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A friend had a late 1980s one. A very whizzy car. Great fun to drive.
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A friend had a late 1980s one. A very whizzy car. Great fun to drive.
Im sure you're talking about the old XR2i mapmaker?
Just to expand my thread a bit, im after a Zetec, Flame or Silver trim not the Zetec S because the gearing is short & wouldn't make very good ground for a motorway run up to Scotland.
--
Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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Had a quick look at Autotrader, the only Fiestas with a 1.6 engine are the Ghia, Zetec S and the Style automatic.
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>XR2i?
Nope, just a plain, ordinary boring blue Fiesta. With 1.6 litres under the bonnet. Great fun to drive - compared to the 1.3 Montego I'd learned to drive in.
I remember trying to overtake a lorry on a slightly uphill stretch of motorway in the Montego. Failed.
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The 1.6 is definitely available in standard Zetec trim spec.
Blue
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Small cars never seem to be good value as big cars second hand. Go figure.
Very true that. The old nonsense like "small cars are easier to drive" and "small cars are cheaper to run" comes into force.
Well small cars are not necessarily easier to drive, it's all down to the basic design of the individual car and the visibility -- the visibility of my Primera is much better than that of a Mitsubishi Colt, for example, due to the latter's unnecessarily large pillars. And small cars are not cheaper to run -- due to heavy depreciation bigger cars are generally cheaper to buy, and because they were more expensive in the first place are usually better-built, so problems, and hence bills, are fewer and farther between.
But then we get down to the "cute" factor -- which is why the neighbour's daughter ended up with a rusted up 10-year-old Ford Ka with a knackered and very noisy pushrod engine from the Ark, and paid £2200 for the privilege of owning it....
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We had a 1.6 Clio a few yrs ago and had terrible troble selling it - people looking for a used Clio are generally looking for a smallish engine as they think it's be more economical and cheaper to insure (and in the Clio's case, both those assumptions would be correct).>> >> Small cars never seem to be good value as big cars second hand. Go
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If my experience of a 10-year old Fiesta 1.25 Yamaha Zetec engine is anyting to go by, you wouldn't want the bigger engine. Incredibly sweet, high revving engine, with plenty of power and certialy no reliability problems at all.
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I had a 2001 Mark 5 1.6 fiesta Ghia.
pros: great handling/fun good acceleration, reliable, revvy engine .. as good as a 1.25 imo for revs.
cons: Hard suspension (the 1.6 was lowered vs the 1.25), intolerant of potholes and uncomfortable on speed humps.. Fuel consumption in town low 30s, averaged 39 overall - about 10% worse than 1.25. Higher insurance and RFL. Gearbox whine and clutch release bearing whirr - common on all. Poor soundproofing. Paintwork poor - especially under passenger sill B post( where it cracks due to chassis flex? ). Underseal badly applied and falling off. low seats difficult to get in/out if you are elderly or injured:-(
Outclassed by a modern supermini.. about 10 years out of date imo. Body build quality incl. paintwork abysmal.
Fun to drive.. but totally outclassed. Depreciates like a stone. great steering, poor low speed ride..
madf
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Well actually I quite fancied a Ka, even the 8v engine appeals to me (especially as it's not a Yamaha). It's the lack of a rev counter I find hard to tolerate, and of course it looks like poor value compared to a larger car.
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Why is not being a Yamaha engine an advantage?
These small Mazda/Yamaha sourced engines were in no small part responsible for Ford's increased reliability over the years. The old engines were horrendously outmoded and fault-prone by comparison. Even Rover ditched the old BL engines eventually; by sticking with the OHV engines for so long Ford had relegated themselves below the Koreans and into Lada territory in terms of up-to-date design.
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It's the lack of a rev counter I find hard to tolerate
>
>>>>>>>>>> i would be more concerned about a lack of temp guage in a ka rather than a 10 bob rev clock
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It's the lack of a rev counter I find hard to tolerate > >>>>>>>>>> i would be more concerned about a lack of temp guage in a ka rather than a 10 bob rev clock
Surely the fact that it's cheap and nasty and going to rust would be the biggest concern.
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