ford fiesta late 70's 46mpg

[retrorocket]

A 1.6 litre engine and 4-speed manual transmission that is EPA-estimated at 46-miles per gallon highway/34-miles per gallon city driving.

http://www.lovefords.org/78/78_fiesta.htm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14268930@N00/88483923/

I like these and always wanted one.

Has anyone here ever had one.

I don't think they made an overdrive trans for them in the us but maybe I am wrong.

What do you know about the fist gen Ford Fiesta?

Retrorocket

[88HF]

Looks and sounds like a honda:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Fiesta

[VetteOwner]

my parents rentred one while in germany on vaction in the early 80's. my dad got that thign up to 90 on the autobahn...ive seen one at my school in good condition. lol i want one. but ive only seen one...thier even rarer than chevettes...

[Spule 4]

A co worker's father has one, and a Dutch buddy had one. FAST rusters, but neat cars.

Great FE, but a very dated car.

[lunarhighway]

my girlfriend's about to get a 1998 fiesta diesel. if all goes well she should be able to drive it by the end of next week. it's an interesting car as all the successive models untill 2002 where essentially based on the original design, rather than designed from the ground up. aerodynamicly speeking it's not to fantastic, but it's light and has a small frontal aerea, from what i read it should handle pretty well too... i doubt she'll be open to to much tinkering with it but i hope whe'll addopt an FE friendly drivestyle

[2TonJellyBean]

In '78 I bought a new red Fiesta Sport. I don't remember the mileage but it was certainly night and day compared to the Chevy pickup truck with full time 4wd I bought to replace it. I could lift the car by the back bumper myself if the tank was low. The car handled quite well and would easily bury the 180kph speedo (+112mph).

Kind of bizarre but my sibling living in Germany at the time also bought a red Sport without us even talking about cars. That one was US spec (85mph speedo) and it was neat getting to drive it several years later when it was in Canada, long after mine was sold. It wasn't quite as peppy though...

[88HF]

Lunar did you g/f ever get the fiesta?

[lunarhighway]

yea she did.

neat little car... 1.8 diesel engine around 60hp i think... not really a sprinter (according to her she sometimes can't get it to accelerate on an onramp of a bridge but i think she's not used to the gearing yet...)

i only drove it once, but it's very nice to drive.... the engine is very low revving no indicator though so i haven't got any numbers... although you can't really revv it when needed... it seems to produce the exact same drone whatever throttle you apply... so one has to work with the gears to get going wich takes a litte practice.

i'm trying to get her to at least keep track of her kilometers and her fillups but i might need to make her a neat little form for that... i'd like to know what milage she gets... it's rated around 5-6 l/100km i believe, wich is not stellar compared to modern diesels but not all that bad... especially since diesel is much cheaper than gasoline here. i'm sure it could easily beat these numbers. it's got a very round nose compared to earlyer models... not to great looking but fairly aerodynammic i think. the rest of the car still resembeles the early models and don't look that aerodynamic, but the small size and weight should make up for that somewhat.

she forbid me to do "anything funny" to it so any aeromods are out of the question... pitty since the small front grill panel could easily be replaced with a nnice looking grillblock

[MorningGaser]

I had a '78 Ford Fiesta, and it was a fantastic car. I don't remember MPG numbers, but it was very, very peppy in accelleration although top-end was just around 115 mph. It was very fast off the line, for sure. It was built in Spain, and had a VW engine in it, I think a 1.6L. The 4 speed shifter shifted like butter, silky smooth and inspired confidence. The clutch pedel was very weird feeling and either grabbered or was disengaged...very short travel...the gas pedel had a VERY short travel...nearly full on or full off...it was a joy to drive and I use to burn Corvette's, Z28's and nearly any Japanese car off the line through 40 mph....

[2TonJellyBean]

MorningGaser, one of the best things I recall about my Fiesta was how easily I could swap ends with it. A flick of the wheel, a tug of the handbrake and a quick throw of the the shifter and I'd go from forwards to backwards, then a flick of the wheel, a full jab on the throttle while pulling from R to 2nd and I'd be off from reverse to forward. The Fiesta was far cleaner for doing this trick than any of the Rockford Files stunt drivers could ever do it with the Firebirds and unlimited tires - the Fiesta could do it at very low speeds too.

The first time I tried a reverse to forward highway turn on a Plymouth Horizon in later years using the exact same technique... well let's just say it wasn't suited to it -- not at all.