Fiesta five-door finalized—cue the confetti!

We've been busting Ford's corporate spheres for some time now. And with good reason.

But it looks like the U.S. automaker has gone and done The Right Thing for those looking for a small Ford sans trunk.

Buried in a longwinded PR memo released this afternoon confirming the long held suspicion the 2010 Fiesta sedan is going to be made in Mexico (ironically, in a plant that will shift from making F-series pickups for Mexico to making small cars for all of North America), Ford also confirmed a Fiesta hatchback will go on sale at the same time.

Ford is being sketchy if the hatchback Fiesta will be a three-door, five-door (officially shown above). We say go for both. I mean what's the concern? With small cars hotter than jalapeno jelly, Ford's only problem will be keeping Fiestas in stock on dealer lots.

We've only seen production concepts of the Fiesta sedan (nee Verve) on the show car circuit. But if the Fiesta that goes on sale in two years drives and feels anywhere near as well as it looks, Nissan's Versa, Honda's Fit and Toyota's Yaris will finally have some serious competition, for a change.

[Source: Ford]

Do you need to be Freed?

Why should you care Honda revealed its new subcompact Freed mini-mini-minivan today in Japan today?

For starters, the Freed uses the existing five-passenger Fit's flat floor—as in the 6.5L/100 km Fit. Yet the Freed's been reconfigured to carry up to eight passengers within its subcompact dimensions. Like Nissan's Cube, the Freed can accommodate wheelchairs with ramps and lift-up seats.

Although the Freed and Fit are very similar in concept, with fuel efficiency and practicality THE hot buttons with new car buyers, we think the Freed would make a nice addition to Honda's subcompact lineup that currently only has the Fit —kind of like how Nissan's Versa and Cube will complement each other.

But like the final decision to bring over the seemingly a no brainer Stream, it depends heavily if Honda can sell the idea to Americans.

What do you think? Is the Freed too small for Canadian roads?

Can you see yourself driving what is essentially a roomier Fit?

[Source: Honda]

Bigger is better—NOT!

It's one thing for consumers to adjust to the almost daily rises in fuel pump prices (The average price for a litre of gas in Toronto today is $1.28—that's 10 cents more than only 24 days ago.)

But you know we're never going back to cheap fuel again when automakers, en masse, start to react to consumers demand with drastic product and manufacturing decisions:

• Hyundai cans a planned pickup truck slated for a sister Kia plant in the U.S. in order to make small cars there instead;
• Honda is moving the production of its Pilot and Ridgeline utility vehicles from its Alliston, Ont. plant to make room for the higher demand of its Civic compacts;
• The General's planning yet another round of production cuts and layoffs to deal with U.S. buyers abandoning trucks;
• Ford's grande frommage, Alan Mulally, has finally (finally!) realized the market for pickup trucks is yesterday's news.

"It appears to us that fuel prices are not going to come down," Mulally said last Thursday, adding,"you just cannot make cars that people don't want."

Genius.

Trouble is, unlike Honda or Hyundai, Ford just simply can't "adjust" plant production. The the small and mid-sized Fords that customers want—like right now—are still at least two years away. 

Knowing all of this, how much smaller will your next new vehicle be? Is the price of gas enough to get you trade-in your current gas guzzler for something smaller and more efficient?

[Source: The Star & Automotive News]

Update: Return of the Pocket Rocket

$1.38 per litre. That's what we were paying this weekend here in the Nation's Capital.

So it's with great joy that we bring you more news on the not-quite-ready-for-prime-time return of the small, yet fun, sports coupe.

As we've already reported, Subaru and Toyota are working together on  a compact 2+2 rear-wheel-drive sports coupe for 2011, a vehicle that neither automaker currently has in their current lineups.

But a new report says the existing Subaru Impreza's all-wheel-drive platform—rejigged for RWD—will be used with a naturally aspirated 2.0L four banger hooked up to a six-speed stick and priced under $20k U.S.

Assuming Toyota doesn't want to compete with its U.S.-only Scion youth brand, its version of the new coupe will only be sold in Japan. The Subie model (speculative sketch left) will be sold in North America and other markets.

Apparently, Acura's gone but not forgotten Integra Type R compact coupe (a car still revered by sports compact coupe fans today) is the new Toyota-Subaru's performance bogey.

Not a bad place to start, and a nice shot at Honda's milquetoast premium brand which has pretty much abandoned any pretense of high performance. 

[Source: Inside Line]

Separated at birth: New Baby Rolls & Cadillac Sixteen

Although its debut in 2003 marked General Motors' ambitions to return its Cadillac luxury brand to its former "Standard of the World" glory, we gave up for dead any hope of Caddy's Sixteen concept ever seeing the light of day as a production vehicle. But now it looks like BMW's Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is taking up the cause.

At least that's the impression left with the first official design tease sketches just released.

Dubbed RR4 (top left), and due by 2010, the  so-called Baby Rolls will be smaller than the current Phantom behemoth. However, it does bear a remarkable resemblance to the six-year old Cadillac concept (bottom right), with eerily similar long-hood, high-beltline proportions.

Any suggestions that the RR4 will merely be a tarted up next-gen BMW 7 Series is being vehemently denied by Rolls. The new Rolls would do fine with the Sixteen's conceptual 1,000 hp 13.6-litre V16 monster mill. But BMW insists its new almost-semi-ultra-luxury sedan will have it's own unique engine.

Too bad the same can't be said for its looks.

[Source: Rolls-Royce]

Ford's strategy: Deny, deny, deny

Surprised at yesterday's announcement from Ford head honcho, CEO Alan Mulally (left), that the U.S. automaker will reduce its overall North American production by 15 per cent in the second quarter?

Or the cutting of 430 jobs at its Windsor V8 engine plant due to customers bailing on large pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles?

Nope. Me neither.

What is surprising is Ford's continuing sense of entitlement  and head-in-the-sand attitude as to why its in such bad shape:

• During a conference call with industry analysts, Mulally said his world was recently rocked, on Tuesday, April 22, to be exact. That's the day the average price of gas in the States  shot past $3.50 a gallon.

"We saw a real change in the industry demand for pickup trucks and SUVs in the first two weeks of May. It seemed to us that we reached a tipping point where customers began shifting away from these vehicles at an accelerated rate."

Dude—that "shift" started in 1973, exactly one day after the Oil Crisis I, and ramped up again after Oil Crisis II in 1979, and again after 9/11...

• Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, said in the company statement: "Rapidly rising commodity prices—particularly steel prices...are having a tremendous impact on our sales, our manufacturing operations and our profitability as we look to 2009."

OK, yes. Steel prices have doubled in the past five months.

Trouble is, last time I checked, Toyota Corollas and Honda Fits are made with steel and run on high-priced gas as well.

Look. Ford can point fingers and keep on playing the blame game until every one of its plants is shuttered. But the facts are Ford's current woes are all self induced, and decades long in the making.

The hard, non-PR smoothed over truth is: by not kicking the addictively profitable SUV habit during the times of cheap gas in the mid-1990s, Ford—and General Motors and Chrysler—basically handed the North American passenger car to the Japanese and Korean brands on a silver hubcap.

Plus, Ford, internally, kept up its walls.

Where GM and Chrysler worked toward combining global synergies to reduce product development costs, Ford's European, North American and Asian groups acted like warring tribes. It's only recently that Ford's decided not all North American buyers want an F-150 or Explorer with plans to harmonize European and North American product lines. But those vehicles won't start showing up on our shores for years. The first, the subcompact Verve doesn't arrive until 2010.

Final note: I was in New York City  yesterday. The average price of gas was $4.30 a gallon. That's a 22 per cent increase in the four weeks since Mulally's "tipping point".

[Source: Automotive News, The Star, Ford]

Honda subcompact to get even fitter

6.5L/100 km fuel consumption rating.

We think today's Fit is THE choice for driver's looking for a subcompact five-door. A more miserly version that retains its fun-to-drive  personality is sure to be a hit.

Maybe the best feature of the hybrid Fit will be its low cost of ownership. Today's hybrids save gas and emissions, but they don't save you money.

Yet Honda says the price difference between its hybrid Fit and regular Fit needs to be less than 200,000 yen ($2,000) to "win customers," which would make it the least expensive hybrid on the market by far. (Today's Fit starts just under $15,000; the hybrid Civic at a little over $26,000.)

The refreshed 2009 Fit that debuted at this year's New York auto show (see the video above) is set to go on sale later this summer. More details on Honda's other green plans here.

[Source: Automotive News]

GM's debuts at Detroit—not! maybe! who knows?

After two years of spy shot ad nauseum, Ground Hog Day-like auto show appearances, and a series of IV-drip GM releases, I know less about the back of my hand than the next Chevy Camaro muscle car and new Volt plug-in hybrid.

It was expected that the production versions of Chevrolet's next two major products would show up at what is considered parent General Motor's "home" auto show, in Detroit.

But if speculative reports are accurate, highly anticipated production debuts of the Volt and Camaro will happen well before next January's  traditional Motown auto show dates.

As of today, the Camaro is set for its "official" unveiling at this year's Woodward Cruise, August 16.

In regards to the Volt, it will be part of a massive Euro GM launch of 11 new models including the Beat city car and the aforementioned Camaro during this year's press days at the Paris auto show, October 2-3.

Apparently, in gay Paree, the Volt will be seen in North American gas-electric production from along with a diesel-electric Opel Flextreme. Both are based on GM's next Delta global compact platform. For more high volume models, Delta will also spawn the next Saturn Astra, Saab 9-3 and Chevy Cobalt.

GM says they've had discussions on when and where to show the Volt and Camaro, but nothing's been finalized.

Do you think GM needs to shy away from the Detroit show? Or are these speculative non-traditional debut venues a better idea?

[Source: Channel 4 & Autoblog]

Littlest Lambo gets bullish

Yeah, it costs more than a Lakeshore Drive condo. And it's wedge-of-brie styling is about as stealthy as a UFO landing in the middle of Times Square.

But nothing says "excessive driving" like a Lamborghini.

If you missed the preview from Sin City, U.S.A. in last Saturday's Wheels, here's a short video take on Lamborghini's littlest bull:

Nürburging, or bust!

Ahhh, it must be springtime in Germany. How do I know?

Because every manufacturer except Smart, is whipping out the prototypes and production models tying to lay some kind of PR claim to being the Fastest Whatever at the Nürburgring’s Nordshleiffe track.

Built in the 1920s around the village and medieval castle of Nürburg in northwest Germany, its 22.810 km Nordschleife ("Northern Loop") is considered the toughest, most dangerous and most demanding purpose-built racetrack in the world. Anything under 8 minutes is hero worthy.

Why is the Ring so important, you may ask?

First, since its inclusion in Sony Playstation’s Gran Turismo 4 driving simulator, any armchair driving enthusiast—yours truly included—can lay claim to “virtual” Nordschleife times.

Plus, in the highly developed culture of speed in Germany, 0-100 km/h and top speed times seem like old hat.

In fact, the track has become so important as a research and PR tool, some manufacturers like BMW and Aston Martin have set up permanent trackside facilities.

In the past month alone, we’ve seen Lexus, Lotus, Cadillac, BMW—and more—lapping the circuit former racer Jackie Stewart dubbed The Green Hell. I haven’t checked my RSS feeds yet today, but the latest to hold Ring bragging rights is Cadillac.

Its new 567 hp CTS-V sports sedan just laid down a 7min 59.32 sec to claim “the fastest production sedan ever to take the Nordschleife” (see the video above.)

Of course, that’s “slow” compared the new Nissan GT-R's lap record of 7:29 (see the video below)... or the forthcoming GT-R V-Spec, which is already putting down (roughly-timed) laps around the North Loop in the 7:25 area…or the Chevrolet’s 638 hp ZR-1 which has yet to make its Nordschleife attempt.

Where will this stop? Who knows?

Maybe when car geeks like me with blogs stop posting such announcements. Hopefully, not for the same reasons why Formula One race hasn’t been held on this loop since 1976, that’s when World Champion Niki Lauda nearly died in fiery crash there.

But do you care? How important is a decent Nordschleife time in your next vehicle purchase decision making process?