2001 fiesta 1.6 zetec s

[bert36]

i was thinking about buying a 2001 fiesta 1.6 zrtec s but someone said to me that the engines in them were dodgey is this right and should i stay away from them or are they talking rubbish and should i buy one?

[v8will]

I think you can only assess a car on it's condition now at 9 years old.

[MGZRod]

I assume the 2001 is a phase2 car. Usually pretty solid, coil packs can go and rust can get them if you don't keep an eye on it. Good wee cars. Was looking into them as my first car before I got the ZR

[bert36]

yea i suppose your right i was just thinking more along the line of reliability from new.

[deevlash]

I had that engine in my old Puma, never had any bother from it whatsoever, it was still on its original exhaust too.

[bert36]

yea my friend has a 1.2 zetec of the same age and has never had a problem with it. but i was a bit unsettled about the 1.6 because as i said someone told me there was problems with the engines in them. thanks for your help. think i might look into them a wee bit more then make my decision

[H_Kan]

It's a 1.6 Zetec unit, they are reliable enough and to be honest anything it does throw up is unlikely to cost much to sort out.

By all accounts, the Zetec S was meant to be really good fun to drive and I was really tempted by one but found the insurance a bit too much.

[Mastodon2]

I've got the 1.3L flight version of the MKIV facelift Fiesta and other than a dire lack of power it's a pretty good drive. Plenty of feedback through the steering wheel, and the steering is accurate and well weighted - definitely a lot heavier in feel than other cars of it's size and age. Non-Renaultsport Clios of the era are frightening to drive at speed I think, because the steering is so numb and vague that you have to point the car and hope for the best, whereas the Fiesta really is good for point and shoot driving. Plenty of grip and communication from the chassis, so good infact they used the same chassis for years, making the Puma off of the platform too. Interiors on them are not so hot, but it does add to the stripped out, rally-esque feel a bit when rumbling down forest roads. They do rust a bit but then so do many other cars of a similar age and price bracket, and none of them sound particularly good on the standard exhaust, even the Zetec S models. My car only has 25,000 on the clock and the suspension is great, it's very stiff and crashy over bumps, a lot more so than what I'd have expected from a "shopping car", but I'm not complaining in the slightest as the cornering is flat and precise, where some other cars dip and wallow on their suspension in the corners.

For what it's worth, my brother owned a MkIV facelift Zetec S for about 5 minutes, said it felt properly fast due to its perky engine and lightweight body and little damping and road noise. That said, his car really was an old smokebox, and ended up back with it's (dodgy) dealer a few days after he purchased it, because it had quite a few hidden gremlins in the electrics. When it worked, I'm told it was quite the car. I never saw it in person, because it came and went so fast.