The once best-selling model in Europe is ending due to lack of customer interest, Ford will process the last orders in June. Eight generations and over 18 million units produced are worth a little look back.
It is probably the only car that has its statue in larger than life size, on top of that in a historical monument and even more so in conservative Germany. The golden Fiesta with outstretched wings has been decorating Cologne since 1991. And despite the fact that it is sometimes opposed by a city representative with refined taste or an environmental activist with a penchant for cycling, it has become an inherent part of public space.
After all, Fiesta is at home in Germany’s fourth largest city. Its first generation rolled off the production lines at the local Ford factory, and has remained there to this day. When it ends here in a few days, it will be replaced by a new electric crossover with technology from Volkswagen. He, too, is to become a fundamental pillar of Ford for the European market.
When the Fiesta started here on May 11, 1976, it was like jumping on a bandwagon at the last minute. At the time, Europe was dominated by the Renault 5 and the Fiat 127, and the Volkswagen Polo was already in the world. And while the first two models were also allowed to be seen in small quantities by motorists in Czechoslovakia, the Fiesta never made an official appearance here. Thus, she began to make her way to Czech motorists only after 1989.
Ford had big plans for the Fiesta from the beginning, he wanted to push it on all continents, even in North America. And as the director of the Cologne factory at the time, Bob Lutz, said at its premiere, the Fiesta was the most important innovation for the automaker since the first Ford T rolled out in 1908.
Lutz, who later became a respected automotive manager, was not exaggerating in the slightest. The Fiesta was the first model to bring the spirit of modern times to Ford: a transverse engine, front-wheel drive and a hatchback body. For the development of the car, the second largest automobile concern in the world at the time spent two billion West German marks, which was a lot of money even for Ford. No other car had cost him so much up to that time.
After all, even Henry Ford II did not miss the premiere. Until then, the well-known opponent of small cars drove around the Rhine in the Fiesta to then wave a commendable “good job” towards the constructors.
The head of the concern had originally come up with a different name for the Fiesta. She was to be called Bobcat, which means lynx in Czech. But since the name had already been used by the Mercury brand, Ford must have thought of something else. According to the preserved legend, the Fiesta was his idea, after all, the car was also to be assembled in Valencia, Spain, where Ford had one of its factories.
The problem, however, was that the name had already been patented by Ford’s main competitor, General Motors. Allegedly, a short phone call with then-GM president Tom Murphy solved everything.
The spectacular career of the small Ford could thus begin: the plant in Valencia churned out cars for southern Europe, the factory in Dagenham supplied the British in large quantities, and in Saarlouis and Cologne, cars for another 70 countries of the world came off the assembly lines.
Perhaps only in the USA the Fiesta did not do well, although the press there was full of superlatives. The oil crisis was over by then and the car was too small for the Americans. They spared only its seventh generation, which was produced in Mexico with a sedan body.
From the very beginning, the Fiesta was a driver-oriented car, in comparison tests with Renault or Volkswagen, it came out of the fight as the sportiest. After all, this reputation was cultivated by the automaker itself, when it also assigned a “sharp” version to each generation, starting with the Fiesta XR and ending with today’s ST.
The Fiesta’s participation in rallies and sports competitions is a separate chapter. In the early 1980s, for example, the car company thought that it could establish a tradition of women’s racing with the Fiesta. And so the Ford Fiesta Ladies Cup was born in 1982, which was among the most attractive events in Germany for the following five seasons. Not even when only female competitors between the ages of 18 and 28 could compete in it.
In today’s world, the PR department wouldn’t get away with anything, but at the time, similar events belonged to Ford’s stellar era in Europe. A few years after the Fiesta came the third generation of the Escort and also the Sierra, both models of the competition she hated from the bottom of her heart. It almost seemed that Ford wasn’t even an American car company when it could so perfectly capture local tastes and needs.
All that is long gone, in recent years Ford’s former bestsellers have been on the European market for a long time. For example, only 132 motorists bought the outgoing Fiesta in the Czech Republic this year, while more than four thousand Fabias were sold in the same period.
2023-06-03 04:05:47
#Goodbye #scarf #Ford #Fiesta #counts #final #days #Currently.cz
