Ford's developing their new compact car, the Fiesta, all over the world. America will be getting a sedan version (huzzah!) and, hopefully, at a later date, a hatchback or two. While ours is still covered in camo in test, the European hatch version is already out in the wild. And even in a hideous color, I think it looks great. Keep in mind that we're talking about a B-segment compact car here, While the European market for this car category is as crowded as Camden Lock on a sunny Sunday afternoon, stateside, the Mexican-built Fiesta will go head-to-CAFE against the Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, Chevy Aveo and [sort of] Nissan Versa in the US. Even from a distance, the new Fiesta looks set to be the new class-leader (a Flexible Flyer would beat the crap out of the Aveo ). With Honda Fit sales up over 50 percent and even the not-so-wonderful Focus up 30+ percent, Ford's new Fiesta can't fail– or appear in the U.S. soon enough.
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America will be getting a sedan version
They can kiss my ***** ****** ***.
Eh.
Ooh oooh oooooooh!
I’ll take a charcoal grey one please, in hatchback form. I’d like it with leather, bun burners, some flashy lighting options (xenons and LEDs, anyone?), a bumpin’ stereo, and sat-nav, please.
And, no, I don’t want a giant needed-for-lard-ass-americans engine either, something small with a self-stirred gearbox will be just fine. Throw in a basic start/stop functionality as well, por favor.
I just signed a 2 year lease on a Mazda3 so this sucker will be out about the time my lease expires. I figure gas’ll be $7 a gallon or so by then.
Hey Ford, you listening? Cause if you are I’ll Drive One.
No Hatch, No Buy!
NO HATCHBACK FOR YOU!!
I just get SICK and TIRED of ALL of these people who keep on screaming, “I’d buy a hatchback if only you’d sell one here in ths US!!!!”
When on EARTH will ALL OF THESE PEOPLE comprehend that NOBODY IN THE US WANTS A HATCHBACK?? For crying out loud, if they want a “hatch,” we have PLENTY of big SUV’s with hatches, sitting under ever-deepening layers of dust, out in our delivery lots!
And will these people QUIT thinking that we can just ship these little cars over from Europe, and put them on sale in the US?? For crying out loud, we have to spend at least a couple of years doing engineering work to DECONTENT THE BUJEEZUS out of these cars, to turn them into cheap, buzzy little commuter boxes that Americans want.
SHEESH.
You know, this is part of why I have ABSOLUTELY =VENEMOUS= CONTEMPT for US automakers. These companies COULDN’T POSSIBLY DO A WORSE JOB if they hired monkeys from the zoo to run them. How much of a complete, total, utter FREAKING MORON do you have to be to just sit there and ignore reality, ignore customers, and keep on running your company down the toilet???
What new cars are we on track to get over the next few months?? V8 Dodge Challenger. V8 Pontiac G8. V8 Chevy Camaro.
Unfreakingbelievable.
Ford and GM have been making PERFECTLY COMPETENT, FUEL-EFFICIENT, AND SPACE-EFFICIENT vehicles for other markets, for years. Decades. “Couldja bring one or two of those over here for a change?”
NOPE.
Oh, GM is at least thinking about it a little bit, with the Opel/Saturn Astra. But…. Well, that’s one that could use a little “engineering for America” work. Yes, give us little hatchbacks, and quality interiors, but you can leave “ergonomics from another planet” over in Europe.
If gas prices don’t go back down below $3.00 per gallon, we’re going to have MILLIONS of people who’ve been used to SUV’s and sedans with leather power seats, cruise controls, moonroofs, and other interior luxuries. If you can sell them some kind of three-door and five-door hatchback that’ll get 30 MPG city and 35 MPG highway, with those same interior luxuries, I think you’ll sell a whole bunch of them.
But no, Americans don’t want hatchbacks, and small, fuel-efficient cars MUST be ‘stripper’ models. I’m sure you’ll be far more successful with $50,000+ full-size hybrid SUV’s.
Ultra-maroons!
What is it with compact hatches and blind spots?
I suppose the car industry in general seems to headed towards “we don’t need no stinkin’ back window” anyway….
A sedan only? What is it with Detroit? Their ineptitude at building a decent subcompact car is astounding.
The car in that pick is just a Focus Hatch?
ya exactly that…a gussied up focus…wow really exciting….yawn…..
Thanks, thoots. This is why even though I used to consider myself a Ford man, my next car will be a Prius. I am also sick and tired of the idiots in charge of the Big Three who clearly have utter contempt for their customers and their intelligence.
To hell with them.
I don’t find the colour hideous. I like it because as a shade more commonly applied to family sedans, it’s use on this type of vehicle reveals the growing perception of small cars as something with more potential than just pocket rockets or econo boxes.
It adds class to the class.
Thoots, my thoughts exactly.
@ thoots
I have 2 hatchbacks… <:-)
I will never understand why we don't have some. I've said it before here, but seeing the Japanese subcompacts makes me envious beyond belief. I don't need anything larger than a subcompact, but I would like one with features just like EVERY OTHER CAR has. The only thing that comes close is the xA/xD (I'm no Versa fan, it's too big!!)
Why don't us small car owners get leather, auto AC, NICE interiors, etc???
toan: What is it with compact hatches and blind spots? I suppose the car industry in general seems to headed towards “we don’t need no stinkin’ back window” anyway….
While I like hatchbacks, they do seem to be getting weird in their styling. This reminds me an old Datsun F-10 or something.
Why hasn’t anyone noticed that this appears to be a view of the ford “focus zx3”, which if they can make it cheaper ok.
The rising beltline is a little extreme on this puppy, but it still looks a lot better than the stupid Focus.
Big 2.2 better get their act together before I get my next car, or I’ll go “foreign” again.
I bet that when Ford Americanizes the Fiesta they will remember that we tell time in 12 hour increments here. I’m still dumbfounded that GM could get that right on the Saturn Astra.
Speaking of which, can we have a Saturn Death Watch? That division has been a money looser for almost every year of it’s existence. The “product offensive” at Saturn over the past few years has achieved the impossible …. lower sales than ever.
“Saturn’s overall sales were down 15.5% to 16,888 units last month”
Source: http://www.saturnfans.com//cars/relay/april-2008-sales-figures
Anyway, I hope Ford puts it’s thinking cap on and brings sedan, hatchback and wagon versions of the Fiesta to the US post haste. Surely they must notice that the Fit, Versa and Yaris hatchbacks are all selling as fast as they can be made. All the old Lutz-like prognostications about what ‘mericans will and won’t buy is officially wrong in today’s market. Detroit’s marketing mantra needs to become “Everything you think you know is wrong.” (from Chalker’s fascinating Wonderland Gambit)
Folks —
A Fiesta hatch is still likely for the US. A sedan is confirmed of course, and that’s going to be their volume seller here, but a hatch is still on the table as a strong possibility (probably a 3 door hatch like the one in the picture).
And I’ll chime in with others as a hatchback owner. Would have a really hard time going back to a sedan. Hauled a 52″ LCD tv a few weeks ago in my GTI!
lard-ass-americans …
Europe and Latin America seem to be catching up in this arena…
To all the folks saying this is a Focus-but-not-a-Focus, well, it ISN’T a Focus, it’s the next segment down, a quick wiki search reveals…
Euro-Focus hatchback length: 4340 mm (171 in)
Current-gen Fiesta: 3924mm (154 in)
And I’m guessing this new one ain’t gonna be much longer, it sure doesn’t look it.
I also as PO’d about lack of hatch. My next car I definitely want a hatch.
BUT – before we go all postal on big3, where is the Civic hatch, the corolla hatch, the Sentra hatch? Where is the Accord wagon? Where is a VW hatch that weighs less than 3000 lb?
In the US if you want to occassionally haul a bike, you get a 30,000$ cross over. If you want to haul four people, you buy a big-az5 SUV. If you want to haul a bag of mulch you get an F350. The trend is not just anti-hatch, anti-practical body style: anti- minivan, hatch, wagon.
“where is the Civic hatch, the corolla hatch, the Sentra hatch”
Fit, Matrix, Versa, respectively.
VW lost the plot long ago, clearly. Looks like Honda is using the CR-V as their “Accord wagon.”
Justin Berkowitz :
May 3rd, 2008 at 10:52 am
Folks –
A Fiesta hatch is still likely for the US.
It was said that the Ford Mustang was going to have a 3.5 liter Duratec engine too, but naturally this cost too much for Ford, so they’re not going to do it. Apparently (this is what I’m guessing, judging by these photos supposedly from the June issue of Car and Driver) it is not. It will keep the same 4.0 liter it’s had, that uses gas without delivering decent horsepower and fuel economy. I would say they’ve got it all wrong, but damned if it doesn’t look like they’ve got full pictures of the real thing too. So I’m guessing they’ve got their facts straight.
I hope Car and Driver is wrong, or the picture is a photoshop. I really do. I think it might be, but with Ford’s reputation for keeping their cars updated, I can never tell. I wrote an entire post on the Mustang’s fuel economy, and so far I’ve been told it’s a performance vehicle, and thus nobody who buys one cares about fuel economy, they only want a cheap performance car so they can tell their friends “I have a Mustang”.
Except, naturally, for me.
Anyway, digression aside, I hope Ford does a good job on the Fiesta and brings a hatchback. I hope Ford brings the new Focus over too, eventually. They need these cars so badly right now. But I can’t tell, and I’m definitely getting sick of Ford’s penny pinching.
Hatch or not you’ll get a hell of a car. Fiestas down here are fast and nimble, and on the last iteration (kinda of a baby 1st gen Focus) stylish, and have been like that since their launch in this country in 1998.
I guess Ford put their bet in the version they thought was going to “move” faster from the lots… based on their market research. And because competition (Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Chevy) already have them… they will HAVE to sell the hatch version also.
The Fiesta is made on a different platform than the Focus. Rear suspension on the current generation Fiesta is a twist beam axle (same as the Yaris or the Aveo), Focus is independent.
I am confused, I read people that wants an economy hatch AND leather, sat nav, electric seats… ummm with those contradictory wishes you get an overpriced B-segment gas guzzler.
I hope we get here in Latin America the new version in a short time.
Well-designed, multi-adjustable, leather-covered seats don’t have to weigh an ounce more than the relative cheap junk that’s offered for your butt in most of the small cars currently available in the US. Same for stuff like navigation systems, etc.
I won’t buy a car without some kind of moonroof or sunroof. It doesn’t even need to be “powered” — I had a 1996 Toyota Paseo with just a pop-up-in-the-back moonroof, and that was just fine.
I won’t buy a car without cruise control. It can’t cost too much of a weight penalty to plug it into even a small car.
I won’t buy a car without something resembling an eight-way adjustable seat. Mainly, I want to be able to adjust the height of the FRONT of the seat cushion, independently of the BACK of the seat cushion. Believe it or not, at least two small cars currently have such things — the Hyundai Accent / Kia Rio twins. But then again, the seats in these and other small cars aren’t “long” enough to provide decent thigh support, and there are very few that seem to be designed with any thought whatsoever given to “comfort.”
So, “oh, sure, this stuff would COST more” — and I think plenty of people would be GLAD to pay it. But it sure doesn’t have to weigh more. As far as that goes, there has got to be PLENTY of room to build vehicle components — especially interior stuff like seats — with lighter materials. In the end, that’s what’s really “the most wrong” with our vehicles — how such a teensy little percentage of the fuel we burn actually goes to move the driver. It sure seems that we could make some better progress toward that end than we’ve done lately….
@thoots: But no, Americans don’t want hatchbacks, and small, fuel-efficient cars MUST be ’stripper’ models. I’m sure you’ll be far more successful with $50,000+ full-size hybrid SUV’s.
Then I say give them what they want.
The average SUV owner will kill for a hybrid that gives them at least 18-20mpg/city without making any compromise like, say, downsizing from their comfortable and commanding SUV to a CUV, or even worse, an econobox. Yes, there is a price premium to those hybrids (The Tahoe Hybrid costs over $50k, amirite?), but if the market is willing to pay that much for having their cake and eating it in one sitting, then more power to them.
Oh, and there are a lot of reasons why hatchbacks and econoboxes don’t do too well, especially ones brought over from Europe:
1) For Americans, cars are often status symbols. A hatchback means you are poor, strapped for cash, eating ramen at least 5 out of 7 days a week. For the person who wants to project success to the Jones next door, you get something a bit better than a tinny econobox.
2) The average price of the European econoboxes people here drool over are often more expensive than the ones found in the U.S. of A., not including currency allowances and extra costs for federalization, crash testing, etc. In the land of the brand new $9999 Kia Rio, this won’t fly. People won’t pay $20-$30k for an Euro Focus, no matter how good it is.
3) That Euro Focus? It’ll have to be decontented to the bone in order for the prices to jive with American wants. $15k is the limit — any higher than that, and it’s hard to rationalize buying a compact over say, just going with a base Camry with all of the attendant space and comfort gain for that price.
4) American auto makers have, for decades, led Americans to believe that a)it was impossible to have any creature comforts in a small car, and that b)you’d have to move up to a more expensive (and more profitable) “intermediate” in order to have those comforts. The big 3 thought small cars were unprofitable and built them accordingly — hence the Vega, Pinto, Chevette, etc etc etc.
“If you can sell them some kind of three-door and five-door hatchback that’ll get 30 MPG city and 35 MPG highway, with those same interior luxuries, I think you’ll sell a whole bunch of them.”
I doubt it. Price is key. The only hatches that I believe would fit that bill would be the BMW 1-series….and only because there is a status symbol embedded right on the hood.
“Why don’t us small car owners get leather, auto AC, NICE interiors, etc???”
Price. You want all of that stuff, but you don’t really want to pay for it all. TANSTAAFL
The Fit and Yaris sell because the price is within a reasonable range.
Hyundai is going to intro the Elantra Touring later in the year, a “5-Door” hatch.
It will use their existing 2.0 four-pot, so it won’t be a mileage king (probably do 24/32), but it will have similar interior room to the Matrix/Vibe and (from what I’ve seen) will be a pretty good looking beast.
My bet is that they’ll sell a bunch of them, as even “small” crossover owners will see a mileage gain with no loss in cargo capacity.
I had to “settle” for an Elantra SE for the time being, but I don’t plan on hauling anything major, and I’m hoping for a “plug-in” hybrid next time around.
It’s time to clear up a couple things for all those so quick to pile on Ford… and I’m not an “insider” so I don’t know all of Ford’s plans, but this is the best I’ve pieced together from various sources.
1) The Fiesta isn’t being decontented for the U.S. any more than, say, the Fit was. Ford is trying to move the B-segment upscale to boost profit potential and is getting economies of scale so it doesn’t have to decontent. Production of the vehicle is likely in Mexico to keep prices at “American” levels, though. The car we will get will be EXACTLY like the EU version except the nose. The nose needs to be modified to support U.S. crash standards. It will have three thin bars as well like seen at NAIAS. That sedan at NAIAS? Yes, that’s what our Fiesta sedan will look like.
It is likely that we will get the 1.6 from Europe (maybe the one from Brazil) and a new transmission. Eventually, the car will come with an EcoBoost engine and a DSG transmission optional.
2) Rumors are that Farley wants the hatches here in the U.S. I’m pretty sure the 5-door has always been planned, but the 3-door got great reception at NAIAS. Whether they will be available right at launch or a few months later, like a rolling entrance, is not clear, but it looks almost certain they both will make landfall in the U.S.
3) RE: the Mustang – Indications are that Ford’s engineers are completely pounded right now. The old I-6 in the Mustang is going away – it’s a dead program – but the 3.7 that is replacing it has to be ready. If 3.7 program is behind, it may not make the 2010 Mustang launch in early 2009, in which case the 4.0 will be the base engine for, at most, one MY. The 3.7 is also slated for the 2010 F-150 to replace the 4.6 2V. An insider said that the 5.0 is delayed for sure, which means that the only engine suspected to be a carryover is the 4.6 – and only for one MY.
This has nothing to do with being “too expensive.” Cost of development is important, but this isn’t bean-counting Ford anymore. This is all about Ford’s engineering capacity, which is being stretched very thin as they overhaul their entire lineup.
That photo from Car and Driver is all photochop based on spy shots. Some of their “facts” seem a bit off. The new Mustang launches at NAIAS. We’ll know the facts then.
I’d definately consider it, but in the hatch version only.
@John Williams: 1) For Americans, cars are often status symbols. A hatchback means you are poor, strapped for cash, eating ramen at least 5 out of 7 days a week. For the person who wants to project success to the Jones next door, you get something a bit better than a tinny econobox.
I don’t know what part of the country you live in, but in SF Bay Area nothing short of 911 or S-class buys you any “status symbol”. Camry certainly doesn’t. In fact, a cute hatch at least will get you a few interested looks, Camry will get you a yawn.
RE: the Mustang – Indications are that Ford’s engineers are completely pounded right now. The old I-6 in the Mustang is going away – it’s a dead program – but the 3.7 that is replacing it has to be ready. If 3.7 program is behind, it may not make the 2010 Mustang launch in early 2009, in which case the 4.0 will be the base engine for, at most, one MY. The 3.7 is also slated for the 2010 F-150 to replace the 4.6 2V. An insider said that the 5.0 is delayed for sure, which means that the only engine suspected to be a carryover is the 4.6 – and only for one MY.
This has nothing to do with being “too expensive.” Cost of development is important, but this isn’t bean-counting Ford anymore. This is all about Ford’s engineering capacity, which is being stretched very thin as they overhaul their entire lineup.
That photo from Car and Driver is all photochop based on spy shots. Some of their “facts” seem a bit off. The new Mustang launches at NAIAS. We’ll know the facts then.
Thank you for this information, sorry for getting on Ford, I just didn’t know this and the C&D article made it sound like Ford was just resting on its laurels.
I bet Ford will launch it with a 1.6 engine, because a 1.0 or 1.2 or 1.4 lt like the ones used in Europe would be considered “punny” by the Americans. Maybe it will be the Zetec Rocam (brazilian) used down here. It has between 90-100 HP.
But you will not get for sure the diesel engines. Tons of torque, excellent fuel economy.
As someone pointed before, european cars are expensive… and to sell them in a price people would buy in the US, they would have to be decontented… I in this case, would say stripped.
@Stingray: As someone pointed before, european cars are expensive… and to sell them in a price people would buy in the US, they would have to be decontented… I in this case, would say stripped.
Ford could always consider retooling one of their less then profitable factories in the US and making Fiesta here.
The original Focus hatchback (3-door) was also just about perfect size and utility. I saw lots of them around here. The new one, the nondescript sedan? Barely one a day. Maybe.
BTW, I drove that early model Euro Focus with 1.4l, 5 sp, through the Alps and back in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. Did not need one more whiff of power. It was just fine the way it was.
Retooling takes time and is expensive. And don’t forget that USA manpower is more expensive than Mexico’s or Brazil for example.
And they have to make a profit, and small cars have a smaller margin than big cars or trucks. To this point adds the fact that less expensive labor means bigger/better profits. Also, I’m pretty much sure the car will be sold also in Mexico, and costs have to be compatible with that market too. Bigger volumes, better scale, better economics.
I’ll take a Fiesta hatchback with the smallest Duratorq engine available, which it looks like is the 1.4. I’d also like it to be factory equipped with 3 pedals.
What’s that, you’re not going to sell a diesel powered Fiesta hatchback in North America? Well then, screw you too Ford.
It looks like a nice car, but they could at least offer a gas powered hatchback, if nothing else.