Ford Fiesta ST (Mk8)
Why 8.0: Ford swapped the Mk7's 1.6-litre four for a 200 PS three-cylinder that shuts a cylinder down when coasting, and offered a Quaife limited-slip differential on a Fiesta ST for the first time. It was never sold in the United States, and when production ended in July 2023 there was no successor of any kind.
Layout
Natural habitat
Ride comfort
Sound
The 1.5 three-cylinder has a genuine off-beat rasp the old four never had, and the active exhaust valve opens in Sport. But Ford supplements it through the cabin speakers with Electronic Sound Enhancement, and 6,500 rpm caps the run.
3-cylinder · turbocharged · 6,500 rpm redline · rated 5.3 / 10 for engine sound
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · €25k (2018) → €16k (2026), trending down · illustrative data
Child seats · ISOFIX
Two ISOFIX positions on the outer rear seats, the outer pair being the ones the standard covers.
The rear anchors are the supported route — the manual points child seats there, and front-passenger ISOFIX is the exception rather than the rule. A belt-mounted seat up front needs the airbag off, and cars with a rear row don't always fit a deactivation switch, precisely because the rear seats exist.
Derived from production years and seating layout, not a per-car source. ISOFIX was standardised as ISO 13216 in 1997, required on new EU model types from 2011 and on all new EU cars from 2014.
The long version
The Mk8 arrived to open scepticism about the three-cylinder and answered it in the first corner: 197 hp and 290 Nm from 1.5 litres, 0–62 mph in 6.5 seconds, and a hard-edged three-pot noise no rival could match. The version that matters carries the Performance Pack, because the Quaife limited-slip differential turns a good front-driver into the sharpest cheap car of its decade — and the used market barely charges extra for it. What frames the whole car is what happened next: Ford discontinued the Fiesta outright in July 2023, ending a nameplate that had run since 1976, and replaced it with nothing. Americans never had the chance to argue about it; the Mk7 was the last Fiesta sold there, and it left in 2019. The ownership pattern is about as healthy as this site records — bought used and cheap, driven every day, serviced by independents, and sitting on a depreciation curve that has flattened at a price where the car is simply good value rather than an investment. Nobody has ever put one away.