1979 Ford Fiesta

Well, everybody has to have a first car and this one was mine.  The Fiesta was a strange, little German-made Ford that was imported to the U.S. market for 3 model years.  At the time of its introduction in the US, the aging and much-maligned Pinto was the only other compact car in Ford's lineup.  The Fiesta also had the distinction of being among the first modern front-wheel-drive cars.

After several years of being a one-car family, my Dad bought the car second-hand for use as a basic commuter car.  And basic it was.  Power steering?  Nope.  Brakes?  Some.  Heater?  Occasionally.  Air Conditioning?  Fuggedaboutit.  Roll-down windows and manual locks?  You betcha.  The 1.6 liter inline-4 wheezed out 84-hp on a good day.  In other words, when the ink dried on my newly minted driver's license, it was nearly the perfect first car.  Yes, it was rather small and the safety gear probably only met the minimum Federal standards, but there wasn't enough power under foot to get in to much trouble anyway.

But even with the spartan accommodations, the car wasn't without its fair share of quirks, many of which were a direct result of its stranger-in-a-strange-land European design.  For instance, the horn was activated by depressing the end of the turn signal stalk.  The turn signals only had a single green dashboard indicator for both left and right.  Is a turn signal on?  'Yes, but I'm not going to tell you which one', replied the car.  There wasn't a single cupholder to be found anywhere inside the car.  Apparently, Germans save their refreshments for after the conclusion of the car trip.  The AM radio had a single 6X9 speaker...installed behind the right rear seat armrest.  The inside door handles were so flimsy that a hefty pull was just as likely to leave you holding a now-dismembered handle instead of actually opening the door.  And while an exit from the car via the window was inconvenient, trying to obtain replacement parts was even worse.  Apparently the request had to go all the way back to Deutschland to be fulfilled.  After a few attempts at new parts, I found a couple of Fiestas that were spending their final years in a local junkyard.  One of the replacement door handles was immediately installed.  The other 3 went in the glovebox.  By the time the car was sold to its next owner, all the replacements had been used. 

The relatively new-tech front-wheel-drive also provided some unique challenges.  CV boot durability was lacking and when one let go - a surprisingly frequent event - the underside of the car would get coated with axle grease.  Along with the rather delicate drivetrain, it seems the suspension engineers were still figuring out how to keep a FWD front end aligned and the car would drift towards a somewhat knock-kneed negative camber arrangement.  As a result, the inside edges of the front tires were ground down to the steel belts while the rest of the tread still had plenty of life.

Originally, the car was painted a fairly benign metallic gold hue.  But after 8 years or so, the factory paint was getting dull and fading quickly.  Added to this, at some point in its life the car had been wrecked and the body shop paint job wasn't the best and was starting to peel like a sunburn.  So I decided to get a snazzy new paintjob for the aging Fiesta.  After reviewing the paint chips at the local hack body shop, I went with the original factory red for an extra dash of sportiness.  It might have looked good on the paint chip but once it was sprayed on the car, Ferrari Red it was not.  Actually, it looked more like a big, rolling tomato.  But what was done was done and it was a shiny new paintjob.  And it did look better than old, peeling, flaky gold paint.

But even with all the quirks and faults, there was one single feature of the Fiesta that continues to win my favor even after 25+ years:  A 4-speed manual transmission.  Ford never offered an automatic in the Fiesta, but this was actually a good thing.  I had to learn how to drive a clutch to win the freedom of the open road.  In my opinion, the row-it-yourself arrangement produces a much more engaging driving experience compared with just dropping a slushbox into 'D' and motoring away.  To this day, I'd prefer to drive with 3 pedals even though they're now an increasingly endangered species.  And this opinion was established with my very first car:  A strange little tomato-colored German-made Ford.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my first foray into the blogosphere.  As far back as I can remember, I've always had a certain fascination with all things automotive.  It's certainly not genetic since both of my parents are fairly ambivalent about cars, preferring to appreciate the utilitarian, point-A-to-point-B benefits of motorized transportation.  I've always had a greater appreciation for the more subjective aesthetics of what distinguishes a great car from merely good transportation. 

My grade-school notebook margins frequently displayed vehicular doodles of every sort:  Cars, trucks, commercial vehicles, and on and on.  During high-school, I discovered the popular automotive magazines of the day.   Even before getting my license, Car & Driver and Motor Trend were my preferred method of getting my 'car fix' each month.  I'd occasionally peruse Road & Track, but at the time, I didn't particularly care for their penchant for the European marques and motorsport coverage.  Into my college years and beyond, I've continued to follow the twists and turns of the automotive industry and my bookshelves are filled with dozens of industry-related biographies and analyses.  To this day, I've had a continuous, 20+ year subscription to Car & Driver with most of the back issues still boxed up in my basement...much to the chagrin of my lovely bride.

Like many gearheads, one of my dream jobs would be as an editor-at-large for a car magazine.  Besides driving all sorts of exotic machinery and travelling to all corners of the globe, there's also the distinct benefit of a continuous stream of vehicular, press fleet, one-night stands parked in the driveway every day.  But alas, my career choices have taken me in a different direction, and frankly, I'm not so sure my automotive review writing talents would be of sufficient quality to pay the mortgage each month.  There is, however, one segment of vehicles in which I consider myself a subject matter expert:  All the cars I've owned over the last 25 years. 

And so, my first blog is born.  While these musings are hardly going to be objective reviews - I owned them all and the inherent bias is fairly obvious - it's not all going to be rosy.  I've bought, owned, and driven some turkeys and even married in to one of them.  But most I remember with a certain degree of fondness.  If that's not enough material for yet one more blog gumming up the internet, then I don't know what is.  Enjoy.