Fiesta Claims Title to U.K.’s All-Time Best Seller
Ford Britain Chairman and Managing Director Mark Ovenden credits the Fiesta’s success to its style, value, driving dynamics and significant technologies including the 1.0L EcoBoost engine.
The Ford Fiesta becomes the U.K.’s best-selling vehicle nameplate of all time as sales reach 4,115,000 units.
Since its launch in 1976, the Fiesta has led the small-car segment in the U.K. for 27 of its 37 years on the market and has been the region’s best-selling car since 2009 when it overtook the Ford Focus.
This month it passed the historic record of the Ford Escort, which sold 4,105,961 in the 32 years it was on sale in the U.K. from 1968 through 2000.
Ford added its cherished “FMC1” registration plate number to a Fiesta destined for Scotland for the Commonwealth Games to mark the landmark U.K. achievement.
Ford Britain Chairman and Managing Director Mark Ovenden credits the Fiesta’s success to its style, value, driving dynamics and significant technologies including the 1.0L EcoBoost engine.
“It continues to outsell its nearest retail competitor by more than two-to-one, and that really tells the story of this extraordinary car,” Ovenden says in a statement.
Engineers at Ford’s R&D center at Dunton in Essex, and at Ford’s Dagenham Diesel Center in East London, develop all powertrains for the Fiesta.
The Dunton Technical Center is home to Ford’s latest technical achievement, the EcoBoost engine range. The 1.6L EcoBoost that powers the Fiesta ST is manufactured at the Bridgend Engine Plant in South Wales.
Technical progress since the original Fiesta was introduced is a step-change. It would take more than 80 modern-day Fiestas to generate the oxides-of-nitrogen emissions of a single ’76 Mk1 model.
The first-generation Fiesta, powered by a 4-cyl. 0.95L gasoline engine making 45 hp, weighed 1,984 lbs. (800 kg) and achieved 37.7 mpg (6.2 L/100 km), with carbon-dioxide emissions of nearly 150 g/km.
Today’s fully-equipped model, with the 1.0L, 99-hp EcoBoost engine, weighs 2,425 lbs. (1,100 kg), but has a combined fuel economy of 65.7 mpg (3.6 L/100 km) and CO2 emissions of 99 g/km.
More than 40% of Fiesta buyers in the U.K. choose the 1.0L turbocharged EcoBoost and almost 90% opt for higher trim levels – the Zetec, Zetec S, Titanium, Titanium X and ST models – with the Ford SYNC voice-controlled connectivity system.
The most popular Ford Fiesta series in the U.K. is the Zetec, priced at £12,945 ($22,051).
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