New Ford Fiesta

E92

Now up on Autocar.

I see it will be a global car, and hopefully it will work for Ford this time, the last time they tried a world car was with the Mk1/2 Mondeo, and that didn't work at all in the US(it was too small for the US), and the Mk1 Focus didn't sell as well as Ford had hoped in North America either.

Incidentally the Mk3 Focus will be sold in the US too, odd considering that Ford of America didn't want to sell the Mk2 Focus there and the Mk3 is basically a heavily facelifted Mk2.

woop

is this what is being refered to as the verve or was that the concept model of this
dont forget the new ka is coming out this year

edit: cancel that just read below the article

maidhc

E92 wrote: »

Incidentally the Mk3 Focus will be sold in the US too, odd considering that Ford of America didn't want to sell the Mk2 Focus there and the Mk3 is basically a heavily facelifted Mk2.

Really? I thought they just launched a heavily revised Focus there based on the Mk1? It all seems odd!

The floorpan is pretty much identical on all the foci from 1998-2008 from what i gather.

E92

maidhc wrote: »

Really? I thought they just launched a heavily revised Focus there based on the Mk1? It all seems odd!

The floorpan is pretty much identical on all the foci from 1998-2008 from what i gather.

They did indeed, but it appears Americans want our Focus, anytime I've read WorldCarFans.com and they are talking about Fords, all the American posters keep talking about how much better Euro Fords look and especially the Focus whenever the US Focus is mentioned(it is still based on the Mk1 Focus and they just facelifted it yet again(this would be the 4th time is it is still the Mk1 Focus IIRC), or is it as different as our Mk2 was?)

The Autocar article implied that Ford were going to bring over our Focus to the US(well what they said was that Ford let it slip that the Americans would be getting our Mk3 Focus).

The new Fiesta looks quite like the Mazda2(unsurprisingly), and that's no bad thing really, though the interior is a bit strange(as is the 2's coincidentally *cough*).

maidhc

E92 wrote: »

They did indeed, but it appears Americans want our Focus, anytime I've read WorldCarFans.com and they are talking about Fords, all the American posters keep talking about how much better Euro Fords look and especially the Focus whenever the US Focus is mentioned(it is still based on the Mk1 Focus and they just facelifted it yet again(this would be the 4th time is it is still the Mk1 Focus IIRC), or is it as different as our Mk2 was?)

The US 2008 focus is this:

E92

I'm aware of it's looks, but do you know is it related to either the Mk1 Focus(the one you showed me is considered a Mk2 in the US FWIW) or our Mk2/3 Focus?

(apparently they were thinking of importing the S-Max, Kuga, C-Max as well as the Mondeo to the US as well, don't know how that turned out in the end, but they were saying these cars would have to be built in the US if it were to happen, though I think Mexico is offered the Mondeo, but I'm not sure)

Alanstrainor

maidhc wrote: »

The US 2008 focus is this:

BlURGH, that's the most hideous car i think i've ever seen,

maidhc

E92 wrote: »

I'm aware of it's looks, but do you know is it related to either the Mk1 Focus(the one you showed me is considered a Mk2 in the US FWIW) or our Mk2/3 Focus?

Well the Mk2 focus is directly related to the Mk1 anyway! Same car in a different shell.

MCMLXXXIII

Ford's new strategy is to make all of their cars global. Oh, and they are bringing the Fiesta over to the US - it's going to me the "sub-compact" to the Focus. Ford's ultimate goal is to have the same line-up around the world. It will be cheaper to make more of the same car instead of many different ones. ...and apparently Ford thinks the whole world has the same taste in cars.

maidhc

MCMLXXXIII wrote: »

...and apparently Ford thinks the whole world has the same taste in cars.

Same with all manufacturers. Ford have not been that successful so far though, especially compared to the german manufacturers.

E92

BMW, Toyota, Honda, I could go on and on, all sell pretty much the same cars worldwide, okay the offer different bodystyles for various markets sometimes and different engines, e.g. Auris hatchback for Europe, Corolla saloon for the US, Ireland and a couple of other southern European countries, and they don't have any difficulties with sales, so why should Ford?

The reason the Mondeo didn't work as a global car was because it was too small, even for Europe the original was a bit on the small side, had Ford sold the Mk3 Mondeo in the US, it would have sold very well since the space of it was massive. The Fiesta will be sold in the US as a saloon anyway(and even a hatch if the market desires it).

And the Focus sold over 200,000 units a year in the US as well.

bazz26

maidhc wrote: »

The US 2008 focus is this:

The roof and side profile around the door frames on that car look very similar to the MkI Focus saloon we had here:

E92

Not really related to the Fiesta, but a new 2.2 TDCi diesel will be added to the Mondeo, S-Max, and Galaxy, as well as presumably other Ford group products in the coming months, as well as a new trim level for the Galaxy and S-Max.

24% VRT for this engine in the Mondeo, so could be a very good choice now that the engine size system is going to be very much in the past tense soon.

conor_mc

Is it me, or does that new Fiesta look VERY like the new Fiat Bravo?

Mailman

The new Fiesta is based on a Mazda2 floorplan.

the European Mondeo will not be sold in US as Ford US couldn't make the numbers work - it's too expensively engineered to be sold in the US at the right price point.
Mondeo was intended to be a world car but US market can't take the car at a price on which ford could turn a profit; I read an article about this where a ford exec admitted this. They said they'd have to take so much stuff out they'd have to market it as a bare cave(not a bear cave).
Same story with Ford Focus and Mazda6. The americans are getting old models reworked rather than new designs.
Seems to be the same for all manufacturers over there including Toyota who have marketed a very very bad Corolla that they wouldn't dream of selling in Europe.

Mazda2 won't find it's way to US anytime soon as it will canabilise Mazda3 sales and production capacity is limited so they can sell all they build in more profitable markets.
Mazda boss confirmed this.

With the new Fiesta they'll probably have plenty of spare capacity within the US and overseas to build it.
Ford have been working hard on shrinking their capacity so that all their plants are working at near capacity e.g. European Mondeo line builds S-MAx and they will not increase capacity as they do not want stock dumped on hire companies which depressed residual values of the Mondeo in the past.

G Luxel

maidhc wrote: »

The US 2008 focus is this:

looks like a Citroen C4 with a boot. As for the new fiesta, it reminds me of the Puma.