USED Ford Fiesta Hatchback (95 - 02)

My car

I owned a Zetec-S for four years before recently selling it for something more grown-up!

It was my first car, easy to insure, very quick and wonderfully stable on the motorway yet a fantastic B-road beater. It handled like a go-kart, only understeering at the last minute, but easy to keep in check with some lift-off oversteer.

The build quality was, however, a little suspect with mine having a lot of warranty work undertaken on everything from paintwork to trim to mechanicals. A great first car though - unfortunately I did not trust the build quality enough after four years to keep it.

I suspect older versions (V-51 plate) may require a lot of attention to keep them roadworthy. It looked beautiful though - a real wolf in sheep's clothing - it had a surprising turn of pace!!

I loved it though and was very sad to see it go.

My car

This car feels good to drive but was very unreliable for me. Things just kept on breaking. One after another. In the end it was to expensive to keep so I got rid of it. This interior felt cheap and the lack of extras (only an air bag) was annoying.

My car

I have just sold my Fiesta (V reg - 2000). I have found the running costs very expensive.

I have done 30,000 miles in this car and had to replace 6 tyres, front discs and, more seriously, a seized gearbox, split starter wiring and fractured engine mounts.

The look and feel of the car was quite nice, and good for a woman to drive, but I will not buy another because I found it expensive to maintain.

It was not what I hoped for.

My car

Looking around for a first car, I took a test drive in a 1.25 Zetec. I'm not exactly a boy racer, but I like a bit of 'go' in a car, and I must say I was most impressed with what the smallest Zetec had to offer.

The only thing that bothered me about the 'Zetec' model, was the lack of a CD player, so I would advise looking at one of the later 'freestyle' models, that include most of the optional extras; CD, alloys, front fogs etc etc...