Ford Fiesta ST supply solid

If you want to get behind the wheel of the all-new Ford Fiesta, you won't have to wait long, says Ford Australia. This is despite the intense interest the affordable new pocket rocket has garnered.

Before Ford even announced the $25,990 price for its all-new, highly-anticipated 134kW/240Nm Fiesta ST performance hatchback, it attracted around 900 serious expressions of interest from Australian car buyers.

The Blue Oval brand has already sold the majority of the first batch of 100 Fiesta ST hot hatches arriving in dealerships right now, but the year long wait lists that plagued the Volkswagen Polo GTI from 2011 onwards will not be a problem, says a senior executive at the company.

Ford Australia's new General Manager of Sales, Neale Hill, explained that potential buyers need not be worried about a shortfall in supply.

"We have got access to supply," he said.

"Certainly in terms of the volume we requested, we're supported with that."

The new German-built Fiesta ST has the looks and pace of its bigger brother, the Focus ST, but costs about $12,000 less. It also undercuts the VW Polo GTI and Peugeot 208 GTi hot hatches by more than $3000 -- almost guaranteeing it popularity.

All the same, Hill says 12 or even six month waiting lists are unlikely.

"Depending on what the absolute take up rate is, I'd be surprised if we ended up with a six month waiting list... I think that we should be in a position to fulfil those orders in a reasonable period of time," explained the Ford Australia sales chief.

Asked what a reasonable period of time was, and Hill said “three to four months”.

"If demand goes off the chart, any manufacturer's going to struggle with a backlog. But we feel we've got the [volume] call spot on."

Hill says though much of the first batch of fiery Fiesta STs are already spoken for, pre-orders are not always a bad thing.

"Some [pre-orders] will be taken on as demonstrators, but the majority of those have retail customers lined up for them.

"Our job is to look at the rate at which dealers are signing up orders and we'll make a call in terms of whether we have got to adjust up procurement as we go," noted Hill.

The Fiesta ST is offered as a three-door manual-only proposition in Australia. There is a five-door version of the cooking-hot Fiesta but it is built in the US for left-hand drive markets only.

"One of the key things with Fiesta -- like with the Focus ST -- is that there is a degree of exclusivity that one does want to keep. But you don’t want to get to a point where it's completely scarce, but you're always managing that supply and demand situation.

"With the Fiesta ST, you always want to be one vehicle under supplied, that is the best way to describe it," said Hill.

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