(car engine revving)
- From affordable transportation to
tossable tuners, this pint sized hatchback
is one of Ford's best selling cars
of all time.
Look, you guys, there's always a party
in my pants, but that's not nearly
as good as a fiesta en mis pantalones.
Welcome back to the show, d-holes,
this is everything you need to know
to get up to speed on the Ford Fiesta (giggles).
(fiesta music)
As early at 1963, the Ford company
was thinking about making a world car,
but the time wasn't right until 1972
when the little Fiat 127 and Renault 5
hatchbacks became huge hits with buyers.
And then the 1973 oil embargo happened.
I know that some of you just groaned
on the toilet, but what can I do?
It happened.
So, yeah, gas got expensive, and the time
was finally right to make an economy car.
Ford's popular Escort was rear wheel drive,
and there were plans to make it bigger in the future.
So there was room in the lineup
for a smaller front wheel drive model.
The deuce himself, Henry Ford II,
gave the orders to put one into production.
Hey, guys, remember that small car we were talking about?
Uh-huh (sips drink).
Yeah, the front wheel drive one (sips drink).
Yeah, I think it's time to put it into production.
(sighs) Good work, deuce.
Good work.
A massive new factory was constructed in Spain
to build the new model with help
from other plants in the UK and West Germany.
The design was drawn up Tom Jar-duh
and Carrozzeria Ghia.
He'd worked on the DeTomaso Pantera a few years earlier,
so he definitely know to draw cars pretty good (chuckles).
(car engine revving)
What they came up with was a small, well proportioned
three door hatchback with clean, simple lines,
but however cool it looked, it still needed a name.
The Ford marketing department wanted to call it the Bravo,
but the deuce personally shot that down.
In a nod to the factory in Valencia, Spain,
he wanted to call it something more fun
like the Spanish word for party.
Fiesta, baby.
Brand new Ford Fiesta Supermini went on sale
in Europe in the fall of 1976 and quickly became
an essential part of Ford Europe's business.
- [Voiceover] The Ford Fiesta.
It's a very advanced baby.
- But in the U.S., that class of cars
was only just starting to take off in the late 70s.
The Volkswagen Rabbit and Honda Civic
were selling like hot cakes, and Ford
had nothing in the states to compete.
So they threw on a catalytic converter,
they put on some big bumpers, side markers,
to get the Fiesta past U.S. Safety and Emissions Standards
and started shipping them over in 1978.
- [Voiceover] Europe's most successful
new car in history comes to America.
Introducing Fiesta.
- Now let's be honest.
Fiestas were never fast.
They had small four cylinder Ford Kent
engines making barely 50 horsepower.
The average horsepower of a new car today is 230.
The lowest trim could barely hit 80 miles per hour
while the top of the line might go 90.
But the American versions got slightly bigger engines
because that's how we do it here (chuckles).
The Fiesta had better suspension than its competitors,
and it was smaller and lighter than the Rabbit,
weighing in only at 1,700 pounds.
People who have mark one Fiestas will tell you
they're more fun than Rabbits.
(instrumental music)
Mark one, mark two, mark three, mark four.
The abbreviation for this is MK,
but don't say MK1.
Don't say MK2.
Say mark one, mark two, mark three,
and everyone at the cars and coffee
will be like, "Damn, this kid knows his stuff."
The car was a success, and Ford sold a million Fiestas
by 1980, but you'd never know it in the states
because it was gone from here by the end of that year.
Americans just weren't that into them,
and the bigger Escort took its place in 1981.
But also in 1980, Europe started getting
the first of the hot Fiestas.
Woo, it's getting hot in here.
(car engine revving)
Gary Kose, a local in the Detroit auto industry,
presented Ford with a sketch drawn by Harry Weeks.
Harry Weeks.
Girls, you know who I'm talking about.
Sometimes you just have a hairy week.
(Kristina laughs)
The design was a green and gray hatchback
with racy fenders and an integrated front air dam.
None of that stuff made it to production.
But Ford didn't stop thinking about it,
and eventually they asked father and son,
Donald and Jeff Healey, if they wanted
to (beep) with a Fiesta.
And if the name Healey sounds familiar,
it's because those guys invented those shoes
with the wheels in the soles.
Also, they were part of the British
sports car company, Austin-Healey.
So Donald and Jeff said, "Hell, yeah, mate,"
and whipped a hot boy British racing green machine
out of the U.S. spec 1977 Fiesta.
They rung out 40% more horse purrs out of the engine.
Bigger wheels and stiffer suspension.
Road and Track put it on their cover and said it was sick,
but unfortunately, the Healeys didn't finish it
until Ford was already pulling the Fiesta
out of the U.S. market, and only one
Healey Fiesta was ever made.
Lucky for Europe, though, the 1980 Fiesta Supersport
was testing the waters for an even hotter one.
In 1981, XR2 with a 1.6 liter engine, sporty black trim,
and round headlights instead of square ones.
The XR2 was the first Fiesta to reach 100 miles per hour
and the first to officially become worthy
of car enthusiasts' crushes.
(car engine revving)
With the Fiesta, i.e. party, officially dead
in the states, other parts of the world
got the second generation in 1983.
The XR2 was also updated for mark two form,
but Ford didn't make any quicker version than that.
They didn't want to cannibalize the sales
of their performance Escort models.
If you want to learn more about those,
we already did an up to speed on the Escort.
I'm gonna put a link in the description below.
Otherwise, not much changed in the Fiesta world.
They made a diesel.
(car engine revving)
Without an OEM hot version,
after market tuners filled the gap.
Ford was actually okay with that.
And customers who had mods installed at Ford approved
vendors got to keep their factory warranties.
This is a thing that Ford has always been pretty cool with.
The mark three Fiesta debuted in 1989
and was the first small car to offer anti lock brakes.
Great for driving in the rain when you gotta stop.
That's awesome.
Boo, who wants to stop?
Not me, baby (hums).
Stop.
Can't (hums).
Can you at least just do it quiet please?
Yes, I guess I can be considerate and do it quietly.
Now you already know the Fiesta is an economy car,
but we're not gonna let this episode
turn into a siesta.
So I'm only gonna cover the juicy,
beefy models from here on out,
so get your bibs ready, babies,
because we're getting boosty
starting with the 1990 mark three RS Turbo.
(car engine revving)
The Fiesta RS Turbo got the same engine
as the Escort RS Turbo.
Engineers tightened up the suspension quite a bit
because the torque steer was a handful.
The interior was fitted with recaro seats,
and you could tell you were about to get smoked
by a Fiesta by the green exterior striping.
The Fiesta RS 1800 that followed a couple years later
had pretty much the same power but with smoother delivery
because it ditched the turbo for a larger
nationally aspirated motor.
It was originally called the Zeta engine,
which you might now know as the Zetec engine.
Ford had to change the name because Lancia
threw an Italian hissy fit about someone else
wanting to use the Greek alphabet.
It's like (chuckles) ever heard of fraternities, Lancia?
(car engine revving)
The mark four Fiesta launched in the mid 90s,
and in some places, it overlapped
with the last few years of the mark three.
It was also sold as the Mazda 121, and even though the Mazda
was exactly the same car, the 121 got better
J.D. Power reliability ratings than the Fiesta.
The German built Ford Puma used the Fiesta's chassis
and had a bigger engine, so that became
an easy engine swap for just a little bit of
more power baby.
Please, will you call a doctor?
I can't stop, won't stop.
Yeah, man, as I finish this episode,
I promise we will try and call you a doctor.
(car engine revving)
Tuners jumped all over this swap
along with the face lifted Zetec S Model.
The face lift was so significant
that people in the UK consider it the mark five.
Now it seems like the sales of mark fours
and fives might have also overlapped,
and with Fiestas being sold all over the world,
it can make properly ID-ing all of the rest
of the generations a little bit confusing.
So I'm gonna probably stop labeling them now
so you guys don't yell at me.
Also, please be forgiving with our editors.
They do their best.
At the turn of the millennium,
Fiestas were as fun to drive as they'd ever been,
and Ford had huge sales numbers to top it off.
There were some sick concepts that didn't go anywhere
like the Fiesta Rally concept and the Fiesta RS concept.
But even the standard cars had handling and steering feel
way above average for an economical run about.
You ever heard of lift off oversteer?
(car squealing)
It's a gas.
And at long last in 2004, car enthusiasts
were hashtag blessed with the best performance version yet.
The Fiesta ST.
(car engine revving)
The ST's got two liter Duratec engines
making 150 horse purrs along with 17 inch alloy wheels
and a bunch of other standard sporty stuff.
A few years later, Ford offered
mountune performance upgrades developed
by Roush technologies to UK customers
that added as many as 35 extra ponies.
(car engine revving)
A much sleeker, more modern looking Fiesta generation
arrived by the end of the aughts,
and it was truly a global car.
It was built everywhere from Venezuela to Russia,
from Mexico to Thailand, and for the first time
in 30 years in 2010, the Fiesta returned to the states.
Now our economy had just tanked,
and people wanted small cars again.
And it was super easy for Ford to start
slanging Fiestas back in their home country again.
But better yet,
we also got the new ST.
(car engine revving)
With a eco boost 1.6 liter turbo engine
doling out 197 horse purrs, baby.
And when there's already boost
running through a car's veins from the factory,
it's so much easier to make
more power baby.
Help me.
Hold tight, buddy, we're almost done.
I gotta talk about Ken Block.
Ken Block drove them in a couple of Gymkhana videos.
One of my best friends, Tanner Foust,
won global Rallycross championships in them.
Also the Fiesta S2000 and R5 rally cars
built by M-Sport have done really well
in WRC and European rally championships.
(car engine revving)
And if you wanna drive one in the dirt,
Team O'Neil Rally School has a fleet of them,
and they'll let you behind the wheel
and show you how to drive them.
There's been a whole road racing series
just for Fiestas in the UK.
But Americans keep proving that we love
trucks and SUVs more than cars,
and the ultimate party car has once again
been pulled from the states as of 2020.
At least my Aussie boys prove that
they like to front wheel drive enough
to get Ford to keep sending them the ST,
but that's the only model that they get.
But honestly, if I could choose one,
that's the one I'd choose.
Thank you guys so much for watching this video
and everything else that we put out on Donut.
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Thanks again.
That was a good episode.
Can we please call a doctor now?