Team-BHP - New Ford Fiesta Unveiled : Report & Pics

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Originally Posted by breezydrive (Post 2373755)

Display car at a mall, A fashion show, facebook, .....! Seriously, this thread is turning out to be like daily soap operas on our TV channels.

I've seen the car in flesh, though externally, the discussions about rear seats have been beaten to death.

Frankly, this thread is boring now till the car is launched!

+1 to that!

One really has to struggle to find value comments in last few pages. Perhaps it will make more sense to close this thread temporarily.

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Originally Posted by xPK (Post 2374156)

One really has to struggle to find value comments in last few pages. Perhaps it will make more sense to close this thread temporarily.

Some products generate loads of curiosity, and that leads to loads of discussion. I feel there is nothing wrong with that.

Once the car is launched and we have an official t-bhp review, this thread will get closed anyway.

Atlast some piece of information on launch putting down the hopes of "June start launch" and TD reports here at TBHP :(

New Ford Fiesta in dealerships and showrooms by July 2011 | DWS Auto India

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Those of you who’ve been eagerly waiting for the 2011 “global” Ford Fiesta will have to wait for just another month. The 2011 new Ford Fiesta that was unveiled in April will be officially launched and reach dealerships in July.

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Michael Boneham, president and managing director, Ford India, told DWS Auto on the sidelines of a Fiesta Fashion event in New Delhi that the car will be launched in the middle of the year. “We are looking to launch the car in July. We have said we are going to launch mid-year, and we just want to make sure that we get the car completely ready for our customers, as it’s a premium sedan

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What could be a bit of a dampener is rear seat space, which is slightly cramped compared to the Hyundai Verna.

I was the first one to check the price expectations throughout the month of May as I was selling my 2009 Fiesta. After such a long curiosity build-up, launch and deliveries of new Verna, this waiting becomes really boring and unexpected. Is Ford listening ?

I know they used to check my Fiesta thread with so much of interest and the HO sent their Regional Manager to personally meet me to address few open complaints I made in the thread, also gifted a pure sandal wood memento with Ford logo on it. I think the official launch and the required info got a huge gap this time, killing many potential customers to book and take delivery of the new verna. I see a lot of them on road now.

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Originally Posted by Mustang.101 (Post 2374805)

Ford fiesta Details to be announce b/w June 25-30, Launch will be next month ie. in July. I am taking an official leave to go for vacations starting tom. so I will have Internet access only on June 9 or June 10. Bye for now guys.

This is now both good news as well as bad. The good news is that we finally have some consolidated date for the official word from Ford.clap: The bad news is that we have to wait for a month now! :Frustrati

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Originally Posted by shajufx (Post 2374843)

I think the official launch and the required info got a huge gap this time, killing many potential customers to book and take delivery of the new verna. I see a lot of them on road now.

Looks like FORD played it brilliantly. They unveiled the looks of the car, which has design similarities to Verna atleast to most common man, well in advance of Verna launch. This definitely should have slowed down the people, who are not SO KEEN with Hyundai Verna.

Lots of unofficial news were floating then on launch dates of 1st week of JUNE 2011. Now extension of another 25 days...definitely majority of people who had set their sights will have to wait with :Frustrati. Another big question is, will the deliveries start from first week of July or it will be August 1-7, 2011

Vento too had problems with delivery. No wonder ANHV setting the sales chart on fire & all went good for them

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Originally Posted by xPK (Post 2374156)

+1 to that!

One really has to struggle to find value comments in last few pages. Perhaps it will make more sense to close this thread temporarily.

+2 To that. Even I want the thread to be closed.
Until a week before the launch dates as mentioned by Mustang.101.

Let that be a lesson for Ford for the marketing gimmick they did in flashing the car just for a marketing stunt.

The last few pages are absolute bore with no value added. Its just no use looking into the thread anymore.

Mods: Sorry for going off topic. But the thread reallly needs some attention to be closed

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Originally Posted by Mustang.101 (Post 2374805)

That's a dampener! I really wonder if we can quantify the sales the NFS is losing to the Verna due to this delay. I am really keen to see the May sales figures thread (number of Vernas sold), and 3-odd months from now it would be good to have a comparo of how many Verna Hyundai managed to sell vis-a-vis the number of Fiestas sold.

Maybe then we can better apreciate whose marketing made more practical sense. Prima facie it appears the Verna's first mover advantage is a masterstroke (at Gurgaon I already see one or two vernas on road every day), and the Fiesta will have to earn its sales figures!

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Originally Posted by Surprise (Post 2374891)

Completely agree. Quite well played by Ford. I feel this will work well for them. Some of the things I liked with this strategy:

Create a buzz: They managed this very well with the Unveiling Ceremony; Car purchase is normally not an impulsive decision, at least in the segment we are discussing. 3-4 months of decision making process is quite common. If this unveiling did not happen, quite a few might have swayed and put the money elsewhere.
Avoid negative publicity: If the car was shown to public, say in Mid-June, it would have called for unwanted comparison like ‘looks similar to another model, etc.'
Effective use of Media: They have the teaser website up from day 1, and also are connecting with those folks who have expressed interest. Whereas I have seen some other manufacturers not having the product information updated in the website even after a few days of launch.

I think one of the reasons for all the discussion going on here is because of what people expect from the new fiesta. How many cars that have been introduced recently can claim to be a driver's car? I think none. Not the new verna, not the vento. I hope the NFS delivers what is expected. Its just a wait of one month. So lets be patient and hope that Ford gives us one which is better than its predecessor.

Well, each of the frustrated posts that we see on this thread either requesting to close it or bashing about how useless it has become tells a different story. First, thing is why it bothers if Ford has not unveiled the price & variants yet? It clearly shows the interest they built-up among even not-would-be-customers! I believe it cannot be like they have everything ready at their-end and just wanted to create a hype by delaying the launch. Definitely they were (and still they are) lagging far behind the Hyundai Fluidic Verna and that would have got them the idea of this Unveiling Ceremony! From a business point of view, its the best move anybody could have made.

One more thing that I'm really unsure of whether I come across this 95Page thread is a Photo shoot contest.

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Originally Posted by vb-san (Post 2375111)

Completely agree. Quite well played by Ford. I feel this will work well for them. Some of the things I liked with this strategy:

Effective use of Media: They have the teaser website up from day 1, and also are connecting with those folks who have expressed interest. Whereas I have seen some other manufacturers not having the product information updated in the website even after a few days of launch.

They actually they had this contest to click pictures of NFS and made a photo steam Flickr channel. Price was INR 2 lac CASH!!!
All-New Ford Fiesta India Photo Contest

+1, here is the example.

On May 20, they had this contest for all auto-buffs on the Internet to tag the shortlisted photos on Flickr and chance to win prices like 8GB Sony Flash Drive.
As per the contest the winner was supposed to announced on 3rd June, but seems like they wanted to combine it with the "Energy in Motion" Fashion-show and the launch of Fiesta Futuristic Collection by designer Swapnil Shinde. The lucky winner who walkaway with hot 2lac cash is "Gaurav Chauhan". And the fashion-show snaps can bee seen on Flickr along with the models (not the Car models)! :D