So, here’s a conundrum: it seems like the next-gen Ford Fiesta—the beloved and reasonably priced egg-shaped hatch we know and love—won’t be making it to the U.S. Multiple outlets (including us) have reported such. Only Ford won’t confirm it.
During the Frankfurt Auto Show, which took place earlier this month, Carbuzz got a chance to talk with Ford Performance of Europe director Leo Roeks in regard to the Fiesta ST’s future stateside. He told the outlet that it wasn’t happening:
“It’s simply a matter of a lack of interest in the B-segment in America. It doesn’t make sense, nor is it possible financially speaking, to import a single trim level, and a niche one at that.”
It was upsetting news, for sure, because the Fiesta ST has been the affordable hot hatch go-to for many. The story was picked up by sites like Autoweek, Autoblog and Motor Trend.
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We reached out to Ford for confirmation on the matter—and because we wanted to hear it directly from the source—and received a non-answer in response:
We have introduced the next-generation Fiesta for Europe and Middle East & Africa. Customer demand for small vehicles continues to grow globally, and Fiesta is an important part of our portfolio. We’ll have more to say about other markets at a later date.
That was neither here nor there, so we asked this spokesperson to confirm whether Roeks’ statement was accurate or not. Here is what we were told in response:
We are not commenting on our future product lineup.
This whole thing has been very confusing. On one hand, you have Roeks going on the record with Carbuzz and saying that the Fiesta ST isn’t coming here. But now Ford won’t confirm that its own employee said… what… he… said… ?
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I won’t pretend to know what exactly Ford is holding out for. And I can’t really work out why all the hush-hush. Whether or not the Fiesta ST is coming to the states isn’t exactly an atomic secret. So, I guess I’ll just wait for that good ol’ “later date” to find out.
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