If ever there was a car made for the times, this would seem to be it: a sporty subcompact that seats five, offers a navigation system, and gets a whopping 65 miles to the gallon. Oh yes, and the car is made by Ford Motor (F), known widely for lumbering gas hogs.
Ford’s 2009 Fiesta ECOnetic goes on sale in November. But here’s the catch: Despite the car’s potential to transform Ford’s image and help it compete with Toyota Motor (TM) and Honda Motor (HMC) in its home market, the company will sell the little fuel sipper only in Europe. “We know it’s an awesome vehicle,” says Ford America President Mark Fields. “But there are business reasons why we can’t sell it in the U.S.” The main one: The Fiesta ECOnetic runs on diesel.
Yet while half of all cars sold in Europe last year ran on diesel, the U.S. market remains relatively unfriendly to the fuel. Taxes aimed at commercial trucks mean diesel costs anywhere from 40 cents to $1 more per gallon than gasoline. Add to this the success of the Toyota Prius, and you can see why only 3% of cars in the U.S. use diesel. “Americans see hybrids as the darling,” says Global Insight auto analyst Philip Gott, “and diesel as old-tech.”
None of this is stopping European and Japanese automakers, which are betting they can jump-start the U.S. market with new diesel models.
Your wrong… I want http://tinyurl.com/59v98q
Why can’t I buy one or two!
The deck is stacked against diesel in this country. Higher taxes, images of black smoky exhaust, and limited availability of station that sell it are just some of the reason why diesels don’t sell here.
100+ MPG
I think part of the problem is that because there are so few diesel cars sold in the USA that most people probably don’t even know what it is let alone have any preconcieved notions of it (although they might think of it as “something semis use” if anything) Personally, I’ve thought about getting a VW diesel for a few years and when I finally do get a real post-phd job I will look take a long look at diesels.
However, to blame all this on the consumers is just lame. If Ford or any other company wanted to sell them here they could just make an ad campain repositioning as diesel as new and more economical. Ford and others just don’t want to spend the money.
#4 – jccalhoun – I think part of the problem is that because there are so few diesel cars sold in the USA that most people probably don’t even know what it is let alone have any preconcieved notions of it
They think this…
Actually, there is one additional important issue that hampered diesels in the USA. For a long time it was HP market: mine has more horsepower than yours… By its design HP numbers of diesels capable to do the same work as gas engines are lower (lots of torque at low rpms). I think that the important part of diesel avoidance were marketing managers who wouldn’t allow their company to have the weakest vehicle in the group, despite all the benefits. Best example was diesel Jeep Liberty, not introduced in the USA until they increased engine size and HP# to the ridiculous number (erasing any gas mileage benefits too). Original EU version would have satisfied all USA regulations, but the power number would have been 30-40hp below competition.
Another problem is partly mentioned in the article: unbelievably diesel is more expensive than the gasoline in the USA. Equivalent of 10 carat gold costing more than 18 carat… It is not only taxes but intentional price-jacking no one cares about.
Weird, we have diesel all over the place in Canada.
How can we have only come this far since 1980, when the Volkswagen rabbit diesel (I owned one) got, as I recall, 40 m.p.g? Besides, it was an awesome snow car to drive (front wheel drive) – it could barrel through any snow drift.
By most accounts, in gasoline guise it is actually a very good drivers car.
Ford is showing the kind of leadership that got it to the place it is right now.
The reason isn’t because American’s are “ignorant.” The real reason is Americans remember the sh**ty diesel-engined cars Detroit cranked out circa 1978-1985. If Toyota or Honda marketed a diesel-engined car in the US people would buy them. Americans may buy a Ford diesel, but only after a few years on the market.
First, I find the title of this post insulting.
Second, I live in California and thanks to the “greenies”, we can’t buy new diesel cars and register it in the state. I would love to own one of the newer diesel cars.
Ford has had cooler cars in Europe for at least the last 20 years, as compared to the US. Sticking in my craw is the Escort RS Cosworth (btw, I’m out of the window for that car; I want a Lexus now). Their myopism is depressing.
A car is like a piece of clothing. Would you intentionally buy clothing that makes you look fat, stupid, frumpy, dull, poor, or dysfunctional? Would you buy a car that does that? The domestic big three seem to think that everyone wishes to shop at TJ Max or have a mullet.
And therefor the big three deserve what they get, a shrinking market share that is based on low price (and somewhat shoddy quality) vs imports.
I drive a Mercedes E300 Diesel and I love it! Diesels are cheaper to maintain and when you look at mileage not just price per gallon cheaper to drive. People think I’m crazy though, “You know diesel fuel is more expensive”
There “better” choices would take away from the Big 3’s profits of selling crap to American consumers.
Europian cars have always surpased US cars in design, quality and cost.
American car makers sell us crap because we Americans keep opening our wallets to buy crap.
I presume it will run on biodesel.
Maybe Ford could market it that way. It wouldn’t be a gigantic market but a faithful one.
Forget Ford. They’re simply going to die, slowly and publicly. It’s a company totally without vision.
#11 – you’re the proof of the pudding. You’ll be able to buy 2009 diesel-powered cars, California-spec. Ranging from VW-size to Mercedes. Honda will lead the Japanese in – with others following in 2010.
It was the Greenies who pushed the Euro/Japan manufacturers to match the new U.S. spec.. They’ll be buying diesel power before your next door neighbor with the V8 surfmobile.
Post your receipt when you actually buy one.
try finding a used VW TDI. they are expensive (holding their value) and hard to find. People will travel long distances to get one if it is available. Mine gets over 40 mpg and people don’t realize it is a diesel. and it looks like a real car.
The US manufacturers are reaping the rewards of their myopic quarterly profit vision. The last American car I owned was a 1989 ford Tempo I believe. What a piece of crap. I spent more money trying to keep that POS running for 18 months than I paid for it. Since then, I have owned 1 VW (Fox), 2 Nissans (Altima & Murano), 1 Hyundai (Sonata), and a Mazda (Protege).
We have loved all of the foreign cars accept the Mazda which we found out after we bought it was partially designed by Ford. The Mazda constantly ate emission system parts causeing the “Check Engine Light” to come on.
Of all our cars, the 2004 Hynundai Sonata is our favorite. It was cheap, is comfortable to drive, and is RELIABLE. The only trip to the dealer was for a broken door open switch. The best part is that it’s still under full warranty for 6 more years or another 50,000 miles.
When we bought the Hyundai, we shopped around for a diesel car. The only ones near our price range and type of car we wanted was the Jetta TDI by VW. It was almost $10,000 more than the Hyundai. It would take 20 years to break even on the fuel savings over buying the Hyundai. And since we only keep cars for about 10 years, no way.
But the biggest question is why do we not have a DIESEL HYBRID yet. VW and Toyota or Honda should have gotten together years ago to figure that one out. They wouldn’t be able to make them fast enough right now.
Don
Keep in mind that right now the Detroit car companies are about to get a $50 billion dollar tax payer funded bail out. The first $25 billion is already approved, and they are being told the other $25b will be granted next year. Both Obama and McCain are aware of it and have approved.
The money is a “loan”, low interest. It is supposed to be used to rebuild 20 year old plants so that they can compete and build high mileage cars that can compete.
Now think about it. Why would Ford endanger their share of of $50b port barrel handout by selling a car like this? The would run the risk of out government saying “Waaaaait a minute. You already have a car that you claim you need this money to build. What gives?”
So, it ain’t coming here. Instead, we are going to get one of the biggest money grabs of all time to reward the inept Detroit executives that have run their companies in to the ground.
I thought the EPA made it tough still for newer diesel cars in the US. Trucks are different.
I thought the particulate emissions were the problem.
Tougher laws in recent years.
I may be wrong.
It goes to show you the reasons why American car companies are in the spot they are
Somehow the American car companies are supposed to deserve our loyalties without doing much to deserve it
You would think the business of the US automotive industry was to retire auto workers, pay them health benefits and award the US auto executives both a pat on the back for major automotive industry losses , cutbacks and decisions in the automotive industry such as this.
Oh and all well charging high prices on any new automotive vehicle and especially SUVs which they manufacture , sell and finance to the motoring public
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The Japanese makers have the cash to gamble on creating the Diesel market in the US, the BIg 2.5 don’t. If the market develops, the ECOnetic will be here inside of a year. But until then, buy something else.
I don’t understand why so many people here blame the big 3 automakers. They would not continue to sell gas-loving automobiles if there were not people to buy them. They know that Americans will continue buying larger automobiles than they need unless gasoline becomes too expensive. It’s like spam, it would not exist if there were not people to support it. But I feel that a lot of the anger here is misplaced. Granted, the reason for why Ford did not bring the car above to the US did not make much sense. It is diesel, but Ford makes more diesel pickups in the US than any other manufacturer. When fuel hits $7 within 3 years, I think people will see differently, although by that time, hopefully there will be a better fuel.
#20
They were doing it right before they canceled the Grand Master Technician contest.
My household owns two of the newer Mercedes “clean” diesels. My E320 BLUETec gets an average of 39MPG when I have to drive to the city (100 mile roundtrip). We love them, no noise, no smoke, no smell. When test driving the E-Class, the salesman kept insisting I would prefer the E350 gas model. Once I convinced HIM to drive the diesel with me, his mind was changed. Equal speed, better low-end power, better engine design, longer lasting, and with the low-sulphur fuels in the USA no more black exhaust!
Europe does not have corn farmer’s to lobby for Ethanol. Our energy solution come from lobbyist.
We would rather use Ethanol which has less energy then gasoline then educate the public on diesel which has more energy and thus provides better fuel economy. We have so many sources for renewable diesel too like used cooking oil,and soybeans. I remember the old VW Rabbit’s in the 80’s and 90’s. I have a guy who drove one 200,000
miles and got 45 MPG sometimes 50MPG. American’s are just stupid. We have solutions staring us in the face and ignore them.
US auto makers should get no Gov bail outs since they have long shown us that they want to do poorly…I’m guessing its to get rid of the unions, once they have cheap labor decent autos will magically start rolling out and they will hit record profits
This is the same sort of genius marketing that DaimlerChrysler believed in for years, which kept the smart out of our market. Now the MCC smart is a HUGE success in the USA, with a more than one-year wait get one. To get on the list, by the way, you have to plop down $99 at http://smartusa.com/.
A friend of mine was helping people bring in the original smart, grey-market. Those people were inundated with questions regarding the tiny car, with an outcome mostly of, “where can I get one?” My friend lobbied his powerful friends at Mercedes-Benz to get its parent to import the smart, but it fell on deaf ear, “Americans aren’t interested in the smart,” they would claim. Now years later, we have it and its waiting list.
Moreover, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz import diesel models into the USA. Demand is high for these vehicle and they’re hard to get, mostly due to their limited import numbers. Proving these vehicles are popular in the States is easy–check the resale values of diesels past. A 2006 Volkswagen Jetta Diesel sells for approximately 20% higher than it’s gasoline sibling. 20%! In current dollars, that equates to $6,000 in better resale. Even a used 1990’s Mercedes diesel sells for thousands over the gasoline version of the same model, and usually with a higher odometer reading!
In all, Ford is about as effective as Microsoft when it comes to understanding their market and launching new product as a result. It’s no wonder they’re are nearly doomed to nonexistence. If it wasn’t for their European and Australian division, and massive asset sell-off, Ford would be out of business now.
One last note: this series of Focus was determined too expensive for our market, so they just re-skinned the OLD Focus, called it new and dumped it on our market. The European Focus is considered one of the finest small cars made, while the U.S. Focus not–another brilliant move in Ford’s treacherous past.