What’s it like?
It still seems barely believable to be writing about the Ford Fiesta in the past tense, but the seventh generation of the supermini was the last of a line stretching back the best part of 50 years. And you knew what you were getting with a Fiesta – great value and the sort of everyday ease of use that made it such a huge seller over the decades (and us even sadder that it has now passed away). The Mk7 was a great example of all of these attributes and remained, arguably, the market leader right up until its demise, seeing off the likes of the Volkswagen Polo, Peugeot 208, Toyota Yaris, Opel Corsa, Renault Clio, SEAT Ibiza, Skoda Fabia, Honda Jazz, Hyundai i20 and more.
Which model to go for?
There is one potential issue with the Mk7, which revolves around the 1.0-litre EcoBoost three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine. This unit uses a ‘wet belt’ set-up for timing, and this has started to prove problematic for Ford. The thing is, the 1.0-litre EcoBoost was used in the vast majority of the final Fiestas, so if you’re going to buy one then you need either a super-low-mileage example, probably with less than 50,000km on its clock, or one where there’s evidence of the belt having been changed within the past one or two years, plus lots of oil changes.
Once you’ve got past that, you can’t go wrong with any Fiesta Mk7, really. There was also a 1.5-litre turbodiesel engine if you’re feeling like you’d like to avoid the petrol EcoBoost, while the range-topping ST performance model gained a 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol engine (also called EcoBoost) that nevertheless is a steadier choice because it didn’t use the wet belt – it has a timing chain.
An alternative to the regular, normal-body Fiestas was the Active, which used crossover-type details to give the Ford an off-road air. It’s a nice car to drive as its suspension is a little taller and softer than other models, so it’s worth seeking out if you can find it. Anyway, any seventh-gen Fiesta (provided you have a cast-iron record of its maintenance and it’s in good nick) will be a good car – we’d lean towards the 200hp ST as our favourite, because it’s a storming car to drive, but it will have higher running costs due to its inherently sporty nature.
Does anything go wrong?
Well, we’ve already covered the wet-belt timing, which is the major issue to avoid. Other than that, you want to watch for clogged diesel particulate filters (DPFs) on the diesel models, as many will have likely been driven in urban areas and so won’t have often gone on the long runs needed to ‘cycle’ the DPF over and clear it out – so check for that warning light in the dashboard of 1.5 TDCi models.
This generation of Fiesta was subject to eight recalls in total, which were for fuel-line chafing; an incorrectly tightened front-lower balljoint screw/nut; an oil leak in the engine; the seatbelt reel mechanisms; the earth connection in the traction battery of mild-hybrid models (mHEV); insufficient torque on the rear-seat latch fixings; a rattling steering column; and a faulty diaphragm plate in the brake booster.