China-made New Fiesta to debut at Guangzhou show

Shanghai, November 17 (Gasgoo.com) Changan Ford Mazda is set to debut its all-new Ford Fiesta sedan and hatchback at the Guangzhou auto show this week. According to a sales executive of the joint venture, the new Ford Fiesta will hit the China market in early 2009, said xinhuanet.com today.

The New Ford Fiesta will hold its global appeal because of its dynamic features created by the bold "kinetic design." Ford's acclaimed dynamics engineers responsible for fine-tuning the Focus and Mondeo model's driving dynamics have worked extensively to enhance Fiesta's ride comfort and to give the new model an impressively quiet driving quality.

The New Fiesta is Ford's third model of "kinetic design" after the S-MAX and Mondeo. It is based on Ford's B2 platform that underpins the latest Mazda 2. Its Chinese production might have started in 2008 at Changan Ford Mazda Auto's plant in Nanjing. The China-made New Fiesta is likely to carry 1.4L and 1.6L engines.

In the French market, Europe Ford has recently announced the price of its new Fiesta models, which will sell for an equivalent of 120,000 yuan ($17,570) to 140,000 yuan. The Chinese-made new Ford Fiesta will be available to local buyers at a lower price early next year. Its launch was originally slated for December this year, but delayed due to the financial crisis.

Amid China's auto market slowdown, the sales of Changan Ford Mazda in 2008 hold little hope for optimism. In the first nine months, the joint venture saw its sales grow by a meager 6%, far from the 58% as expected at the beginning of the year when the company set the yearly sales target at 192,000 units.

One of the urgent problems for Changan Ford Masda to address now is how to make a breakthrough in the sluggish market segment of compact sedans in China by promoting the locally made new Ford Fiesta as a heavyweight model.