On 25 October 2022, the Ford Motor Company announced that production of the Ford Fiesta was planned to end, and on Friday 7 July the following year, the last two examples rolled off from the one remaining set of Fiesta production lines in Cologne, Germany. That final pair of Fiestas were to stay with Ford. Signed by every member of the team who worked on the cars, one was set to join the firm’s international heritage fleet in the city where it was built, and the other would be shipped to the Ford of Britain Heritage Collection at Daventry, in Northamptonshire. The Fiesta was the UK’s best-selling car of all time, with 4.8 million of the total global production of 22 million ending up on the roads of Britain; in 1990, 1991, 1996 to 1998, and then in a twelve-year consecutive run from 2009, the Fiesta was the country’s top-seller.
The Fiesta was a car that was loved by millions; it is still enthusiastically owned, driven, adored and admired today despite the end of its production after forty-seven years and seven versions. One of those versions was the third generation, launched in February 1989 following five years of development and an investment of more than £550 million.
Codenamed BE13, the third-generation Fiesta was a dramatic improvement over its predecessor and it boasted a stiffer, stronger, wider bodyshell better protected against corrosion, with an increased wheelbase promising to fix all the highlighted shortcomings (indeed, it was now best in class for interior space). Everything about the new car was different; very little had been carried across and, at last available as both a three and five door, it could finally compete with the Fiat Uno and Peugeot 205 as a more ‘grown up’ supermini.
Whilst the production numbers and longevity are impressive, it’s the car itself that we should celebrate. All seven generations of Fiesta attract a lot of attention. With modest and high-performance models plus virtually everything in between, it has an enduring popularity in both the classic and the modern car arenas. Even now production has ended, the Fiesta continues to provide reliable and cost-effective transport for many people, and the car will doubtless remain a valuable workhorse for several years to come. The Ford Fiesta has been part of so many people’s lives, certainly in Britain, that the model is usually considered to be British; they have driven one, owned one, learnt to drive in one, known a friend or relative with one, been a passenger in one, or just seen them on the roads and driveways of Britain over many years.
This car is one of the third generation Fiestas and specifically a 1989 three-door 1.1 Popular Plus. Image kindly provided by Ford Motor Company Ltd.
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