Hot hatches have long been a European treat, which we as North Americans rarely get to experience. But the fantastic folks at Ford were looking to change that when they brought out the latest Focus ST. And now they’re ready to give us another peppy hatchback: the 197-horsepower Fiesta ST.
Ford has released a trio of personalization packages for the 2012 Fiesta, including a sports appearance package which, surprisingly, is a little bit more than just skin deep.
Ford Racing has brought two Fiesta rally kits to the US: the R2 and a cheaper Stage 1 kit.
The Automobile Journalists Association of Canada has announced the winners of their 2011 Canadian Car of the Year Awards.
Green Car Journal has announced their finalists for the 2011 Green Car of the Year award.
Ford built its Fiesta number 6,000,000 just days after Transit number 6,000,000. These are just two examples of how much the car industry has progressed in the last decades.
It might not be the full-on RS or ST we’ve been waiting for, but Ford has announced the new Fiesta Sport+.
Hello everyone! Welcome to a brand new segment of The Blog of Cars known as This Weekend in Motorsport. I’ll be covering various forms of motorsport races each week until December. This first segment is a bit late due to some technical issues we encountered along the way, sorry about that.
Continuing with Car of the Year nominees, here’s the second part. Family Car of the Year and Cheap Car of the Year are here.
Family Car of the Year
This is where we choose the ideal car for people with big families. Lots of space is an absolute must.
Fiat Doblo: Looks great, seats plenty of people, and it’s quite economical as well.
Toyota Sienna: The looks are a bit iffy in some places, but it promises sporty handling with a comfortable ride, great interior, and plenty of room.
Volvo XC60: A good looking car with a great, spacious interior. Very safe as well.
Vauxhall/Opel Insignia Sports Tourer: New Vauxhalls/Opels have said good bye to their old, conservative, ugly ancestors and buried them in the middle of nowhere. As a result they now make good cars and this good looking estate Insignia is one of them
Dacia Duster: A funky looking car with plenty of space, promising a low price tag.
Citroen C3 Picasso: Funky Citroen looks, with plenty of practicality and a reasonable price.
Cheap Car of the Year
These are cars for those of us who don’t want to, or simply can’t, spend too much money. Price range we set is $25,000 CAD and under.
Renault Twingo: A nice looking car with good handling and interior. Comes in a fantastic Renaultsport trim too.
Ford Fiesta: Ford has launched the new Fiesta hatch in 2008 in Europe but not in North America so we actually found an excuse to nominate it as it is a very, very good supermini.
Volkswagen Polo: This small, German hatchback has actually won the European Car of the Year Award, but that’s not important, as now it faces the most important test ever: Will it be our Cheap Car of the Year?
It seems like VW will be using the Jetta name for a new compact sedan built in Mexico. Unlike the last Jetta, this one apparently won’t be a Golf with a trunk glued to its bottom but a bespoke car. Given the fact that the Golf Mk 6, the new Polo, and the new Fox look exactly the same, differing only in size, we can surely believe them that the new car will be bespoke indeed. In size. Apparently the new Jetta will arrive in June 2010 but it could get another name in Europe. The car will be first launched in the US and only then prepared for its European debut.
Another possibility for VW is to bring the Polo in the US. As Ford did it with the Fiesta and Mazda with the 2, so bringing the Polo to America sounds like the sensible thing to do as it is a good little car which can easily rival the other two. Whatever the plans of VW, now the biggest car maker in the world, for the US it will be interesting to see what they’ll come up with.
Source: Car and Driver via Autoblog