Fiesta touted as most important since Model T, writes Alastair Sloane
KEY POINTS:
Carmaker Ford has finally come out and said what automotive analysts have been talking about for some time: the new Fiesta small car is Ford's most important model since the Model T.
It might even be more critical than that: Ford built an industrial empire out of the Model T - the Fiesta is charged with helping to save that empire.
Ford Australia's new chief executive Marin Burela said as much the other day: "New Fiesta is a landmark moment for Ford. It's our most significant global vehicle project since the Model T and heralds the future for Ford product development."
Ford's rivals General Motors and Chrysler LLC are talking up their future too, mostly around the development of electric vehicles. That's if the US Government agrees to fund their future.
But whatever the automotive crystal ball holds, America's Big Three can't escape their past. Their power declined because executives didn't see the Japanese carmakers coming, even from Detroit's ivory towers.
Same with the fall of the Roman Empire - its leaders sat around Rome's bath houses drinking plonk while the natives got grumpy.
Something else: the Roman Empire took about 100 years to fall over. Detroit's influence has taken a pounding after 100 or so years too.
Some historians argue that while Rome is alive and well, so is its empire. Ford hopes it can adopt the same logic: as long as the Fiesta name survives, so does Ford's world.
The new hatchback is one of the company's lifejackets in rough US seas especially. Its sales success Stateside - where the Big Three are trying to turn Americans on to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars - is so crucial that Ford has opened up a whole new marketing campaign, more than 12 months out from its launch.
The carmaker wants to use social networking sites such as Facebook to generate buzz for the car, using company outsiders to get the early word out.
It is putting the Fiesta in the hands of 100 internet-savvy US consumers for long-term test drives beginning in April. The consumers, who will be chosen after applying at www.fiestamovement.com, will then relate their experiences through sites such as Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.
Ford New Zealand is adopting more traditional marketing methods, beginning in April when the Fiesta goes on sale here, a year ahead of the US.
Two five-door models will be available, both well-equipped petrol-powered units running on 16-inch wheels and with a five-star maximum crash rating.
The $24,490 1.6-litre four-cylinder unit develops 88kW and 152Nm and is mated to a five-speed manual gearbox. Ford claims fuel economy of 5.9 litres/100km (47mpg) and CO2 exhaust emissions of 139g/km. The $25,490 variant couples a 1.4-litre engine with a four-speed automatic gearbox. Ford claims fuel economy of 6.5 litres/100km and emissions of 154g/km.
The new Fiesta has been billed as Ford's world car, more so than the Focus. Burela was the global executive director of Ford's small car programme before he took the job across the ditch. His team looked at what global products worked best among a "generation that believes technology rules and that bigger isn't necessarily better".
Said Burela: "One lesson we understood early on was that the world is getting smaller for products such as cars and that tastes are converging, driven by two key factors. Firstly, customers in Asia Pacific markets such as China 10 years ago would not have had the option to buy anything other than a locally produced vehicle. That has changed.
"Secondly, in that same period we have seen a huge shift in demand in major markets such as the United States.
"The best-selling vehicle there is no longer a truck - it's a car and an imported vehicle at that.
"The unstable macroeconomic climate driving fuel and raw material prices has coupled with consumer concern over environmental issues to create a significant increase in demand for smaller, more efficient cars."
A Ford advertisement in the US in the 1950s said, "There's a Ford in your Future". Ford now needs to convince Americans that "There's a small Ford in your Future".
