The North American version of Ford's latest generation Fiesta was officially unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show today. On this side of the Atlantic, the 2011 Fiesta will be sold as a five-door hatchback and a four-door sedan, both of which will be available with one engine, a 1.6-liter four-cylinder petrol with an estimated output of 119 horsepower and 109 ft.-lbs. of torque.Power will transferred to the front wheels through a standard five-speed manual gearbox or optionally, an all-new North American industry-exclusive PowerShift six-speed dual clutch automatic transmission. Ford said it expects that the Fiesta will return up to 40 mpg on the highway.
"Fuel economy leaders have traditionally been manual shift models," said Pierro Aversa, team leader for transmissions. "Fiesta changes the game by offering an advanced PowerShift six-speed automatic that delivers maximum fuel economy."
Other than a few minor aesthetic changes that concern the slightly different upper front grille, the reshaped bumpers and the addition of large chrome scoops on the front bumper incorporating LED lights, the five-door Fiesta hatchback is stylistically identical to its European sibling.
As for the four-door Fiesta sedan, changes over its counterparts sold in other markets around the world include Ford's North American signature three-bar look and new tail lamps that are inspired from the Taurus.
"For North America, the global Fiesta was tweaked, not re-designed or re-developed." said Steve Pintar, chief engineer. "We built on the success of the European Fiesta and are really proud of how little has changed."
However, due to the fact that when Ford was developing the Fiesta, its original plans did not include North America, the company had to redesign the car to address safety, emissions and powertrain issues.
'We did have to change some parts. By percent value, across the entire value of the vehicle, the number of common parts is 60 percent between North America and Europe," told reporters Derrick Kuzak, Ford's group vice president for global product development.
According to Kuzak, the all-new 2011 Focus which is expected to be introduced next year, has been engineered for all international markets including North America, right from the beginning. Kuzak told reporters that around 80 percent of the2011 Focus parts by value will be common between the North American and European versions.
The North American Fiesta hatchback and sedan models will be manufactured at Ford's Cuautitlan plant in Mexico, with sales in the U.S.A. scheduled to begin next summer.
