Junkyard Find: 1978 Ford Fiesta
The Ford Fiesta story is an interesting one, with this car being a huge gamble for Ford’s global operations back in the 1970s. This car was intended for the European market from day one, but a fair number of Mk1 Fiestas were sold the United States for the 1978 through 1981 model years (eventually, the Mazda-designed/Kia-built Ford Festiva filled the US-market Ford lineup spot vacated by the Fiesta. These cars have been rare to the point of near-extinction for decades now, being disposable cheapo commuters and all, but they do show up from time to time in self-serve wrecking yards. I found this ’78 Fiesta Sport in Denver a couple years back, and last month I spotted today’s find in Northern California.
We have a handful of semi-modified Mk1 Fiestas in the 24 Hours of LeMons, and they do pretty well on a road course.
These cars had interiors that were no-frills even by Malaise Era subcompact standards.
American Fiestas got the 1.6 liter version of the Kent pushrod four, which made 66 horsepower.
This one has a Realistic AM/FM radio installed in whatever you call a glovebox with no lid.
Do real aviators also drive Fiestas?
0 to 50 in just 8.8 seconds. The fact that they used a 0-50 standard speaks volumes about 1978.
No baby ever held the road better!
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Just wondering if anyone knows which Northern California junkyard this car is/was sitting in?
Dad had a 78. In yellow with the black stripe. I loved it. The fun-est car to drive. Would blow away most cars on the green light. He turned it in on a clunky Ford Tempo in 81. He had promised to let me buy it; but, I guess the lure of the trade in was too great. Still hurts. I would have kept the car to this day !!