Congratulations, It's a Hatchback (Fiesta in America)
After Farago's good news yesterda y from Ford corporate, we can bounce to even more good Blue Oval news today and I'm pretty much about to stroke with excitement. Ford has confirmed that the US will get its Fiesta compact car as a hatchback, not just the American-friendly and eye-unfriendly sedan. Since importing anything from Europe (cars, wine, cheese, deodorant) is currently cost-prohibitive, Ford will build the Fiesta in Mexico at – get this – a factory that previously built Ford F-Series for the Mexican market. Since pickup truck sales there are in the toilet as much as they are in the US, the factory is being converted to build the Fiesta and new Ford I-4 engines. That's right, they stopped overproducing a truck because sales weren't too hot and instead will be using it to make fuel-efficient cars and engines. Ford hasn't confirmed whether the hatchback Fiesta will be the three- or five-door version, but I'd bet dollars to donuts (really what does that mean) that it'll be the three-door. The biggest downside? It's coming in the proverbial "year 2010" as a 2011 model. That's two years away; Honda and Toyota will continue to chow down on Fit and Yaris sales (up 1.2 gazillion percent this year). This Fiesta is a car Ford needed in America yesterday last year two years ago and whether the ever-facelifted Focus can keep them afloat for that long, I don't know. But hey, if we make it to 2010, a Ford showroom with a Fiesta hatch and European-style Focus (also to be built in Mexico), and 350 horsepower Taurus will be hotter than Tricia Helfer. In Vegas. Meanwhile, hero of the day award to Alan Mulally. (source: Ford)
Immensely bored law student. I've also got 3 dogs.
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(a) why does federalizing take so long?; and (b) why don't these companies just build cars that meet standards on both sides of the pond? you'd think the manufacturing and marketing flexibility that came from making everything interchangeable would outweigh the cost of making something compliant even if you're not sure if you'll import every model.
Sounds good, but what if Mazda beats them to the market with the Mazda2? Ford should hope that Mazda decides not to bring it over here.
carguy: I just hope they don’t mess with it by changing the looks or dumb down the suspension for the American market. Amen to that. In addition, let's hope they don't set the Ford NA cost engineers to work on it, like they did with the original Focus. We all know how well that worked for them. Just sit back and watch the recalls come rolling in....
Ford must have already told Mazda not to bring the 2 over, they have veto power over Mazda decisions. If they brought the 2 over, I would be driving one today. But I think at fair value in USD over here its more profitably sold elsewhere for other currencies and my prognosis is to see USD keep sliding esp. with no stateside regime change.