When Readers And Press Cars Collide: A Tribute To Tresmonos
We at TTAC take pride in the fact that we have a strong, tight-knit community of regular commenters, and many of those familiar voices come from the auto industry. We’re also proud of the fact that we have met a fair number of the B&B in real life. Sometimes, the convergence of the online and offline realms goes even further.
TTAC reader tresmonos is familiar to many of you for his tales of life at an OEM transplant located south of the border, where he helped launch the vehicle you see above. Through the comments section, and our TTAC email account, tresmonos and I have struck up a friendship that has moved from email correspondence into a genuine “real world” friendship when tresmonos was called up to the Toronto area for a business trip.
While tresmonos wasn’t the first member of the B&B that I’ve met, our proximity in age, our respective career stages and personal circumstances ensured that we kept in touch. And when I was able to get a Fiesta ST for a recent road trip with my girlfriend, I made sure to send him the VIN number to get the real story behind the press car. His reply below
Ordered 3/14/13. Scheduled a bunch of times. I rescheduled it as the ST build was packed full. The [redacted] guys had slipped it into the build without permission or coordinating with us and I kicked it out of our PP, and moved it into our MP1 build (so I delayed it about 5-6 weeks). I bumped it as the PP build was full and plant allocation was maxed out. It was produced on 7/31. Shipped 8/13 and arrived in Canada in 8/26. It kept getting scheduled to 5-6 different build weeks. Our build kept moving and I bumped it. I left CSAP on 6/18. My buddies left in August, so they saw it get built. It’s a small world. You know the history of that car and why its VIN has a higher number for the last 6 digits than a normal press car. Normally you’d see some zeros on the 3rd or 4th last digits. I am kind of getting choked up thinking back on all of this and looking at where I’m right now. Those orders were some of the last things I did in Mexico…That car represents some of the last bits of work I did.I’m especially proud to be driving a vehicle that was overseen by one of our own. To know about the amount of hard work and personal sacrifice that goes into the birth of a program like the Fiesta ST is especially humbling, and makes the task of reviewing a car feel like something that I am unqualified for. For the engineers seconded to these faraway plants, birthdays and anniversaries are missed, hazardous work environments and the emotional toll of being away from home is unquantifiable. So far, the car is a blast, and the entire program should be proud that they have delivered such a thrilling car at a price point accessible to the masses.Tresmonos, it’s an honor to be behind the wheel of some of your handiwork. If any members of the B&B are in Calgary this week, and would like to check out the Fiesta ST, email editors at ttac dot com.
More by Derek Kreindler
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As soon as I read a few of his comments, I knew that Tres was the genuine article. I might of spent my GM years at the bottom of the employee food chain. However I did learn a few things over the years. A new product launch can be a nightmare for all involved. Its the hands on folks like Tres, working with the hourly that make it happen. I can't imagine how stressfull it would be working, and living in a different culture, while trying to pull off a successful launch. Kudo's and good luck Tres.
Wait, Tres is in the auto industry? Hell, I'd have sworn he was a SeAL or DELTA operator based on some of his entries here.