[pramodpk]

Originally Posted by GTO

Simply because it's too old & outdated. No one wants to buy a 10 year old sedan. If product attributes alone were enough, we'd still have cars like the 3rd-gen Honda City & Maruti Baleno on sale.

Agreed that it is a 10 year old model. Is it just a perception that Fiesta Classic is outdated?
If not, in which aspects are the new Aspire more modern than the Fiesta Classic. From the looks, the Aspire does not look like a car from another era.

[ampere]

Now that its past, it goes back to the same old question: Whats next?

- They have every thing they want.
- They just need to see what suits for Indian market.

So what is for take?

- An i20/Jazz competing product (Fiesta Hatch)
- A mid-entry level hatch (Next Gen Figo)
- A C-Segment sedan with good rear space (??)
- An urban people mover ? (B-Max?)

[k149in]

I just rang my sales adviser in Chennai Ford and he says that they are accepting new bookings for the Fiesta. Looks like just the Classic is stopped. Anyway, as a owner of the all new Fiesta, it always worry me a bit about spare part availability 4 or 5 years down the line. But every time I drive the car, the worry just disappears.

[PratikPatel]

Originally Posted by kilireddy0

That's serious commitment. It takes some guts from your side. I hope you have a trouble free ownership, but what about the spares will you still be able to source them from ford at least as long as the warranty stands ?

Parts is not going to be a problem. Parts are available for even Ford Ikon which was discontinued about 4 years back. This will be my 3rd Ford Fiesta. The first one was a 1.4 liter Duratec, which after 4 years of running I sold it an upgraded to the 1.6 liter Duratec. This time I am not going to sell the 1.6. I will be using it as a mod project whereas the new Fiesta will be used to daily regular use.

Parts are never a problem unless a company shuts down and withdraws completely from the market, for example Peugeot India and Deawoo did.

With so many Ford Fiesta on the road I don't think there should be a problem with parts for at least the next 7 to 8 years.

[Prodigy07]

As an ex Fiesta 1.6 owner, I'm disappointed with this news!

Atleast Ford could have plonked in the last batch of 1.6 Duratec Engine in the Figo and offered us 1.6S

Every time I see a Fiesta 1.6S, I feel really bad for exchanging my Fiesta for an Ertiga.
Something terrible went through my mind and I changed the car.

Pic of my Car. This was taken on the day of sale :(

[PratikPatel]

Originally Posted by Prodigy07

Every time I see a Fiesta 1.6S, I feel really bad for exchanging my Fiesta for an Ertiga.

Pic of my Car. This was taken on the day of sale :(

A Ertiga for Fiesta 1.6S . Why would you do a thing like? When we decided to add a new car in the family, my wife was insistent that she was not going to go for another Ford. She accused me of fanboyism and that she wanted more say in which car we would buy. I said fine, here is our budget 'x', go to every showroom or contact them to send a car for test drive and down select the one that you want to buy and we will buy it.

After visiting every make showroom and taking trails of every car within our budget and even the ones above the budget. Every evening when I came home from work I had to hear about her experiences with the test drive and how she did not like something or the other. According to her the Ertiga was 'light' and 'flighty' and at speeds above 100 kmph was not confidence inspiring at all. She would always have a long face and frustrated look of a lady who cannot find the right shoes in the shoe shop . Finally, I gently nudged her to go to the Ford showroom and see the options available. She came back with a huge smile on her face and said she wanted the new Fiesta. Period.

[petrolhead_neel]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

Not a very surprising move at all given the dwindling market for these three cars.

Classic: The car which Ford shouldn't have bothered with. Anyone who has spent some time with the Classic and the old Fiesta will easily note the terrible drop in quality and kit. It was built for a price and that clearly showed. A very short term move which killed the 'Fiesta' brand name for the common household. Shouldn't have happened!

The Classic might have found some homes in the short term but it killed the brand bringing down resale value for the existing owners. And retaining both Classic and Fiesta meant the latter was debuted with a premium pricing which was never going to work.

Could you justify it a bit more? What do you mean by "terrible drop in quality and kit"? I have spent time with both of these cars. Agreed, the cabin was a better place to be in the old Fiesta. What else? Have you checked out the Titanium trim yet? We paid 7.6 lakhs INR in May for our Classic 1.6 Titanium. What more can we expect from that price?

Originally Posted by GTO

Simply because it's too old & outdated. No one wants to buy a 10 year old sedan. If product attributes alone were enough, we'd still have cars like the 3rd-gen Honda City & Maruti Baleno on sale.

For the price of a top-end compact sedan, this is what we get when you compare it to a compact sedan:

• Superb 1.6 NA petrol
• Ride and handling which is better than sub-4m sedans
• Solid build
• Proportionate Design
• Large 430 Ltrs Boot

And creature comforts in the Titanium are plenty too. Some of them are:

• Tilt Adjustable Steering
• Electronically adjustable ORVMs
• Drive Away Locks
• CD/MP3 player with radio, Aux-in & Bluetooth

Safety

• ABS with EBD
• Dual Airbags
• Central Locking
• And last, but not the least, a solid body shell

Is it still worthy to be called outdated? It is a really well-thought out car. Just because it was a decade years old did not necessarily mean that it was outdated.

Note: I am not biased. All my views are neutral.

Cheers,
Neel

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by GTO

Why would they chop the boot off when the Fiesta sedan is a Fiesta hatchback with a boot added on!

Well, I meant the same. Since the hatch version of Fiesta isn't yet available in India, I mentioned they would have to chop off the boot. The brand fiesta has lost a lot of value and re brand the original Fiesta only for India.

Fiesta hatch with 1.0L Ecoboost is all I want in my garage

[vb-saan]

Effectively its one model (Fiesta) getting discontinued and two is being replaced. So it's not that bad indeed.

Ford and many other manufacturers are finding it extremely hard to survive in the Indian market with their so-called Global products (Honda is another example). It maybe a jolt for the enthusiast (which is a small tribe anyway) but can work well for the brand's mass market aspirations. So I guess the Aspire and the upcoming Figo hatchback maybe the right direction for Ford as a manufacturer operating within our market parameters. Unfortunately with our current scenario and VFM definitions, the chances of a real global product to succeed in the entry level segments are quite low.

Fiesta is a good car, but by no means a halo model to justify that kind of numbers. It's a mass-market model but unfortunately did not work in that way. If they really want a product to showcase their finesse in the regular passenger car segment, a Mondeo or a Kuga maybe the better option.

[Arch-Angel]

Wow, figo sold quite well but considering they are revamping their product portfolio that seems valid. I am surprised about the news regarding the fiesta though since it was released only quite recently. However as an owner of one of the cars ford seems to be pulling the plug on, my concern is actually regarding spare parts. Will they bring it straight to the open market or will they be procurable only in the A.S.S and for how many years?

That aside, i really hope the euro spec fiesta hatchback hits our streets soon! Ford seems to be getting serious about the market only now.

[ramvenky74]

I really pity the people who bought the new Fiesta. Old model Fiesta anyday is a good car. The new model is also a good car, as highlighted by arnabchak, Ford did kill the product.

Until Ford rejigs' the product portfolio, they just have Ecosport and Aspire...

[VeluM]

Originally Posted by ampere

Now that its past, it goes back to the same old question: Whats next?
...

- An i20/Jazz competing product (Fiesta Hatch)
...
- A good C-Segment sedan with good rear space (??)
...

Weird that Ford discontinued the Fiesta (new one) as well. The car wasn't doing well, that's understandable. When was the last time one saw a Fiesta ad? In comparison, when did one last see an Ecosport ad?

They dropped the Fiesta prices and then bumped them up a lakh without informing anyone, and didn't bother to advertise either.

Ecosport sells because of it's visibility on the road, ads, and aspirational "SUV" value. It started at a brilliant price-point, and has stabilised at a price where the market still sees value in the product. A refresh is overdue, but then Ford does drag its products on for a longer time than others.

They should have stuck with the Fiesta, and marketed it better. If they introduce the Fiesta hatch, it will most likely be priced higher when compared to the other "premium" hatches, or stripped down in comparison.

If anyone has info on what the next product lineup from Ford will be, please enlighten us. At the moment it is looking pretty sparse.

[Porschefire]

Originally Posted by GTO

Even as an enthusiast, I think the Vento diesel is a superior sedan to the Fiesta diesel, and the Honda City Petrol / Linea T-Jet are superior to the Fiesta petrol. It was a decent sedan, but 'incredible' isn't a term I'd use for the Fiesta.

Well, this is debatable. As an enthusiast myself, I think the Fiesta trumps both the City (handling, build quality) and the Vento (NVH, handling). It's only when you look at these cars from a layman's perspective, which accounts to 98% of a car's sales, that the Fiesta fails!

Originally Posted by GTO

Well said. Low volume models are loss-making. Better killed.

If this were true, Fiat would've shut shop long long ago.

Originally Posted by ramvenky74

I really pity the people who bought the new Fiesta. Old model Fiesta anyday is a good car. The new model is also a good car, as highlighted by arnabchak, Ford did kill the product.

Why pity us mate? Instead, we pity Ford and the people who haven't experienced the Fiesta.

[aqualeo2040]

The model line up from Ford in India is surprisingly odd considering it's European market.
The Figo is more of the size of a European Fiesta hatch and we do not get a Ka/StreetKa.
The Ikon was basically the European Fiesta with a boot. However, then they launched the Focus with a boot and called it the Fiesta!

Why not launch the same international models in India as well, starting with Ka, Fiesta, Focus and Mondeo.
They already have the dies and need to manufacture it locally to keep the cost down to Indian market levels.
I feel that there's a massive lacuna in the Indian market for big size hatchbacks like Focus/i30/Megane/Golf/Astra, which is what Maruti is trying to exploit with the likes of YRA.
The boot is no longer a prestige component which explains the sales of 9+lacs hatches.

Personally, I would love to see the new Focus on the indian roads with the park assist and automatic braking.

I was reading the article today on TOI about the number of road accident deaths in India in the last year. Along with the pet gripe of parking in a tight spot. Why do we not have these features in the cars being sold today!
A park assist system is more relevant to India than a 100+horses, and will save us a lot of headaches trying to squeeze into those tiny slots.

BTW, in my 850+ miles drive across Wales in the Sports mode and narrow B Roads, the Focus returned 59.5 Mpg which works out to 25.2kmpl!

[BlackPearl]

This is good news for people looking for a used Fiesta 1.6S . I hope it does not go the the OHC vtec way where the used car prices shot up after being discontinued.