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.
Ford’s famous marketing team at work again. Try a few advertisements showing them as the sexy little gas-sippers and put ’em on the market. They’ll sell. Ford just doesn’t seem to want to take a chance on people having brains in the U.S. Maybe we do. Maybe we don’t. Try putting a few of these out there and let us tell you. Or, for all I care, the major auto manufacturers can all just die and be replaced by Tesla Motors. When are they going to make a sedan?
USA, Standard Operating procedure…
WE give you 30mpg(already done long ago)
We give you 35 mpg(already done LONG AGO)
we give you 40mpg(BEEN THERE)
we give you 45mpg(other countries have done that)
we give you 50 mpg(DITTO ABOVE)
….
…
..
.
Until they can SHow a 1000% profit and give you something,,,, THATS been arounf for 10 years in other countries..
Ford need to prove it. Offer the car for sell in America
Diesels were banned for being dirty !!! So if Ford wanted they could get the law changed if they could show that their diesel is clean and the clean burning diesel fuel is available …
Last I new you cannot even buy a new diesel passenger vehicle in New York – it is against the law no less!
But – you can buy gas, and 1994 I bought a gas car that averaged 55 mpg and would get 60 mpg during the warmer months.
Diesel fuel has about 30% more energy per gallon than gasoline. So all other things being equal you would expect a diesel vehicle to get 30% better gas milage.
Why, 14+ years after a 55 mpg gasoline car was made and sold isn’t there a 75 mpg gasoline and 100 mpg diesel is the better question.
I used to own a 1988 Ford Festiva that had a 4-cyl gasoline engine that got 50 mpg. If they could make cars with 50 mpg back then, why can’t they make them now???
#37 rkstaff
Modern US cars get less MPG because :
– versus 1988 :: Power brakes, power steering, electronics
These require continuous power that the battery cannot provide. Thus the Alternator must be revved up, thus the ICE must be revved up at all times. Wasted fuel at low speeds and when stopped.
– Don’t use VTEC, or CVT, due to licensing issues (US car makers don’t want to pay Japanese royalties)
Until recently US car makers had no need for making small cars with low fuel requirements and very high horsepower.
They just had to provide a V6 or V8 option.
Case in point:
– Tuned Honda Accord V4 or V6 VTEC versus a Stock V6 or V8 Mustang in a race.
Honda will win.
Japan always competed in a world market place, where on average gas is expensive. Which is why Ford has cars that aren’t made and sold in the US.
In my streets I see more V6/V8 Mustangs than I do see Prius – yet both cars are similarly priced.
That’s because gas price isn’t an issue, driving a Mustang is more important than saving money, for some people, which are still a majority of car drivers.
Of course there is the history of the Ford Fiesta to get over too. I believe Ford Motor Company should select a better name.
(Excerpt from Car Talk)
Car: Ford Fiesta
“The Ford Fiesta was truly a marriage of bad design and bad execution! First of all, the idea of having every country from East Sudan to Liechtenstein supply Ford with parts for this junker was ridiculous. How many times did owners of this lemon hear those immortal words, “Well, your air filter is on its way from Pakistan, and it costs $50″? Have you ever looked under the hood? There are more flags under a Ford Fiesta’s hood than out in front of a West Hollywood Youth Hostel! And it handled like a bumper car! You’d have as much chance of cornering at speed in the thing as you would of nailing jelly to the wall! The sure sign of a car’s staying power is how many of them are still on the road! In other words, that can of Coors you’ve just opened was probably a Ford Fiesta in its previous life!”
Peter Sheppard
Americans don’t want such tiny cars.
I have been screaming for a diesel for sometime. It would be an ideal engine for a hybrid.
Most Americans would be willing to drive a diesel. They just aren’t avaiable in enough numbers.
Everyone seems to be missing the point that at least until very, very recently (2006 at the most recent) diesel fuel sold in the USA was incompatible with clean burning engines. The sulfur content was much too high, and therefore, diesels over here put out way too much emissions.
Add to that the ill conceived GM diesels of the late 1970s and 1980s, plus the dirty big rig trucks and buses that have been rattling windows, setting off car alarms and spewing black smoke for decades.
Oh, and the VW rabbit diesel that a few have mentioned was such a miserable car that I personally know 3 people that, after having owned one refuse to buy another German car, much less VW. The gasoline rabbit was actually pretty good in its day, as a German version of the Mini, but the diesel stunk, in more ways than one.
Still, clean diesel fuel IS becoming available here, and Ford should get with the program. Does it get 65 mph with an automatic transmission and air conditioning? Those are pretty much requirements for the US market.
#18, god
I think you were refering to me #12.
I do plan to buy a new car in the next two years, and if you right, a diesel fueled car will be under consideration. Maybe they’ll come up with a diesel hybrid or something, who knows…
Americans, as a whole, are far too ignorant to want such a vehicle.
They want status symbols like large trucks and SUVs so they can ‘prove’ how successful they are.
These same idiots can also be found sipping $4 starbucks multiple times a day, shopping at mall, and maxed to the gills on their credit card debt.
Someone just answered your prayers…
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/03/revealed-volksw.html
This is a car that Ford IS making and selling in Europe, but not in the USA – so what’s all this talk of the demise of “American car companies”? Ford owns Volvo (Sweden) and 1/3 of Mazda (Japan). GM is not strictly American, either – they don’t just own Opel, Opel designs cars in Germany for sale in the USA as Saturn and Pontiac models.
So why can’t Ford and GM sell more of the same cars in the USA? As already pointed out, it’s factors outside the company’s control: diesel prices, the regulatory environment, and customer attitudes.
I can understand the American antipathy towards small cars, however: I have a friend who lives about 30 miles north of Houston, and he commutes about 10 miles to an office near the airport. He has to use an Interstate freeway in rush hour: fighting for space between the 18-wheelers, just to get to work. He drives a (Japanese)0 SUV.
More news from the VW:
http://tinyurl.com/6xlsst
#42..
Thats funny..
Its NOT THE EMISSIONS.
The main difference between Diesel and GAS, was that pollution from GAS was LIGHTER, and floated away. Diesel, IS A HEAVY METAL Pollution..
But, consider that a car was sent down from canada, and did a round trip, getting OVER 50mpg, Diesel.. CAN that over-ride the GAS efficentcy of a 30mpg GAS car?? and the GOV wont allow it SOLD in the USA..
The VW diesel hybrid would have cost more money than a Prius.
That’s one good reason why is was canned. Kaput. Never will be produced.
All VW did was get R & D or grant money, or boost their stock, etc.
If you don’t like a Prius, get the 50MPG Honda Insight in two years, or the 75MPG Prius in two years…
…or maybe one of the 20,000 produced Volts in 2014 / 2015. Don’t hold your breath.
Prius wins…it’s ten years old, proven and reliable tech.
Currently in my “neck of the woods” the main Hybrid options are the Prius and the Hybrid Civic. The Civic has a better approach, IMHO:
an optimised VTEC 1.4 Liter engine that can run on three valve regimes (economy, recharge and performance) and a lighter (than Prius) Electric engine that needs less power to run, but also can be recharged more easily. The Honda can even do away with the automatic transmission (although only on the basic model), something the Prius can’t.
I saw a California License plate “EAT SOOT” on a Mercedes Turbodiesel 300D.
Just about sum’d it up…
I still want a Mini D
Ford will sell it alright, but just to make sure people will be more interested in their trucks and SUVs they will rename that little car as the Ford Sissyhomo.
So why didn’t GM design the Hummer to run on diesel? Because they actually wanted to sell the thing. The major US automakers are all shooting themselves in the foot to avoid marching down the path of building hybrid and pluggable electric cars. So they keep coming up with excuses, that sound more like “the dog ate my homework”. Yeah, right Ford. They couldn’t make this puke green, ugly thing, run on anything but diesel. And how exactly does one pronounce “ECOnetic” anyway? They would have done better to call it “WALLY” or something that would sell. But not some jerk us around, tongue-twister name. It wouldn’t surprise me if Ford let Homer Simpson design it for them. Does the horn play “La cooka ratcha”? After all, it is a “Fiesta”.
#40 – MikeN,
Many of us are showing with our wallets that we do indeed want small cars. And, if American car companies won’t build us cheap piece of shit ones, we’ll buy good ones from Toyota. Have you seen a Yaris lately?
#53 – Glenn E,
Yes. Sort of. They wanted to sell the Humpers. And, they wanted to sell them to idiots that don’t know or care a damn thing about off road driving. Nor did they want to sell them to large families since they seat 5, just like a prius. Nor did they want to sell them to people who needed to carry a lot of stuff, a coworker of mine couldn’t fit two golf bags in an H2.
If anyone wanted a large SUV capable of going off-road, they needed to look no farther than the classic Land Rover safari vehicles. They seat 11. They can get through almost anything, especially with a snorkel on them.
And, they get 24 MPG.
How can you make an 11 passenger off-road vehicle capable of getting to remote spots in Africa get 24 MPG? with a 2.5L diesel engine.
It doesn’t take a lot of power to go off-road. Just a lot of torque, low gear ratios, and a differential that can be engaged when necessary.
The difference is that we the idiots who only drive the damn things on highways want to have the ability to go 0-60 in 4 seconds flat up the side of a mountain.
We don’t actually want to do it!!
Most of us can’t even find the damn gas pedal when we want to get on the highway. We just want
much larger penises than we actually haveto know that we can do so should a large mountain ever crop up where there was a well maintained 6 lane interstate highway through a totally flat landscape yesterday.It gives us the confidence we need to go buy
a blowjob in the local park and ridegroceries … if we can still afford them.MS,
CORRECT..
and the fun part is KNOWING that 90% of those drivers THAT THINK 4wd, will help them…..
ARE STUPID IDIOTS that have NEVER driven a 4wd, and DONT know how to use it.
Now I REALLY understand why Ford is going down the tubes. Do they really think Americans are so stupid we can’t change our minds about Diesel, or retool one of the plants to build these cars here? Way to go Ford
*** Ford is showing the kind of leadership that got it to the place it is right now. ***
Precisely. “Oh it’s just too hard to sell a 65-mpg vehicle when gas is $4 a gallon so we better not try. We’ll just stick to pushing Expeditions and Excursions.”
I drive a 2008 Mercedes Bluetec diesel and absolutely love it! Diesel — done correctly — is a beautiful thing. People can’t forget the bad diesels GM tried to make in the 80s.
Ford knows it will go into bankruptcy trying to sell small cars to Americans.
We love big stuff, big macs, big bombs, big cars. Every car has to have 500hp or its not worth buying.
I am more than content with a 2.2 litre car which is the ideal displacement that balances power vs. gas mileage. I’m in the minority though.
I want one of these Fords!!! I can’t believe they are so stupid to think American won’t buy these… people are buying scooters and anything else they can get their hands on that sips gas rather than guzzle it!!! Wake up Ford!!! Brake your alliance with the big OIL companies and maybe you will start to profit again!!
The reason these cars are not sold in the US is not only because of the taxes on diesel fuel. The main reason is that they are illegal. They do not pass the US emissions tests. I would gladly purchase the 65 mpg ford.
We should be driving turbine powered hybrid cars. The turbine will run almost any thing that burns on open air. It is twice as efficient as the gasoline engine. More efficient than the diesel engine. Low in polutants, light in weight.
Problem with the turbine they spin at very high rpm’s so if you have a battery system driving the car. You could use the turbine (turning at any speed) to generate required electricity to keep the battery topped off. Solves the speed rpm’s problem. Plus you can lower the battery size and weight. Car weight would drop because the engine would save 400 pounds or more over piston engine used now. Car companies get off your duff, lets go this has been there all the time. Beat toyota at their own game that is the prius. I know this will work do I have to make it myself?? The time is right do it now be first. I can make it myself