There's a long line of little runabouts for Europe all the way from 1932's Ford Model Y to the 2023 Ford Fiesta. Many of them with a rich motorsports history too with little Fords being common rally cars as well as drag racing cars in the UK and Europe overall, there was even a trend in the US of importing small European market Fords for drag racing because technically they were "domestic" cars as they were Fords. (these cars were rather lethal for that use BTW and eventually, wheelbase regulations came in to stop their use).
This is coming to an end soon with Ford ramping down all production of small cars for Europe and concentrating on SUVs, trucks, and EVs.
I won't shed many tears for the cars themselves but the lost jobs are a real shame. And I hope all those people can find employment elsewhere quickly.
Ford is not forgetting consumers at the lower end of the market altogether though, the Maverick XL at under $23k is the current vehicle for the masses. When you consider that the Maverick has more than two and a half times the power as the base Fiesta, it is almost as efficient and can carry an almost immeasurably larger amount of stuff whilst also being more profitable for Ford and cheaper for the consumer you begin to wonder why Ford didn't stop making little hatchbacks for the Euro market long ago. #WeirdCarMastodon
@WhyNotZoidberg Ford did an amazing job convincing Australian and British people that Ford is Australian and British :)
GM did it with Holden and Opel/Vauxhall too, but those brands are dead now.
@gpowerf
Opel isn't dead.
Oh you mean actual Vaxual? ;)
(It's a beef I have with Playground Games: since they're British they seem to think Fiats are "Abarths" and Opels "Vaxuals".
@WhyNotZoidberg Vauxhall and Opel are not dead, but GM sold the brands to Stellantis in 2021. So they are dead as GM brands.
The Vauxhall I mean is the car brand that was part of GM and shared all its cars with Opel before 2021.
@WhyNotZoidberg as for beefs I do get annoyed when people say "a British car" and it is a car designed by someone who is from Detroit.
I think to myself "yeah, Detroit is in Yorkshire, right?"
@gpowerf Ford has, at least since the early 60s, been considered an European brand in Europe, and(I'm told) an Australian brand in Australia.
Chevy and Chrysler never accomplished anything like that.