Best First Car? Ford Fiesta 1.0 litre no turbo 2013-17

Is the Ford Fiesta with a non turbo 1.0 litre engine one of the best first cars you can buy?

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[wouterh]

Love how a driving instructor talks about heel and toe, then you know they truly understand driving

[Kombivar]

Over half a year ago, I received my provisional and found your channel. It gave me a huge head start with my instructor and made me more humble. Now just a half year forward, I passed all my driving tests and safely commuting my workmates to and from work in a company van, I will be buying my first car next month so Big Thanks for all the great knowledge and advices I could easily reach while I was awaiting my next driving session. It definitely reinforced and added to my awareness and driving skills, also for sure contributed to my first attempt success. Thanks a million!

update: I bought my first car and Good News!! It's a Dacia Sandero! 🤣🤣🤣

[loc]

Hi, I'm here from the future and have some advice: avoid buying a Ford or Honda (1ltr engines in both cases) which use a 'wet belt'. Failure is catastropic and getting it changed every 8 - 10 years is a £800 - £1600 job.

[artemkatelnytskyi]

I reaaally liked this video. Car reviews are definitely your cup of tea, so I look forward to new videos :)

[charlesholland-keen]

Good advice for a new drivers first car. Slow maneuvering is so much easier in a car that has these characteristics and that is very important.

[phantomtoast]

I bought a Skoda Citigo colour edition for my first car which I’ve had for almost a year. It’s a perfect small car for a new driver, 50-60+ mpg, very easy to park, the insurance was only about £1, 300 with no black box, very comfortable for a small car too.
It only has a 1.0L engine and 59hp but it certainly doesn’t feel underpowered, although the acceleration is pretty limited - 14s from 0 - 60

[PaulL]

I've got the 1.0 80ps, passed in July. Got plenty of power for a 1st car and will happily rev to 6500 anyday, definitely teaches you about the importance of gears and downshifting. The 3 pot sounds much nicer than all of my friends cars. Hoping to get the 140ps red edition in the coming years.

[peteiswriteingnow]

How things have changed my 1st car when i was 18 in 1974 was a 1500 vauxhall victor 90000 miles on the clock cost £100 and £100 3rd party only to insure, to hear people paying what £3000 to £7000 for one of these for a 1st car seems so much, now retired dont do the mileage iv got a 2015 100 bhp turbo ecoboost its faster then my wifes 1400cc better on petrol and no tax the biggest problem with these cars is the price of cam belt change, if you hang on to them a long time other wise great car.

[tomquick]

I just bought my first car last week.. a 1.4 tdci fiesta absolutely love it especially the fuel economy I'm getting over 80 mpg on the motorway

[dxnnyk]

My first is a 2012 1 Series. Lovely car - got her about £1200 cheaper than market value, despite her low mileage of 40, 000. Deal of the century!! Automatic, of course. 😅

[Harryd]

7:00 due to it being the zetec trim and the non turbo version the titanium has a much nicer interior and features, could look at one a few year older for similar price

[bazasulli]

Actually The 1.0 ecoboost is a very responsive engine with the turbo starting to spool as low as 1500 RPM other than that you are right about the turbo lag of turbo petrol's.

[johnhall]

Toyota Yaris is a good first car.

5 stars in the crash test rating, fuel efficient, cheap to insure and being a Toyota, very reliable.

[marceldutu]

Thanks for the video mate! I've had the exact car, a red 2013 1.0 80 ps for almost 4 years now. I do about 15k miles a year in it and I thought I could share my thoughts here, for anyone considering buying it.


It isn't the best-built car inside or outside. It might just be my car since it was one of the very first ones of this shape to roll out the factory, but it developed quite a few trim rattles over the years. Mechanically, touch wood, the engine has been good, although I do change the oil every 5k. The gearbox seems ok too, albeit a bit difficult to shift at times. The suspension is good on the motorway and smooth roads but any bad surface in town, or tiny bumps or the occasional manhole cover make the car feel like it's going to disintegrate at times. The suspension itself hasn't been very reliable between 18k and 60k, the worse culprit being a broken spring at 30k. It turned out it was rusting from the inside. The carpet is terrible and I would highly recommend car mats and a boot mat. I kept track of all the expenses I had on it, and on average, over the past 4 years, the car has cost me around £2.5k/year in maintenance and fuel.


One other slightly bad thing about it would be the performance. I say slightly because sometimes I think it's great, sometimes not. If it's just me or just me and my partner and the engine and gearbox are warmed up, the car keeps up with traffic in town. When the engine and gearbox are cold and I don't want to use too much throttle and revs, the low power figure definitely makes itself shown. The only other time you would notice you only have 80hp is when going up motorway hills and this is especially noticeable here in Scotland where there are many of them ha! Nothing a lower gear can't fix but even then, 4th may not be enough to hold 60 or 70 uphill depending on wind and how loaded the car is.


With that being said, I've had so many nice memories in this car that I think all of the niggles above can be forgiven. For starters, at at least 15k a year, getting 50mpg + -2 all the time is godsent (50-50 town and A road/motorway use). It cruises on the motorway and A and B roads faultlessly. We did North Coast 500 twice in it and one time we actually did it in one day and I wouldn't have done it in anything else! Another highlight would be a late-night stint from Wales to Scotland. We cruised at 90 all the way. It was a bit loud, but the little engine managed faultlessly. On A and B roads, so long as you know how to plan ahead, you can drive progressively and overtake without any problems. It also cruises really nicely on A roads, and most times, my partner falls asleep on the way back home. I think this can partly be attributed to how well the car settles at 60 mph., but mostly my grandad driving and shit banter. Depending on where you live, insurance is not bad and £0 a year in tax is very nice! It's also very easy to park and to manoeuvre in tit spaces.


If anyone potentially interested in getting this exact car is reading this, I would at least get a later model from 2015 onwards. If reliability is more important than fuel economy, I would get the 1.25 engine variant. I wouldn't recommend a turbo car to anyone since if they aren't taken care of and driven correctly they will have a lot of reliability problems. I wouldn't recommend this car in general, as I think there are more reliable and more comfortable small cars out there.

[Xofttam]

This is my first car. Just got a bigger engine in mine. Never had a issue with the seats myself or the steering wheel. I'm not used to higher end cars so I'm not personally comparing it to any

[boyracer]

My first car was a ford ka 1.3 had 69Bhp owned for nearly three years did me well I have now got a 2018 Mini Cooper 1.5 with 136bhp

[mintydog]

I've recently got a 2014 Fiesta with EcoBoost (not happy that I didn't fully research this engine before hand but that doesn't matter now) I do notice the lag, but I'm also a slow and careful driver most of the time, so it doesn't bother me, I don't really like shooting off like a rocket.

As for the breaks, I noticed this exact thing, but I took it in for a service and they replaced the front break pads, and I did immediately notice the difference, there wasn't as much travel on the break pedal anymore before it actually starts breaking.
Overall I'm happy driving it, it's my first car and I think it drives fine and feels more comfortable than driving a Vauxhall Adam (the only other car I've driven). Feels solid on the motorway at 70, it seems to have a slight judder at 30 which goes away at higher speeds, I'm not sure what that's about, when I get time I'll take it to Kwik Fit, they said they would take a look.
... just worried about that cam belt though.

[manchestergirl]

I've just brought a citreon c3 it's great little car, I only plan to learn in it😊

[Derively]

I also got a Fiesta (1.4 petrol, without turbo) as my first car, and I love it! It's more powerful than this, cheap to maintain, good fuel consumption, and it's amazing to drive.

[rufusgreenleaf]

Just bought the 1.0 Ecoboost Titanium, it feels like such a luxury to drive. Smooth and can give out a good kick when needed. You can get out of tight junctions and up to 60mph in under 10 seconds with nice medium revs.