Fiesta launch - 1976
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- Опубліковано 11 чер 2024
- Presenter Julian Pettifer takes the viewer through the newly launched Fiesta. "the definitive small car". After 7 years of development, which cost £400m, the car is ready to hit the market. The cars have three new engines and a whole host of equipment both standard and optional.The Ghia is the most luxurious with such features as a carpeted boot, a brushed velour trim and alloy wheels. The S version can do 0-60 in 13.7 seconds.
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RIP Fiesta model range, you gave joy to so many people.
I love how the presenter gives a very clear description of the fiesta in this video, also he sums up what is basically the perfect car for your average joe blogs. Now a days the roads are cluttered with big ugly bulbus SUVs that are totally not suitable for most!
And pot holes that are almost as big as this fiesta.
@@chrishart8548 yep the roads are terrible, if its not pot holes its bad road surfaces and bad patch up jobs, every rd the same!
Ive welded these from one end to the other
I've got one you can come and do if you're keen. Front panel, front footwells, sills, boot corners, rear valence....
Computer free & easy to maintain yourself, simpler times. I learnt to drive in a Mk2, was such an easy car to drive.
My first company car was a Fiesta 1.1 pop plus, in that rather drab plain mid blue colour in 1989. Great car, went all over the UK in it while working in finance. Happy days.
Sadly im old enough to remember these when they first came out, my first fiesta was a B reg XR2 that i paid £50 for in 97😊
I paid £230 in 1998 for a B reg 1L popular. With a dodgy MOT
Bet you wish you still had it…
@@TB-ik4lo not really. I moved house several times and wouldn't have had anywhere to keep it. Also it was rusty then it would have even more rust now. I'm really glad people do have and restor cars but I would rather not have a car at all. They are just a headache to me.
I got the use of a MK1 XR2 company car in 1988 while working in musical instrument sales. Superb car.
The Mark I Fiesta was sold in the U.S. from 1977 to 1980. All U.S.-market Mark Is were built in Saarlouis and Cologne, Germany and were powered by a 1.6-liter "Crossflow" engine. Trim levels for the U.S. market were base, décor, Sport and Ghia.
I had the original goody-bag that they gave out at the dealerships. My aunty was a cleaner at Kirbys Ford. My sister also had one. "Ford Fiesta, beautiful baby" - was written on the badges, brochures, etc.
Clean lines,excellent all round visibility and easy maintenance -What more can a driver want from a City car ?
Im a retired driving instructor and I have used 4 of them during my time. Brilliant wee car visibility was all round excellent, very easily driven and super reliable
Great comment
That looks so good now!
I love this Fiesta ❤
Ford Motor Company has lost billions of dollars on their investments in electric vehicles. So their low or zero profit Fiesta had to be discontinued to save money. 😢
A move that reminds me of shutting the barn door after the horse has escaped…
The real reason is that the Fiesta was made in Cologne, which Ford decided to spend billions on it to convert it to EV production, which nobody wants.
With the moron Jim Farley as CEO, Ford is not long for this world, a real shame
Its ashame.
Pretty much every small car followed this format... Especially under the bonnet... Rear carpeted parcel shelf...wow the options... We are so spoilt nowadays 😂
I've got one of these in my garage, a 1982 Popular Plus 957cc with various upgrades fitted from a scrap 1.1L Economy. It's a stalled project that's in bits, needs a lot of work, and I haven't touched it for 14 years. They're so light and easy to work on, it's like (rusty) Meccano. I must make a start on it once my current project is finished.
I started working at Perrys Edgware in 1977, and got a 1.1L fiesta in diamond white as my company car! From memory it was R registered! Revved the nuts off it to get anywhere 😳
loved it fantastic small car❤
It looks so tiny now it's crazy.
Done my apprenticeship at Ford main dealer from 81 onwards always loved Mk1 Fiesta and Mk2 Escort
me too , them were the good old days ,now its a bloody nightmare, how the complexity of modern cars makes the old fords look a dream to work on . Glad I'm retiring shortly 😊
I can't recall having seen many fiestas with that vinyl roof; this L version looks quite handsome with it though.
If I remember correctly, vinyl roofs were an option on all models until 79/80. Vinyl roofs were discontinued as they became unfashionable and did not sell well.
@@Sd1v8v They weren't offered in all markets for that matter. Not in the US at least, I suppose the logic there was if it was your thing you'd buy a Mustang II Ghia. Chrysler listed one as an option on the Omni and Horizon in 1978 only but the only evidence that any cars so equipped ever actually reached the public I've found is a glimpse of one on a Canadian dealer lot at the edge of a picture showing a row of Volare wagons.
The vinyl roof was more complicated and expensive than normal. Usually the vinyl finished at the drip rail but on the mk 1 Fiesta this would have ended at the top of the lift gate and the result looked poor and cheap. We had to develop a rail which was welded to the body panel behind the quarter window. This required many new parts and assembly processes. The result looked good but it was never popular.
@@idrislewis6896 That's genuinely interesting. From what I've seen of the Horizon one they left the hatch uncovered and used what seems to be like a solid padded-look panel that attached to the C pillar as one assembly, with everything else above the drip rail. But then, the only documentation I've seen other than the dealer lot pic are a couple of factory press photos since it was only shown in painted/line-art illustrations in the brochure and not in any magazine or TV ads.
@@nlpnt sorry not familiar with Horizon. A concern with vinyl on the tailgate is the two thicknesses reduce the clearances. If its not in the design brief to start with its difficult to integrate it later. For Fiesta it was always in the concept but was engineered so as not to compromise the high volume non vinyl roof bodyshell or lose structural stiffness.
Rust in peace Fiesta. SUVs killed your future
SUV’s did not kill the Fiesta, the crime was committed by that moronic CEO, Jim Farley. The Focus is next…
After 47 years in production, the car was a cash cow, takes real managerial skill and intelligence to cancel your most popular car.
Ford. Found on rubbish dump..
@@arthurdardalis ......these cars are not selling precisely because everyone in the UK now wants a f*****g SUV.
So yea, that other comment was correct. SUV's have ruined the car industry probably more than the 'too hasty' switch to EV's that car manufacturers are now also 'pushing' us in a quite aggressive way, to buy.
Believe it or not, some of us out there don't want an SUV, or an EV - we just want a reliable ICE hatchback.....like everyone else wanted....until about 8 years ago.
SUV did not kill our Fiesta.
@@adamanthony7465 ....but they have. Just as they've killed the Mondeo, and Focus.
The Polo (VW), and Corsa (Vauxhall) are both doing ok; but the Golf (VW) is dying because of customers' preference for Smaller SUV's like the T-Rock and T-Cross....or the parallel all electric ID3. And the Astra (Vauxhall) is also suffering from declining sales.
Vauxhall's Insignia has also gone - another victim of the SUV 'mania' that's gripped the UK over the last 8 years.
None were/or are bad cars - but too many people are now 'obsessed' with having an SUV. All very sad.
You don't need an SUV in an urban environment. It's completely unnecessary, and is overkill. In the countryside or a semi-rural area, yes ....but not in a place like London.
I remember the Fiesta when it was launched. I’ve now owned two KA’s and three Fiesta’s, a mk5, then a Honda Jazz and then two mk6’s. All except the last bought new. My current Fiesta, a 2017 model bought with 9000 miles, has just had a new clutch at 97,000. Ok, honestly, if I could now afford it I’d go back to a Honda but I can’t really complain about my Fords.
I really wanted a Honda civic. But £13.5k for a 2006 civic with 35,000 vs £9k for a 2008 focus with 9,000 miles. I got the focus lasted me almost 16 trouble free years. And still got £721 when it needed a new clutch, had a noisy wheel bearing and a fractured spring. I could have fixed it. But I sold it.
When you hear the mk1 Fiesta's features presented like this, it hits home what nicely rounded package it was, advanced for its day. F*** SUVs
My mum had a 1982 Y reg MK1 1100 Ghia back in the day. Great little car. Light blue metallic with black vinyl roof and sunroof. The video mentions headlamp wash but I've never seen a MK1 Fiesta with this feature - at least not in the UK.
The headlamp wash was only standard for ‘cold countries specifically Norway, Sweden and Finland. The option was rarely taken up by dealers for stock cars, if you find one in the UK it was probably an ex Ford Management role lease car!
My X plate 81 supersport had headlamp wash fitted. Two option packs were available one included the headlamp wash .
@@grantlivingstone147 the 1981 Supersport was fitted with the original section black bumper with overriders. It was a ‘runout’ model and it was common to offer option packs at an attractive price or even standardise them on certain models. In 1982 the bumpers were changed to the larger section with end caps and new overriders. From memory the headlamp wash system then changed from wipers to pressure washers fitted in large overriders, again rare in the UK. It took a lot of convincing that the pressure washers would shift mud!
@@idrislewis6896 Hi, Yeah the headlamp wash wasn't too effective.
My abiding memory of these was the unnerving ping when you closed the door! 😄
That's the door catch design and lack of any engineered-in "clunk", rather than a build quality issue. The Escort mk1 is the same, but the doors are solid.
Given a chance and the right price I'd buy one tomorrow.
It's surprising how many features this has over the contemporary Escort. It's got me thinking that objectively, unless you wanted a performance model or 4 doors, you'd have to have been mad to choose the Escort over this (and personally I much prefer the Escort!).
Well, I'm convinced... I'll take one.
Let to drive in one in 1978 and it's still going on
My first car was a T reg Ford fiesta 1.1L, same colour as the one in this video, also with the black vinyl roof but with a pull back sun roof. No head restraints though. Great car, easy to work on. Once changed the radiator.
I had a 1979 base Saloon as my first car........really as basic as it got! But I loved it and I've been a Ford fan ever since. Such a shame the Fiesta is no more :(
Puma is only £10 a month more. And considering all the extra room it's worth it. 14% longer it's wider and taller and the boot is bigger.
Tempted to buy one but I’ll wait till they’ve been out a couple of years incase teething problems are an issue
This guy sold me on one, I’ll take the S please.
Ahh that original Fiesta was a work of art.
My Grandad had a rosso red Fiesta 1.3 Ghia before he bought his Sierra Ghia estate.
Note how the base model has no door mirrors and all the rest, including the Ghia, only have a mirror on the driver's door.
Please tell him to stop slamming the doors!
I reckon he got told to do that to emphasise the solidity
And finally the Fiesta Ghia…still only gets a single side mirror!
you had to in those days !
A milestone is so many motorists and enthusiast's lives.
The Fiesta is one of my favorite cars of all time next to the Range Rover Had many of them over the years and wish I had a Mk1 to this day
I once had one of the earliest Fiestas, a 1976 signal green base model with the low compression 957cc engine. The car was incredibly basic, and lacked many things we take for granted on any car today. Listen to what they call “features” for the L and S models, and realize the base model didn’t have those. So no reclining seats, no radio, no clock, no instrument brightness adjustment, no head restraints, no rear seat belts. Mine didn’t even have carpeting, just rubber floor coverings, so carpet must have been a UK spec thing. Still, the car was pretty unbreakable, and I would drive it on the French Autoroute with my foot flat on the floor for hours. I miss that car.
I owed the exact same car both in colour and year. Best car I have had straightforward and simple to repair. Remember having to put a rear wiper on it as the rear window was impossible to see out of in wet winter weather. Came as an accessory kit, happy days.?
@@GP-pw5wbI didn't have a rear wiper on mine or a heated rear window. Also no mirror on the passenger side. No 12v socket.
According to what's shown here, not even the Ghia offered those head restraints. Which is rather amazing ..
@@kjellhmyhre2374 Things like that were probably reserved for the Escort to give it at least some differentiation for the price difference!
@@dungareesareforfools That might be. However, there were certainly other differences between those models which might or might not justify that difference in price. For one thing, the Escort was of course an altogether larger car.
Those head restraints were after all an optional extra on the Fiesta, and I would have expected them to be offered as part of the standard equipment on the Ghia model.
As a matter of fact, all Fiestas were equipped with restraints as standard in this country. (Norway)
Never realised the basic hatch was called the Fiesta Saloon (?) prior to becoming the 'Popular' and 'Popular Plus' and had such skinny 135 tyres! They may have been basic with no PAS, electric windows, no airbags and being equipped with a 2 speed blower with inertia reel seat belts and head restraints as luxury items but basic means fewer things to go wrong. A double breasted suit and flairs complete the 1970's period look. VW had the most unbiased advert for the Polo at the time with a Polo and Fiesta photographed together. Under the Fiesta is stated "Underneath it's still a Ford". Under the Polo it stated "Underneath it's still a Volkswagen". Ironic as Ford will now be selling Ford badged VWs.
That's also ironic because underneath, the Polo wasn't a VW, but an Audi 😉.
@@dungareesareforfools Exactly, the Audi 50 which for a brief period was sold alongside the Polo. Good point!
Production of the Granada was switched entirely to Cologne to let Dagenham build the Fiesta.
Did this sell well?
Sounds like you had had a fiesta popular. No heated rear window or passenger sun visor or sound deadening either.
I met some car types around Luton in the late 1970´s, apparently it was so good that dealerships were complaining that it was too good , and they never saw their customers after it was sold. It was that good.
Whether Ford then built in a few things to keep the dealerships happy? I have no idea.
I know my mate got stopped in the UK by the Police as he had one bought tax free in Germany, and they only stopped him to look at the car!
Citroën probably saw there customers coming back daily.
Servo assisted brakes were an option at launch on Fiesta's with the 957cc engine?! Christ. 😧
Even the mk2 950 had no servo!
Still like the old shape any day
Would anyone happen to know the difference between "regular" and "signal" paints? Be very interested to know (I'm sure it's marketing speak but still be good to know!)
Signal paints were very bright, vivid colours like orange , lime green or bright blue. I had a Cortina mk111 in bright orange which was virtually Day-Glo
@@MajorKlanga ah I see, I did wonder as that seems to have carried into modern Fords but I never really got it, thank you! Makes perfect sense :)
What is the difference between high or low compression engine anyone?
Low compression doesn't require as high octane fuel as a higher compression engine. Years ago, in some places you could only get 2-star petrol (it was cheaper than 4-star too), so this allowed the car to be run on that.
@@dungareesareforfools thanks for answering
Pauvre petite fiesta.... pourtant elle était dispo
To bad they didn't last long in the States , always liked them
0:26 16 year old Jeremy Clarkson takes note.
Brushed aluminium. It's plastic!
Had several 1.1 mk1 fiestas. Didn't like the plastic dash in the lower spec ones, with that silver strip across it and no glovebox. I fitted a vinyl dash out of a ghia in one of mine, plus centre console, even wired up the lights for the heater and glovebox.
£4oo million development cost but forgot to rust protect
Nobody did this back then.
Why rust proof it? You want to sell more! Don’t you 😂
That's not true at all - they were rust proofed, and reasonably well, judging by how many survived as daily runabouts well into the late 90s (long after Cortinas vanished, for example).
@@dungareesareforfools mk1 fiestas weren’t around much in the 90’s except for those used by oap to get to the church and the mk2 had more or less disappeared by the turn of the millennium.
Cortina’s finished in81/82 so they would have disappeared before the mk1/2 fiesta which carried on until 88.
@robgraham9234 I was talking about the mk1 in this case, and sorry to disagree, but in the north of England for instance, there were loads around in the late 90s. About half of my friends had them as first cars in the mid 90s. And mk2s were plentiful till the early 2000s as I recall.
Thin A pillars guarantee you won't survive a crash.
Theres less chance of having one, as you can see that much better!
@@mattcrooke8321 it's people using their phones and drifting onto the other side of the road what I'm worried about. Seems common nowadays
Being released in 1976 guarantees you won’t survive a crash 😹.
It’s also why those of us who learnt to drive back then are such good drivers. The bad ones were eliminated by Darwinian principles 🙈
@@robgraham9234 if you crash one of these rear seat belts and headrests would be the least of you worries. The steering column would probably spear you anyway. Wile the car folds like a coca cola can.
@@chrishart8548 The steering column was collapsible, that was its safety feature along with anti burst door locks and the petrol tank in front of the rear axle.
Fitting of seat belts to rear seats wasn’t required in the UK til 1986 I think. 3 years after compulsory wearing of front seat belts, introduced on 31/1/1983!
My anorak is too worn out to remember when mandatory wearing of rear belts came in.
If they built them again tomorrow I would buy one straight away.
Shame that Ford stopped making it. The Fiesta brought motoring to millions of people, and joy to many of us.
Simplicity is what I miss in modern cars. Don't need a computer to fix this one.
@@levelcrossing150need a computer to pass all the emissions requirements.
@@chrishart8548Computer says No! I remember a time when a good experienced mechanic would sought out the emissions. Now we need a computer to switch a dash light off.
When ford made cars and not shit ill handling mock 4x4s
It says a lot when, these days, the sales lines are all about what you can do with its bluetooth infotainment, and not a mention of what it's like to drive or what kind of suspension there is, the type of engine...
A top speed of 80 & 85mph Goodness me. That means a cruising speed of 60. Anything more would have been raucous & worryingly rough. Sixty in a fiesta would be like driving a current Focus at 110mph. Yep, back in day, small cars were dog slow. Venturing beyond the inside lane was a risky business. As for the fastlane - forget it. A modern small car is as brisk and comfortable as bigger models in the range. Customers won't accept third-rate travel anymore. I guess that's progress in action.
A family member used to have a 1.1 - yes it was slow on the motorway, but it wasn't noisy or rough (at about the 65mph that it was comfortable with).
saloon model. static seat belts!!!
In 1997 at the age of 19 I got my first car - a 14 year old one if these. Horrible little car.
I can see Ford pulling out of Europe like GM eventually. Cant be in a good place if they need to go cap in hand to Volkswagen to share there electric platform. Zero choice other than SUV's these days. Ford was the masters of marketing back in the day.
It was a decent little car and sold fairly well in the US. Not quite a VW Rabbit, but still reasonable. Unfortunately, British presenters often come across as so dry and boring. Not sure why they don’t leverage some dry British humor along the way.
In this era it had to be a man who looked like he knew something about cars. Someone who could ask the dealer boring questions about whether there is Syncromesh on all forward gears, rather than what colours the car came in. I agree this presenter is excessively stiff, even for the 70s.
Yes, not quite a Rabbit. I’ll bet it was priced accordingly. I think the Rabbit had better body integrity, giving a more solid feel.
Imagine an electric one of these
I can't.
Probably be better. These only had 40hp and were very slow. And who wants to go very far in a car like this. Small electric moter could match the performance and a 16kw battery in the boot would be perfect.
@@chrishart8548An old ladies shopping car! What do you expect!
@@chrishart8548 I once did 500 miles in one day in a 40bhp 903cc Seat Ibiza and loved every minute of it, but then again I'm a bit weird like that. However, I'd convert my Mk1 Fiesta to electric if I could afford it, it would make the perfect local runabout.
It would take up all the luggage space and make it handle like a wheelbarrow full of bricks.
Err ....it's... _YELLOW!_
_ffs!_
Yeah - it's not metallic grey.
Yeah, it’s great, isn’t it?