Used Ford Fiesta Review

• by: Gromit21
• 2 years ago

Bought new in 2015 from Ford UK main dealer. Nice nippy car (125 engine) and solid build. Being a 3 cylinder (and perhaps because it’s the 125PS version) it sounds like a diesel, but the soundproofing is OK so not too noticeable. It’s a 2 door and one annoyance is that the seat position is not retained when someone has to get into the back.

It’s not beyond a simple bit of engineering to have it return to the adjusted seat position instead of having to set it every time. Boot size is of no great use, but then again it is a small car. The old Fiesta had a much bigger boot. Have bought Ford since 1989 based on (a) lots of them around so spares easy to get and (b) generally good build quality.

Serviced at the recommended mileages, and kept in good clean condition. Despite that, it’s had some failures which would have been expensive if I couldn’t fix them myself.

At 53000 miles (of mainly motorway driving) the clutch master cylinder failed, in that if you had your foot on the clutch for more than a few seconds it would creep forward, ie the pressure was being lost. Absolutely terrible to replace due to very tight access under the bonnet. I noticed while doing this that the long head bolt at the back of the engine (onto which the air tube is clamped) had rusted away, so the air tube just rattles as the two parts of the stud tap together. The other similar engine bolt supporting the tube is perfectly fine!

At 56000 miles despite driving to avoid potholes, the rear offside spring broke near the bottom. Reasonably easy to replace both but shouldn’t have happened.

At 61000 miles was driving along perfectly fine then cut out with ‘Engine service immediately’ error message and orange spanner warning. Had to have it towed home. Two options from the OBD – fuel rail pressure sensor (it wasn’t that!) or accelerator pedal. Replaced accelerator pedal (much easier than clutch pedal!) and now running again.

For a relatively new car none of these should have happened, so the likelihood of buying Ford the next time is in question. Also, the connectivity to the iPhone 6S worked OK but on changing to an iPhone XR it no longer works, despite many hours of research and investigating. Perhaps paying Ford a fortune for a software update might fix it but that sort of thing should be available at no further cost to the purchaser.

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• by: Gaz nife
• 3 years ago

Seems these cars have similar faults. Oil leeks clicking steering rack knocking engine mounts sticking rear caliper weeping rear shocks door rubbers splitting all on my car under 3 years old. Terrible cars. Squeaks rattles clunks and knocking all in the first year. 28mpg is the best i get around town driving conservatively. Cylinder deactivation doesn’t make much difference on a run apart from turning your ST into a Ka.

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