'The new Fiesta will offend no-one, and caters to everyone. Here's competence with knobs on, but the effect is strangely anodyne,' wrote Roger Bell in CAR magazine, April 1989. Ford collected feedback from 8000 owners of the outgoing car to develop its replacement, and decided that more cabin space, better handling, greater comfort, more model choice and lower running costs were needed. Thus the Fiesta Mk 3 was larger, better equipped and available in more variations, and Bell conceded that 'the clean-sheet Fiesta, available in three- and five-door form, is a quantum leap forward from the dated car it supersedes'.
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Not that this made it the best in its class. In a 10-car shootout of 1100 cc superminis, CAR judged it third-best behind the 'so complete' Peugeot 205, whose 'chassis is a joy' and the Citroen AX which 'has the most urge and the nicest gearchange'. The Fiesta was marked down for being slow and uneconomical, although it was awarded full marks for its 'roomy body and suspension refinement'. It just wasn't thought to be very exciting - an opinion borne out the following July when the 1100 Popular Plus lost out to the revised Metro, Uno and 205: 'no excuse for the poor performance and dreary handling that relegates the Popular Plus to fourth place. Humble cars don't have to be this boring.'
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The range did, however, feature optional ABS anti-lock brakes - still a novelty in 1989 - on some models, central locking and electric windows on Ghia versions and optional power steering. More important, in line with new European requirements, the engines were designed to run on unleaded petrol. New 999 cc and 1119 cc engines replaced the ancient pushrod 957 cc and 1117 cc units, and the 1392 cc and 1596 cc engines were revised. A better 1753 cc diesel replaced the previous oil-burner, and a bit more pizazz was provided by the 110 bhp XR2i, launched in October 1989.
And they just got faster. The 133 bhp RS Turbo was the next hot Fiesta in June 1990, although it was not received with much enthusiasm: it 'costs appreciably more than Renault's ageing 5GT Turbo, which has better handling and similar acceleration. That it is cheaper than the 205GTI 1.9 does not mean it steals the fast-hatch crown from Peugeot. Far from it,' sniffed Bell in CAR, August 1990. This short-lived model mutated into the RS1800i (130 bhp with catalytic converter) in May 1992. The XR2i was also revised at this point, the cat bringing a 5 bhp fall in power but lower emissions as demanded by Euro legislation.
At about this time, Ford was going special-edition mad. Every dealer seemed to be armed with a series of brightly coloured decals and a bit of extra kit to flog, hence Fiestas Fresco, Freestyle, Flight, Firefly, Quartz, Bonus, Special and Finesse - mainly to sell off the last of the non-airbag models in the run-up to a round of revisions in 1994.
These brought a reinforced body with improved side-impact protection, an immobiliser (petrol versions) and uprated engines. There were also new sporty-looking models, badged Si, which had the 75 bhp 1.4 or 90 bhp 1.6 16-valve engines, power steering, stiffer suspension, a rear spoiler, sports seats and low-profile tyres. CAR (August 1994) approved of the enhancements to the less powerful models. Although beaten yet again in a group test by the then-new Renault Clio, 'which seems to excel at every level' and the Fiat Punto, the Fiesta came in for some praise: 'Once a paragon of ineptitude, the Fiesta is now the car it should have been five years ago. It has been improved out of all recognition... in its quantum leap (again) forward from the very poor to the competitively mediocre, though, it has gained little in zest or spirit.'
Oh dear, time for more revisions, although it took until 1995 and a whole series of new special editions - Azura, Java, Mistral, Sapphire, Equipe and Classic (which continued until 1997, despite the launch of the Mk 4 in '95) - before a serious overhaul came about.
