Ford Fiesta Celebrates 30th Birthday

Press Release

Some good things come in small packages

For the last 30 years, Ford Fiesta has proved that good things come in small packages.

Born in the mid-1970s, Ford Fiesta has become ingrained in the European experience. It is a brand that everyone knows. For some, Fiesta has represented that important first car. For many others, Fiesta is a practical, dependable stalwart, just the right size for fun and personal transport.

Although today's Fiesta is different in many ways from the original Fiesta that went on sale in 1976, it shares many of the fundamental attributes for which Fiesta has always stood.

"Fiesta's birthday gives us the opportunity to celebrate three decades of change," said John Fleming, President and CEO of Ford of Europe. "Fiesta represented change when it came on the automotive scene, and while it has moved with the times and fashions over the years, it has remained steadfast in its dedication to providing economical, practical and dependable transportation for people of all ages. That mission is just as relevant today as it was in 1976."

Generations

Fiesta made its debut in the same year in which British Airways and Air France began transatlantic service with their new supersonic flagship, Concorde. It was also the year that a fledgling company, Apple Computer, was founded. Who could have imagined that 30 years later, Concorde's dream of routine supersonic air transport would be retired, Apple would be a household name and a new Fiesta would be introduced for the iPod generation?

Introduced earlier in its anniversary year, the latest generation Ford Fiesta has a fresh new face that communicates likeability and fun and a bright new interior filled with colour. Its optional capabilities, like plugging an MP3 player into its audio system or Bluetooth voice control, would have been the stuff of science fiction three decades earlier.

Times were different in the 1976 world of compact motoring. Today's Fiesta offers 'big car' features, including air conditioning, power folding mirrors, satellite navigation, rain-sensing wipers and an array of other customer friendly technologies. Its look is contemporary, offering customers an appealing choice of exterior colours and a broad model range topped by the rally-inspired Fiesta ST performance car.

Today's Fiesta has grown in size from the original model, reflecting trends in customer wants for more roominess and greater luggage capacity, traits in which Fiesta led at the time of its original introduction.

Another place where Fiesta has kept up with the times is in consumer acceptance, measured by sales data. Sales of Ford's popular small car have increased year on year for the past five years. Annual car sales in 2005 of 358,931 units made it Fiesta's best sales year since 1998.

And the pace of sales growth has continued in the first half of 2006. Sales of the Fiesta between January and June 2006 were 205,200 units, up 10 per cent versus the first half of 2005. More than 12 million Fiestas have been delivered into customers' hands in Fiesta's colourful 30-year history.

Spanish flair

The story of Fiesta is ingrained with the story of Ford's role in the single European market. It is no coincidence that its name is derived from Spanish. Spain played a key role in bringing the new small Ford to fruition and Ford played an important role in opening the Spanish market to become a major player in European business.

Starting in the early 1970s, Fiesta became a personal mission of Ford's Chairman, Henry Ford II. A passionate believer in small cars, Mr. Ford rallied his company to the mission of creating a new small car for the world. He was personally involved in every step of the long process that led to the grand opening of a new automotive assembly plant in Valencia with the attendance of the newly crowned King of Spain, Juan Carlos.

By 1972, the mission had its own task force with teams working in Europe and in America to crack the challenge of producing a new small car that would have the right features for modern consumers, the right price and the right cost base for profitability.

The effort was codenamed Bobcat. There was no mistaking the importance Mr. Ford himself put on this project.

Project Bobcat would have profound implications for the Ford business in Europe. It would require new manufacturing facilities and a commitment to new technologies, like front-wheel-drive transmissions. Insiders at Ford at the time were sceptical about front-wheel-drive after an earlier attempt had been problematic.

Yet, Project Bobcat rallied Ford's best minds to attack the problems and overcome barriers that stood in the way of innovation.

One of the challenges facing Project Bobcat was where to build the new car. Attention focused on Spain. It was a market that was effectively closed to Ford as a foreign player. Spain was growing in importance economically and ready to become a force in Europe and it was important for Ford to compete in Spain. Project Bobcat could become the vehicle to effect change.

Ford entered into negotiations with the Spanish government about the possibility of establishing its new assembly plant in Spain, a move which would require reductions in tariffs that would speed Spain 's entry into the Common Market. By gaining permission to produce cars in Spain, Ford would have the dual benefit of being able to sell more cars in this growing market. In September, 1972, the Spanish government agreed, reducing tariffs on imported components and machinery while retaining rules that required a high percentage of local content cars to be produced.

The door into Spain was opened. And Ford was ready. With word leaked of Ford's intentions, localities began competing for the Ford plant investment. In the end, Ford selected a site near Valencia in a small town called Almussafes.

As Project Bobcat began to gain intensity, the look of Ford's new small car was starting to take shape. Competing design teams in America and Europe – at Dunton, England ; Cologne, Germany and Turin, Italy – created design prototypes based on the engineering and cost attributes that were established by the project team.

Fiesta's ultimate shape was driven by consumers, thanks to one of the most ambitious product clinics ever undertaken. Entirely in secret, consumers in various European markets were transported to Lausanne, Switzerland, to spend a day at Lake Geneva, part of which in a guarded hall which contained the design alternatives.

Researchers from Ford used the opportunity to gain public consensus on the most attractive designs.

By December, 1973, with the global fuel crisis as extra incentive, the Ford Board of Directors gave Project Bobcat the go-ahead for development and production. Construction of the new Valencia plant would begin the following month.

Throughout the next two years, the pace of development was intensive, as the detailed engineering steps to create the new car proceeded and the Valencia plant took shape.

Fiesta didn't get its name until 1974, when Ford whittled down a list of 50 potential names to five: Bravo, Fiesta, Amigo, Strada and Pony. The final choice went to Henry Ford II.

Automotive journalist Edouard Seidler, in his book "Let's Call it Fiesta", recounted the moment when Ford took the final responsibility, shutting himself in his office on the twelfth floor of Ford's World Headquarters in Dearborn and started pacing up and down, reciting the suggested names aloud. Mr. Ford liked Fiesta best:

"Ford and Fiesta go well together," Mr. Ford said. "It's colourful and dynamic? Bobcat will be called Fiesta."

Development of the new car took place in Cologne, Germany and Dunton, England, Ford's two European vehicle engineering centres.

The economical, compact car was Ford's first with a transverse engine and front wheel drive, and with its hatchback design it generated an enthusiastic customer response, growing rapidly into the giant it became in the small-car segment shared with the Renault 5 and the Volkswagen Polo.

The Fiesta was the right car at the right time. Targeting female drivers particularly, it was launched when around 20 per cent of car sales in Europe 's leading markets were going to women. But Fiesta's success lay in a broader based appeal. Production started in Valencia, Spain in May 1976.