Zetec 1.6 Diesel 5dr

Excellent all round small car but capable of trans-European journies

Having rented a Fiesta 1.4 diesel, I was sufficiently impressed to follow the old maxim of getting the biggest diesel in the smallest car, so I bought a Fiesta 1.6 diesel. It has all the bells and whistles and, unlike the later models, has rear seats where the squab tumbles forward and the back folds flat. The space revealed is huge for a small car. I drive from Hampshire to Holland and Scotland regularly and the Fiesta is really comfortable over these distances.

Being an outgoing model, it came fully loaded which was a nice surprise, less so were the 195/45 16 tyres. These are too wide and noisy for the car. The rims are as wide as the tyres and damage is almost inevitable.

On the positive side:-
Punchy and very economical engine (59 mpg in the first 40,000 miles)
Superb handling
Excellent headlights
Heated front windscreen
Clear controls in line-of-sight
Compact but with good interior space front and rear

On the negative side:-
Road noise
Folding mirror broke on driver’s side (fixed under warranty)
Engine warning light kept coming on (40,000 miles), once due to glow-plug problems (odd – since the car started OK) and once due to failure of the lambda sensor.

Report as offensive