Ford Fiesta: 40

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1976 started the Ford Motor Company on yet another blockbuster, the Fiesta. The simplest possible, reliable and efficient front-wheel drive. A kind of 'super Mini' that had to compete with (something like) the Renault R5, the Peugeot 104, the Fiat 127.

That worked, because barely three years after the introduction the one millionth copy rolled off the band. Henry Ford II already gave the green light to the project in 1972 that "Bobcat' was called. Although the marketing team does the cart Bravo wanted to name, said Ford descendant ensured that the little thing got the name Fiesta invented by him. The success meant that production had to be expanded and so the Fiestas were created in Valencia, Spain, of course in Cologne, and Dagenham in Britain. The Fiesta was also available in the United States. Those American copies were built in the Ford factories in Saarlouis, Germany. However, the Americans could enjoy this cart until the very beginning of 1980, when the production of this 'special' was stopped. Due to stricter emission requirements in the States, those cars were 'different' from the European versions. Think of something like, for example, a catalyst. To pamper the spoiled American even more, they were also equipped with an air conditioning factory, while the engine capacity was already 1.596 cm 3. The proven 'X-Flow' Kent engine that had previously proven its reliability in the Cortina, Escort, Transit. Amazingly, Ford did nothing to almost nothing with this Fiesta in the motorsport field. In 1980 it was realized that a faster version had to be brought to the market and so the Supersport experienced its introduction, followed a year later by the XR2. In 1983 the clean lines of the first model were made smoother. After the Escort, it became Ford's second best seller. Shortly before the introduction of the MkIII in 1989, more than 4,5 million units of the MkI and MkII were sold. A Fiesta was not missing in the street scene of those years. However far you could see, there were always several to be seen. That is different now, because when did you last see a Fiesta MkI or MkII (even a MkIII) in traffic? The Fiesta can perhaps be seen as the Morris Minor of the seventies and eighties?

Photo: It's 1977 the one-millionth Ford Fiesta can drive out of the hall ...

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2 comments

  1. I bought one in 1978, my first new car. My Renault 4 was completely rusted through and because I got a permanent job, I dared to buy a new Fiesta. About 12.500 guilders, (something like 5600 euro) It was a very solid car, which also drove very fast (on the counter). I have covered almost XNUMX km in three years. Ridden it and never had anything with it. It really was a milling machine on wheels!

  2. The only downside to the Fiesta was that there were no downsides at all. He was extremely reliable, drove flawlessly and just did everything you expected of it. But that also made him a bit characterless. Perhaps that's why so few were preserved. Sin. Good design.

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