1992 Ford Fiesta Bonus 1.1L petrol from UK and Ireland
Summary:
Slow, but hassle free cheap motoring
Faults:
Oil warning light that persistently appears under heavy breaking.
Back box of the exhaust rusted off (luckily whilst parked.) Was taped up and fell off whilst driving on my way to the garage, cheap to replace at £33.
Minor oil leak, so minor I haven't bothered to look at it during the year I have owned the car.
Nearside wing mirror came off during a minor scrape with a drunk pedestrian who believed he could walk into moving cars. Scrap yard will be the best bet, but haven't replaced yet.
Poor breaks, but you tend to get used to them, general wear and tear.
Persistently failing break light, was replaced twice before the fuse blew and now there are no panel lights on the dash board either.
Very very poor locks that were overcome by some fellas with a screw driver in under 20 seconds I believe. Took my custom CD player and £80 worth of Cd's, but the car still locks.
General Comments:
My Ford Fiesta bonus has treated me well for the year I've had him, and that was mostly due to it being well looked after.
As you can expect, it is seriously slow, and slow to pull away, but it has a manual choke so if you play around with that you can really pull the revs up.
The handling is nothing special, no power steering means parking in tight spaces is an absolute nightmare (especially when you struggled for 20mins to squeeze into a space, give up, and a 5 door Focus makes it in 10seconds.)
Overall the car has given me hassle free motoring for a year, with a full MOT, and for £350 I can't complain.
Only complaint is that the Bonus model is very very basic. It's like a Fiesta with all the luxury (if you can all it that) removed. No sunroof, no electrics, no clock! But it's a great first car to get you sorted. Don't attempted racing a Cooper S up the A1058 with one, makes you look foolish.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 7th September, 2004
1st May 2005, 14:13
I am the original writer of this review, and have since sold the fiesta. It was up for MOT and I didn't fancy my chances to be fair! After the break in I lost the love for the Fiesta, and parted with my first car. In retrospect, if you have £500 for your first car, don't expect much from a Fiesta. They aren't the pinnacle of reliability, but I did get a year out of it. The locks are a complete joke! I sold it to a scrap yard, they had it stolen, and the people who stole it had it stolen apparently! I've had so many calls from the police to inform me, DVLA aren't great at getting my name off the register.
I bought a 1.3 Toyota corolla and its sooo much better. Drives like a car should. It was made in 1993 but has a FSH and power steering and the interior seems to have been engineered to think about the little things. It drives normally! It is fuel injected and feels more sharpish to respond. Definitely better drive, but again minor niggles. Good luck with Fiesta's though, it was worth the cash for a years motoring!