Ford Fiesta 2008 News

The 59-year-old, one of the last senior executives from the tumultuous Jacques Nasser era, started as Ford's vice president of design in 1997 after working with BMW, Audi and Volkswagen.

Scheduled to go on sale here towards the middle of 2013, the Ford Fiesta range will kick off with the tiny 1.0-litre turbocharged three-cylinder EcoBoost engine that claimed the World Engine of the Year award a few months ago. “We’ve confirmed the three-cylinder turbo for the Fiesta,” Ford spokesman Neil McDonald says. “Originally it was going to be the EcoSport SUV  but Fiesta will beat it to market by several months. The turbocharged engine is offered in two levels -- 74kW/170Nm and 92kW/200Nm – but there’s no indication yet of whether we will get both. “It’s a little bit early to talk what the engine line-up will be,” McDonald says, although agreeing there would have to be consideration of whether the local market would go for two 1.0-litre versions or would expect to see a larger unit in the upper spec cars. The leaked official images show the main styling changes are focused on the nose, which gets the Aston Martin-flavoured grille shape -- already worn by the overseas Ford Fusion (Mondeo) – set off with a new front bumper and headlight clusters featuring LED running lights. McDonald says it’s also too early to discuss whether price and specification levels will change markedly from the current range, which opens with the $16,990 CL and tops out at the $23,490 Zetec – or whether they will be joined by the Fiesta ST seen overseas. “There’s been a Fiesta ST concept vehicle shown in Europe but we haven’t confirmed it for here,” he says. “For the rest of the range, it’s too far out to talk about price, but we plan to remain competitive. The Fiesta has been doing quite well -- around the 700 per month. It’s been a pretty strong seller for us.” While the release of fresh metal can often mean extra demand that constrains supply of some imported cars, McDonald points out Asian production means it won’t be a problem for the Fiesta. “Our vehicles are built in Thailand so I don’t think supply is going to be an issue,” he says.  

A street version of its Fiesta RS World Rally Championship weapon for 2011 is "under consideration'' - the first sign that the Blue Oval is prepared to rekindle memories of the XR4 edition of the early 2000s. "We would love a high-performance Fiesta,'' says Ford Australia's general marketing manager David Katic.  "We're looking at al opportunities (the WRC car can bring)." He describes the XR4 as a "great car''.  But no-one at Ford Australia is talking about timing, pricing or even the name. It is possible it could wear the ST moniker to share with the hot Focus hatch that is also a possible for Australia. The talk in Europe about a hot Fiesta is stronger. Spy shots show a three-door hatch with twin exhausts and an intercooler peeking through the front bumper inlets. It is believed that adding the turbocharger and intercooler to the 1.6-litre engine will produce up to 130kW. That should be sufficient for a 0-100km/h time of about six seconds. The hot Fiesta would be built in Europe, alongside the ECOnetic diesel. Other Fiesta models for Australia are now made in Thailand.

In a swiftly changing motoring environment carmakers are searching for new ways to cut fuel use and emissions and improve efficiency.Among the hundreds of concepts and new and updated models on display at the Paris motor show over the next 15 days are some definite standouts. Renault has combined gull-wing doors, comfort, refinement and a slippery design with a hybrid diesel engine and plonked it all on massive 23-inch wheels in its range-topping Ondelios concept car (cover picture).It's 4.8m long and has a hybrid 150kW version of the 2.0-litre dCi engine.There are also two 20kW electric motors at the front and rear to provide extra boost recovered during braking.Mercedes is unveiling one of the world's fastest cabriolets. The SLR McLaren Roadster 722S has 478kW of power and accelerates from 0-100km/h in 3.7 seconds before reaching a top speed of 335km/h.Just 150 of the two-seater supercars will be built. It complements Mercedes' other show star the ConceptFascination, a wild two-door sportswagon. It's a modern version of the old British “shooting-brake” where a wagon tail has been planted on a sporty saloon.Citroen's crossover concept, Hypnos, hasa 150kW engine that boasts miserly fuel efficiency figures of 4.5-litres per 100km.However, it what's inside that is different. An extremely colourful rainbow light show highlights its sleek styling.Honda is using the Paris show to highlight its green commitment. Star of its stand is the new Insight Concept, a dedicated petrol-electric hybrid car in the vein of Toyota's Prius.It is expected to go into production within the next few years.From the US, GM will debut a close to production version of its revolutionary Volt electric car. Chevrolet is showing its new crucial small car the Cruze, plus its first seven-seat multi-purpose family car, the Orlando show car.A form of SUV-family van and wagon crossover, it has a 2.0-litre diesel engine.Alfa Romeo is unveiling its little MiTo compact which is due to come to Australian the middle of next year.Fiat is showing the MiTo's likely competitor in the super-mini category, the 120kW 500 Abarth EsseEsse (SS) plus its PUR-O2 eco-range of cleaner, greener 500s. New technology includes the ability for the engine to turn itself off while idling and back on to continue driving.Mini will show its all-wheel-drive Crossover Concept, while BMW will premiere its X1 wagon. The Mini is intended for adventurous twenty-somethings, while the Concept X1 will go into production as a safe, practical family car.Chasing a similar small, sporty car market is Audi with its new A1. The near-production version will be a feature of its stand.Saab is exhibiting its 9-X Air concept car, while Volvo is debuting its production-ready ultra-safe XC60 crossover which is headed for Australia.Porsche has several new models in the911 range plus the go-anywhere Cayenne S Transsyberia super-4WD.Mazda's all-new Kiyora urban compact four-cylinder concept car will sit alongside the world debut of production cars, the new generation MX-5, the Mazda6 with a 2.2-litre turbo diesel engine and the Mazda2 1.6-litre diesel.Lamborghini has joined the rush to GT supercars with its four-door Estoque concept.Like Porsche's Panamera, Maserati's Quattroporte and Aston Martin's upcoming four-seater, the Estoque, brings a new versatility to one of the world's most uncompromising sports marques.Lamborghini stresses that although there are no production plans for the AWD Estoque it has been developed as fully production capable.Toyota has three world premiere vehicles ranging from its little four-seater city car, the iQ, to the all-new Avensis sedan and wagon and the 1.4-litre diesel-engined Urban Cruiser All Wheel Drive.Ford is debuting the all-new Ka city car with a choice of 1.2-litre petrol and 1.3-litrediesel engines, the hot Focus RS and the new economic Fiesta.Volkswagen will show off its latest Golf GTi. The hot hatch for 2009 is cleaner, smoother and much more refined than earlier cars.It will still come with a 155kW turbo petrol engine and the promise of a 7.2-second sprint to 100km/h, but is missing the wild body bits of earlier GTi road runners.Nissan's debuting Nuvu concept is just three-metres long. It only has two normal seats plus a third that folds down for luggage and groceries. The city car has solar panels on the glass roof.Ferrari will debut its chic two-seater V8 California sports car.From Korea will come Hyundai's i20 small car and a 2.4-litre engined hybrid SUV.Kia is showing its Soul range of urban crossover concepts that come with either petrol or diesel engines. There's also a hybrid version. Additional reporting by Kevin Hepworth and Paul Gover. 

It takes a step up from the current Fiesta model and follows the cheeky styling of the Mazda2 — not surprising, really, given Mazda is an associate company of Ford and both are on the small-car platform.Ford decided to retain the Fiesta name, instituted 32 years ago, after speculation it would be called the Verve, used when the Fiesta concept car was first shown last year.The styling — Ford calls it Kinetic — follows the same theme as the bigger Mondeo and even the latest Ford Falcon.The nose is dominated by a huge, low-slung grille that resembles a mouth. Much of the Verve's features have been carried over, which Ford Europe's CEO John Fleming said was important to maintain momentum in buyer interest. “The Verve concept produced amazing response,” he said.“This led to the design becoming the blueprint for Ford in the future.“All C-cars (C represents the small-car segment) will be like the new Fiesta — smaller, lighter and greener."“By 2010 it will extend out of Europe and into the US and then around the world.”Fleming said the Fiesta was one of 20 new models that would be launched by Ford in 2008. “That's a record, because the previous best was 14. This (new product roll-out) is very important to us. It will lead us to report a profit by 2009.”Ford has reported huge losses over the past five years, which led to the offloading of Aston Martin in 2007. It is currently in negotiations to sell Land Rover and Jaguar to the Indian conglomerate Tata.It retains Volvo and Mazda.Fleming said a four-point plan would be followed to restructure Ford and return it to profit.“This would involve delivering new product, corporate restructuring and bringing the company together to leverage the strength and avoid duplication.”Fiesta will come to Australia later this year as a five-door hatch, though may also be introduced as a three-door, just as Mazda had introduced a three-door Mazda2 to complement its five-door version.Ford said the Fiesta would showcase low-emission technology, including a model with less than 100g/km of CO2, as well as one that would operate on E85 ethanol fuel.The Fiesta, which is Ford's second-biggest seller after the Focus, is being built in Germany and Spain though will also soon go into production in China and, from 2010, in the US.Meanwhile, Ford has debuted its new small SUV, the Kuga, based on the Ford Focus, to go on sale in Europe in June.Ford Australia spokeswoman Sinead McAlary said they had shown some interest in the Kuga crossover but a business plan was still a “work in progress.” 

The Swiss show this week turned a significant corner, brushing aside traditional glitz and glamour to tackle the more sombre environmental issues.The show's displays confronted visitors with the speed and breadth of low-emission vehicle development.The change that is sweeping Europe and is relentlessly marching on other markets, including Australia, is spurred by consumer demands for low-emission cars and future European legislation that will dramatically curtail exhaust pollutants.Ford Europe's vice-president for environmental affairs, Wolfgang Schneider, said there was a global move to reduce emissions and create energy independence through minimising the use of fossil fuel.But rather than make hybrids, or wait for fuel-cell vehicles that use hydrogen, European car companies are seeking less radical and less expensive options.“The mainstream solution is to take conventional technology and turn it green,” he said.“Consumers want what they have now — cars that are well priced, have sporty driving manners, are comfortable and affordable to run — but they want to be environmentally aware. More importantly, they don't want to pay for it.”Ford released its new Fiesta small car that emits less than 120g of CO2 for every kilometre, the future legislated threshold proposed by the European Union.“We can do this by using current engineering — that is, to reduce the vehicle's weight, make the car more aerodynamic, and use low-friction lubricants,” Dr Schneider said.“The Fiesta, with 99g/km, equates to a fuel economy of 3.8 litres/100km. As long as we can get these low emissions and low fuel consumption by existing technology, the less need we have to rush into building hybrid vehicles.“If we decide on a hybrid, it will immediately add about $6000 to the car's price. Customers won't pay that.”Ford in Europe also offers one Flexifuel version which runs on biofuel for every model. But the pick-up is poor compared with diesels.Volvo, which sits under the Ford umbrella, offers biofuel models, but believes high-efficiency diesels are the best option.Volvo chief Steven Armstrong said his company would soon offer a high-efficiency version of its C30 three-door hatch that emits less than 120g/km.He said it was also developing a plug-in electric C30 version.The battery is charged by plugging the car into a power source, usually overnight. The battery runs four electric motors, each within the wheel hubs.When the battery runs low, a small four-cylinder, ethanol-fuelled engine is automatically started to run a generator to recharge the battery.Volvo insists that the power source to charge the battery must be sustainable, preferably solar or wind-generated.“We will have a hybrid of the XC60 (a small SUV released this week and expected in Australia later this year) in 2010 and other hybrids may follow,” Mr Armstrong said.“Hybrids are great for the city where there is low-speed operation, but we believe that an efficient diesel is far, far better for the environment.“We will have an XC60 diesel with 170g/km CO2 on the market within 12 months.”Many manufacturers at the Geneva Motor Show displayed diesel-fuelled vehicles that use an ammonia-based liquid that results in extremely low emissions of nitrogen. Companies such as Mercedes-Benz call it BlueTec.But it's not on the way to Australia, certainly not this year.Volkswagen has a similar system called BlueMotion that could be here as early as late 2009.Volkswagen showed a concept diesel-hybrid that it claims will consume only 3.4 litres/100km.One further way many car makers are minimising fuel consumption and reducing emissions is by offering models with smaller engines.This “downsizing” is being adopted by Volvo (it has a two-litre, four-cylinder engine option for its S80 luxury sedan) and Ford (1.6-litre engine for the medium-size Mondeo).The legislation on emissions will come into force from January 1, 2012.However, the rush to clean up the current fleet of cars is also being pushed by new US emission legislation that will come into effect about the same time as Europe.When introduced, both sets of legislation will affect the vehicles available to Australian buyers. 

Taking advantage of that country's free trade agreement with Australia. The car, due to go on sale here early in 2009, will be designed and engineered in Europe but built in Thailand

The Fiesta XR4 has taken the winning philosophy from the Focus XR5 and downsized. There is no turbo on this little hot hatch and it won't light the wick in performance terms, but it has been purpose-built to do its job. “The XR4 will be the benchmark in the light car hot-hatch segment,” says Ford Australia president Tom Gorman. “It is a vehicle designed with the passionate driving enthusiast in mind boasting a specially modified 2.0-litre engine, many safety and sports enhancements and eye-catching appearance.” The XR4 three-door hatch will launch at $24,990. The company, however, can only guarantee supply of 40 a month. “Obviously demand for this car is still very strong in European markets and 40 a month is what we have available for now,” says Ford Australia's Ed Finn. “The XR5 is going extremely well and comfortably meeting sales predictions of 50 a month and obviously we are confident the XR4 will also meet expectations.” The XR4 will come standard with a specifically-tuned dynamic stability control program, dual front, side curtain and side thorax airbags, traction control, ABS, electronic brake force distribution and, for the first time on a Fiesta, four-wheel disc brakes. There is a body kit with strong cues to the Focus XR5, sports suspension, leather and cloth sports seats and twin overhead racing stripes — a $300 option. Where the XR5 is a genuine performance offering with its 166kW and 320Nm from the forced 2.5-litre engine, the naturally aspirated baby brother XR4 is a little less aggressive, although out of the same TeamRS race development stable responsible for the XR5. The 2.0-litre Duratec four-cylinder, borrowed from the garden variety Focus, has been tweaked to produce 110kw of power, up a meagre 3kW on the Focus engine, but with a much flatter and broader torque profile. The XR4's peak 190Nm is reached at 4500rpm, but with 80 per cent on tap at 1500rpm and 90 per cent available from 2200rpm through to 6150rpm, the flexibility of the engine is impressive. “The 2.0-litre Duratec engine characteristics are ideally suited to the performance Fiesta as it combines free-revving performance and impressive low-end torque for excellent all-round drivability,” says TeamRS director Jost Capito. There has also been considerable input into the tuning of the suspension and chassis to provide a more stable platform but without the need for architectural modifications, Capito says. An exceptionally rigid body structure with ultra-stiff mounting points for the suspension and steering on the basic Fiesta was the starting point foundation for the team's work, he says. A front sub-frame carries the MacPherson-strut front suspension and steering system, while the Fiesta's rear suspension is a twist-beam providing strong lateral stiffness to aid handling and good longitudinal compliance for ride comfort. “The latest-generation Fiesta is solid as a rock,” says Capito. “It was the ideal basis for a performance derivative. What I am particularly proud of is that we have achieved its high standards of handling and grip while keeping a really good ride quality.” The XR4 front springs have been stiffened from 16.5N/mm on the standard car to 24N/mm with the dampers recalibrated. A revised design for the front suspension knuckle provides more negative camber to the suspension to generate more front-end grip. The rear springs also have been stiffened, from 15N/mm to 17N/mm, and the dampers modified. The twist beam axle has also been stiffened by almost 50 per cent to 720Nm/deg. The steering rack ratio has been shortened by 10 per cent and the toe-in reduced, to make the steering more agile while maintaining high speed stability and controllability. The Fiesta XR4 will be on sale from today.

Mitsubishi, Ford and Holden all showed off production or concept cars that are designed to move fast and get the blood pumping.But the big news came from Toyota, which launched its new TRD performance brand in Australia at the show.The launch of TRD represents first time Toyota has marketed under the TRD banner anywhere in the world. It is timed to celebrate the car manufacturer’s 50th anniversary of involvement in motorsport globally.Several models sporting new TRD livery were unveiled at the show, including an Aurion and a HiLux concept car. There are several more models on the way.Also previewed at the Toyota stand was the new Corolla hatch and a new Corolla rally car, which is based on the new production model to be launched soon.Mitsubishi opened the show with a Lancer concept “Sportback”.But Ford and Holden went all-out in the performance stakes. Ford revealed a new Fiesta XR4 which will be on sale in July this year. It will feature a variant with a two-litre diesel engine – the first diesel car to grace Ford Australia’s line-up.Also on show was a 40th Anniversary GT from FPV.Holden tried to top that with the unveiling of a Chevrolet Camaro concept car which attracted great interest from the assembled press. It was the first time this car had been seen in Australia.The company said although there are no plans to launch the Camaro here, it was on the stand in Melbourne to gauge customer reaction. The implication was that if interest is strong enough it may launch here.