Nice looking car, especially the mild face-lift with the clear lenses. I really hated the basic Maritime Blue colour, it was everything in the mid to late 80s and 90s.
The picture of the Ghia with the white wheel trims might have been a left hand drive European spec model where the image has been reversed. Ford`s marketing department probably thought that no potential customers would notice. The 1.6 S was my favourite. The same engine carried over from the mark 2 XR2 if I`m not mistaken.
Its amazing how contemporary the Fiesta XR2i looks even today. Very popular cars back in the day, I can imagine how desirable they were in black with the fogs on.
I loved the mk3. Fiesta, when I first saw it! It's a pity that, nowadays, cars seem to be fitted with plastic door cards, with very little fabric (maybe, that's something to do with trying to reduce the possibility of allergies and/or trying to make vehicles as recyclable as possible?!) Another thing I've noticed between newer vehicles & those from past decades is that, once upon a time, car designers weren't afraid to use different colour interiors for different models or exterior colours, whereas, nowadays, every interior seems to be grey & that's such a pity!!
No parcel shelf or glovebox on the Popular, just a large oblong cubby below another large oblong cubby - I think Ford were ashamed of these base versions. All the same, they had quite spacious interiors, and a lot more comfortable and refined than the mark 2 in all trim levels. The Ghia had bright silver wheel trims until it was given XR2i-style alloys from late-1992 - I think it's the light tricking us on the first page. But the white does look strange against the two-tone silver and grey indeed.
I remember seeing that Maritime Blue an awful lot. I'm not sure why Ford were dithering so much over the white or grey wheel covers because the white looks bloody awful imo, but it was 1989 I guess.
I liked the 5 door diesel Fiestas, the rear doors made it easy to get in and out of the back plus it could take four adults over long journeys, and five, at a pinch over shorter journeys (the width of the car is not particularly wide for five adults on longer journeys and if you attempted it, they would feel rather squashed), also with the diesel versions of the Mk3 Ford Fiesta, you got frugally good fuel economy too, averaging at least 60 milles to the gallon (which isn't bad for a supermini with a diesel engine).
