A fleet of 40 Fiestas preparing to set off for Brighton from the Ford Engine Plant in Dagenham, to celebrate the Fiesta’s 40th anniversary in 2016 - Matt Alexander

I can’t remember the first time I rode in a Ford Fiesta. That’s because I was just a few hours old. At the time I was born, we were a two-car family, and both of them were Mk1 Fiestas – my dad’s, a 1.3-litre Ghia purchased nearly-new as a reward to himself for qualifying as an accountant and landing a job at a prosperous local firm, and my mum’s, a basic Fiesta Van she’d inherited from my grandfather’s carpet-fitting business.