Day: Jan 24, 2017

I know It’s Gonna Happen Someday

So sang Morrisey who was copying Bowie* who returned the compliment by covering the song.  

2017 Suzuki Swift: Car
2017 Suzuki Swift: (c) Car

What’s gonna happen? For one thing that a good car design will be replaced by a less good one sooner or later. It would appear that the fashion for blacked out C-pillars knows no limits. The 2017 Suzuki Swift now sports one.  Continue reading “I know It’s Gonna Happen Someday”

Compromise: On the road to Fiesta – Part 1

Driven to Write looks in depth at the Fiesta’s development.

fiesta-1

Lest it should pass un-noticed, January 2017 is the fortieth anniversary of the Ford Fiesta’s launch in the UK. Production at Ford Germany’s Saarlouis factory began in July 1976, with the core Almusafes plant coming on stream in October 1976, so the lucky continentals were introduced to the car a few months earlier. Continue reading “Compromise: On the road to Fiesta – Part 1”

On the Road To Fiesta

Driven to Write looks in depth at the Fiesta’s gestation.

fiesta-1
Photo: Author’s collection

Lest it should pass un-noticed, January 2017 is the fortieth anniversary of the Ford Fiesta’s launch in the UK. Production at Ford Germany’s Saarlouis factory began in July 1976, with the core Almusafes plant coming on stream in October 1976, so the lucky continentals were introduced to the car a few months earlier.

To mark the occasion, I found myself re-reading Edouard Seidler’s “Let’s call it Fiesta”, the story of the Fiesta Mk.I, along with some other publications from around the time. The “auto-biography” was launched at the same time as the car, so there is no hindsight – Ford were entering unknown territory; a new market sector, their first transverse-engined car, and a huge new production facility in a country in which they had no previous presence. Continue reading “On the Road To Fiesta”