driving lamps- two in the radiator grill and two on the roof- a reinforced front bumper and wide alloy road wheels enclosed by special flared wheel arches which also form part of the front spoiler and aerodynamic side skirts. Wire mesh grills protect the headlamps and the model is finished in the distinctive paint scheme which Ghia developed for their concept Fiesta.
The two publicity photos I have of the Healey Fiesta show the driver side with front end and the other show the passenger side and rear end. My news release is stamped Nov. 12 9:14am ’79. It also has a stamp “Charles Mc Enearne & Co. LTD. Port of Spain.
Hi Guy
I am putting together a brief history of the Healey Fiesta and have original pics of the car and other items would you be prepared to let me have sight or copies of the press Releases you have for my article info@wwah.org many thanks.
David Matthews
David, please contact me again by email as somehow I have deleted your email address and hope this reaches you.
In searching for the Geoff healey pictures, I came accross the “transcript” of the Healey Family movie sent to me by Geoff when he and brother Bic were arguing about the ownership of the film which Geoff had sold me.
Bill Wood
Regarding the current Fiesta’s role in today’s automotive market, I’d say history does in fact repeat itself. The handling is sharp, and the 1.6 liter is peppy, even if it could use a bit more power (the upcoming three cylinder might change that). The Versa may beat it on price and the Fit may beat it on interior space, but ultimately the Fiesta has a refined ride and surprisingly good cabin materials.
The worst thing you could say about it is that the 1.6 sounds a bit loud. Which is interesting because the turbo version that sits in the new Fusion and Escape is much quieter. I’m guessing that’s what increased sound deadening does to a car.
One big difference: 1978 curb weight = 1775 lbs. 2013 curb weight = 2537 lbs.
They say light cars are coming back. We’ll see.
Times change. The Model T was 1,200 lb (540 kg). 2537 lb (1150 kg) is light today.
In 1908, the Model T was the original pocket rocket. Seriously. It is my recall that up to 30 mph or so, few if any cars could touch it, no matter at what price. All because of its light weight.
We a Fiesta four door for three weeks while my wife’s car was in for collision repair. It was a very nice unit; drove well, comfortable driving position and decent materials.
The problems were:
1. The motor was thrashy to a point I couldn’t stand it.
2. The DCT had a mind of its own and often hunted, lurched and clunked.
The first models were, ahem, rather unrealistically priced but now they are right in the Fit league as Ford has increased content and cut prices.
Yeah, that DCT is a bit odd, but they’ve upgraded the software to the point where its pretty minimal and you only feel the lurching when taking your foot off the brake at a stoplight. Once you get going, the shifts are barely perceptible.
The motor is a bit thrashy. It kind of sounds like a diesel. I’m thinking the new three cylinder will be quieter.
That diesely clatter you hear at idle is the direct injection. Get used to that sound; all engines are moving to direct injection.
Today’s Fiesta has airbags and reinforcements for crash safety. Not just ‘added luxury’ as some assume.
If get T-boned by a full size SUV in a ‘fun to drive’ light weight older compact, good luck!
If you get T-boned in a “fun-to-drive” older compact by a new Honda Civic, good luck!
My first car was a 1980 Fiesta in bright yellow. Fun to drive, but always needed brake work (learned how on this car). Still, I wouldn’t mind having one today.
Ford Fiesta… Here today, gone tomorrow, and coming back many, many decades later.
Back in the day, my neighbor loved small Fords and owned a ’79 Fiesta, and a pair of early ’80’s Escorts. He regularly parked all three in his standard 2-car garage, because he could.
I had a science teacher that owned one of these and commuted a nice long ways to teach in our school. Mr Platt was his name and he had a copper colored one that ended up on its roof because of the football team.
Oh, and the German exchange student we ended up with was kinda chunky and didnt wear antiperspirant but wore the shortest pair of shorts in gym class. She was what we referred to as a “thirty footer” really nice from thirty feet away.
A machinist I know used to campaign a series of Fiestas in 4-cyl stock car racing. He utterly dominated the class, blowing away the more common Pintos, Mustangs and Omnis.
He hoarded them as he found them, but by the late 90’s there were no more to be found so he switched to VW Rabbits.
I always thought these were very smart and attractive looking. Sadly by the time I was ready to buy my own car they’d already disappeared off the streets. Just like the European Carpi Ford didn’t support them very well parts wise so a lot were scrapped with minor problems in the late 80s and early 90s.
Great story about a car that has largely disappeared from around here. A friend’s parents bought a brand-new white one in 1979, and I remember it as a neat, economical and peppy car.
I wonder if the Tom Tjaarda of Ghia who designed the world-car concept in the early 1960s is related to the John Tjaarda who designed the prototype that eventually became the original Lincoln Zephyr. I’m also guessing that the “world car” is a size smaller than the front-wheel-drive Ford Cardinal planned for the United States that Lee Iacocca killed at the last minute in 1962-63.
As for the Tjaardas, it is my understanding that they were father and son. Edit – Wiki agrees. 🙂
Thanks for looking up that information. It’s interesting that the son maintained a professional relationship with Ford.
If I recall correctly, there was a Ghia version of the Fiesta available in Europe. I always liked the use of the “Ghia” name on Ford’s top trim levels in the 1970s. It’s much more memorable than the meaningless combination of letters that Ford and everyone else uses today.
Perhaps the “Ghia” name was simply too tarnished by all of those North American Granada Ghias sold during the 1970s.
I like the “Ghia” name too. Ford used it continuously for its European models until very lately.
See, I was always troubled by the way Ghia became a trim package label after Ford bought Ghia in the early ’70s. I suppose it’s no different than what GM did with Fleetwood, but to demote a coachbuilder with a long and interesting history (dating back to 1915) to a trim package for mundane bread-and-butter hatchbacks seems a little sad.
Well yes and no, at least Cadillac reserved Fleetwood for its top of the line models. You never saw a Chevette Fleetwood.
Bringing back memories. There were two of them in my life:
The first was a rental S model (black with gold stripe, 35 miles on the clock when I picked it up) at the Hertz depot in Brighton, August of 1979. My fiancee and I were there for the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon). I had a ball with that car, first front driver, first time driving on the left, first time trying to figure out of you can four wheel drift a FWD car. Sally did the entire sightseeing trip from Brighton to Battle to the Hastings Abbey and return down on the floorboards of the car. It was then that I realized she didn’t share my passion for motorsports – in the slightest.
Being British built, the car started dropping bits and pieces from the time we got out beyond the Victoria and Albert museum. If you think American cars were crap in the 70’s, you should have had to live with what our compatriots on the other side of the pond had to put up with. Made a Pinto feel like a Corolla (90’s version) by comparison.
Four years later I finally owned one. A repainted white with orange stripe ’79 S. Had an absolute blast with that car, found out that it had been repainted to cover terminal body rust. Every spring (both of them) I spent one weekend sanding, fiberglass and bondo-ing, and matching the paint as best as possible (the dealer didn’t use a genuine Ford color on the repaint), until I finally gave up, did one more patch job, and promptly drove the car to a Ford dealer in Pittsburgh where he gave me way too much for it on trade for a ’82 Escort GT with the TRX option.
I bought an almost new 1978 Fiesta (4500 mile demo) in late ’78. It was a white S model with a gold stripe. I proceeded to paint the (12″) wheels gold to match the stripe and put black tint on the windows. Quick, nimble, economical. A blast to drive.
I drove it out west to Washington in 1980 (? The year Mt. St. Helens erupted). One of my most enjoyable trips ever.
I made a youthful mistake of buying an ’81 Escort as my 1st new car instead of the Fiesta, as the latter didn’t seem like a good value for money, being more spartan & low-tech. BTW, the underengineered Escort’s handling was helped a lot after I replaced its prematurely worn Brougham-type shock absorbers.
I had a coworker once who drove a Fiesta despite being very tall, enough to make me (6’0″) feel tiny around him. So kudos to the Fiesta’s designers here.
Anyway, the Fiesta has never really been comparable to the Escort or the Golf/Rabbit. It was a supermini, more like the VW Polo (as mentioned above), which of course was never imported. I was impressed after riding in one in Germany during the ’80s.
The original ’78-’80 Fiesta was a decent performer (for the time) primarily due to its lightweight construction. There just wasn’t a lot of metal in those things, and they sounded like the tin cars they were. In fact, that’s a big reason they didn’t last in the states past 1980 – the lightweight doors were too thin to be strengthened for impending side-impact standards.
With that said, they were fun, generally reliable, little cars where the simple construction made them easier to repair and keep running than the Golf/Rabbit. They were definitely more enjoyable than the Escort that replaced it.
And I think the only extra stuff you got with the ‘S’ was a tach, side stripes, stripes on the seats, and (maybe) a glove box door. It wasn’t worth what they charged for it.
My dad bought a 1978 Ford Fiesta. He drove it to work, I used it whenever he wasn’t working. He wasn’t a car guy so I was surprised when he bought the Sport model. It came with a sport tuned suspension, tachometer, lightweight alloy wheels, better Michelin radials as well as the cosmetic extras. It was an expensive package but worth it because the lighter wheels really perked up the jump off the line. It would decimate any VW Rabbit and, if there were any corners around, I never met a muscle car that could hang with me, try as they might. It was the closest thing to a performance go-cart that was street legal. Well ahead of it’s time for a domestically branded car was the German engineered and built fuel injection. Road trips with cruising speed of 70 mph and regular passing of slower vehicles would net 41-44 mpg. Very reliable car except my dad did wonder why the clutch required replacement at 40,000 miles! I told him it was because of the way he would slip the clutch at uphill stop signs to hold position until he saw a gap in the traffic. But I knew it was really because of the way I would drop the clutch with the engine at peak power rpm’s! That car could launch like nobody’s business if you weren’t afraid to use the clutch! Loaded with 4 big HS students performance took quite a hit but it was still quite capable with a little clutch material sacrifice to the car Gods.
Brakes were awesome but the four on the floor shifter had a rubbery feel to it although it worked well enough. Fourth gear allowed an honest 118 mph and the car felt jittery but held a solid line at top speed with the tach reading around 6000 rpm’s.
In the day it was common to see Fiestas with 3-15 “Rabbit kill” decals on the side panel behind the front wheel.
I enjoy reading these comments. My Sport had the tach but there was no redline which was fine because you could shift by sound on that engine. Yes the shifter felt rubbery and was very long, like out of a pickup truck. I remember the cable clutch feeling really light. The perfect launch took some doing because if you dumped it at too much engine speed the front wheels would hop endlessly. The tires were narrow 155s and traction was hard to come by.
The gearing must have been tall because I don’t remember it screaming on the freeway and you said you got 40-44mpg highway. I drove mine mainly around town and seldom saw more than mid-20s, it was hard not to constantly have your foot in it.
Honestly I can’t imagine 118mph in a Fiesta that’s just crazy!
My 1978 Fiesta came with a 2 bbl Weber, not fuel injection, and I wasn’t aware of any fuel-injected Fiestas ever being sold, at least not in the US (until recently, of course). I spent many hundreds of dollars and many dozens of hours upgrading my engine and suspension, and that little thing was an absolute beast in the corners, but I could never get it past about 105 MPH, even with with almost 100 modified HP on tap. I couldn’t keep up with the big boys in a straight line, but the curves were all mine! Stock red-line was 5800 RPM.
Although I am normally a big-car-kind-of-guy, there is something about a little, tossable lightweight that appeals to me. I am not sure that I could live with one of these everyday, but I could see this being great fun on the weekends. It seems that the modern Miata is as close as we get to the driving dynamics on a car like this, with the added benefit of a convertible top.
The front and rear bumpers are identical. Turn signals / parking lamps in front, backup lights in the back.
The Fiesta was a very nice little car that is getting quite scarce in Europe now. Haven’t seen one in years. Too bad, possibly. I like Fords in general but when it comes to the Fiesta I might be biased. That was the car that took me away from army barracks somewhere south of Paris on July 31th, 1992 at noon sharp. It had rust, a cracked sunroof and an exhaust well past retirement age. That was the last day of my military service. The 5 miles to the railway station were possibly the most enjoyable road trip in my life.
Mine was a bright orange 78 I bought used in 1986 for 799.00. Great car, not nearly as durable as my 85 Mazda GLC but good enough for a poor college freshman. Handled nicely but the interior and exterior door handles constantly broke. But its a fun car and its one of the few I miss.
Mmmmm… Jaques dans le Craque. This post is making me crave tacos, x2.
I bought a ’78 standard model in early ’79, from Budget Rent-a-car to use for SCCA Showroom Stock racing. It was such a step up from my ’73 Vega GT in most ways that it also became my daily driver. The S and Ghia models had slight trim differences, including a tach, but also a rear sway bar. According to the SCCA rule book the standard model had 4″x12″ rims and the others had 4.5″ (steel or alloy) but in fact all Fiesta wheels in the US were 4.5″. And yes …. they would break. DAMHIK! Turn 2 at Sears Point is exciting on 3 wheels. The good news was that local dealers actually stocked them, about $25 each, and I would replace the outside front wheel after each race weekend (left front at Sears Point and right front for Laguna Seca’s old course which had only two right turns). Stock brake pads also lasted about one weekend, as did the outside front tires. I also cracked the head between cylinders 2 and 3, probably due to overheating on track in summer, but had it welded up. In 1979 the SCCA classified the S and Ghia models in SSB, where they were very uncompetitive, but in 1980 moved them down to SSC with the base model. At that point all of us base drivers added the OEM rear sway bar which wasn’t strictly legal but no one cared. After 2 years of spending every spare minute and dollar on racing, I quit cold turkey but kept the car another 2 years. A post-racing upgrade was Capri styled-steel wheels and 185/70-13 tires, which seemed huge at the time compared to the stock 155-12’s we had to race on. I test drove a new Escort in ’81, which had seemed so good on paper, but it was a huge disappointment. In the end I bought a new TransAm, which didn’t last with me, and then a Civic 1500 5-speed, which was nearly as quick as the Fiesta, and a lot more civilized. BTW, as far as I know, all US market Fiestas were built in Germany – mine definitely was. Postscript: a few months ago I was biking home from the Farmer’s Market past an industrial park, and saw an orange Fiesta up on jackstands inside a large shop. I stopped and talked with the owner, a machinist. It was a Fiesta body on a tube frame, mid-engine V8 (SBC IIIRC) and a Toronado transaxle. He had built everything and it was pure steel and aluminum art. Attached is a photo of my car at Sears Point (now Sonoma Raceway) in 1980.
Boy, does this bring back memories! My folks bought a silver ’78 Fiesta L for me to drive in HS. Had it through my first few years in college, and had great fun with that car until it got badly rear ended, repaired and never drove the same afterwards. As everyone attests to, they were one of the most fun-per dollar rides you could find back in those malaise days.
I’ve come full circle now and bought a Race Red ’13 Fiesta 5-door hatchback over Christmas for my 19yo son, who’s in his freshman year in college. He loves it like I loved mine.
Of course, the new one is much more roomy and comfortable with all the modern reliability, conveniences and electronics the old Fiesta never dreamed of. Indeed it is a worthy successor to the old one… lean, sprightly, economical, nimble handling, great build quality, and underrated.
Drove a yellow one some 25 (?) years ago from Minnesota to New York. Not my car, so it may not have been set up properly..
The only memory I have of it: a lot of torque steer.
My brother had a ghia, which meant (iirc) a rev counter and head restraints. When he let me, I quite enjoyed chucking it around the local country roads. The mini 850 he had before that was even more fun.
I certainly remember the “unambivalent clutch”. Would probably make it a bit of a pig in slow-moving traffic jams.
A friend had the mk II XR2, which went well. One of the highlights of my last year at school was when a differnet friend reversed into it at speed in his dad’s 504 estate, whilst trying to prove that you can get wheelspin from an automatic family estate
Sorry? “cute, little, skinny”? I’ll give you “…good at algebra”, but seriously, from what part of Germany did these never seen creatures/unicorns/exchange students come from?
And besides, wasn’t the Fiesta built in Spain (and pretty horribly at that)? Don’t forget, the Fiesta’s nick name back then was: “Fiasco”.
I don’t know about your “German” exchange student (I suspect the jock girlfriends got together and knifed her underneath the stadium bleachers before her first shot put throw that spring) but there was no mystery as to why the Fiesta disappeared; this German/American/Spanish mongrel was gone in a cloud of recalls, excessive warranty claims and rust perforation issues that had the pesky knack of showing up in key unibody structure points.
As I mentioned earlier, US market Fiestas were built in Germany. I think other Euro markets (including the UK) were supplied out of Spain, which influenced the name, according to contemporary press reports.
No sorry. I clearly remember my girlfriend’s Fiesta had a build plate that said: “Valencia, Espania”. SHE was cute, little and skinny, but really bad at math. She still is all those things (I married her but we keep separate checkbooks).
My friends and all the ones I worked on back in the day said they were made by Ford Werke AG.
The British ones were built in England. At the time, I only knew of British and German assembly plants, and after my week with the rental it was very obvious why (at least most of) the American ones came from Germany.
I have owned a lot of cars and my 1980 Fiesta S was maybe the #3 favorite. Love the alloy wheels on the feature car. There was a very nice Decor on BaT a few months ago where the seller was asking crazy money but everyone was OK with that because there are so few of these left. I always have my eye out for a mint original 78-80 Fiesta or a 1977 Capri II V6 Ghia.
Calibrick
Here is your opportunity ! The rarest and possibly earliest and definitely the only one in the world 1978 US Spec LHD MK1 1.6 Ford Fiesta by Healey is up for auction at Bonhams 6th Septembe reserve is £10,000 it has 7,000 miles from new !!
http://www.wwah.org/bonhams_auction.htm
see also http://www.fiestafly.org/dm_ff05_08.htm
Didn’t know what it was, clicked on the link and saw what looked like a Kent crossflow 1.6L but how could that be only NA market got those. Then read the other posts above on this Healey version. What a cool car. I bet that went for a pretty penny.
A girl I knew in high school had one of these, in yellow…she was diminutive and cute and spunky, and the car fit her personality perfectly. This was a great cute-high-school-girl car in the 1980s (this was ’86-’87). I got to drive it a few times and thought it was great fun. She later moved on to a Subaru Justy; she just had a thing for tiny cars.
Now she’s 42 with two kids, and is still cute. I think she drives an Odyssey or something similar, though. But I knew her when she was Yellow Fiesta Girl. 😉
Funnily enough the latest issue of the British magazine Practical Classics had a feature on the popularity of the Fiesta as a starter classic.
I’ve only driven a UK spec model and found it OK but slightly underpowered (850 engine.)
Even the darkest cloud sometimes has a silver lining.
Out of the Brougham Malaise, came this.
What can come out of our current malaise? All the tossable cars are outlawed in design. The Metro/Swift, although not as good on power-to-weight nor as high-quality..was the same sort of mini-scooter.
And today a light car, with all the obligatory safety equipment, is 2500-plus pounds – as noted.
We lament the loss of light, tossable cars, but you would die if you got in an accident.
My very first new car was a 1980 Fiesta. Having owned a string of VW’s, naturally the Rabbit was my first choice, but the US-built ones were awful and significantly more expensive. It was a minimalist car by US standards, not even a spot for a radio in the dash, but far better than a “Shove-it” Scooter from the bow tie folks.
The Civic-sized tires and wheels had to go, got only about 10k on the original Michelin’s, and front brake pads, not to mention the weak Motorcraft struts that completely failed just after the warranty. It got Panasport rims (similar to the red car pictured) with Yokohama’s, a set Repco Metalmasters and Koni struts. A bigger Weber carb and Pacesetter exhaust completed the package. It was a great around town car.
My lifestyle changed and found it not that great for things like ski trips, climbing Pikes Peak as well as other adventures out here in the West. So, it was traded for a Toyota 4×4 pickup.
A couple of years ago I was shopping for a commuter car and the Fiesta was coming back. The quality issues with my first one, and Ford’s insistence that snow chains are not allowed, helped me choose a Honda Fit this time.
Good call. Consumer Reports rated the new Fiesta’s reliability as ”much worse than average,“ & both they & I like the Fit, a pleasant little car. I only chose the [2010] Civic because of price & rear legroom.
Plus, the new Fiesta has perverse styling, whereas the original still looks good. Clean lines never go out of fashion.
If memory serves, Ford did not offer an automatic transmission on the original model. That in itself was likely THE limiting factor on sales in North America.
So when the piece-of-crap (NA) ’81 Escort came out, they were happy enough to stop importing the Fiesta.
This is correct. In the late ’80s, European Fiestas began offering a CVT (still very unusual at that point), but it wasn’t very common and the Fiesta hadn’t been sold in the States in years by then.
Very rare – possibly unique – instance of the US model having better looking lamps than the Yurpean!
“Go out of Eugene for parts”. Ebay?.
They were raced in the Uk Production Saloon series with a 1600cc engine around 1980,pre XR2 so they had to have the 5mph bumpers.
An uncle of mine had a new one of these in Germany..silver, with the dark blue (almost black) interior. Simple and clean almost to the point of being elegant. As I grew older and we moved back to the States, I found myself always on the look out for one, but it never materialized. I recall there was an article in one of my car mags where they took a Fiesta and turbocharged the little sucker, turning it into a 3-series (well, at least 318i) hunter. Man, did I have visions of taking my uncle’s off of his hands and doing the same…
I had one of these, and absolutely LOVED her! She WAS peppy, and so much fun to drive! I have been searching for another one, but have yet to find one ANYWHERE! Too bad the NEW Fiesta didn’t come back more like the old one. There is something to be said for inexpensive, efficient, and FUN little cars! Keep it simple!
Saludos. Yo tengo uno del año 1981 y conducir este coche es otra historia.Es otra forma de entender la carretera y los viajes. He viajado con él por el norte de España, Paris, Lisboa….
I just saw one of these…peanut butter tan, no obvious rust, cool little car. It was parked in Northside (Cincinnati neighborhood) along Hamilton Ave…too much traffic to stop and take a better look. Makes me wish I could find one as a 4th car/toy.
Yeah that Fiesta is mine. It needs a little love still, but I have been driving it around for about four years now and I love it. The color is called Desert Tan, It is a 1978, Has about 220,000 miles on it and goes pretty good. Here is a link to another article about the cars.
http://rustybuttrusty.com/2009/07/31/fiesta-party-1978-ford-fiesta-s/
Here is a current pic as well.
Jared, beautiful little car, it’s great to see one still on the road.
There’s no car that gives as much fun to drive as an mk1 Fiesta. We’ve bought one in 2004 and she’s still there, doing her job as a car for every day use.
She has been updated a little, to keep up with the modern traffic. She has been updated in such a way the modern cars almost can’t keep up with her now, in the city, highways or where-ever we want to drive.
As soon as all needed parts are there we’re going to give her a complete rebuild and a retro style respray, for the next 10 years, or hopefully, more of driving fun.
Once you’ve driven an mk1 Fiesta you’ll know what people mean when they say: “There is a substitute for cubic inches” 😉
Sandra,
Trr this one for performance It is the only Healey Fiesta built in 1978 and shown at the main US Motor Shows through 1979 with amazing reports by Road & Track Aug 1979 issue. With 105 BHP I drove It last weekend at the Dutch Healey Museum where it is on loan for two months, over here in Europe we had the Fiesta “Fly” Cabrio http://www.fiestafly.org The British Racing Green Healey Fiesta has only 7000 miles form new on the Odometer. I attach my 76 BHP 1300 ccFiesta Fly which I just drove 600 miles to the event round trip as a 73 yr old I had so much fun burning the saloons on the Motorways top down all the way. The most fun you can have with your cloths on!
Get the 24 page booklet on the Fiesta Healey here
http://www.wwah.org/wa_hefe000.htm
Fiesta Healey image attached
to say that north american Fiestas were better than european cars because they had bigger engines is a bit of a dubious statement. did a US spec 1.6 litre smog pump have better performance than a european spec 1.3? not a chance.
It was actually pretty close, to be honest. The European Fiesta 1300 had 65 hp (66 PS) DIN, compared to 66 hp SAE for the U.S. 1600. However, the 1600 had 82 lb-ft of torque versus 68 lb-ft for the 1300 and was indeed a little quicker for it.
I still think the “Starsky and Hutch”-style stripes look better here, constrained for width by the narrow C-pillar and carried all the way to the back, than they do in their original application. Maybe they should’ve replaced the Gran Torino in the show with a Fiesta rather than keeping it as they did or going to an LTD II.
My brother had a light green (looked more mint green) 1980 Fiesta. I learned how to drive stick on that car and I loved it! I was a volunteer fireman back then and he let me drive it to fires, what a hot little car that was! I remember chirping the tires in 3rd gear! If I could find one now in decent shape I would buy it in a heartbeat. Of course why does it always seem that car manufacturers always have the opposite priorities then their customers? Even now it seems that the UK seem to get all the hot little cars, not to mention most of the engines that get great MPG. A 3 cylinder VW diesel, or the Ford 1.0 liter turbo engine, with huge MPG, all not available in the here. With gas prices today and propane or NG being much more plentiful in this country you would think we would be able to make conversions. Nope, not allowed. UK- yes, Canada – yes, USA- no. Only on a few certain models the government OK’s for fleets. Of course like always manufacturers and the gov’t are more worried about pleasing big corporate butts (AKA- oil companies) then the people they are supposed to serve.
I always had a sweet spot for the Fiesta. I was in college at the time, so I didn’t have the money for one. By the time I could scrape together some cash, the Fiesta was off the radar scope an I feel into the “Brougham” syndrome.
I owned a Ford Fiesta, It was my very first car, and I love it to this day! I wish I would have held on to my Snitzel, but my husband was too jealous of my obsession with my car and me. The Iron Maiden! That was in the ’80s. I’ll never get over my first love! <3
back in ’79 i worked for a small car rental / taxi to airport company in Portland , that had only 2 types of cars for rent…, the 79 ford thunderbird, ( a big boat), and the ford fiesta (front wheel drive), i got to drive them around, to fill with gas, at the pumps a few miles away, they were a blast, i could burn rubber for 20 feet, and they just kept on going… i loved fiesta’s !!!
It is interesting that Paul points to Americanization for ruining the Rabbit and the similarly Americanized Escort of 81. I have no doubt also he would prefer a basic Opel 1.3 liter J variant to even a V6 Cimmarron or Cavalier Z24. A 1.2 liter Ascona to a Cosworth Vega and so on.
We can all see what he is getting at. Light weight simple machines are more tossable and have fewer things to go wrong. The idea that were designed and built by foreign professionals and not Detroit people is also attractive to a certain mindset
Why won’t the manufacturers succumb and give the customer less. A tiny manual only, manual steered car will always be an asterisk on the USA sales chart. Those that still buy it will likely be able to express their individuality by doing so. For this reason, I am glad Ford offered it. It is not a real car in the USA though.
Even back then, Ford’s European dealers sold a lot of Fiesta Ghia models, which were the dressed-up model, so it’s not like there wasn’t a market even in Europe for that.
The problem with the Americanized Rabbit was that it ended up being neither fish nor fowl: It sacrificed a fair measure of its original virtues in an attempt to appeal to the tastes of customers who were still likely to consider it too foreign, too small, and too rough. The issue wasn’t so much adding weight or features (other than the ones required by federal regulations, which weren’t a marketing decision) so much as softening the suspension and inflicting a lot of dubious interior dress-up that looked very odd with the general aesthetic.
Neither fish nor fowl is a good analogy. The Golf was very important in making front drive mainstream. It was not a good basis for such a vehicle in America. The engines were too small. That was true even after Americanization. I doubt many early 80s Golfs in Europe were 1.7 liter. Yet I suspect even that size would have been not available had Chrysler not requested something bigger for the Horizon. Circa 90hp 2.0 liters that could handle automatics and accessories would have doubled sales at Westmoreland. I bet somebody at VW USA had the idea of putting in the Chrysler 2.2, seeing what it did for the Horizon.
As an import though, I would have been more happy to see sub 1900 pounds Rabbits with a fuel injected 1.4 with just a five speed. Thus adding something different to the market without threatening the domestics. Sales Fiesta like. But individuality available to those so inclined.
I feel like there’s some rewriting of history here. First, though I don’t know the actual sales figures, the ’78-80 Fiesta seemed to be very popular, judging by what I saw on the streets. Pretty good for a stick-shift only vehicle in the US, at a time when other European captive imports were long-gone, and Corollas, Civics, and Datsun 210’s had set a pretty high bar for quality and durability. Second, and this part may be more fuzzy memories than reality, but I seem to recall that the US-built Rabbits presaged a real decline in VW sales. So while the fwd Escort may have been more popular than the Fiesta, I think there were multiple reasons (US built, auto trans available, 4 door and wagon versions, etc) and not just because the Fiesta was too small.
Ford sold more U.S. Escorts in MY1981 than they sold U.S. Fiestas in total. However, Fiesta imports had been artificially capped for various practical reasons that the Escort didn’t have to contend with, so the sales figures weren’t a reflection of comparative merit or public reception. I don’t doubt that the Escort being bigger and having automatic transmission optional were greatly beneficial to U.S. sales, though.
I would like to request a full write up on that VW transplant factory in Westmoreland county that nearly tanked the Rabbit. Can someone more knowledgeable than I tell that tale of work in a future CC?
Was looking around the U pull lot (back in 1990) for 3 point seatbelts I could retrofit to replace the US design lap belts in the rear of my ’80 Jetta. The Jetta had the threaded mounting points for the 3 point retractors in the trunk, along with the slots in the package shelf for the belt pass through to the top mounting point on the C pillar, which had a threaded plastic plug in it.
The front Fiesta 3 point belts were the same German Klippan brand as the VW’s, the male portion of the Fiesta’s belt fit the rear lap seat belt buckles perfectly. They easily bolted right in, looked and worked just like the rear factory 3 point belts the MK1 Jetta used in Europe.
“66 perky ponies on tap”. Exactly the same as our Euro-spec 1979 Fiesta 1300S. To be fed with leaded premium gasoline (“super benzine”), of course.
In 2014 and 2015 the Fiesta was the number 4 in the European sales charts, after the VW Golf, VW Polo and Renault Clio. And damn, that little Ford has been around since I was 10…
Ah……. Memories….. I bought a 79 in light blue in 84, First stick shift car ever. It was bullet proof and a blast to drive. Two things I will never forget about this car, moving a bunch of furniture (including a bed) with it, and another time when the brakes went out during rush hour traffic. I learned the value of a stick on that adventure. Overall a great little car, got out of it what I paid for it. Great gas mileage Still wish I had it some days. Life, and cars were a lot simpler then.
Mk1 Fiesta crash test against a pole:
https://youtu.be/eaKgW8sZb9A
Gimme a Brougham any day…
Although I was too young to drive at the time, I remember the Ford Fiesta. I remember being disappointed when it was discontinued after only a couple of years on the North American market. I remember thinking why would Ford do that? There’s already a Honda Civic and the VW Golf (Rabbit), why not one more?
The three principal issues were European production capacity; exchange rates; and, surprisingly, CAFE. This was before the EPA came up with the separate domestic/import fleet calculations, but there were already political concerns about replacing American-built cars with imported ones. The EPA told Ford, “If you import more than about 75,000 Fiestas a year, you can’t count the additional ones in your fleet average.”
So, it made more financial sense for Ford to replace it with a locally built version of the Mk3 Escort, even if the Escort wasn’t nearly as fun to drive.
My aunt had a silver one. It was very plain and ugly like a rabbit or omni. The engine blew in it just out of warranty and it got replaced with a Nissan pulsar.
And now Ford’s unveiled the next generation, complete with the inevitable crossover-ized one which should sell like warm bread.
IMO it should replace the sedan; if there’s still people who don’t want to be seen driving a hatchback, why spend tens of millions on engineering, compliance and tooling for sedan sheetmetal, and sell that for $500 per car *less*, when you can stick on some gray cladding and taller sidewalls for a quarter mil across the whole line and charge a grand a unit extra for it?
..”if there’s still people who don’t want to be seen driving a hatchback”…
I certainly don’t want to bee seen driving this, unless my name is the Late Oleg Popov.
As a hatchback aficionado in the ’70’s, I never understood the appeal of the first few generations of Jettas, or Civic 4-doors; and almost 40 years later I feel the same way about be-trunked Fiestas and Focii. OTOH, the Civic and Jetta just seem like normal sedans now.
And history might repeat itself here: apparently, the new Fiesta returning to North America is not entirely certain. I thought it sold well in NA?
Cheap gas has hurt sales lately.
The current Fiesta ST is a blast to drive. My girlfriend has a black one with the 6 speed. She lets me drive it once in a while. The sounds it makes approaching redline…she frowns at me me when I do that but I can’t help myself.
I had 2 Fiestas in the 1980’s, first a 1978 S model (the sporty model) in the same maroon red shown here and then a 1980 base model…they were so much fun to drive and well built! The last one I did a very 1980’s thing to it…I painted it zebra and tricked it out, drove it for 3 years like that, always got attention!
This is the first domestic that interested me, but being a HS student I stuck with my cheap used SAAB 96 & 97s. In 2011 we purchased a new Fiesta 5 speed hatch. We loved it, fit all our stuff, quiet and comfortable, with back seats are better then they have any right to be in such a small car. Got high 40 mpgs on road trips, just over 40 for it’s life, including lots of winter miles with a low of 500′ to a high over a 1500′ elevation commuting to my winter job at a ski resort.
We traded it in just over a week ago for a new C-Max. Not as tossable but more “refined”. We had planned to go another 3-5 years on the Fiesta, but when we went to get an estimate for fixing a couple dings we decided not to pass up getting a $30k car for under $20.
I went to work for a major direct store-door food retailer in 1977 and at age 22 was completely ignorant of corporate procedure. When, in 1978, my company car refused to run (a Chevy Nova, what else?) I had it towed to Townsend (Mass.) Ford and got a Fiesta for a rental for three days. I caught hell for not going through Corporate but I didn’t know any better and time off the road meant lost sales.
Anyhow…once I got past the MASSIVE torque steer this little pocket rocket had, and the offset steering wheel (the steering column was above the driver’s right knee when seated) I fell in love with the thing. Turns out, it was at the end of its rental life and coming up for sale…the dealer made me a ridiculously sweet offer – $1400 – to get it out of their inventory and needless to say, this 22K-mile, dealer-maintained Kelly green (black and white interior) 2DR coupe was mine. I found out later that Ford couldn’t GIVE this model away, for some reason, in central Mass. Dunno why; it was roomy, zoomy (for people in Leominster and Fitchburg, that means FAST) and easy to work on. I kept it for six years, until the road salt finally got to it.
0-60 in eleven seconds? – that is suspiciously high. I never drove a car that hit the redline so fast in first and second gears. That includes my old turbo Corvair, 1965 vintage. Just hold the wheel with left input, to counteract its tendency to aim for the curb under full throttle, and you were good to go and going like hell.
The mean of five contemporary instrumented U.S. road tests was 10.974 seconds, with the range being 10.4 to 11.9 seconds. (That incidentally is very close to the Corvair Corsa turbo.) Keep in mind that speedometers are not usually all that accurate, so a speedo-and-stopwatch observation will often seem quicker than it actually is.
In the “real world” of say 40-90 mph acceleration, as experienced in Showroom Stock road racing these cars at Sears Point and Laguna Seca, the Fiesta was comparable to most other cars in its class, the 1500cc Rabbit, X1/9 and 1600cc fwd Colt, in acceleration. At other tracks outside California, the Fiesta seemed a bit less competitive than the Rabbits. I think a really good driver who could handle the Colt’s twin stick shifters might do better keeping in the powerband than the Fiesta’s very wide ratio transmission. The car that could always pull me out of slow corners was the 258 cu in Gremlin 🙂
For a late ’70s subcompact, 10.5 to 11 seconds 0-60 was really not bad at all and there was more power to be had from the 1.6-liter Kent. (The “Mexico” version used in the Mk1 Fiesta XR2 and various Escorts had 19 hp more than the U.S. engine, and there were aftermarket turbo kits and other hop-up stuff for those so inclined.) I’m just wary of rose-colored memories based on speedometer readings rather than fifth wheels.
To federalize the Fiesta Ford stuffed its famous 1.6L Kent engine into a car that most of Europe bought with a 1.1 or 1.3L. They went with a 2bbl carb which was another surprise, the Kent-engined Pintos and Capris made do with a 1bbl.
The light weight and torquey engine made the Fiesta a real hot-rod. In a Car and Driver comparison it was quicker than the more expensive 1st place Rabbit, which had SOHC and FI. The lightweight construction came at a price though. I remember that the hard track testing caused the front wheels to re-align themselves into a positive camber condition. In the Fiesta you could squeeze the exterior and interior door panels together using one hand at the top of the door sill. The wheels were only 12″ and because of the oddball bolt pattern there were few aftermarket 13″ upgrades available. As I said in my previous post here almost four years ago the 13″ alloys on the feature car look fantastic.
I had checked out new ones many times at the local dealer as a kid and was an expert on the workmanship (excellent) and four trim grades. In 1984 I finally bought a Fiesta, a 1980 Sport. Two things it had plenty of… torque steer and noise. If you owned one of these you will no doubt remember the door closing sound as there was practically no insulation. It was incredibly roomy and got pretty good mileage, although not as good as my 78 Scirocco. I believe the tank size was 10 gallons with the fuel filler right behind the driver’s door. Idiosyncrasies like the fuel filler location, pushrod engine and clamshell opening hood made it utterly charming and I missed the car when I sold it. As has been mentioned Ford pulled the plug because US Fiestas were German-built and with the poor exchange rate there was no profit in it.
Base engine on the European car was actually 957cc — the 1,117cc version was a step-up option. The 1,298cc Kent didn’t become available until about a year after launch. The low-compression 950 LC had only 39 hp (40 PS) and 47 lb-ft of torque, so you can see the difference
The Car and Driver test car you mentioned (from July 1978) had suffered some kind of alignment issue prior to testing; it was definitely messed up, but it was from some previous damage rather than the wheels just shaking themselves loose. (Press cars tend to get the crap kicked out of them.)
With the Mk1 Fiesta, Ford did a lot of its signature “more sound insulation as you go up the price ladder” tricks. The Ghia got the most, the S and L somewhat less, and the base cars — well…
I forgot about the wicked torque steer. Since the car was developed with smaller, lower torque engines, the 1600 Kent in the US model was a bit too much.
Ford actually gave the Kent-engine cars equal-length halfshafts to try to reduce torque steer! (The smaller engines didn’t have them.)
I’ve not seen a Fiesta on the road in many, many years, and I’m not even in a salty part of the country. The last was one owned by a student at the university where I used to work–this was probably in 2007 or so.
When I was a kid I thought them to be buzzy little tin cans, but if I do ever see another I’ll pay it better attention!
“Just a few years ago, Ford had the same problem it did in 1978. Its compact car had been in production almost a decade. The market was shifting to ever-smaller cars. CAFE standards were tightening. The Asian brands were cleaning up in the segment. What to do? …”
Now, a lot has changed in 8-10 years. Market is moving away from “ever-smaller cars”.
Cheap gas, truck sales through the roof, and makers dropping car models [Chrysler]. Also, who would want to get into a wreck with a SUV in a “sub 1900 pounds Rabbit”?
…Also, who would want to get into a wreck with a SUV in a “sub 1900 pounds Rabbit”?…
I foresee a golden future for a PACCAR built ne plus ultra SUV / pickup.
Who wants to get be in an SUV that gets hit by a PACCAR built real truck (Peterbilt/KenworthDAF)? Or for that matter, who wants to be in a Peterbilt hit by a train? I guess as a motorcyclist and bicyclist I don’t totally get that argument. But I do understand it sells a lot of cars. I did go off the track and hit the embankment at speed, when my Fiesta broke its left front wheel in Turn 2 at Sears Point. I survived. The car was always about 1/2″ shorter on one side even after a little straightening, though.
My first car was an orange 1978 Fiesta that was handed down from my parents. It was an absolutely great car. I’d stop-light race with my classmates in cars with much bigger powerplants and win every time. The car was a trooper, surviving until well over 150,000 miles. It was funny, just before it finally died, the transmission started dying a slow death and it only had 3rd and 4th gear with no reverse, so I’d have to gingerly accelerate out of stops; oddly enough, it still had decent acceleration. If I parked nose in somewhere, I had to “Fred Flintstone” it to back up. Even with those issues, I still loved that car.
I took it with me my first year out of college, and would probably still have it stashed somewhere if it hadn’t been utterly destroyed by a snow plow one winter.
These things were everywhere in Britain in the 70s and 80s, very much the type of car used by little old ladies to go shopping in, or learner driver cars. More often than not in basic, stripper “Popular” (read base model) trim, with the athsmatic 957cc engine-all of 44 bhp.
I wasn’t a fan. To keep weight down, the bodywork metal was wafer thin, any thinner and you could have wrapped it around a Turkey for roasting. You could make the centre of the door skin flex with moderate pressure from one finger. Even the door glass was reduced in thickness to save weight. This didn’t normally present a problem with the little Kent engines-unless you crashed your fiesta, whereupon it folded up like wet cardboard- but worryingly, later fiestas could be had with a more substantial 1.6 litre Diesel engine. The extra weight of this engine would cause stress fractures on the inner fenders just aft of the front suspension turrets, where the front of the car was literally trying to break away from the body. To drive, they always felt insubstantial and wobbly, teetering on those tiny 12″ wheels while you were lamenting that you couldn’t afford the bigger Escort. Just about any supermini of the era- Austin metro, Fiat 127/8, Renault 5, etc was a better car. A miserable, cheaply and cynically conceived bean tin of a car, sold by virtue of being the cheapest Ford model you could get, back when the Ford name enjoyed huge brand loyalty in Europe.
I know I’m way late to this party, but the Fiesta post makes me think of a story (yeah, I’ve got lots). Back in the spring of ’78, Chevy set up a Ride and Drive event at PIR (Portland Intl Raceway). We had a product presentation, and then were able to drive our model and competitive products around the track. The focus of this presentation was… wait for it… the Chevy Chevette, America’s finest small car. At least to the Chevy guys. The other products present to compare with were 1. Honda Civic (with an Auto) 2. Dodge Omni (Auto) 3. Toyota Corolla (2 dr. Auto) 4. Ford Pinto 2 Dr (Auto) 5. VW Rabbit (Auto) and… a Ford Fiesta. Bright Orange, manual (which the Chevy guys were saying was a HUGE disadvantage).
Off we went to take these beauties for a lap around PIR after the typical “our’s is great, their’s isn’t” presentation. The Fiesta shocked the heck out of all of us. As mentioned, it was fast, fun to drive, cornered reasonably well… I mentioned fast, right? Adding insult to injury, all the little cars were Automatics except the Fiesta. It literally ran circles around every other little car there. Heck, one guy even lapped a Chevette! It was patently obvious to everyone there (including the Chevy reps) that the Fiesta was the star of the show.
That was also the last R&D event we had at PIR until the 5.7 IROC was out.
I bought a red ’78 Ford Fiesta Ghia, brand new. I was driving 55 miles each way to my job and that commute was from one rural city to an even smaller rural city in Kentucky. My route followed a river through the country. Perfect car for this. This was a twisty two lane. On the interstate at 60 ish MPH it would deliver 42mpg. I installed 4 rather large driving lights under the aluminum front bumper from JC Whitney. Where else were you going to buy such items in 1979? Looked like a rally car – I tried to live up to the look with my driving style. I knew the road, every corner, pot hole and passing opportunity. I drove the shit out of this car, working second shift, flipping the couple of hundred watts of driving lights on and off when I met oncoming traffic.
I installed the driving lights after several near encounters with deer and other nocturnal critters. I popped over a little rise in the road once at 70 mph with 6 or 7 deer standing in the road looking at me. 30 something years later and I am still not sure how, who or whatever made that scenario not go very badly.
On one commute I did hit a deer big time. When I saw the deer to my right just in my peripheral vision I hit the brakes, fully saw the deer and went to full brake lock. Wham. Later review showed about 7′ of straight locked skid marks, then the skid marks went 45 degrees to the left for about 3 ft. I remember not wanting to go off the road with the wheels locked and let off the brakes. Still drove the car to work and back home, the impact was to the right corner and did not damage the radiator.
Two other deer encounters. A single deer ran across the road one evening, no on-coming traffic, I moved left fast to swerve around the deer, heard contact. Stopped to inspect and the right front yellow parking light lens was broken. Another time a deer bolted over the guardrail on the left side of the road, the deer’s hoofs slipped on the road, I swerved right, felt a big impact. I remember thinking hell another deer has torn this car up. There was a tuft of fur on the drivers side, left side of the rear bumpers edge.
Best commute ever. Knowing this road, the passing areas and sight lines on a well known country road back in the day. Got a run on a Pontiac Trans AM, passed him just as the road straightened out, he muscled back up to me running side by side but then the straightaway ran out out and he had to tuck in behind. For 25 miles on this twisty road he tried and tried to get by this pesky little red car. I knew the road and corners and there was not enough straightaways for him to power past. He finally powered by on a straightaway, I knew this was coming. But I knew the roads. When we came through Gratz. KY I knew there were two ways through the very small community, When he took the one route, I stayed on the throttle, barely braked, screamed around a couple of corners and got back on Hwy 355 ahead of the Trans AM. He actually went sideways in a corner at some point soon after that. I saw him just stop and sit there sideways in the road and I motored on in this 1.6L Fiesta.
There was one long section of two lane highway that straightened out for 8 miles going into Carrollton, KY and on many trips I would let the Fiesta go, it would run about 95 to 97 mph at WOT for several minutes. 5800 ish rpm in 4th gear, 4 speed OD. It felt good and settled in at that speed. This is nothing for current cars, But I drove Chargers, Camaros, Corvettes and cars of this past era and none had as sophisticated handling or braking as current cars do.
This little Fiesta was a solid car. I drove it hard, kept the oil changed, could pop front brake pads on it in about an hour, never rotated the tires, just change the fronts.
It is indeed a small world. I’m a Kentucky boy myself (Lexington is my hometown) so I know well the roads and towns of which you speak. But my only personal experience with one of these Fiestas was overseas. When I was a brand new baby Airman just moving to the UK as my first duty station in 2001 I picked up one of these as a cheap get-around car. £500 I think maybe, if that, from another Air Force cat I worked with. 1986 model, 1100cc, 4-speed, manual choke and all. Black on grey cloth. Agreed that it was a tough, fun little car. I shall never forget hearing word of the first airstrikes on Afganistan from the BBC in that little Fiesta on the night of 07 OCT 01 and suddenly understanding real quick that war is indeed serious business. It seems / sounds trite now nearly 20 years later but that’s how it crossed my brain at the time.
Anyway – As I recall I didn’t keep it very long and moved into a big Euro Ford next, 1986 Granada Scorpio 4×4, but that’s a story for another day. Incidentally, also a tough, fun car – when the 2.8 Köln V6 wasn’t leaking oil like a sieve and/or the air conditioning was working. Ah, good times. 🤣
As I had written earlier, the imported Mk1 Fiesta was a fun, tossable, lightweight car. It was definitely one of the few bright spots in the mid-to-late seventies auto world. But a lot of that was due to there not being much to them. Plus, vehicle/drivetrain choices were limited to a 3-door, 4-speed, and 1.6L engine. I’m not sure, but I don’t think A/C was even available.
One thing I distinctly recall was a suspended accelerator pedal that had a bracket underneath it that prevented the pedal from going all the way to the floor. I don’t know if removing the bracket (it was tack-welded on) would have improved acceleration, but I do know that, on mine, the pedal eventually bent over to the right side. As one might imagine, all that was required to fix it was bend it back by hand.
One unusual option for such a basic car was the availability of a flip-open sunroof that included both a smoke plexiglas panel ‘and’ one made of steel that was body colored. I don’t really understand the point of two sunroof panels (and never really have, like on the Corvette), but it was definitely odd for such a cheap car.
I remember them and being favorably impressed. Granted never drove one, but between visual appearance, specs and very good reviews if one had just happened to be available and priced right, I would have gone for it. Not impressed enough to go look for one, but if I happened across one…
Crashes and crash testing. The current infatuation with not just pickups, but big, jacked up pickups and large heavy passenger trucks might skew the equation. 6.000 pounds or more with a bumper at head level definitely changes traditional running into things crash testing. Ah, there I go again jousting at that windmill.
Maybe I heard wrong but I thought I heard on the news the Current Fiesta will be discontinued in Europe? In favor of the Ford Kuga and Ecosport. Apparently In Europe, and the UK, like the US, is passing on these for CUV’s as well.
You heard right. It’s on its way out.
It’s unfortunately, although there’s a certain irony, given how reluctant some senior Ford people were to build the Fiesta in the first place, that it’s one of the longest-lived model nameplates in the Ford portfolio, and it’s outlasted almost all of its original European Ford contemporaries other than the Transit.
No harm done in buying a car with a stick without ‘the knowledge’. Oh sure, I know enough to get under way and manage the test drive but the day I bought my first car with a standard, I’m sure I drove more miles than in all prior manual-transmission adventures.
I figured “I’m learning, or I’m walking.” More motivation – visiting my date at the time meant negotiating a stop sign at the top of a steep upgrade after the on ramp.