RE: Ford Fiesta 1.4 Ghia | Shed of the Week

[SteRB5138]

E30KB said:

I it time to up the minimum to £2k ?

I think so, post pandemic there is not a lot of interesting metal for £1500 and under.

2 bags of sand for Mr Shed for 2022.

[ess]

1st gen Mk 3 Ghia models had wheel covers; don't believe there was an alloy option.

Had one in the family identical to the below.
Always thought it looked vaguely handsome in silver/grey and the gingers.
Pleasant enough to drive if I recall rightly; but nothing special.

S

[anonymous-user]

These were crap when they were new, nothing has changed

[anonymous-user]

jenkosrugby said:

I managed to extract 170 bhp from m old cvh.......Although I agree, it wasn't easy or cheap!.

I’ve read you can create a ZVH by putting a CVH head onto a Zetec bottom end. This enables you to keep all the fuel injection etc of the original car, but with a stronger, bigger capacity engine. You can add a turbo for decent power apparently too. Could be quite a sleeper!

We’ve always had Fords in the family and I still love them.

[-crookedtail-]

SteRB5138 said:

E30KB said:

I it time to up the minimum to £2k ?

I think so, post pandemic there is not a lot of interesting metal for £1500 and under.

2 bags of sand for Mr Shed for 2022.

I think if they have to use the pistonheads classifieds then yes. However, not really 'shed' money anymore in the traditional sense, current market not withstanding. I think there is still plenty of interesting cars around but the cheapo stuff is on Facebook or Ebay.

Back on track, I had a 5 door mk3 as my first car with the ancient and slow 1.3. Great times though

[MightyBadger]

MonkeyMatt said:

These were crap when they were new, nothing has changed

A bit harsh considering.

[Blackpuddin]

-crookedtail- said:

SteRB5138 said:

E30KB said:

I it time to up the minimum to £2k ?

I think so, post pandemic there is not a lot of interesting metal for £1500 and under.

2 bags of sand for Mr Shed for 2022.

I think if they have to use the pistonheads classifieds then yes. However, not really 'shed' money anymore in the traditional sense, current market not withstanding. I think there is still plenty of interesting cars around but the cheapo stuff is on Facebook or Ebay.

This was proposed a few months ago and shouted down. Used car prices have gone up since then but so have energy prices and the cost of living generally, reducing disposable income among those who might have to shop at this end of the market.

[Limpet]

DrBrule said:

It transpires what everybody in my dept thought was a rattly diesel Escort was in fact a petrol engined one. It sounded that bad.

If that was a CVH engine (albeit unloved) then I can totally understand the hatred.

A healthy one is OK at low to middling revs. They just vibrate like an old twin tub washing machine past 5,000 RPM and set your fillings on edge.

They did have a nasty habit of lunching their cam and followers at fairly low mileages, particularly if servicing was neglected which would set up a horrific clatter from the top end. Back in the day I bought a dirt cheap 1.6 Orion as a stopgap that was so noisy, it used to make people turn heads and stare when you started it up. Soldiered on for the 6 months I needed it to, and I sold it on as it was (for what I paid for it). Tough old lumps and tuneable too. Just a bit grotty in standard tune unless you pootle everywhere.

[Rocket Ricardo]

These were garbage first time around.

[Blackpuddin]

Rocket Ricardo said:

These were garbage first time around.

great now though

[Stoned]

They can make good power. Mine pictured made 165bhp using a T2 turbo with T25 internals. It's just a shame Ford never gave them a LSD from the factory because even with stock power they were a handful, and not in a good way!

[GCH]

Used to pootle about in one of these after passing my test - H plate in silver.
Awful, awful thing.
And the non-original wheels on this one are

[spreadsheet monkey]

J4CKO said:

I am sure someone will potentially buy it for their kids to learn/as a first car but these pre-date proper safety in small cars by some years so I wouldnt buy it for a young driver when you can get something with ABS, Airbags, decent crashworthiness and ESP for similar money or not much more.

I agree most people would want something with modern safety features for their kid’s first car.

Here’s someone on YouTube who has bought a similar Mk3 Fiesta for his son to have as his first car *in 10 years time*.

In the meantime he’s planning to keep it in storage. Laying it down like a bottle of fine wine.

https://youtu.be/Xqt9wUsBkvk

[anonymous-user]

MightyBadger said:

MonkeyMatt said:

These were crap when they were new, nothing has changed

A bit harsh considering.

considering?

[littlebasher]

My mum had an identical one (same spec, colour, age), new back in the 90's. She got rid of it after a year of ownership, due to a funny smell in the car.

Unfortunately my folks went on holiday, having forgot to hide the keys. Naturally I used the car while they were away, long story short spilt 4 litres of OJ on the drivers seat.

As much as I tried to clean it up, just couldn't shift the smell. Even the Ford dealer she went to, to complain about the smell were baffled.

[samoht]

-crookedtail- said:

SteRB5138 said:

E30KB said:

I it time to up the minimum to £2k ?

I think so, post pandemic there is not a lot of interesting metal for £1500 and under.

2 bags of sand for Mr Shed for 2022.

I think if they have to use the pistonheads classifieds then yes. However, not really 'shed' money anymore in the traditional sense, current market not withstanding. I think there is still plenty of interesting cars around but the cheapo stuff is on Facebook or Ebay.

I think there are still just some moderately interesting cars for £1500 in PH classifieds

Mercedes 190E - one of the last engineered like no other
https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/11238510

Peugeot 306 - are the convertibles better-preserved?
https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/12446414

Merc SLK - original show-car style R170
https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/12179101

so I think it's just Shed's chosen to focus on the nostalgic/rubbish Ford angle (delete as appropriate) this week, which is fair enough I guess.

[Glutton]

Given the upward surge in used car prices which are clearly filtering down to the bottom end of the market is it time for Shed to put his hand in his pocket and increase the budget (maybe temporarily)? The last few SOW’s have taken the shed element a bit too literally for my liking!

[Brian112Aston]

Those of us old enough to remember these first time around know how truly awful they were. Basic, noisy and unrefined, Ford took the micky sticking 'Ghia' and other badges on them to make them sound posh. I tried to dissuade my father on more than one occasion from buying them but no, he loved the above attributes!

The upside then and now is that you don't need a Cray supercomputer to fix anything, so I would urge first timers to get one now and enjoy real motoring.

[clacs2]

Stoned said:

They can make good power. Mine pictured made 165bhp using a T2 turbo with T25 internals. It's just a shame Ford never gave them a LSD from the factory because even with stock power they were a handful, and not in a good way!

They certainly were torque steer-tastic, I remember one throwing me at a hedge outside Ingatestone many years ago. I missed, which was fortunate as it was a customer's car and I would not have been popular had I bent it. Halcyon days.

[njw1]

Lots of comments here (and on the Sierra thread) saying how crap these were/are but wasn't everything from the 'mainstream' manufacturers a bit crap in the 80's?
I've actually got a bit of a soft spot for the mk3 Fiesta as for many years from the early 90's to mid 2000's it seemed like at least one family member or friend had one, the missus had one, my father had one and my mother had three! I found them great to thrash about in mainly because they were so tinny, harsh and unrefined.