A fleet of 40 Fiestas preparing to set off for Brighton from the Ford Engine Plant in Dagenham, to celebrate the Fiesta’s 40th anniversary in 2016 – Matt Alexander
I can’t remember the first time I rode in a Ford Fiesta. That’s because I was just a few hours old. At the time I was born, we were a two-car family, and both of them were Mk1 Fiestas – my dad’s, a 1.3-litre Ghia purchased nearly-new as a reward to himself for qualifying as an accountant and landing a job at a prosperous local firm, and my mum’s, a basic Fiesta Van she’d inherited from my grandfather’s carpet-fitting business.
Those cars took us everywhere. I was strapped in the Van with my mum for local journeys, and shortly after my birth I undertook the first of many rear-seat overnight drives in the Ghia to France to visit my grandparents.
The Fiesta Mk1
Stories like these are far from unique. Over the course of 45 years, the Fiesta has become a part of life in Britain. But now Ford is poised to announce that it’s ending its production next year.
Released in the UK in 1977, it was instantly modern, fresh and cheap to run – essential coming off the back of the straits of the fuel crises.
Initially, Ford wasn’t prepared for the enormous popularity the car would enjoy. The early cars were only available with small 950cc and 1.1-litre engines, and with three doors. It took until the 1980s for the Fiesta to gain a sporting variant. It wasn’t until 1989, however, that the Fiesta would gain the much-needed practicality of five doors. By now, though, the accountants were in charge and costs were being slashed at the expense of quality.
The 1989 Ford Fiesta XR2: ‘a friendly terrier on wheels’, as our motoring correspondent Martin Gurdon called it in 2018 – Jeff Gilbert for The Telegraph
The car’s popularity was undimmed – but sharp rivals such as the Peugeot 205, Renault Clio and second-generation Nissan Micra soon made the Fiesta look stodgy, with rattly engines and a tinny interior. Happily, Ford’s engineering supremo, Richard Parry-Jones, realised that the Fiesta needed a shot in the arm, and so when the Mk3 was heavily facelifted in 1995 to become the Mk4, its suspension was comprehensively reworked, the quality was boosted and modern engines replaced the aged lumps under the bonnet.
The result was sensational. Suddenly, the Fiesta was as good to drive as it was practical and cheap to run. It was a recipe that would continue through successive generations, right to the end of the car’s life. By 2008, it had become Britain’s best-selling car, a position it would hold for 10 consecutive years.
1989: the nippy Mk3 was used by the police
And no wonder. By and large, owners love them. Even among the cohort of writers on The Telegraph, you’ll find Fiesta owners who are happy to expound the virtues of their choice of wheels.
“Jeremy Clarkson once told me ‘Jaguars and fast Fords’ were the only cars it was never wise to slag off, such was their following,” says Paul Nuki, the paper’s global health security editor. He’s now on his second Fiesta, which he’s had for five years, and he still enjoys it.
The Mk4 looked vastly different to any of the Fiestas that came before it – Anthony Marshall
“They’ve been going for so long that all the problems have been ironed out,” he adds. “It’s a fully evolved car with none of the problems associated with brand-new models. It does what it says on the tin, but it also handles nicely. It’s a utility car with a bit of fun.”
But now that it is for the knackers’ yard, what will people buy instead? Ford is coy about discussing a replacement, but the mood music suggests that we shouldn’t hold our breath. It still has high hopes for its Puma, a small, SUV-styled car largely based on the Fiesta, which is rather more costly – and hence more profitable.
2008’s hugely popular Mk6 model
The US giant isn’t alone, however. Small cars across the board are quietly disappearing as the combined headwinds of electrification and more demanding crash-testing make them unprofitable to produce.
But there will remain hold-outs. Expect to see many Fiesta buyers turning to the Vauxhall Corsa, which is expected to live on for a while thanks to the economies of scale gained by sharing underpinnings with sister cars the Peugeot 208 and the forthcoming Citroen C3.
Those looking for nothing more than cheap, simple transport, meanwhile, will probably turn to the Dacia Sandero – its bargain-basement price makes it a shoo-in to take over from models at the lower end of the Fiesta range.
The current Fiesta is the eighth generation to wear the badge. Small, relatively cheap cars are increasingly less profitable to produce and are a dying breed
But it’ll be a while before any of these can achieve the same place in British culture as the Fiesta. It’s the car in which countless teenagers learned to drive. It’s also been the faithful friend of elderly drivers who have relied on it to get around on little more than a state pension. And pretty well everyone in between.
It’s been a much relied-upon second car ideally suited to the hustle and bustle of town centres, supermarkets and retail parks. And, of course, it’s brought home countless babies from hospitals in its role as cost-effective transport for young families. Like many whose lives the Ford Fiesta has touched, I will miss it.
Keyword: Farewell to the Ford Fiesta – the legendary car touched many lives and it will be missed