Ford has announced the end of Britain’s most popular car – the Fiesta.
The US carmaker has confirmed it will end production of the UK’s all-time bestselling car next June. Its factory in Cologne, Germany, will switch to producing two new electric models in the “latest symbol of the shift from internal combustion engines to batteries”, said The Guardian.
The Fiesta was developed in response to the 1973 oil crisis, which saw “the price of fuel rocket and motorists needing a more economically efficient car”, said Sky News. Since it was launched in 1976, more than 22 million Fiestas have been sold around the world. Of those, 4.8 million were in the UK, where the Fiesta was the best-selling model for 12 successive years from 2009 to 2020.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A 2013 poll found the Fiesta was the most popular car to have sex in, said The Sun. A Fiesta appeared in 1976 Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me with Roger Moore – one of more than 4,000 appearances by the model in films, according to the Internet Movie Cars Database.
The “legendary car touched many lives and it will be missed”, said The Telegraph. “It’s the car in which countless teenagers learned to drive” and has been the “faithful friend of elderly drivers who have relied on it to get around on little more than a state pension” and “pretty well everyone in between”.
Announcing the end of the road for the model on Twitter, Ford said: “It’s time to say goodbye to the little car that has touched us all.”
The first Fiesta model was launched in 1976.
In its peak year, 1987, over 150,000 Fiesta models were sold in the UK.
Produced from 1989-97, generation three of the Fiesta looked very different to previous models.
The fourth generation of Fiesta was Britain’s best-selling car from 1996 to 1998.
Fiesta Mark V was ergonomically and mechanically more advanced than any previous generation.
The sixth generation Fiesta ran from 2008-2019.
Launched in 2017, the seventh generation was larger, roomier, safer and more efficient.
-
August 23 editorial cartoonsCartoons Saturday's political cartoons include deficit dimness, steamroller-in-chief, and more
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purgeCartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
The best film reboots of all timeThe Week Recommends Creativity and imagination are often required to breathe fresh life into old material
-
Will Amazon destroy James Bond?Talking Point Broccoli family yields control of franchise to tech giant, sparking fears of corporate 'Americanisation' of beloved British icon
-
The best TV to watch over ChristmasThe Week Recommends How to plan your perfect viewing on 25 December, from lunchtime till late
-
Who will be the next James Bond?In Depth The search for Daniel Craig’s replacement continues nearly four years after the actor stepped down from the role
-
James Bond: what's next for 007?In Depth It has been three years since Daniel Craig's explosive departure in No Time to Die
-
Aaron Taylor-Johnson: the next James Bond?Talking Point Kick-Ass star has reportedly been offered the 007 role and he has plenty of admirers
-
‘Not rude, just French’: the Eva Green court case explainedUnder the Radar Former Bond girl in London legal battle over her $1m (£810,000) fee for abandoned film project
-
Ford Fiesta 2022 review: what the car critics sayfeature The Fiesta remains the ‘best car in its class to drive’ – by some margin
