What's good for Mini is good for Ford, right? Hold on. While the 2011 Ford Fiesta on sale this spring won't range from $20,000 to $30,000+, it easily will stretch into four-cylinder Fusion territory thanks to a long list of gee-whiz features that don't come with the base model.
To get costs down for North American-market prices, Ford has scrapped the European Fiesta's "cheap and cheerful" interior, with its techy two-tone seats and matching dashboard-top colors. The North American Fiesta has black-on-black dashboard tops with contrasting plastic grains, although top-of-the-range the SES and SEL do come with different-colored lower dashes and door inserts and are available with supple leather seats with contrasting piping and stitching.
Ford will offer all trim levels of the Fiesta with the same five-speed manual as in the European version, on sale since October 2008. A new dry dual-clutch six-speed automated manual will serve the vast majority of buyers. Unfathomably, it won't come with a manual gate feature. Ford says market research argued for putting that money into the interior, instead. While it doesn't need paddle-shifters, a manual-shift gate would let young drivers take advantage of what company engineers say has "the spirited feel of a manual with the convenience of an automatic."
With the automated manual, dubbed "Powershift," and the car's 1.6-liter four with twin independent variable cam timing, Ford expects 30/40 mpg EPA numbers.
Other changes from the European model include a Fusion/Taurus-like three-bar chrome grille for the sedan (the hatchback retains the European "look") and U.S. bumper offsets that add 60-mm to the nose. The sedan's taillamps look very Taurus-like. The European car's standard summer tires are replaced with 16-inch Kumho all-seasons and the electric power steering has been retuned slightly. A boron high-strength steel b-pillar support for meeting new U.S. rollover standards adds just 10 pounds to the car. The dashboard has been reshaped slightly for crash standards, and the North American car comes with seven airbags, including a driver's knee bag.
Its long list of features include quad-beam headlamps with LED auxiliary lamps (see the Verve concept), side-mirror repeaters, integrated blind spot mirrors, pushbutton start and "intelligent" access, moonroof, hands-free Sync controls, a four-inch multi-function dashboard display, a "cellphone-inspired" center stack, USB port for Sync and audio jack, ambient lighting with two LEDs front, two LEDs rear and in the cupholders and Ford's capless refueling.
The only item standard on the base S, though, is the capless refueling. And only the four-door sedan is available in S trim; the four-door hatchback starts with the SE trim level. Ford says customers - the car will target Milennials and Baby Boomers - perceive the hatchback as the premium bodystyle, presumably because it's more "Europeanish."
Ford has no plans to sell the two-door hatch in North America, though we'll probably see an SVT, possibly with a paddle-shifted Powershift within a year or two. With its kicky kinetic styling, cutesy colors like Lime Squeeze and Sunburst and 100 Fiesta Movement Agents spreading the word, Ford figures the U.S. will contribute mightily to 500,000 units per year globally. Could happen in the first year ... with all those assumptions counter-intuitive to the U.S. market, will it sell well for a full product cycle?
Thanks to: Motor Trend