Any surprised?

 

I guess gasoline isn't expensive enough?

 

When I was at my dealer getting an oil change last month they actually had an ADM on the Fiesta.

 

I'm taking my F-150 for an oil change on Friday, I might take Fiesta for a test drive.

I don't mind Fiesta; I would just rather drive a Focus which is barely any expensive, but at the same time more powerful and just as economical.

 

I don't think automakers really expect to sell these in the six digits per year range. If Fiesta averages out t about 5k units per month my guess is that Ford will be thrilled, particularly with the vey high average transaction price that car has been moving at.

That said, I think bringing the 3-door hatch to American shores would be a great idea, and a 3-door convertible spun off that car would be neat as well. In fact, so long as I am going to wish list route anyway, how about offering a more powerful engine in an ST trim model. A 1.6L Ecoboost or even a slightly tweaked version of the 2.0L DI I-4 used in the upcoming 2012 Focus would do.

 

Ford will offer a 1.6L EcoBoost (~180 hp) in a 2012 Fiesta ST.

 

I had heard about that, but I was under the impression that our chances of seeing that in the U.S. market were rather slim.

 

The 3-door is still a bit of a long-shot, but the upgraded engines are coming. Something to remember about the Fiesta is that it wasn't designed to be new in the US in 2010, it was designed for Europe to be new in 2008. When the call was made by the new management to bring it to the US, it was late in the development and the car hadn't been designed with US standards in mind. They got the vehicle itself here impressively quick, but the engine we got is kind of a rush job. They'll get it up to par, and I have to imagine a mid-cycle update of the whole car isn't that far away given how long it's been out in Europe.

As for sales, the C-segment rules over the B in North America, nothing has changed. But the difference for Ford in particular is that the Focus is still selling in bunches and they're moving a respectable number of Fiestas. And Fiestas look to have good conquest sales which they think will lead to return Ford customers.

 

When gas tips back towards $4/gal the little cars will pick up sales . . . . happened a couple years ago when gas approached $4/gal. However, now FMC is in a better position to capitalize when such time comes about.

 

I think several factors might be in play here:

• While the Fiesta itself is certainly more than a dray transportation appliance to be endured, it needs to step up a bit more yet in terms of appeal to truly divorce itself from that image. I think a bit more HP and sportiness in even the base versions and especially, the introduction of a truly quick and entertaining ST version would do much to dispel that hoary old econobox image. I'd make sure it had at least 200hp just to exceed expectations and really put this car on the map. Just look how successful and even iconic the Mini is. The Fiesta has the potential to assume a similar, albeit more avant garde, niche in the market.

• Americans are still very reflexively anti small car and anti 3-door, tending to judge cars rather simplistically and quantitatively by the pound/feature/inch/hp. The appeal of the Fiesta is much more qualitative, which tends to go over the heads of many Americans.

• Gas isn't 5$ a gallon, yet. Were that not true, I think Americans would be forced to look at cars like the Fiesta less dogmatically and might then see them a desirable and effective cars for their real needs.

• New urbanism and the death of suburbanism. As more, especially younger and empty-nester Americans are moving back into more densely populated urban areas, the suburban land barges, aka SUVs and their ilk, become even more ridiculous and ungainly. As epitomized by the demise of the Hummer, which went from style icon to lumbering anachronism in the blink of an eye, leviathan SUVs, the lumbering poster children of conspicuous consumption and wretched excess for its own sake, are quickly become lifestyle losers rather than leaders. Zippy, zesty, stylish and fun small cars may well become the new autostyle icons in the 2010+ age, more so than the efficient but hair-shirt hybrids like the Prius.

• Detroit and its dealerships still are a bit uncomfortable and ungainly in embracing small cars, especially in selling them. This is changing, if slowly and unevenly and hopefully the marketing and product placement efforts will continue to improve.

Well, that's my take on it at least.

 

Then how do you explain the bulk of recent sales gains has been trucks & crossovers? Heavy duty pickups at that. And wait till the numbers for the new Explorer hit.

Regardless how you want to diss, there are tens of millions of Americans that won't ever become city rats feeding on each other. And they will need something larger than fancy zoom zoom rat traps to manage their lifestyle and work out of.

 

Ah, getting the ST package on anything will be better than not getting it at all, but I think that the Fiesta hatch would sell better than Ford suspects and I think it would boost the cars image.

I find myself reminding folks of that as well when they suggest that the Fiesta is a harbinger of things to come vis a vis the Focus. For whatever reason a good many people are convinced that this is the first all new Ford designed and built under the new one Ford ethos. Of course, as you well know, that isn't true.

Exactly.

I agree, and I think a greater variety of models would help as well as metnioned above.

Perfect summation for a Fiesta thread.

 

I would rack that up to the reflexive "bigger/more is better" mantra permeating many people's automotive decision matrix. Trucks can and do make a lot of sense to many people, especially in more rural areas and those that actually need to haul stuff. But to many people, these behemoths really don't make any practical sense and are more fashion/status items ("mine's bigger than your's") than anything else. Even for families that have to haul a bunch of spawn around, minivans and wagons make a lot more sense but have become so stigmatized that nobody but the most self assured will buy them.

I think this is especially true in suburban/urban areas where large vehicles are just goofy for the most part. Most of them are hauling one person, maybe two, while trying to squeeze their bulk through narrow streets and clotted traffic all while swilling gas like a sailor on shore leave. Some of the smaller to mid sized SUVs make a bit of sense in such an environment, but not nearly as much as smaller cars like the Fiesta and are certainly far less enjoyable to drive.

Don't get me wrong, I grew up in the country side around trucks of various sizes and am even getting ready to drag a 30' boat 1,200 miles down to Key West behind about the most massive of SUVs ever, a Ford Excursion. Big trucks DO make good sense in those environments and uses. We were forever hauling/dragging/towing big heavy stuff with our Ford pickups and old SUV sized wagons. We also had various tiny cars -- original Honda Civics, VW Rabbits -- out in d'em thar boonies too and found them to be great for most of the daily driving we actually did -- one or two people simply getting from point A to point B.

I would still assert that most large trucks/SUVs aren't used in heavy duty roles for which their designed and quite adept at. I do suspect though that as fuel prices inevitably rise and more people realize how nonsensical it is to lumber, solo, about in a big empty truck/SUV, and as these smaller cars continue to evolve from penurious penalty boxes to very desirable cars that happen to have a smaller footprint, that their sales will increase.

I think you see a dawning indication of that coming from people who have actually bought these newer small cars, perhaps out of necessity, only to realize that they aren't rolling hair shirts but rather, are great cars in their own right and a far greater hoot to drive than their previous land barges.

 

tru dat