Ford Fiesta 2009 News

It doesn't really matter what you call it, the push is all about sustainability and leaving as much as we can from this generation for the next rather than gobbling up finite resources with no regard

It doesn't really matter what you call it, the push is all about sustainability and leaving as much as we can from this generation for the next rather than gobbling up finite resources with no regard

Driving Hyundai's new Santa Fe diesel we had a spectacularly good run on the leg from Port Augusta to Adelaide thanks to a handy tail wind, a distance of just over 300km.   A figure of 4.9 litres per 100km is an impressive achievement for a wagon that weighs almost two tonnes, but still not as good as the one achieved by Mitsubishi rally great Ed Ordynski who brought his vehicle home with just 4.8 on the trip computer.  Bugger.Hyundai entered two, 2.2-litre diesel Santa Fe CRDi's in the Eco Challenge section of the event that caters to production cars.  It's run in tandem with the famous World Solar Challenge out of which the event grew a couple of years ago.It took the two Hyundais six days to drive from Darwin to Adelaide, with the longest leg between Alice Springs and Coober Pedy 685km.  It might not sound that far, but at a speed of around 75km/h the journey starts to take on epic proportions, especially with no air conditioning and an ambient temperature nudging 40 degrees.It turned that particular leg into 9.25 hours of living hell.  You can't use air conditioning because it eats into the fuel consumption.  Now, no one in their right mind is going to drive that far in those conditions without air, but it shows what can be achieved if you try hard enough.The two Santa Fe's were neck and neck for most of the way, averaging between 4.8 and 5.4 litres/100km each day, with only a tenth of a point separating them.  It led to some good natured rivalry as the teams vied to see who would record the greatest improvement in fuel consumption (the Santa Fe is rated at 6.7 litres/100km).While the the rally driver may have won the day, it's the journalist that gets to have the last word.  "We was robbed,'' springs to mind.  Ordynski had had some practice conserving fuel on the transport stages of rallies, where he'd managed to achieve 8.5 litres/100km instead of the outrageous 100 litres/100km that the car consumed in competition.Records tumbled and the rules evolved as the Green Challenge unfolded.  Japan's Tokai University team took out the Solar Challenge while the Tesla sports car set a new record of 501km for the greatest distance travelled by an electric car between charges.Incredibly, it was HSV's Maloo ute that was declared the winner of the Eco Challenge with a figure of 7.74 litres/100km, while Ford's Fiesta EcoNETIC recorded the lowest fuel consumption slipping below 3.0 litres/100km.The winner was the entry that recorded the most improvement and while the Maloo may have done that, it also used the most fuel and produced the most carbon emissions.  Hyundai was elated to claim the crown as the most economical SUV after Ordynski's car finished a fraction ahead of the Kia Sorento at 5.1 litres versus 5.17 litres/100km _ a 24 per cent improvement.The other car piloted by myself and other Carsguide journos finished with 5.35 litres/100km.  The Kia and the Hyundai share the same 2.2-litre turbo diesel engine and transmissions, but the Kia is lighter and has a better wind drag co-efficient.The event concluded with a three hour urban leg around the streets of Adelaide.Make One Degree of difference today by calculating your carbon footprint and finding out what you can do to reduce it.

Not only does the new Ford Fiesta Econetic turbo-diesel beat the Toyota Prius on price, but it is also more fuel-efficient. The Econetic goes on sale from December 1 with a drive-away price of $24,990 - $15,000 cheaper than the cheapest Prius hybrid. It also wins the fuel economy battle with a combined fuel economy figure of just 3.7 litres/100km, .02 of a litre better than the Prius. By Ford's own estimates, the Econetic will travel more than 1000km between refills. The newest Ford is also only the second car in Australia to achieve a greenhouse gas emission rating under 100g/km and the only non-hybrid car to get a low C02 figure of 98g/km. The hybrid Prius is the other with C02 emissions of 89g/km. Ford Australia president and chief executive officer, Marin Burela, has big hopes for the 1.6-litre TDCi, which could pave the way for other Econetics. He says the company is committed to achieving "fuel economy leadership in every segment in which we compete". The Econetic has already attracted a lot of interest from both private and fleet buyers. However, Burela is not prepared to put a sales forecast on the frugal hatch. "Right now we're taking it a step at the time," he says. "We're not wanting to be too bullish." However, it is clear Burela thinks the hatch will be a winner and attract city buyers. "I think it is a game changer for us," he says. He says the car is Ford's most visible commitments to going green. The success of the Fiesta, which is a sellout, is also expected to help Econetic sales, he says. "Most cars with this level of fuel efficiencies tend to compromise," he says. "This is no compromise." The Econetic, like the petrol Fiestas, is being sourced out of Cologne in Germany. However from mid-2010 Fiestas will be imported from Thailand and benefit from the Free Trade Agreement, wich should help lower prices. There are no plans to build the Econetic in Thailand, Burela says. At the heart of the five-door is Ford's Duratorq TDCI 1.6-litre four cylinder and five-speed manual transmission. It develops 66kW at 4000 revs and 200Nm from 1750 revs. To help reduce emissions it gets a diesel particulate filter. Economy has improved through the use of low-rolling resistance Michelin tyres, a recalibrated transmission and final drive ratio and improved aerodynamics. The spare tyre has been dumped in an effort to save weight, replaced by a tyre ‘mobility kit’. Visually the car looks little different to a CL version, with steel wheels and a slightly lower ride high. The cabin remains the same, except for a green shift light indicator in the dials. And if the Fiesta Econetic takes off, Ford has more ultra-frugal diesels waiting in the wings. In Europe Econetic versions of the Focus and Mondeo are available. Burela says they could be easily added to the lineup. "We'll wait and see how the Fiesta goes first," he says. Ford executives will be watching Toyota's rollout of the hybrid Camry next year with strong interest before formulating a response. However, Burela says any fuel efficient strategy "must go down that path of affordable economy". Make One Degree of difference today by calculating your carbon footprint and finding out what you can do to reduce it.

Car companies are about to be put to the test in the Global Green Challenge and Carsguide is going along for the ride. There are two key buzz words in today's world of clean, green motoring: more and less.Car buyers, pricked by an environmental consciousness, are driving demand for better efficiency to reduce the impact on their wallet and less emissions to reduce the impact on the environment.And there's an added caveat to this quest for green sustainability: it has to be affordable without robbing the family car of performance or driveability.Welcome to the challenge facing car designers as they chase motoring's holy grail — producing a workable, green friendly car for the future. A bookmark of just where the industry is at will be on display at the end of the month when the Eco Challenge for production cars, run in conjunction with this year's Global Green Challenge, sets out from Darwin on October 24 and heads south to Adelaide.It will be real-world 3000 kilometre reality check, albeit most of the driving will be on highways, to show buyers what more-for-less cars are available now, or the near future.This week car companies have been jostling as they line up for the starting grid — some have still to fully show their hand but organisers say 21 cars are expected to contest the Eco Challenge while a further 38 dedicated solar-powered cars will also follow the same route the following day in their own race.This year's production car field is an eclectic mix.Hyundai Hyundai is using the Global Challenge to launch its 2010 Santa Fe wagon, promising more power and reduced fuel consumption which will attract caravan owners looking for an alternative to heavier 4WDs.Hyundai's Team R has entered two Santa Fes, one of which will be driven by CarsGuide. The wagon gets Hyundai's new R turbo diesel and a new six-speed manual transmission along with a recalibrated suspension and steering package for our tougher road conditions. A six-speed automatic will be optional. The Santa Fe goes on sale at the end of the year.Skoda Skoda will use the event to showcase its new flagship, the Superb saloon. Skoda says the 2-litre direct injection turbo diesel is capable of 5.4l/100km on the highway, meaning you can marry luxury with economy.Suzuki will use the event to showcase the ability of the tiny Alto, which the carmaker claims can travel 100 kilometres on just 3.5 litres of precious fuel on the highway. Tests in India have already shown it can do better at 3l/100km.The car is being kept on the road by a team of apprentice automotive engineers from the Melbourne's Kangan Batman TAFE college.Holden Holden and Ford will be fighting each other in the Challenge. Holden had been tipped to show of a Commodore, which like Saab, can run on 85 per cent ethanol, or a diesel, but the General will instead showcase its recently launched 3-litre Omega Sportwagon, fitted with the new SIDI (Spark Ignition Direct Injection) engine and six-speed automatic transmission.Holden won't reveal what fuel economy goal it is aiming for but it maintains the SIDI is now the most fuel efficient Aussie-built six-cylinder in the market. Holden says the engine, rated at 9.3l/10km is 13 per cent more fuel efficient than the previous motor at 10.7l/10km.Ford Ford will come out fighting with an XR6 Turbo and a Fiesta Econetic which will be launched in November and has the potential to run at 3.7l/100km. Again, Ford won’t talk about economy goals.BMW BMW is another keeping its cards close to its chest until closer to race. It will have a fleet of three diesel Mini Ds, one of which is will be driven by former Le Mans winner Vern Schuppan. The 1.6-litre Mini diesel is capable of 3.9l/100km combined and 3.5l/100km on the highway.Tesla While all eyes will be on the known brands, one entry which will likely steal the limelight will be the all electric Tesla roadster — the world's first production all-electric car which is being entered by broadband company Internode.The company's managing director Simon Hackett imported the first car to Australia recently.Kia Kia has entered two LPG electric hybrid Fortes, which have a 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine mated to a small electric motor and lithium-polymer batteries — a first for a mass-production small automatic car. Kia says it can return 5.6l/100km.Based on the Cerato, the Kia Forte has the potential to make it to the Australian market next year for less than $30,000. Based on the Cerato The Forte was launched in South Korea in August and displayed at the Frankfurt Motor Show last month.NON-PRODUCTION AND EXPERIMENTAL CARS Independent team Deep Green Research has come to the party with an electric Honda.Students from South Australia's Annesley College have built a petrol/electric hybrid Holden Viva. The all-girl Annesley team has taken part in previous solar challenges but this is the first time they have entered the production car class. The students will be driving the car on the 3000km journey.Research and development company Intex is entering a four-cylinder petrol Ford Spectron Van with a retrofit hybrid system that converts the drivetrain to a plug-in hybrid electric.Absent This year Toyota is a notable non-starter after impressing in 2007 with its Prius.And there has been a late scratching with Volvo confirming it was withdrawn its two C30 DRIVe hatchbacks because they are stuck on a ship from Europe, a victim of stormy weather in the Atlantic. Volvo had high expectations for the 1.6-litre diesel which sips a claimed 3.8l/100km. The eco hatch will now be launched in Australia early next year. 

The Fiesta RS and Focus RS are setting a new standard for compact performance in Europe but have yet to make the mark for Australia. Ford Australia says it is already beating its sales targets with the Fiesta and Focus and has no immediate plan to add the sporty go cars to the mix."You have to be smart about it, you can do niche models but you have to be really intentional about what you're going to do with it when you bring it," says Beth Donovan, vice-president for sales and marketing. "It's early days but we're pleased with the variety of buyers that we're getting, and we're certainly getting plenty of conquest, which is important in this market, it's about growth."She says Ford's feedback shows the latest compacts are bring buyers who have not looking at Ford for "a long time." The sales of Fiesta mean anyone waiting for the on-again, off-again RS Fiesta must still wait, although Ford hasn't ruled it out."We have Zetec, we're looking at something above that - we're selling a high-end model mix at the moment, a lot of the customers want it to look sporty but don't necessarily need the powertrain," Donovan says.There is already an XR5 turbo in the larger Focus and Donovan says there are plenty of people taking the car. "We still have XR5, which is a great little package - we do well with that car, the dealers have people lining up for them," she says.European Ford buyers can upgrade to the Focus RS, which is propelled by an upgraded version of the XR5's 2.5-litre in-line five-cylinder which produces 224kW and 440Nm.

It is 20 kilometres long, with 100 corners pitching and rolling through the Eifel Mountains, and was made famous when Niki Lauda crashed his Ferrari in flame in 1976 — a smash that ended Formula One racing on the historic old course.The 'Ring is still used for long-distance races and is home to test teams from most of the world's major carmakers, including Nissan which used the track to hone its GT-R supercar.But not even the Nurburgring can compare to America's most challenging race course. It's not Indianapolis, or the streets of Long Beach, or the Bristol oval which hosts the most popular Nascar race each season. The historical home of American motorsport is at Pikes Peak, above Colorado Springs on the eastern fringes of the Rockies.It might be a few metres shorter than the Nurburgring but, the hillclimb course for the 87th annual Race to the Clouds has half as many bends again — a total of 156 — with sheer, unprotected cliffs that plummet 1000 metres from the track to oblivion. It climbs from around 2800 metres to just over 4200 metres at an average rate of ascent of a seven per cent gradient."I had heard about Pikes Peak and seen the famous film shot on the mountain with Ari Vatanen 20 years ago, but only when you come here do you realise how much of a challenge it is," says double World Rally Champion Marcus Gronholm.The Flying Finn is retired from rallying, although he guested earlier this year for Subaru, but still keeps sharp by driving a range of go-fast Fords. Gronholm and Swedish Rallycross champion Andrea Eriksson are the two biggest names in global motorsport to attempt the annual hillclimb in two decades. And both are rookies.Names from the past who have come and conquered the mountain include rally champions Vatanen, Michele Mouton and Walter Rohrl — who each ran in modified versions of World Rally Championship cars — and former Indy 500 winners Al and Bobby Unser.Since the hill's heyday in the 1980's, when Vatanen starred in 'Climb Dance in his Peugeot, more and more sections of highway to the summit have seen the hard-packed gravel surface rolled over by convention bitumen paving. Within two years the whole road will be asphalt.For Gronholm, attacking the mountain in its natural state is an opportunity too good to miss. "This is one of those events that will be great to tell people you came and did," he says.Gronholm and Eriksson's weapon of choice to try and break the back of this mighty mountain is an 850 horsepower, four-wheel drive Fiesta based on the top selling road car in Europe, and one of the Carsguide favourites in Australia."The car is way more powerful than a World Rally Car," explains Eriksson during one of the three dawn practice sessions for the race. "The altitude sucks out almost 30 per cent of the power by the summit so it is best to come with plenty. Traction is the other key thing and so we fit huge wings to keep the car fixed to the mountain. It is no place to go off . . ."In the past, former race winner Rod Millen — a New Zealander who won races and rallies in the USA as well as starring as a stunt driver in many films and commercials — built a Toyota with an engine so radical it could not be started at sea level. It has to be high in the mountains, where the thinner air could take the massive turbocharger boost.Practice in 2009 is a challenge for the two Scandinavians. Eriksson slides wide in the Boulders section near the summit, slamming his Fiesta into a rock. It takes two days to straighten the car in time for Sunday's race."I lost power into the corner. And without power you lose some control," he explains. "I tried to stop the car with the handbrake but unfortunately it was one of the few corners with rocks on the outside. The car rolled onto its side, which left it and me with a few sore places."Meanwhile, Gronholm requests a change to the set-up of his gearbox in search of better acceleration out of tight corners and, after the final practice, the team decides to put a new motor in the car. "The previous one was overheating a bit, so it was sensible to change the engine," says Eriksson, who is also the team leader.In one year, 1994, the record at Pikes Peak dropped 39 seconds - as fast a rock falling from one of the precipitous cliff edges. But, since 1994, the record has only crept down by three seconds.Now it sits precariously balanced on the edge of the landmark 10-minute barrier, one which Millen tried and failed to beat several times, and is currently held at 10 minutes 01.41s by Japan's Nobuhiro 'Monster' Tajima. He is back to defend his title in a wicked twin-engined Suzuki prototype and, like the Ford drivers, is try to break into the nine-minute zone."To break the 10 minute barrier on our first attempt is quite a challenge," warns Gronholm the night before the race. "But, hey, I like a challenge."Weather forecasts are trash before they are even broadcast in the Rockies. Some years, the hillclimb has started in 30-degree heat and finished in a minus-10 snowstorm.Wary of predicted afternoon storms, Tajima chooses to run in the Unlimited Division, including the Fiestas and a modified Group B Ford RS200 driven by Britain's Mark Rennison, to run before lunch.Rennison goes first in the modified 1980s rally car but, with no real experience of Pikes Peak, his time of 12 minutes 11 seconds is never going to win. "I'll be back hopefully and give this a good crack," he says.Next up is Eriksson. With his damaged Fiesta straightened he launches off the line with gusto. The crash earlier in the week means he had not practised the first section of the course at speed, and so, caught out at Engineer's Bend a third of the way up, he loses control and crashes again.So now all eyes are on Marcus Gronholm. With a new engine in his Fiesta he knows he has to deliver. "The car has been at its best on the first section and was today," says Gronholm. "It handles so well on the sweeping tarmac. But it was clear from the start we had a little misfire. I pushed on regardless and by the mid section I was hopeful of a good time. Not a record time but a reasonable one."But, as Gronholm nears the final section of dirt highway near the summit, the turbo fails and the interior of the car starts to fill with smoke. Undaunted, he presses on to the peak, left-foot braking to keep what power remains on tap. But the brakes too started to feel the strain and as he crosses the finish line, just over 11 minutes since the start, flames erupt from the wheels. "With no turbo it was game over. It's a shame. I think we could have managed a 10 minute 40 second time," he says.And so it's Tajima who does the job again, but even he cannot crack the 10-minute barrier. His winning time in the wild, wicked, little Suzuki is 10 minutes 15 seconds. But there is a challenge and both mean are expected back in 2010, perhaps with the advantage of a fully-paved course to the clouds."We'll just have to come back next year. This car has huge potential," Gronholm says as he packs for home. 

The company already gets the Escape off-roader from Taiwan and Ranger ute out of Thailand, which will be joined mid-2010 by the Fiesta hatch. Now an as-yet unnamed Asian plant will build the next-generation global Focus sedan and hatch for local launch in 2011."But in terms of the detail and what location in Asia it is still to be finalised," according to Ford Australia president, Marin Burela. A decision is expected within a few months. Thailand is unlikely despite a $608 million upgrade to the Auto Alliance Thailand joint-venture plant at Rayong south-east of Bangkok.Ford announced earlier this year that the upgrade would allow AAT to lift production capacity from 175,000 to 275,000 vehicles a year, building the Mazda2 and Fiesta for export markets. If AAT had the capacity for Focus, Thailand would be attractive as Australia enjoys a free trade agreement with zero tariffs with the Asian country.Burela backs his decision to cancel local Focus production. He says the global car industry was different back in July 2007 when Ford originally announced it would build 40,000 Focuses a year at Broadmeadows, with 15,000 exported to Asian and African markets.Since then the industry has been rocked by the global financial crisis. "The economic climate has changed," Burela says. "When we made this decision in 2007 it was the right decision at that time. Since then the world has changed and the rules have changed completely."The decision to abandon the Focus Broadmeadows plan was not taken lightly. "I think we're responding absolutely appropriately with the direction that we're taking," he says. "We came to the conclusion that to make a small car viable with the right level of technology, feature, content, styling in this country we needed to bring the most competitive levels of opportunity with that vehicle""We recognised, after studying this to death, that there was just no appropriate way for us to be able to do that by producing the vehicle locally."Burela is confident the next-generation Focus will lift the company's ability to compete in the C-car segment. "The C-car segment is very crowded," he says. "There are 24 different competitors fighting for 180,000 units in this country."The key for success here is you have to make it right, it has to be competitive and it has to have the highest level of technology, features and content. We are so confident we will deliver."

In the blue corner, Ford is getting to within a whisker of Holden in the red corner in the passenger car sales race. Last month Ford came to within 1 per cent of Holden's share of vehicle sales. Ford had 11.2 per cent of the May market versus 12.2 per cent for Holden.Holden is still ahead in year-to-date terms with a total vehicle share of 12.5 per cent against Ford's 10.3 per cent but the individual model count shows the gap is closing.Sales of the tradies' favourite, the Falcon and Holden utes, are with 0.1 per cent of each other this year. The Falcon ute has a 17.2 per cent market share and the Commodore ute a 17.1 share.In overall terms Ford has experienced a modest gain in passenger car market share, up from 9.5 per cent last year to 10.5 per cent this year. By comparison, Holden's passenger share has remained relatively stagnant since last year but the Red Lion brand is still ahead by 3.9 per cent.Ford is soon to ramp up its marketing message by launching a Fiesta and Focus assault on its toughest market, Sydney, to go head to head against Toyota."Sydney remains our toughest market," Burela says.At the other end of the Ford scale Burela says the FG Falcon, after a slow sales start at launch last year, is gradually winning over large car buyers.In overall terms both sedan and ute sales are still down 2 per cent and 14 per cent, but importantly Falcon, along with the VE Commodore, is improving its large car market share. The Falcon's share of the large car sales pie has increased this year to 31 per cent against 25 per cent for the same period last year. The Commodore's share has increased from 42 per cent to 47 per cent.Burela says the FG is also bringing younger buyers to the brand. The average age of a Falcon owner has also come down from 55 to between 35 and 45. Although it is still too early to forecast full-blown large car recovery, Burela believes the signs are good.A key indicator for Falcon's climb back into buyers' minds is that Ford is selling a richer, more profitable, mix of high-end FG Falcons than the previous model.The XR sports models are the most popular, accounting for more than 50 per cent of FG sales, followed by the luxury G-Series cars, with 43 per cent and the XT accounting for 4.5 per cent. In the previous Falcon the XT was by far the most popular car, accounting for 60 per cent of sales.With Holden's new VF Commodore around the corner, Ford plans to respond with a range of initiatives to maintain its FG sales momentum by promoting the car's economy and technology.

No-one is a stronger believer in the blue oval and the Falcon, Focus and Fiesta - especially the Fiesta - are among my personal favourites.But we have to blow the whistle on the quality problems at Broadmeadows after months of letters, emails and telephone calls complaining about everything from brakes to rust, paint to balljoints.Graham Smith has his own take on things in Ask Smithy today, as well as a huge collection of complaining emails from Falcon and Territory owners. So it's not us kicking Ford, but the people who paid for a car in the belief it would do their job without drama.And now I've had a couple of other worrying emails.The first, from a brake repair specialist in Melbourne, raises again the question of the faulty brake hoses in Falcons."Ford should go down to a taxi repair shop and see what their failure rate is," he says."Admitting their own figures of two per cent affected is worse than they think, that means one in 50 BA Fords have gone barreling down the road with brake failure . . . and this is only the cars that have failed so far."Also, I expect that their two per cent rate is a survey of the cars being fixed by Ford dealer workshops, but the majority are being repaired by the aftermarket because the cars are out of warranty and Ford are probably not counting these. We even had one here this week that was still IN warrantee but the owner preferred to pay us to fix it properly. "Then I had a call just yesterday from a mechanic who had a hose fail whilst road testing a customer's car and ended up crashing through a fence."Then, as I looked at the update work on the Ford Territory, I got an email from Scott Pedder. He is one of the top men at Pedders Suspension, which has seen a lot of repair work on front balljoints in the Ford SUV.Ford claims no major mechanical changes in the 2009 update of the Territory but Pedder highlights the complete overhaul of the front balljoints. It's not just a change of component, but a re-work of the way the front end operates."One of the most noticeable and welcomed changes is the repositioning of the load carrying lower ball joint of the rear lower arm," Pedder says."The original ball joint was incorporated into the lower arm and attached to the steering knuckle in a "pull apart" situation which meant all of the vehicle weight was constantly trying to pull the ball joint out of its socket. The new design has moved what appears to be a larger and more robust ball joint to the steering knuckle itself and it then has the stud fitted through a taper hole in the lower arm in a "push together" scenario."The new design is a big step forward in making an already great vehicle even better."But what about the people who already have a Territory and have run into wear problems with the front balljoints?