Fiesta sedan confirmed for Oz

FORD has confirmed that the sedan version of the Fiesta is on schedule for an Australian release sometime in the first half of 2010.

"We have the Fiesta sedan in our plan," revealed Ford’s new vice-president for marketing and sales, Beth Donovan, at the WS Fiesta hatch launch in Adelaide last week.

However, do not expect to see the three-box light car in dealerships for at least a year – and perhaps quite a bit longer.

The sedan will join the rest of the WS Fiesta hatchback models when they switch from being sourced from Germany to Thailand in late 2009 or early 2010.

The new Fiesta hatch will be launched nationally in January, in CL, LX and Zetec-only guises.

Ford unveiled the production version of the Fiesta sedan – at China’s Guangzhou Auto Show in November – almost a year to the day after showcasing the Verve Concept sedan.

The Fiesta sedan is in some ways more important than the hatchback version, as it will spearhead Ford’s product-led recovery in vital markets such as China and the Americas.

The United States, which has not seen a B-segment Ford light car since the original (1976 to 1989) Fiesta was sold briefly in North America between 1978 and 1980, is especially an area of great concern for the Blue Oval, as sales over the last few months have fallen.

All volume-selling Australian-bound Fiestas will be manufactured by Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Co Ltd in Thailand once the facility comes on line later next year.

They will be built alongside the closely related Mazda2 sedan that was released in China earlier in 2008.

As GoAuto reported back in November, Ford is adamant that the Asian-built Fiestas will mirror their critically-acclaimed German-built hatch sibling in terms of technological advancements, insisting that it will deliver class-leading levels of safety, refinement and efficiency.

The Fiesta sedan is expected to be joined by its Mazda cousin in due course, and will go up against the Toyota Yaris, Kia Rio, Hyundai Accent, Proton Persona and Holden Barina sedans in this sub-segment of the light-car market.

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Guangzhou show: Fiesta gets the boot