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We are thinking of buying an NZ new, manual 2005 Ford Fiesta 1.6 from a dealer.
The Dog & Lemon guide says that this model is very unreliable, whereas Whatcar.com and another website both suggest they are fairly reliable cars. Can you comment?
thanks

Guide books such as the Dog & Lemon guide tend to err on the conservative side of caution. We are constantly receiving feedback about all sorts of cars and in our experience, we receive very little negative feedback about the Fiesta.
In our market, there was an earlier model called the Festiva which had a very poor reputation for reliability, and unfortunately, people sometimes confuse the two models.