Ford gearing up for Geneva Fiesta

The Geneva motor show is still two weeks away, but Ford has pre-empted the hype by releasing images and a few details about its all-new Fiesta baby car.

Production of the new model gets underway in Ford's Cologne plant in Germany around September, and there will be a second assembly plant in Spain. Ford will also make an announcement about an Asian Fiesta production facility at the Beijing show in April.

Although yet to be confirmed, we can expect to see the new-gen Fiesta at this year's Sydney motor show (which runs from October 9-19).

The latest Fiesta is based on the same platform as the new Mazda2, which launched locally last September.

It will be offered in Europe with a choice of five petrol and diesel engines and the images reveal that the production reality isn't dramatically different to the Verve concept that debuted at last September's Frankfurt motor show.

Visually, it appears Ford has nailed it. The new Fiesta is nicely proportioned, and the detailing (lights, grille, wheels, etc) is well executed. It has a distinctively sporty stance, and that should go down well with the predominantly youthful audience it'll be pitched at.

The pics show a three-door Fiesta, but the car will also be built in four- and five-door formats to maximise its reach. And although it's no smaller than its forerunner, extensive use of high-strength steel means it's shed some weight.

The interior has also come in for its fair share of attention, and there are some interesting design elements -- particularly the layout of the audio controls in the centre of the dashboard.

The Fiesta nameplate was introduced to Oz in 2004, and it addressed the gaping hole in Ford Australia's line-up following the demise of the Korean-built Festiva -- a car that sold more on price than ability. Ford had offered the Ka as an interim replacement for the Festiva, but the offbeat looking hatchback failed to make much of an impact.

However, the capable Fiesta fared much better than the Ka, and it found 5610 buyers last year and 5968 in 2006. That said, the Fiesta is still well short of the 29,663 sales tally (in 2007) of the Toyota Yaris and the 21,166 sales of the Hyundai Getz.

The launch of the all-new model could see Fiesta sales edging closer to the 7000-8000 units per year mark.