Friday 25th August 2006

It's the Ford Fiesta's birthday

Blue Oval's starter car hits 30

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The Ford Fiesta is 30 this week.

Born in the mid-1970s, Ford Fiesta has become ingrained in the European experience. It is a brand that everyone knows. For some, Fiesta has represented that important first car. For many others, Fiesta is a practical, dependable stalwart, just the right size for fun and personal transport.

Although today's Fiesta is different in many ways -- like bigger and heavier -- from the original Fiesta that went on sale in 1976, it shares many of its fundamental attributes.

"Fiesta's birthday gives us the opportunity to celebrate three decades of change," said Ford's European boss John Fleming. "Fiesta represented change when it came on the automotive scene, and while it has moved with the times and fashions over the years, it has remained steadfast in its dedication to providing economical, practical and dependable transportation for people of all ages. That mission is just as relevant today as it was in 1976."

Generations

Fiesta made its debut in the same year in which British Airways and Air France began transatlantic service with their new supersonic flagship, Concorde. It was also the year that a fledgling company, Apple Computer, was founded. Who could have imagined that 30 years later, Concorde's dream of routine supersonic air transport would be retired, Apple would be a household name and a new Fiesta would be introduced for the iPod generation?

Introduced earlier in its anniversary year, the latest generation Ford Fiesta has a fresh new face that communicates likeability and fun and a bright new interior filled with colour. Its optional capabilities, like plugging an MP3 player into its audio system or Bluetooth voice control, would have been the stuff of science fiction three decades earlier.

Times were different in the 1976 world of compact motoring. Today's Fiesta offers 'big car' features, including air conditioning, power folding mirrors, satellite navigation, rain-sensing wipers and an array of other customer friendly technologies. Its look is contemporary, offering customers an appealing choice of exterior colours and a broad model range topped by the rally-inspired Fiesta ST performance car.

Today's Fiesta has grown in size from the original model, reflecting trends in customer wants for more roominess and greater luggage capacity, traits in which Fiesta led at the time of its original introduction.

Dimension	1976 Fiesta (m)	2006 Fiesta (m)	Difference (mm)
Overall length	3.565	3.924	359
Overall width	1.334	1.685	351
Overall height	1.36	1.432	72
Wheel base	2.286	2.486	200

Another place where Fiesta has kept up with the times is in consumer acceptance, measured by sales data. Sales of Ford's popular small car have increased year on year for the past five years. Annual car sales in 2005 of 358,931 units made it Fiesta's best sales year since 1998.

And the pace of sales growth has continued in the first half of 2006. Sales of the Fiesta between January and June 2006 were 205,200 units, up 10 per cent versus the first half of 2005. More than 12 million Fiestas have been delivered into customers' hands in Fiesta's colourful 30-year history.

[tombstone]

but will a 2005 ST with held with the same esteem in 20 years as a Mk1 SuperSport or XR2 do now? Possibly not.... Mind you, prefer a button to squirt the windscreen washers than press a rubber foot bellow!!