Beijing show: Ford gets sporty with Fiesta

AFTER exhibiting a five-door version of its all-new Fiesta at the Geneva motor show last month, Ford used the weekend's Auto China 2008 opening to unveil a Sports S version of the redesigned light car.

Ford also announced that its Changan Ford Mazda Automobile joint-venture company in China would start production of the new Fiesta before the end of 2008 at its $510 million state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Nanjing, which has a capacity of 160,000 vehicles a year and commenced operations in September 2007.

The European-designed Fiesta shares the same platform as the Mazda2 and will be rolled out across Europe, Asia, South Africa, Australia and the Americas between 2008 and 2010, with the Australian launch expected to be early next year.

The Fiesta S Beijing show car, displayed in a “passion orange” colour, features a sportier, more aggressive trim package with a large rear spoiler that extends from the roofline and includes a slim LED stop lamp.

Distinguished by its bold kinetic design, the new Fiesta is said to be the first major product of Ford’s new global product development process, which ran parallel to Mazda’s.

“The all-new Ford Fiesta is the first car born from our new global product development process,” said Ford of Europe product development chief Joe Bakaj.

“More than ever, we’re leveraging our global product development expertise, and this car sets the scene for future great products for customers around the world that are already being developed behind it in the Ford Global Product Development System pipeline.”

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