Ford Fiesta canned in US

"TheHondaBro" (wwaveform) 07/23/2017 at 15:20 • Filed to: None

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Link in case of Kinja.

yamahog > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 15:22

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well, looks like the party’s over

Captain of the Enterprise > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 15:26

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Damn

facw > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 15:36

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Have to make room for the EcoSport I guess.

ranwhenparked > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 15:37

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So, that’s that.

Guess we need to have a Midsize Sedan Deathwatch, a Full-size Sedan Deathwatch, and a Subcompact Car Deathwatch. Are the compacts safe, or should they have one too?

Oh, and reminder - this wouldn’t be an issue if it wasn’t for FMVSS. If the US had regulatory reciprocity with other countries, an enterprising high volume Ford dealer could still independently import batches of Fiestas from Europe, if they wanted to.

Svend > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 15:39

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I can’t believe they are not going to North America.

Svend > ranwhenparked 07/23/2017 at 15:44

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Until drumpf got on his high horse about the number of cars being imported, etc...

ranwhenparked > Svend 07/23/2017 at 15:45

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Unless someone pointed out that it would also make it easier for Europeans to get their hands on those Suburbans and F-150s they so desperately crave.

Maxima Speed > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 15:47

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What!? Nooo! why would they do that?

Svend > ranwhenparked 07/23/2017 at 15:51

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We can already easily import cars from the U.S. (well at least the U.K.) with very little needed to make it road legal.

not for canada - australian in disguise > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 15:52

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What really sucks is how Canada and Mexico (where the Fiesta actually has been doing quite well) get boned too because Americans need 20 seats and eight wheel drive and 50 doors. Goddamnit.

InFierority Complex > not for canada - australian in disguise 07/23/2017 at 15:55

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Don’t forget our cup holders.

user314 > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 15:56

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 What are they going to give away on Wheel of Fortune and The Price is Right now?

Spridget > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 15:57

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Ford will fuck themselves the second a gas crisis hits.

ranwhenparked > Svend 07/23/2017 at 15:58

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Yes, I known your laws make sense.

Of course, ours aren’t actually laws, they’re regulations made up by bureaucrats at the USDOT without any input.

TheHondaBro > Spridget 07/23/2017 at 16:01

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I honestly don’t know why people would buy the Fiesta when cars like the Fit and the Yaris are far better in terms of build quality.

duurtlang > Svend 07/23/2017 at 16:02

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It’s the same for continental Europe, at least in the countries I’m familiar with. You can have a new (or used) US market car if you want to. No problem. You will need some adjustments, to lights for example including the addition of a rear fog light, and replacing the silly legacy US units with the metric system, but those are mere details. My father in law actually drives one of those grey market imports; a Dodge Magnum RT.

duurtlang > Svend 07/23/2017 at 16:02

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It’s the same for continental Europe. You can have a new (or used) US market if you want to. No problem. You will need some adjustments, to lights for example including the addition of a rear fog light, and replacing the silly legacy US units with the metric system, but those are mere details.

Grindintosecond > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 16:03

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Can i haz a trd yards supercharger kit?

TheHondaBro > Grindintosecond 07/23/2017 at 16:04

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If Toyota actually brought their new hot Yaris over here, I’d buy one.

duurtlang > facw 07/23/2017 at 16:05

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I just threw up a little. Thanks.

duurtlang > Spridget 07/23/2017 at 16:06

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They can always build them then. It’s not like it’ll be discontinued globally; the Fiesta is a huge success in Europe. And has been for a continuous 4 decades.

Svend > duurtlang 07/23/2017 at 16:07

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That’s the same as the U.K. but I didn’t know exactly what the situation was with Europe so didn’t want to say just in case I was wrong.

DC3 LS, will be perpetually replacing cars until the end of time > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 16:09

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F

Svend > duurtlang 07/23/2017 at 16:10

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I quite like the new Fiesta. Just looked at the ST-Line.

Panoramic roof, door protectors, etc...

Even the base ‘Style’, manual and petrol Fiesta is nice, adequately specced and well priced.

Cé hé sin > Spridget 07/23/2017 at 16:24

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There’s no prospect of such a thing in the foreseeable future though. Oil prices show no sign of going up.

duurtlang > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 16:27

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Because they both look like shit. The Yaris is no fun to drive at al. The Fit, come on. My 92 year old grandfather feels too young for that design.

I’d take a Fiesta over both. Without hesitation.

Cé hé sin > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 16:28

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(looks up sales figures where I am)

The Fiesta somewhat outsells the Yaris and greatly outsells the Honda - by almost exactly ten to one in fact.

I haven’t actually heard of poor quality on Fiestas.

duurtlang > Svend 07/23/2017 at 16:29

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The others, excluding the mk1, didn’t go to the US either. They buy cars by the pound.

Probenja > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 16:30

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That’s a shame, I guess the global One Ford strategy didn’t work, here in South America we won’t get it either, instead it’s going to be another facelift for the current Fiesta.

Cé hé sin > Svend 07/23/2017 at 16:31

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I can. Too small and more importantly no money in them. Same applies to the Focus.

The American market is concentrated on huge pickups (which make correspondingly huge profits), SUV type things and the Toyota Camry.

Cé hé sin > Maxima Speed 07/23/2017 at 16:31

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Profits and the lack of same.

jkm7680 > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 16:33

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please take the sedan please take the sedan please take the sedan

E90M3 > Spridget 07/23/2017 at 16:36

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It will be interesting to see if a gas crisis happens anytime soon. I’m not sure we’ll see one for a while.

Svend > duurtlang 07/23/2017 at 16:39

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I wrote something else and it wouldn’t let me delete it so went for a neutral comment edit.

Svend > Cé hé sin 07/23/2017 at 16:40

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I wrote something else and it wouldn’t let me delete it so went for a neutral comment edit.

RT > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 16:41

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If this was a typical US Ford product you’d probably be right, but the Fiesta is built in Cologne, Germany. Plus it has a sporty version and is plenty more fun to drive than the two cars you mentioned.

What you really need is the Mazda 2 back.

duurtlang > Probenja 07/23/2017 at 16:42

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It never works. Hugely different markets require different products.

Svend > RT 07/23/2017 at 16:47

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A colleague had a Mazda 2, she found it so boring and even enjoys her Kia Rio way more.

TheD0k_2many toys 2little time > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 16:52

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because both of those are ugly. and not boosted (not that i would buy a FWD car besides a cheap winter beater)

duurtlang > not for canada - australian in disguise 07/23/2017 at 17:01

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They also need space for their huge asses.

I always got the feeling I was too small (narrow) for US market cars. And I’m 187 cm (6'2"?) tall and while slender I’m not skinny.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > RT 07/23/2017 at 17:05

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The Fiesta sold in the US is made in Mexico.

It’s a decent small car - not quite Honda quality, but better than modern Toyota.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > duurtlang 07/23/2017 at 17:07

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I think the Yaris has a crappier interior than the Fiesta, too.

The Fit is a nice car. It’s too bad it’s so small (even though it’s pretty practical). People I know that compare them to Kias always end up buying Souls.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Cé hé sin 07/23/2017 at 17:08

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The European ones are better than the North American ones that are built in Mexico. The DCTs in the Fiestas and Focuses sold in the North American market are garbage, apparently. For some reason the German-made ones don’t have these problems.

El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 17:09

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This round goes to you, old, narrow minded Ford shareholder.

http://jalopnik.com/5538378/-ford-shareholder-on-global-warming

And to your typical American short sighted business model, driven by nothing by greed and desire for instant profits.

Carbon Fiber Sasquatch > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 17:13

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I knew it was going to happen but I still can’t believe it

Ssfancyfresh > Spridget 07/23/2017 at 17:13

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Will they? There are other fuel efficient vehicles in the ford lineup. The focus is larger and achieves nearly the same MPG numbers with certain powertrain configurations.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > duurtlang 07/23/2017 at 17:18

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My FoST seats are much wider than FiST seats, but they really divide the average lardass American from the merely average American.

People that complain about my seats have unreasonably-large bodies/asses and/or they’re way outside the size range of a normal human (on the small side).

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > Cé hé sin 07/23/2017 at 17:22

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I think quality is a regional thing. The Mexico-built ones for the US market have had quality issues. I’ve heard bad things about awful paint quality, easily dented sheet metal, poor panel alignment, cheap interior materials and fitment, switches failing, multiple mystery CEL’s within the first 30,000 miles, etc. Even though it is the same platform and nominally the same car globally, it seems Ford might be cutting some corners on the US-market Fiestas to hit their price points. Over here we have a base “S” trim that starts at an MSRP of $13k and sells for even less. It’s a level below the “SE” that is roughly the same as your base Zetec. They can get partway there by dropping equipment, but I’m guessing thinner paint and looser tolerances make up the rest.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > TheHondaBro 07/23/2017 at 17:36

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The easy solution is easy, but they won’t do it for reasons that are unclear.

Right now Ford produces sedans for the North American market in their B and C segments, but they don’t produce them for Europe. That means they spend resources designing an ugly rear end, making special tooling/parts, etc, for the cheapest variants of these cars.

The sane solution would be to sell almost the exact same cars in North America that they do in Europe. 3- & 5-door hatches. Screw the people obsessed with sedans.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com 07/23/2017 at 17:39

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Ford also, for reasons I don’t understand, designs sedan tails for these same cars, which adds a lot to their overall cost for NA vehicles.

The even stranger thing is that the sedan variants are the cheapest, in spite of the extra design work and tooling it takes to produce them.

Ford would do well in the NA markets by simply dropping their poverty spec variants of B- and C-segment cars and selling basically exactly what they sell in Europe.

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 07/23/2017 at 18:38

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Ford didn’t add a Fiesta sedan for the NA market. The sedan for this generation was primarily designed for, and first unveiled in China. I won’t claim to know the reason why, but sedans are apparently more popular than hatches over there. That might also play into why the sedan variants are the cheapest. There is still a pretty big contingent of buyers in the US who prefer sedans to hatches, so they just sell both here. I do agree that they should get rid of the poverty spec. It works on things like the Versa and Mirage that are designed purely to be cheap runabouts and don’t really have trims with a lot of equipment. But all it does for the Fiesta is cheapen the image. Like you said, selling exactly what they sell in Europe makes sense - it would reduced sales temporarily but seems like the right long-term play.

RT > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 07/24/2017 at 10:50

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Toyota quality is much higher has that…

http://www.autonews.com/article/20070709/SUB/70705024/obsession-rules-at-lexus-flagship-plant

Corolla quality is approaching the same standard of the first gen Lexus LS!

Granted, their cars are not as bulletproof as they were 1985-1995, but still very high standards in the factory.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > RT 07/24/2017 at 11:11

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But the Corolla is a compact, not a subcompact. Their subcompacts are little more than sheet metal boxes lined with hard plastic, just like GM.

The compact segment is quite competitive these days in the NA market, in addition to the long-competitive mid-size market. They actually put decent interiors into these sizes of cars and build them to much higher standards.

Grindintosecond > TheHondaBro 07/24/2017 at 14:21

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If Ford pulls their fiesta (ranger) then Toyota may well bring in a TRD Yaris (Tacoma TRD) and gain where Ford loses a segment once again. Ford already gave up advertising the fiesta based on a whim like this and given what could have been the perfect Mazda2 never made it to the US, feel justified. I suppose the world market is where they’ll keep their small product for when we need a new SUV replacement when gas spikes again.

RT > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 07/24/2017 at 15:41

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I’m from England, where subcompacts dominate the car industry - including premium models like the Audi A1 and DS 3. Also Japan have been making subcompacts since the dawn of time (not surprising in a country where engine size is taxed). It’s only North American brands that are late to catch up in the subcompact game.

The rest of the developed world knows how to make high quality subcompacts, especially Japan. Some manufactures like Daihatsu and Suzuki even specialise in making subcompacts. To add a further nail in the coffin - Daihatsu is a subsidiary of Toyota, who make the Yaris. Trust me when I say ‘cheap Toyota plastic’ is of a much higher quality than ‘cheap GM plastic’.

And offshore manufacturing is ultimately inconsequential - the 7th gen Civic was built here in England, yet it’s one of the most reliable cars out there. This brings us back to the Ford Fiesta - a car unrelated to the Ford of America, in fact it was designed in Cologne, Germany - since 1976. I think it’s the bestselling car in my country at the moment. Relocation of production facilities to Mexico won’t reduce this quality - remember most of the work is done by robots now.

Point is, subcompact cars are built to high standards - you just aren’t seeing many of them in the United States right now.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > RT 07/24/2017 at 16:16

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Manufacturers heavily decontent cars for the North American market (especially for the US for reasons I don’t understand - Canada gets nicer cars, the US gets severely cheapened cars, and Mexico gets even cheaper (and more dangerous) cars). A North America bound Yaris will be severely cheapened everywhere they can to compete in the subcompact market, while the European-bound one will get higher quality everything, as will a JDM one (which might be even nicer than the EU one).

Hell, even compacts are pretty severely decontented for our market. A European Focus has numerous options that aren’t even available in the US version. My Focus is a completely loaded ST3 and it has a bunch of button blanks all over the place. It’s just how the small car market is run here for some mysterious reason.

RT > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 07/24/2017 at 19:21

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I haven’t found any evidence of North American Yarises being cheapened neither for the JDM ones being any better. They’re all built in the same factories more or less. As far as I know, the most that happens to US market cars are just adjustment to regulations (so federally mandated reflectors, left hand drive, passing crash tests etc) which would happen to any country anyway. 

But you just mean they’re decontented, you’d be right - though that’s mainly because subcompacts are niche cars in the North American market, but mass market cars in Europe and Japan. Hence, the manufacturer would likely prioritise - giving those more important markets more options instead of wasting time to give them to a market which is less likely to buy these sorts of cars. As Mr Regular said in his latest video, most Americans don’t buy anything smaller than a CRX. Also there are a few glitches in the matrix here and there. For example, you guys got the manual version of the E60 M5 - but it wasn’t available in the UK or Japan.

Canada has preferences which cater slightly more towards the subcompact cars (hence why they got the Micra), if you got far back enough it explains why they got more imports of Opels/Vauxhalls in the past too. Mexico is an even more apparent example of different preferences and need dictating what cars are ‘cheaper’ as it’s a developing country with looser safety regulations and less income overall. Extended production of the original VW Beetle (until 2003!) and the B13 Sentra-based Tsuru taxicab are good examples of this.

I mean, it works the other way too. We get less choices on our Mustangs, Japan gets less trims of foreign cars available. …How many full-size pickups are for sale in Europe and Japan?