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History of old Fiesta - 520i

The parents have acquired an H plate Fiesta, 5 door 1.1lx with about 40k on the dial. Logbook has Ford Motor Co as the first owner, along with a note saying the car was declared as first used abroad. It was subsequently sold on for private use in the UK, but by what looks to have been a private dealership, rather than a Ford franchise. It appears, to my untrained eye, to be rather standard, in a nice shade of metallic maroon with manual glass sunroof and no obvious oddities. I presume all the RHD examples were built in Dagenham, with the Spanish and German output all LHD? Any thoughts on where it might have started its been or what it might have been up to? Did Ford regularly retain vehicles which were then sold on to the public? Any wisdom received with great interest!

Edited by 520i on 03/09/2017 at 12:20

History of old Fiesta - Galaxy

It could well have been built in Spain, I do know that a lot of the Fiesta's were build there. Being LHD or RHD wouldn't have made any difference, both types were manufactured in the various Ford Plants.

If you go to the Ford Etis website and enter the Registration Number or VIN Number you may possibly be able to find out a bit more about the car's history.

www.etis.ford.com/

Click on "Vehicle".

History of old Fiesta - FiestaOwner

The parents have acquired an H plate Fiesta, 5 door 1.1lx with about 40k on the dial. Logbook has Ford Motor Co as the first owner, along with a note saying the car was declared as first used abroad. It was subsequently sold on for private use in the UK, but by what looks to have been a private dealership, rather than a Ford franchise. It appears, to my untrained eye, to be rather standard, in a nice shade of metallic maroon with manual glass sunroof and no obvious oddities. I presume all the RHD examples were built in Dagenham, with the Spanish and German output all LHD? Any thoughts on where it might have started its been or what it might have been up to? Did Ford regularly retain vehicles which were then sold on to the public? Any wisdom received with great interest!

Hi. I used to have a K plate 1.1 LX Fiesta. I bought mine from a non-franchised dealer at 3 months old, it had 1000 miles on the clock.

Mine was 1st used abroad (can't remember the wording on the log book). At the time I bought mine, a lot of Fords were used on the car hire fleets in the Channel Islands for a short time before being sold in the UK. Mine was one of these cars. When I viewed mine it still had its Guernsey number plates. The dealer registered it with the DVLA on a local registration plate (of the correct year) before I picked it up.

When the cars came to the UK, they were sold at auction. That's how a lot of them ended up for sale at non-ford dealers.

Your parents Fiesta may well have been "Ex Channel Islands" too.

It was very common at the time for the garage adverts in the papers to include the phrase "Ex Channel Islands). They might have still been registered to the Ford Motor Compary while on hire in the Channel Islands

I remember despite it "only" being a 1.1 OHV engine, that it went like a rocket. The interior was nicely finished. It had a good 4 speaker RDS radio cassette. The standard sunroof popped up at the back using a rotary hand-wheel.

I was most impressed with mine.

Hope your parents enjoy theirs.

History of old Fiesta - badbusdriver

According to Wikipedia, the mk3 fiesta was assembled in the UK (Dagenham), Spain, and 2 different locations in Germany (one was Cologne, don't remember the other).

History of old Fiesta - elekie&a/c doctor

Other Ford plant ;en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saarlouis_Body_%26_Assembly

History of old Fiesta - Andrew-T

<< It was very common at the time for the garage adverts in the papers to include the phrase "Ex Channel Islands). They might have still been registered to the Ford Motor Compary while on hire in the Channel Islands >>

I think the main purpose of that was to confirm a low mileage. Perhaps on the debit side would be exposure to salt air (and maybe water too).

History of old Fiesta - daveyjp
Ex Jersey hire car is probably a good call. I had a Focus which had a similar history. A local Ford dealer used to get 10-20 cars in about November which had done a season in Jersey.

I also had a 1.1 Fiesta, L reg and a P reg diesel in the maroon which was called Dark Aubergine, a great colour when clean.

In a similar vein I was at a car show the other week and there was an immaculate mark 1 1.1L Fiesta on show, X reg I think, less than 40,000 miles.
History of old Fiesta - 520i

Very interesting stuff! Thanks all for the replies :)