Main image for post: The unstoppable Ford Fiesta is our April Car of the Month

With 40 years of heritage, the incomparable Ford Fiesta is the deserving recipient of our April 2017 Car of the Month title - not to mention the small matter of being the UK's bestselling car of all time, with more than four million Fiestas sold since 1976.

The very first Ford Fiesta was actually produced in Spain, but over the four decades to 2016, Ford sold 4,339,149 to the UK market and around 18 million across Europe as a whole - overtaking sales of the Ford Escort in 2014 to become the most popular model ever.

It's no surprise then that the Fiesta regularly tops the chart of monthly bestsellers, hitting the top spot near the end of the 2000s and staying there every month throughout the first half of the 2010s up to and beyond its 40th anniversary.

This is a truly irrepressible model and many drivers' first 'runabout' car after passing their test, as well as a reliable and trusty companion for motorists of all ages.

More vim than a Veyron

Tell most people that a Ford Fiesta is more powerful than a Bugatti Veyron and they'll raise an eyebrow, but in fact the 2014 140PS 1.0-litre EcoBoost Red/Black Editions packed more power per litre than the Veyron, and hit the roads at almost the exact moment that the model became the all-time bestseller.

And it shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, either, as 2015 clocked up another 133,000 Fiesta sales, more than any year since 1996.

40 years of Fiesta

The 2016 Ford Fiesta set new benchmarks for the brand as it celebrated its 40th anniversary, with a 200PS 1.6-litre EcoBoost engine making the 2016 model the fastest Fiesta in history.

ST200 was the name given to that year's model, which continued the unbroken seven-year trend of Fiesta topping the monthly sales chart, and the ST line has claimed industry awards reaching into double figures since its introduction in 2013.

It's impossible to overstate the importance of the Ford Fiesta - whether it was your first foray into driving after passing your test, a school run stalwart throughout raising a family, or just a companion for your daily commute, many millions of us have spent countless hours behind the wheel of a Fiesta for the past 40 years.

With so many great used Ford Fiestas for sale at bargain prices and millions more new models rolling off the production lines for the foreseeable future, there's been no better time for us to choose the incomparable Ford Fiesta as the deserving recipient of our April 2017 Car of the Month award.