Well, the final Fiesta was built today. I used to live not so far from the factory in Cologne. Ford had a huge presence there, I even knew some of their employees and retirees. I hope they manage to find a good future building the EVs there. However, I have some concern that even EVs are not the future. When you look at the total environmental impact of EVs (and many hybirds) you quickly see they are not what was claimed - at least not until we have more green energy.

Sadly, many car manufacturers are ending production of small cars. So I shall keep my Fiesta for a while yet. Who knows, I may be stuck with having to buy a Bentley in future as it may be the only non-SUV left.

 

 

It's certainly a sad day and an end of an era. While I know that times move on, I'm still not quite sure that this is the right decision by Ford. Just seems strange that the Puma will now be the smallest car they do (unless they have something else in the pipeline) and they're not really a small car and still quite expensive.

When I come to buy my next car, probably next years, it will be a used 2023 Fiesta ST that I will then keep. I usually change every couple of years but at the moment there isn't another Ford in the current range that I'd like to change to.

4 hours ago, dtulip8 said:

Had ordered a Fiesta ST but cancelled with waiting times and constant spec being changed/deleted.

More deletions than changes it seems!

I was surprised with delivery though. My ST-Line took over 6 months back in 2017/18, ordered the ST  in January half expecting not to get it before production ended and it was at the dealers end of March.

Still over 40 new STs available from stock advertised on AutoTrader when I looked earlier this week.

Ford will be glad to see the end of the fiesta, loss making exercise ended. 

8 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

More deletions than changes it seems!

I was surprised with delivery though. My ST-Line took over 6 months back in 2017/18, ordered the ST  in January half expecting not to get it before production ended and it was at the dealers end of March.

Still over 40 new STs available from stock advertised on AutoTrader when I looked earlier this week.

That’s really good. Mine was ordered September last year and still hadn’t arrived by the time I cancelled in May! I have a Kia Proceed GT coming next month now, not as fun to drive but I’ll appreciate having a bigger car I think.

1 hour ago, dtulip8 said:

Mine was ordered September last year and still hadn’t arrived by the time I cancelled in May

Yes, it all seemed a bit weird after my previous long wait. When it arrived my dealer still had customers waiting who had ordered months before, yet a couple of cars ordered a week or so after mine had turned up a few days before mine!

One theory I've seen is that cars ordered earlier had a fuller spec and may have been stuck waiting for a particular part, whereas by the time mine was ordered the standard spec had been pared back and there were less options available so fewer complications to delay things.

Look forward to hearing how you get on with the Kia!

 

13 hours ago, fiestalux said:

Who knows, I may be stuck with having to buy a Bentley in future as it may be the only non-SUV left.

If they follow a similar pattern to other manufacturers they may drop everything apart from the Bentayga SUV!😀

I think this is quite possibly the worst time for a manufacturer to be getting rid of their affordable cars. 

1 hour ago, iantt said:

Ford will be glad to see the end of the fiesta, loss making exercise ended. 

Not so good for some of their dealers though, particularly the smaller businesses. My usual dealer has for many years had a very loyal local customer base mainly buying the smaller vehicles. Now the Puma is the smallest/cheapest thing on offer and I really can't see many people who bought Fiestas, B-Max, Ka, etc moving to it, let alone Explorer or Mustang Mach E.

Probably some dealerships may have to find a new customer base**, change franchises or shut up shop. 

** Perhaps the way the industry seems to be going, towards direct sales and an agency basis with dealerships getting a fee per car sold in their area for providing service/warranty support, may help?

5 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Not so good for some of their dealers though, particularly the smaller businesses. My usual dealer has for many years had a very loyal local customer base mainly buying the smaller vehicles. Now the Puma is the smallest/cheapest thing on offer and I really can't see many people who bought Fiestas, B-Max, Ka, etc moving to it, let alone Explorer or Mustang Mach E.

Probably some dealerships may have to find a new customer base**, change franchises or shut up shop. 

** Perhaps the way the industry seems to be going, towards direct sales and an agency basis with dealerships getting a fee per car sold in their area for providing service/warranty support, may help?

It's probably already been said but huge risk is losing loyal customers to other makes (already happened no doubt) who may never return to Ford.   Happened when BMW ended the Rover 100  when it was still selling well and MG Rover had nothing to replace it.  Customers just went elsewhere.  small part of BMW's long-term stategy to kill MG Rover and ensure Phoenix didn't succeed (despite the safety rating of the Rover 100 used as an excuse it could have been built for a few more years).  BMW taking the 'BMW' Mini from Longbridge was last nail in the coffin.

2 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Probably some dealerships may have to find a new customer base**, change franchises or shut up shop.

They may be able to get compensation on the inevitable launch of, "mybatterycarclaim.com"... 😀

I love my fiesta and would like to keep it on the road as long as possible. Mabye along the way I can set a guiness world record of the most engine replacments on a car.😂

A sad day for sure. I personally think they peaked with the Mk7 ST though. It's a shame they didn't produce an RS.

10 minutes ago, TimST2 said:

 It's a shame they didn't produce an RS.

??

2 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

??

A Mk7 RS...

21 hours ago, Magenta said:

It's probably already been said but huge risk is losing loyal customers to other makes (already happened no doubt) who may never return to Ford.   Happened when BMW ended the Rover 100  when it was still selling well and MG Rover had nothing to replace it.  Customers just went elsewhere.  small part of BMW's long-term stategy to kill MG Rover and ensure Phoenix didn't succeed (despite the safety rating of the Rover 100 used as an excuse it could have been built for a few more years).  BMW taking the 'BMW' Mini from Longbridge was last nail in the coffin.

They have seen Tesla selling cars starting from £42000 with no dealers and thought  - we want to do that.

1 hour ago, TimST2 said:

I personally think they peaked with the Mk7 ST though. 

I suppose it all depends on what your priorities are with a car, but from a driving perspective I'd tend to agree.

I remember my first go in a Mk 7 (a fairly basic 1.6 diesel, nothing fancy) and being captivated by the way it drove.

17 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

I suppose it all depends on what your priorities are with a car, but from a driving perspective I'd tend to agree.

I remember my first go in a Mk 7 (a fairly basic 1.6 diesel, nothing fancy) and being captivated by the way it drove.

After test driving many small hatchbacks in 2009, the Mk 7 Fiesta stood way above the others,  mostly driveability of course.  I ordered a new Titanium 1.6 diesel in Magenta red from Bristol Street Motors which arrived pretty quickly in those days and was most impressed with it.  Excellent build quality and loads of torque and 60mpg without trying.  First of three mk 7's.   Unfortunately, I had been driving company automatics   for many years and the diesel manual clutch and shift seemed very tedious (clutch on the diesel seemed quite heavy) and traded it in for an almost new (298 miles) 1.4 petrol auto (not DSG) which though a bit lethargic after the1.6 turbo diesel and struggled to get 40mpg, I did enjoy.  My current auto  (see pic) is much more lively and more economical.  I would probably have had another Fiesta but that's in serious doubt now.

11 hours ago, Pigeon12 said:

I love my fiesta and would like to keep it on the road as long as possible. Mabye along the way I can set a guiness world record of the most engine replacments on a car.😂

I was bored in the heat and reg checking local cars yesterday.  Surprised to see one of my neighbours cars has over 200k miles on it...it's a Mk7 1.0 EcoBoost!! 😮  Genuinely interested to know whether it's still on the original engine, and whether it's now had 2 sets of wetbelts!

3 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

Genuinely interested to know whether it's still on the original engine, and whether it's now had 2 sets of wetbelts!

I bet we'd all like to know the answer to that one! Could you "engineer" a chance conversation and get round to asking about the mileage/cambelt in view of the recent BBC Watchdog coverage? (You obviously can't reveal you'd been checking or they might think you were a bit sinister!😀)

6 hours ago, Magenta said:

diesel manual clutch and shift seemed very tedious (clutch on the diesel seemed quite heavy)

What a shame - always found the clutch/gearchange on the Mk 7 quite light - cars do vary of course (and not mentioning the wilting synchros when the 5 speed manual was later paired with the ecoboost.)

I found my Mk 8 ST- L 140 a bit heavier, though, so feared the ST would be heavier still but can't say I've really noticed. 

 

On 7/8/2023 at 10:41 AM, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Not so good for some of their dealers though, particularly the smaller businesses. My usual dealer has for many years had a very loyal local customer base mainly buying the smaller vehicles. Now the Puma is the smallest/cheapest thing on offer and I really can't see many people who bought Fiestas, B-Max, Ka, etc moving to it, let alone Explorer or Mustang Mach E.

Probably some dealerships may have to find a new customer base**, change franchises or shut up shop. 

** Perhaps the way the industry seems to be going, towards direct sales and an agency basis with dealerships getting a fee per car sold in their area for providing service/warranty support, may help?

Hi Roger and all,

Think that's a good point about the impact on dealers. My local dealer has been a Ford franchise for decades. Just this year they've stopped selling new Fords (tho still doing used and servicing), and switched to...MG. Have to say I thought that's a shrewd move, looking at what MG are selling and how competitive the pricing is - but still seems sad that affordable Fords are dying out.

🤓

1 hour ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

What a shame - always found the clutch/gearchange on the Mk 7 quite light - cars do vary of course (and not mentioning the wilting synchros when the 5 speed manual was later paired with the ecoboost.)

I found my Mk 8 ST- L 140 a bit heavier, though, so feared the ST would be heavier still but can't say I've really noticed. 

 

Tiny point I guess but interesting that Alan had a 1.6 diesel mk7 and found the clutch heavy. My mk7 econetic (2011) also had quite a heavy clutch, for no obvious reason - I drove a number of other mk7s on test drives / courtesy cars, diesels among them, and don't remember any of the others having as heavy a clutch as mine. 

The last ever Fiesta signed by the people who made it 💔 
Lets hope the car gets lacquered to preserve it.

5 minutes ago, Ian Lanc said:

The last ever Fiesta signed by the people who made it 💔 
Lets hope the car gets lacquered to preserve it.

Hope that wasn't a customer's car! Maybe not. Looks like a miss build. The steering wheels been put on the wrong side. Derr! 🤣🤣