It seems inconceivable now, but the Ford Fiesta nearly wasn’t called the Ford Fiesta. Bravo, Amigo, and even Metro and Sierra were considered as options, but Henry Ford II, then the head of the company, chose Fiesta (he actually had to strike a deal with arch-rival General Motors for the rights to the name, because it previously graced a few Oldsmobile models in the 1950s).
Like the Fiesta, I almost ended up with a different name. James was the running favourite for a while, but then my great-grandfather Alexander passed away, and the rest, as they say, is history. Mind you, that isn’t the only thing the Fiesta and I have in common, because it’s a car that has touched my life frequently.
I’m not alone in that. Ford has sold 4.8 million Fiestas in the UK, so it’s no surprise that there’s one on every street. Millions of us have owned them, driven them, been driven in them, and perhaps even covered our first tentative miles with L-plates strapped to a Fiesta’s front and rear bumpers.
No wonder, then, that the last Fiesta rolling off the production line in June 2023 made headline news. The Fiesta is a part of British life; perhaps not quite as obvious or as well-known as the Mini, but it is certainly a car with at least as much cultural impact.
My first brush with the Fiesta came at just a few hours old, when I was transported home in my dad’s Mk1 1.3 Ghia. We were a two-Fiesta household at the time. My mum would strap me into the front seat of her Mk1 Fiesta Van, inherited from her father, to cart me around town, and it was in the back of the Ghia that I went on my first holiday, all the way to the south of France.
This was Ford’s masterstroke. As with the other small cars the Fiesta went up against – the Peugeot 104, the Renault 4, and the Fiat Panda – you could have it as a bare-bones Popular, or even a van. It was basic, frugal transport that appealed to a population for whom memories of the fuel crisis were still fresh.
But unlike its rivals, there was a full range available. You could order it with plush seats, wood trim, tinted glass, a rear screen wash/wipe, and even a driver’s door mirror that you could adjust from inside the car, rather than having to wind the window down and fiddle about in the cold. What luxury.
The Ghia was an aspirational car for young families looking to trade up from their elderly Minis. And before long, it was joined by the Supersport, with its spot lights, spoilers and decals, and eventually by the XR2, which had a potent 1.6-litre engine – a true rival to the Renault 5 Gordini and the Volkswagen Golf GTI.
The Role of the XR2 in the Fiesta's Success
Ford might not have known it at the time, but the XR2 would soon become pivotal to the Fiesta’s success. As the hot hatch craze swept the nation during the 1980s and into the 1990s, the fast Fiesta sitting at the top of the range lured people into showrooms. Before long, it gained fuel injection to give it more power. That wasn’t enough, though, and soon the RS Turbo brought forced induction to the Fiesta.
Those who couldn’t quite stretch to the full-fat performance models were offered the 1.3 SX and the 1.6 S. By 1992, there was a four-rung ladder of sporting Fiestas, a range within a range, sitting alongside the now-ubiquitous Ls, LXs and Ghias, not to mention a cornucopia of special editions with fancy decals.
No wonder the Fiesta became a huge hit among the boy racer crowd of the 1990s. As a Capri owner and a member of several Ford clubs, I met many a fast Fiesta enthusiast, and pretty soon I was writing about them too, at my first job in motoring journalism – tea boy, lackey and occasional writer on Performance Ford Magazine.
Why was the Fiesta such a popular choice among our readers? Well, it was cheap and simple to work on, the range of available upgrades was huge, and many first-time drivers could start out with a lowly 1.1L and work their way up to one of the faster versions.
For the non-enthusiasts, the younger drivers who weren’t looking for something fast, the Fiesta’s frugality, affordability, ubiquity, and mechanical simplicity made it an ideal first car.
While it wasn’t quite her first car, it was a Fiesta I bought to help my then-girlfriend, now-wife learn to drive. I paid just £265 for it, a diesel model made in 1992 and owned by an elderly gentleman from new. It was hopelessly slow and remorselessly noisy, but it didn’t go wrong once, and I kept it for a year and a half before the ever-encroaching scourge of rust saw it finally pensioned off to the scrap heap.
I ended up with two Fiestas at the same time during this period. For a short while, I was entrusted with a brand-new seventh-generation Fiesta 1.0-litre turbo as a long-term test car.
I drove that car up and down motorways, along back roads and into the heart of London, and I adored it. It really proved to me just how the Fiesta had come of age – great to drive, comfortable, stable, well equipped. A car that really could be all things to all people.
The last Fiesta I drove was even better – an eighth-generation car with the same engine, now enhanced by a bang-up-to-date mild hybrid boost that made it even more fuel efficient. The Fiesta, it seemed, was set for a bright future; a technology tie-up between Ford and Volkswagen suggested it might gain electric power for the first time, setting it head-to-head with the electric version of its long-time nemesis, the Vauxhall Corsa.
The trouble is, building such a car is immensely difficult these days. Small cars don’t make much profit, what with all the safety kit they now need to earn a decent Euro NCAP safety rating. Electrifying them cuts that profit margin down further still.
Ford is a business, not a charity, and when the sums don’t stack up, it isn’t in its interests to keep making a car. The Fiesta’s sums didn’t stack up and, as a result, this happy little car’s 47-year life came to an end in 2023. But for those of us for whom the Fiesta has been a constant, cherished background presence in our lives, that doesn’t really soften the blow. Farewell, old friend. It’s been fun.
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