Driven to extinction: Ford Fiesta

We're informed that were you to stack all of the Ford Fiestas ever built one on top of another, that the pile would reach 30,000km high. 

I'm sure you can see some logistical difficulties that could prevent this, including the structural integrity of the one at the bottom and an inherent hazard to GPS satellites at the other end of the stack, but it just serves to illustrate, in a hopeless way that none of us can visualise, the sheer number of Fiestas sold.

Here in Australia, we were un poco tarde to the Fiesta party. While it had been sold in Europe since 1976, our first experience of Ford's perky tot came a good deal later. In fact, we skipped the first 26 years of its life, eventually importing the MK V in 2002. We didn't actually miss that much.

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The Mk1 wasn't bad, the Mk2 was similarly adequate but uglier and the Mk III was sampled by Peter Robinson in 1989 and proclaimed as bad as an EA Falcon.

The Mk IV was again made uglier and the RS1800 and RS turbo models deleted. It nevertheless remained Britain's best selling car, the buying public clearly unable to get enough of that fabulous Kent 1.3-litre OHV engine. Still, we can't exactly snigger. While the Brits lapped up malaise-era Fiestas, we were being force-fed the even more execrable Festiva.

The Fiesta MKV that we finally did get was much better news. It wowed the judges at Wheels' COTY 2004 with its verve, but tripped over the implacable judging criteria.

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A minor inconvenience, because the Fiesta really hit its straps with the Mk VI. This ran on Ford's updated B2E platform and launched under the company's new "One Ford" strategy.

It was a finalist at COTY in 2010, with Peter Robinson noting that it was “everything a light car should be – fun to drive.” Judges were less impressed with the automatic transmission offered, but even had the slushbox been a gem, the Fiesta would have had its work cut out deposing the Mk6 VW Golf from the top spot that year.

Australia's national suspicion of light cars has meant that the Fiesta has always remained a little peripheral in Ford down under's plans, but the ST versions were all absolute crackers.

As long as you didn't mind a ride that was firmer than a Luke Hodge handshake, you were guaranteed a exhilarating drive in an ST. Stephen Corby put an ST up against the Suzuki Swift Sport, the Skoda Fabia RS and the Peugeot 208 GTi in November 2013 and the baby Ford demolished the opposition.

“In bang for your buck terms, it really is one of the best investments you could ever make,” said the notoriously hard to impress Corby.

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The last Fiesta rolled off the line at Cologne on the 7th July, wrapping up 47 years of production.

Its place in Ford's line-up has been usurped by the Puma and its production real estate in Germany earmarked for, you guessed, it, an electric SUV.

Viewed in the round, it's hard to get too emotional over a car that, for most of its life, wasn't great and which the public turned its back on when it did fulfil its potential, but affordable and fun cars are a precious resource today. It seems that we may only appreciate that fact when they're gone.

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