OAKVILLE, Ontario — Just before I jumped into the 2009 European-market Ford Fiesta, for my allotted 10-minute drive, I was tooting around Ford Canada’s parking lot in a 1926 Ford Model T Touring Car. It was one three Model Ts on hand, to give us scribes a taste of Ford’s past, just before we got a taste of its future.
How I didn’t quite master the arcane process of starting and stopping and negotiating smoothly in a Model T is a tale for another day, after it becomes slightly less painful to re-live.
Which is quite all right, because most people would rather hear about this new Fiesta, which is coming to North America next summer, as a 2011 model.
Well, not exactly this Fiesta. The five-door Fiesta before us is a 2009 model, in a configuration for European markets only. Ford Canada obtained it through a dealer in Holland.
Citizen of the world
This new-generation Fiesta debuted last August, and is currently built in two European facilities (one in Spain, one in Germany). It was created by Ford’s European product development team, based on the Mazda2 platform, and has already won many European awards. It has become Ford’s fastest selling car. Another version of the Fiesta will also be built in China, for Asian, South African, and Australian markets. The North American Fiestas will be built in Mexico.
While Fiesta is a world car in every sense of the word, it still needed to be tailored to meet every jurisdiction’s safety and emission standards, and to be adjusted for content and styling, to meet regional consumer expectations.
In North America that means we will get a four-door sedan model, as well as the five-door hatch — but no three-door hatch. Another thing we won’t get is a diesel engine. We’ll probably only get the largest engine in Fiesta’s catalogue — the 119-hp, 1.6-litre four (which powered our tester) and hopefully an EcoBoost version a bit later on, to power a future Fiesta sports model.
 |
| This new Fiesta, which is coming to North America next summer, as a 2011 model. |
How I didn’t quite master the arcane process of starting and stopping and negotiating smoothly in a Model T is a tale for another day, after it becomes slightly less painful to re-live.
Which is quite all right, because most people would rather hear about this new Fiesta, which is coming to North America next summer, as a 2011 model.
Well, not exactly this Fiesta. The five-door Fiesta before us is a 2009 model, in a configuration for European markets only. Ford Canada obtained it through a dealer in Holland.
Citizen of the world
This new-generation Fiesta debuted last August, and is currently built in two European facilities (one in Spain, one in Germany). It was created by Ford’s European product development team, based on the Mazda2 platform, and has already won many European awards. It has become Ford’s fastest selling car. Another version of the Fiesta will also be built in China, for Asian, South African, and Australian markets. The North American Fiestas will be built in Mexico.
While Fiesta is a world car in every sense of the word, it still needed to be tailored to meet every jurisdiction’s safety and emission standards, and to be adjusted for content and styling, to meet regional consumer expectations.
In North America that means we will get a four-door sedan model, as well as the five-door hatch — but no three-door hatch. Another thing we won’t get is a diesel engine. We’ll probably only get the largest engine in Fiesta’s catalogue — the 119-hp, 1.6-litre four (which powered our tester) and hopefully an EcoBoost version a bit later on, to power a future Fiesta sports model.
 |
| The 119-hp, 1.6-litre four (which powered our tester) |