The first time I was looking for a suitable vehicle to head off to Santa Pod for some drag racing in early 2017, I found a very sensible potential option in the local area: a Mark IV Ford Fiesta Ghia within five miles. The car was just over 20 years old, but had relatively low mileage and a Full Service History (so I thought). Arriving at the local station, I was then able to take a test drive in one of Ford's most popular models. The famous Ford gearbox was as smooth as ever, and the 1.25 Zetec engine pulled nicely.
Advertised at just £400, the car seemed well priced. The Mark IV Fiesta was the car which usurped the Ford Escort as Britain's best-selling car in the late 1990s, and it is easy to see why. Easy to drive, with good visibility, and a range of, for the time, modern engines (provided one avoided the entry level 1.3 Endura-E dating back to the 1959 Ford Anglia), it appealed to a wide range of people. The Ghia specification had electric windows, some lovely fake wood on the dashboard, power steering, front fog lights and a unique grille. This one still looked very smart indeed...
The interior was a little cramped, the plastics seemed cheap and the level of noise was much more than a modern car, but all of these things are true for most modest vehicles made in the 1990s. It certainly had the keen steering and handling for which Ford has been famous for the last 25 years, and doubtless the insurance and other running costs were low.
Having completed the test drive, I examined the car more closely, and realised the front tyres were cracked, the car needed a service and there was a potential leak through the sunroof. The paperwork looked complete, but it was all photocopies, which seemed a little suspicious... There was a receipt for new tyres relatively recently, which clearly were not the same ones on the car. I had to walk away in the end, which was a real shame, as drag racing a Ford Fiesta has as much appeal to me as most other people!
