With a number of people lamenting the fact that the intro of the Escort into the US market meant the exit of the Fiesta, it didn’t surprise me that much to see this when I stepped out of my car to gas it up today.
Unfortunately as I was finishing pumping someone pulled in beside it precluding a good profile shot.
This one appears to be the not so common S model.
Or is it? This one appears to have suffered a little mishap along the way with repairs including a little more bondo that might have been a good idea and a complete repaint. The stripe and stylized S appeared to be decals, which begs the question what dusty back shelf were they found on, since the fact that this red is relatively nice and shiny, it couldn’t have been done all that long ago.
My father seriously considered buying one of these just prior to the Escort being introduced in ’81; he bought an Dodge Omni “Miser” instead. Not sure if that was a better choice or not.
They’re really livin’ the dream with the bondo, aren’t they?
low skilled bog sculptor if you clean up the metal properly the bog sticks like they do in the factory
Well, that depends on how thickly one slathers it on, doesn’t it? That’s the apparent cause of most failures I’ve seen. I’m pretty sure that bondo has a different coefficient of expansion than steel does.
These were stylish and eminently tossable, and the quality of materials in the top trim level “Ghia” was superior to the Rabbit/Scirocco of the day. The Fiesta was another Ford or GM Euro small-car design of the 70s and 80s that should have been built and sold in N. America without hesitation or delay.
Well, the Escort MK3 was built and sold here. Much of the goodness didn’t make the transition. I don’t know about the Ghia, but the Fiestas we did get didn’t have particularly durable interior materials. Window cranks and such were of VW quality.
I will always have a soft spot for Fiestas. It was my first car, in my sophomore year in HS… a ’78 Fiesta L, silver w/ houndstooth cloth interior. My dad taught me to drive a stick in that car. My best friend at the time had a green ’77 Rabbit, and good God did we “terrorize” (if you can do that in FWD econoboxes) the local motoring public over several years with our late-night dueling street “racing” antics. That Fiesta was perfect for such duty. I drove my Fiesta all through college, trading it on brand-new ’83 T-Bird Turbo Coupe just before I graduated. It was very light (made it even lighter by removing both the front and rear bumpers and, for a time, the rear seat), and the 1600cc Kent 4-banger revved like the dickens. I added a header and Ansa muffler, wanted to add Webers, but never could afford them… had a ’69 Boss 429 Mustang, too, at the time, and all available cash went into that money hole (that’s a whole n’other story!). Anyway…that Fiesta served me well for the seven years or so I had it, including ski trips to Colorado, and a plenty of autocross adventures. Fun times, those….!!
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One of the reasons Ford Escorts back in the 60s were successful rally cars was that Kent engine its incredibly tuneable the Cortinas and Anglias eventually ousted the Hillman Minxs and Humber 80s from track duty here for the same reason and they were lighter but you can safely get 9000rpm out of a kent 4 done right.
When I was in college in 1980 I dated a girl who had a lime green 1978 Fiesta with black interior…It was barebones, stripped but not cheap like the Chevette scooter or Toyota Corolla 1200…although it was more expensive. It was a great alternative to the Rabbit.
I remember she drove to Florida from Buffalo with her parents and sister…They were each allowed a shopping bag each for anything they needed to take with them.
the fiesta really confused me. up to that point i was smug in my opinion that detroit couldn’t build a small car worth a damn. then this thing came out and it drove and looked better than a civic. then they decided to replace it with the escort. huh?
Yeah – that was the big letdown. I’d thought with the lessons learned on the Fiesta, they’d have carried it over into their domestic Pinto-replacement.
No such luck. Someone in Ford (other companies as well) had decided that their buyers wanted big-feeling, heavy-steering, awkward-handling cars. Why ELSE would anyone buy an LTD in that era?
They were wrong, big-time; and there’s no telling how much volume they missed out on. The Fiesta was, from what I’d heard of it, a car you could love. The Escort was an appliance, nothing more.
Detroit didn’t build it. It was built by Ford of Germany.
Had a ’78 right out of high school. Loved the performance, hated the reliability.
Typical experience: Sixty miles into the Colorado Mountains, I heard a big clunk, and pulled over to check things out. Peering into the engine bay, I saw the back half of the starter hanging off the battery cable- the nose of the starter remained bolted to the engine. Not a problem you would expect to see, but ALL problems with that car defied expectations,
In addition, the slipshod engineering Ford used to mount the Kent engine in a longitudinal (side to side) layout made repairs an unbelievable headache. To service the front engine mount, you needed to remove the engine, and oil pan removal required uncoupling the engine and transaxle. (Any modern FWD vehicle allows you to remove these components with the driveline remaining in place…).
I remember the only time I ever rode in a Fiesta – as a four-year old while my dad test drove one. It was orange with a black vinyl interior. Was to be a replacement for the Beetle he’d had for years. Never asked why, but we ended up with a alpine white over baby blue vinyl Rabbit. Suspect it was because the Rabbit had four doors. I probably should be grateful for that choice as we had that car for quite a while – getting my gangly early teenage frame into the back of a two-door Fiesta may have been a real pain.
Bloke commuting 60-plus miles from rural Iowa to the wrecking yard in Omaha during the early to later 1990s was enamored with Fiestas and owned several with a couple for use as parts cars.
Memory says he adored the 1980 era version.
He ranted about the great gas mileage, reliability and how well it behaved in the snow.
A local dude living a few blocks away from the yard countered that his Yugos were the better cars and that was why he collected those.
He had three.
I owned a 1978 and a 1977 Toyota pick-ups.
We were sure a cheap bunch but we bought what we could afford with the pittance we earned but it was honest work and ‘America needs its ditch diggers, too.”
Right? RIGHT?
Live and learn but for so many of us we learned too late.
Just keep the heck away from my dumpster, damn ye.
The other thing that killed this car over here was the lack of an automatic transmission. Lazy Americans!!! I talked my friend into buying a used one in high school and she and I used to have a blast tearing through town in that thing. LOVED that car.
Ah, the MK I Fiesta, my first new car purchase, in 1980. This was during the second oil crisis, so in California at least, Civics were going for over sticker and you had to wait. The Fiesta seemed ideal at the time, a car more German than the made-in-Pennsylvania Rabbit for a lot less money. People back then mistook it for a Rabbit.
While the all-iron OHV Kent engine was absolutely bulletproof, the rest of the car was junk. Body hardware that broke off in your hand, brakes and struts that wore out in 12,000 miles, wicked torque steer, floors that oil can, overheating given the slightest provocation, and the list goes on. I almost bought the current Fiesta, but had second thoughts and am driving a Fit today.
I really liked the idea of these. Never drove a North American spec version but I did get a few rides in my Grandfather’s bare bones MkI in the UK. They seemed to disappear from the roads very quickly here though.
In January, 1980, test drove a Fiesta and LOVED IT! Shoul’ve got it the , but, didn’t. Fast forward to September, 1980 ready to buy my first new car, the Fiestas were gone. Snooze, you lose.
I bought a ’78 Fiesta new. Loved the car for the way it drove and handled. That little Cosworth 4 banger provided plenty of oomph for the light little Fiesta. The only disappointment was the cheap hounds-tooth upholstery which wore out long before the rest of the car. The fuel pump started having issues at about 100,000 miles and five years but a jury rigged electronic fuel pump kept the car going for another 25,000 before I traded it in for a used ’81 Escort Wagon (maybe worst car buying decision I ever made, but that’s another story).