Express & Star

It's Fiesta time!

It has sold more than 4.5 million in the UK alone, scooped hundreds of industry awards and has become a firm favourite with drivers of every age.

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Yet despite being on the market for the best part of four decades, the mighty Ford Fiesta continues to go from strength to strength.

The king of the 'superminis' has just been named Britain's most popular car for the fifth year running, its sales figures of 106,930 leaving its competitors eating dust. The next best Ford Focus sold almost 40,000 less, while so far this year the Fiesta has sold more than the Vauxhall Corsa and Volkswagen Polo put together. Earlier this year it became the country's best-selling car of all time.

Do you drive a Fiesta? Why did you choose it? Leave your comments below.

The Fiesta Mk1 was launched in 1976

It is undisputedly a car for the majority, from teenagers who have just passed their driving tests to mothers out on the shopping run and boy racers revving their engines while they wait for the traffic lights to change.

Even the notoriously hard-to-please presenters of Top Gear have given various models of the car rave reviews over the years. Souped-up Fiesta RS Turbos have landed world rally titles and clapped out ones regularly win banger racing crowns.

The second generation Fiesta appeared in 1983

The secret behind the car's success is its ability to attract new buyers while simultaneously holding a grip over its core market. It has almost been a rite of passage to own one, so much so that it's hard to find a driver over the age of 30 who hasn't been behind the wheel of a Fiesta at some point in their lives.

My first car was a Mini Metro. It rarely started first time, shook wildly whenever the tachometer approached 70mph and spent more time raised up on a hydraulic platform in the repair garage than on the road.

The Fiesta Mk3 started to look more curvy

What I really wanted was a red Fiesta MkIII like my mate Neil. It didn't turn heads and it wasn't cool by any stretch of the imagination, but it always got the job done. On weekend clubbing trips the sleek dream machine seemed to get us to London, Glasgow or Manchester in double quick time on a few quid's worth of petrol – and it never broke down.

Wayne Shakespeare knows exactly where I am coming from. The 36-year-old machine operator from Kingswinford never got to drive a Fiesta in his younger days, but since buying his first Zetec model four years ago he says he has become a convert for life.

The fourth generation Fiesta came out in 1995

"I've tried lots of other cars, Peugeots, Renaults, Vauxhalls, but the Fiesta definitely beats them all," Wayne said.

"A lot of people have one when they first learn to drive. I was a bit late to the game. I've had two in a row now and I think after years of trying I've found the car that's right for me and my family.

"It is not a car that you think, 'I'd love to own a Fiesta', but there's definitely something special about it."

Mr Shakespeare uses his car for the work commute to Unicores in Silver End and for family outings with his wife and children.

He added: "Fiesta is a name that is instantly recognisable. Everybody knows someone who has got or had a Fiesta. The new models, especially, have got a touch of style that sets them apart from other cars and they drive really nicely. It has got a bit of everything really."

It was all so different when the MkI Fiesta was launched onto the market back in 1976 to very little fanfare. It appeared as one of the first wave of smaller cars aimed at providing drivers with something affordable, reliable and practical.

The familiar car was given a facelift in 1999

Compared to the bulky saloons that dominated Britain's roads at the time it proved to be a breath of fresh air. A far cry from the multitude of ranges and styles available today, the MkI was available in 1, 1.1 and 1.3 litre engines, in five different colours and three-door only. An in-car clock, headrests and radios were considered luxury items in those days.

Since then there have been dozens of models across seven generations in more than 50 different colours. It's also more eco friendly – Ford say it would take 80 modern-day Fiesta's to generate the nitrogen oxide emissions of a single 1976 MkI model.

In 2008 when Top Gear had been criticised by a viewer for not giving cars a sufficiently thorough road test, Jeremy Clarkson responded by driving a Fiesta off a military aircraft and taking part in a beach assault training exercise with the Royal Marines. "The windscreen is heated, but not bullet-proof," he quipped.

A more sporty look came in with the sixth generation

With 4,115,000 sold it has now overtaken the Ford Escort as Britain's best selling car of all time – but the Fiesta is also a hit with international drivers. Sixteen million Fiestas have sold worldwide having come off production lines in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela, China, India, Taiwan, Thailand, South Africa and right across Europe.

Daniel Atkins, a sales executive at Evans Halshaw in Wolverhampton, said the Fiesta is a popular choice among customers at the Birmingham Road showroom, comfortably outselling any other model. "Nine out of 10 customers who come here ask about the Fiesta. It has been an incredibly popular car and it is going from strength to strength. We have had periods where we just couldn't keep them in stock for any period of time demand was so high; they were flying off the lot."

According to Mr Atkins, the secret of the Fiesta's success is that the shape and style of the car is constantly revamped. "Some of the newer models have Bluetooth, voice controls, eco-boost engines, heated seats and on-screen rear displays."

The car has become so popular that over the years a number of fan clubs have sprung up enabling Fiesta owners to talk shop.

For the last eight years George Watson has run The Ford Fiesta Club of Great Britain from his home just a few miles away from the site of the car's original production line in Dagenham. The club, which has more than 300 members, organises the Fiesta in the Park festival, an annual get-together for enthusiasts from all over the world. Mr Watson said the club has members from as far afield as the USA, including some in their 90s. "The car appeals to a wide range of people," said the 43-year-old, who had his first Fiesta in the 1980s and has never looked back.

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