Ford fiesta

[hutch1001]

I am looking to purchasing a ford fiesta (fifth generation onwards, budget is £3500 max.) as a car for my wife to use.

I have found this one(if I could get negotiate with the dealer down to £3500). Seems a good spec and lowish millage.

http://www.arnoldclark.com/used-cars/ford/fiesta/1...

I was hoping to hear about any known problems or issues with the fifth generation fiesta that I should be aware of before purchasing.

Thanks for your help.

[JackP1]

For that sort of price, when you say 5th gen you mean mk6?

Theyre generally decent cars, i'm on my second now and no real issues.
If aaaanyhing, i'd possibly go for one without folding mirrors, they can sometimes lose their marbles and not operate correctly and cost about £150 for fords to replace it, although you can pick up second hand units from £50. I had one go on my last one but thankfully it was under warranty!

Apart from that, nothing other than just general service upkeep

What model were you looking at?

[hutch1001]

JackP1 thanks for your response.

It would be a MK6.

Good news that from your experience you havent had any issues so far.

I was thinking something along the lines of the 1.4 zetec model

http://classifieds.pistonheads.com/classifieds/use...

but I do like the look of the 1.6 Ghia model.

Suppose it comes down to price and what I can get for around £3500.

Thanks again for your comments.

[JackP1]

The 1.4 zetec climate was what i had, very good to drive. I would most certainly opt for the 1.4 over the 1.25 engine as the 1.25 is as sluggish as they come!
1.6 though is still a decent engine, same engine as the zetec S

[LuS1fer]

I started looking at Mk 6 Fiestas last year. My experience of the lower models is they tended to be looked after "de minimis" so four different tyres and single shocks being replaced was the norm. There were plenty of 02/03 models round for around the £3000 mark.

The only bad thing I read on the internet was the diesels occasionally had issues. I hired a 1.4 while on holiday and it was great.

Ultimately, I increased the budget to £4500 and bought an ST as, being a warm hatch, they tended to have had more spent on them though are obviously more expensive to run. Mileages were also lower.

I saw a few Ghias at the lower level too but didn't like the cloth granny seats.

You'll find they do squeak and rattle a bit (possibly the rubber bungs on the parcel shelf squeaking on the hatchback plastic interior clam) and the bit of plastic at the rear of the door has a habit of falling off.

I do like it though, it has a bit of character.

Brakes can be rubbish - I fitted EBC pads at £107 the set and one of the rear wheel bearings was shot and had to be done and one of the front springs was snapped and rotated to shave off the tyre tread so give it a good check over.

[iva cosworth]

I bought a MK6.5 new in 2008 .It's a 1.25 and as above it's slow and struggles

on some hills.I bought it for economy

Problems,hardly any.

It's a Style Climate BTW.

AC stopped working when all the gas fell out ,probably due to the seals drying out in winter

due to me not using AC enough,so not really the cars fault.

The catch on the drivers seat to flip the backrest is broken.

So nothing wrong with its reliability for me,it's done 29,000 miles only too.

[hutch1001]

Thanks for everyones post's, really appreciate your help.

I have seen these three which are in the price range and from what has been posted the right engine size

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2013...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2012...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2013...

I was wondering, do you know how many miles it is before the cam belt should be replaced ?

Thanks again for all the posts.

[S2Mike]

One thing to look out for, that I know of. There was a little advertised re-call on front suspension springs, liable to break. Ford should cover the cost of replacement of both fronts @£450 or at least be pushed to help towards cost, if not already done. Ours broke ( on 2006 1.4 diesel ) , while reversing out of our drive, a bang and then loud rubbing noise. Glad not travelling at speed. Inferior quality metal used for the springs.

[hutch1001]

Having had a look around and test drove a 1.25 and a 1.4 we are now looking at the 1.6 along the lines of what LuS1fer was saying.

We test drove this today:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2013...

but I think its abit over priced at £4000, would I be realistic in thinking that a fairer price would be around £3400.

The same dealer in a different town has this on:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2013...

at £4100 but with 20k approx. less miles on the clock.

[LuS1fer]

S2Mike said:

One thing to look out for, that I know of. There was a little advertised re-call on front suspension springs, liable to break. Ford should cover the cost of replacement of both fronts @£450 or at least be pushed to help towards cost, if not already done. Ours broke ( on 2006 1.4 diesel ) , while reversing out of our drive, a bang and then loud rubbing noise. Glad not travelling at speed. Inferior quality metal used for the springs.

Out of interest, was this claimed against Ford after you had it repaired?

[LuS1fer]

hutch1001 said:

Having had a look around and test drove a 1.25 and a 1.4 we are now looking at the 1.6 along the lines of what LuS1fer was saying.

We test drove this today:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2013...

but I think its abit over priced at £4000, would I be realistic in thinking that a fairer price would be around £3400.

The same dealer in a different town has this on:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2013...

at £4100 but with 20k approx. less miles on the clock.

I don't know about values per se but I found the Zetec S was usually the same price as the ST (an 05 would be around £4k). The Zetec S is often praised as the better handler but I always think they smack of "couldn't quite afford an ST". The ST also comes with at least half leather. Is the fuel and insurance so different? My ST is averaging about 31-32 and I am growing very fond of it (especially after driving a hired Fiat Panda which redefined understeer and cheap interiors.

[hutch1001]

I just wanted to say thanks for everyones help with the above topic.

We looked at a few fiesta's but ended up going for a 56 ford focus.

Thanks.