The Ford Motor Company is canning three nameplates, including the long-running Fiesta. Manufactured at the Koln assembly plant in Germany, the subcompact hatchback is going the way of the dodo at the end of June ’23.
The Dearborn-based automaker will also pull the plug on the S-Max and Galaxy, two people carriers that aren’t exactly relevant in this crossover-driven market. Manufactured at the Valencia assembly plant in Spain, both models will be discontinued in April ’23 in favor of a hybrid powerplant and increased battery production output. As a brief refresher, Ford of Europe intends to switch to full-electric vehicles by the end of the decade.
Although some among us may have fond memories of the S-Max or Galaxy as children, the real bummer here is the Fiesta. The Ford Motor Company has plenty of legendary nameplates under its belt, with the Fiesta standing tall in the ranking. Named after the Spanish word for party, the subcompact hatchback started research & development under the “Bobcat” codename.
Headed by Trevor Erskine, this project received the green light from Henry Ford II back in September 1972. The big kahuna couldn’t ignore Fiat’s recently launched 127 and the Renault 5 stealing customers away from the Blue Oval. Henry Ford II didn’t know it at the time, but approving the Fiesta in the fall of 1972 had been an inspired move given the oil crisis of 1973.
Tom Tjaarda at Ghia submitted the final design proposal. Modified for series production by Ford of Europe chief designer Uwe Bahnsen, the Fiesta was intentionally leaked to motoring publications in late 1975. Rather than the United Kingdom, which is the Fiesta’s largest market, the order banks opened first in France and Germany in September 1976. General Motors owned the rights to the Fiesta nameplate back then, but somewhat curious of FoMoCo's biggest rival, GM allowed Ford to use Fiesta.
The marketing team preferred Bravo, but Henry Ford II chose Fiesta, which seems to be a much better name in retrospect. The first units rolled off the assembly line in 1976 with small engines, as expected of a subcompact. Fast forward to the present day, and the Fiesta to have is the ST performance version that packs a 1.5-liter turbo three-cylinder engine with 197 horsepower (200 metric ponies) and 236 pound-foot (320 Nm) of torque.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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