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Ford Bets On Social Media For Fiesta
Ford is gambling on the power of social media for the new marketing campaign surrounding the Ford Fiesta subcompact. The auto giant handed over 100 new Fiestas to "agents" selected from 4,000 applicants and created YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter accounts for them to relay their experiences. "Ford is taking a hands-off approach and telling participants not to hold back their opinions, bolstering the campaign's credibility. 'We've told them to be completely honest — that's the only way it's going to work,' Monty told us. 'We won't tell them what to say, nor will we censor or edit any of their content.' So far, it's working in Ford's favor. The tweets on the FordFiesta Twitter page are generally favorable, if a bit dry, as are the posts over at The Fiesta Movement Facebook page. None of the 80 pictures on the Fiesta Movement Flickr page show broken down cars. There are a few hundred videos on the FiestaMovement YouTube account if anyone's got a few hours to kill."
The marketing may be honest, but that dosen't mean that there isn't B.S. there.
This should actually be pretty legit, I wouldn't guess that ford would hold the hands on these as they go through manufacturing. As a matter of fact Ford doesn't really have to do much of anything. The Fiesta should speak for itself and is widely regarded as being a good product. Here is a link for reference (I do not work for autoblog.com) This new Fiesta should even (hopefully) arrive on American shores. For once us Americans should have a competitive product compared to our European "friends." As a side note: it is nice to see a car that stays about the same size. It is lighter and stronger than the current Ford Fiesta, with similar dimensions.
"but money is the God of Algiers & Mahomet their prophet." - Rich. O'Bryen June 8th 1786
Dear CmdrTaco,
Since your current editors are apparently way too busy to Google for a couple of important links (some of which are even mentioned in the summary), I decided to help out.
Here they are.
Am I hired now?
(Also, that is one butt-ugly car. I'll stick with my Mazda3, thank you.)
The Fiesta is a relabelled/reskinned Mazda2 -- that is successful in many other parts of the world. I doubt highly that it is a POS as you call it.
Let's take it apart:
They are slightly louder than gasoline engines, but the new ones are not really loud
Not any more. With Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel and current particulate control mechanisms you cannot tell a passenger diesel car from a gasoline one.
Quite the opposite, actually. Diesel engines are build to last much longer than gasoline engines. You may be going back to the disastrous GM 5.7D attempt. That soured a lot of people, but that is long gone. Modern small diesels run forever compared to gasoline engines. Witness VW's 1.9.
Not necessarily. It all depends on what you like, horsepower or torque. I like driving diesels. Their forte is low end. Granted, it is an issue of personal preferences, so I will not argue that with you.
It should be said that TDs gained ground in Europe in no small part due to the fact that diesel fuel gets preferential tax treatment, so in most countries (with a notable exception of the UK), diesel is cheaper than gas. In the US diesel is quite a bit more expensive that gas, so the fuel mileage gains stemming from higher energy density are partly lost.
End anonymous moderation and posting on
Ford will start North American sales of the new Fiesta from their upgraded factory outside Mexico City starting in January 2010. If it is a sales hit (and I expect it to fly out of dealers in no time flat), don't be surprised that by 2012 we'll see the Fiesta assembled in a USA assembly line too.
The US version of the Fiesta will sport a neat new feature: the Powershift dual-clutch transmission with six forward speeds, which offer the convenience of an automatic with the fuel economy of a manual. And given Ricardo UK's work on cleaning up diesel engines, we could see the new Fiesta offered with the Duratorq turbodiesel engine, and that could mean the Fiesta gets Prius-like fuel economy!