2006/2007 Fiesta - First Car

[Dr Interceptor]

Not my first car by any means, but the OH passed his test on Tuesday (1st time, 1 minor - swot), so I'm heading out car shopping this weekend.

Budget is £2k, and a Fiesta is top of the list, as that was what he learned in.

From searching the classifieds, that's puts me in high mileage 2006/2007 1.25 facelift territory. So is there anything I should be aware of before I head to the local garages this weekend?

Cheers folks,

Jon

[lufbramatt]

The guys that I used to lift share with both had these. Both had problems with the engine dropping into limp mode at the drop of a hat, and the diagnostics were not able to pinpoint the error which resulted in lots of endless component swapping at much expense to chase down the fault which was somewhere between the throttle pedal and injectors.

On one of them the clutch pedal assembly fell to bits, which took out the clutch in the process (wasn't ever being fully disengaged so wore out the friction plate)

And they both had the B-pillar trims go AWOL somewhere on the M2 due to being held on by tiny sticky pads that stop being sticky.

The front seats also gave me a long term back problem that mysteriously disappeared when I stopped lift sharing with them.

[Dr Interceptor]

Cheers for that... will make sure I take anything out for a proper test before parting with any cash.

I think these have timing belts don't they? There are lots for sale with 93k, 95k, 97k etc - I guess they're all due a belt swap?

[lufbramatt]

Not sure on belts/chains. TBH for that money and type of car I'd be looking at Skoda Fabias (and the other VAG variants on the same floorpan), they feel a lot less tinny than the ford offering.

[Dr Interceptor]

lufbramatt said:

Not sure on belts/chains. TBH for that money and type of car I'd be looking at Skoda Fabias (and the other VAG variants on the same floorpan), they feel a lot less tinny than the ford offering.

I know... I would be too. I've told it must be a Fiesta though...

[Dr Interceptor]

An interesting weekend car shopping, saw some right dogs, some that were downright dangerous with crash damage still visible too.

Ending up buying a 2006 Fiesta in Blue, 91k miles, cambelt service done, a few marks but otherwise pretty tidy.

Pick it up next weekend

[lufbramatt]

What's weird is I've recently had an almost identical conversation with one of my wife's younger cousins. Advised Skoda Fabia and just this weekend he bought a 2006 Fiesta.

Out of interest how much did you pay? he paid £3400 for his which seems really strong money to me considering my 530i is 3 years older and was only a little bit more. Felt like he'd been a bit ripped off but I guess small cars tend to hold their value more.

[Dr Interceptor]

I paid £2195

I look at cars in the £3000-3500 bracket, and in fairness they were very clean and tidy. But this is a first car and will pick up dings in car parks, so I thought I may as well buy one with a few marks already on it. Only age related marks, nothing too bad at all.

[Roastie ITR]

Interesting, didn't realise they sold for so much. Trying to decide whether to sell my 2006 Fiesta with just 36k miles, decisions decisions.