Mazda (owned by Ford) calls it's version of the same design the "Mazda 2" and is also selling it globally ("elsewhere"), but not making it or selling it in the USA.
The car was designed from the start as a global vehicle, easily capable of passing all requirements for emissions and safety, including those in Germany, California and New York.
These cars use "Common Rail" diesel technology, the newest and lowest emission diesel technology. The diesel version of the car has a 65 MPG estimated mileage--and no expensive hybrid technology or electric batteries to replace.
Ford is converting a plant in Mexico to build these, one that currently makes F-150 trucks, and is moving the F-150 truck production to Texas...but only the gas version of the Fiesta will be produced.
Eventually, in approximately 1-2 years, consumers in the USA will be able to buy the Mexico built Ford Fiesta...but not with a diesel engine, only with the lower MPG gas engine.
I know most cars "made in the USA" now are composed of mostly foreign made parts, even to the extent where the cars are arriving mostly pre-built in the form of "knock down kits" that only receive final assembly here in the USA.
If our Government claims to have the goal of creating American jobs and lowering dependence on foreign oil, I personally would like an explanation of why this car, in diesel form, is not being built in America, even in knock-down form, and sold in this country first, or at least on the same date it is released in other countries.
A $35 billion bailout to the auto makers, and we, the American taxpayers, see the latest car technologies 1-2 years after the rest of the world sees them, and in a reduced MPG ("gas only") form. This is an insult to the American People.
There should be an explanation and the diesel version of the Ford Fiesta should be produced in America, for Americans, with a green subsidy and rebate for those who trade in their gas guzzlers to buy one.
*ker-thump, off my soapbox*
As a nation, we tend to be such Drama Queens, thinking that it is always about us. LOL. We are outraged that gas has reached an average of $4 a gallon. Diesel in Europe today is going for the equivalent of $9 a gallon
Those who travel and live part-time in Europe realize this. For years the Europeans have been averaging the equivelant of $5 a gallon. In the Netherlands in 2006, people paid the equivalent of about $6.73 a gallon at the pump (converting roughly from liters)
Wholesale price of gas is roughly the same world wide but the difference is a heavy tax load that these countries impose to discourage consumption. They want their people to use the mass transit systems and they do. In the Netherlands, in the example above, the gas cost $2.61 and the rest, the $4.12, represents a 158% tax. The US has the lowest tax on gasoline of any industrialized country at about 15%. People in Europe who do have cars, do not on average use them even half as much as Americans so.
Sources:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1809900,00.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12452503/
This blog borrows its title from the Seattle WTO protests, in 1999, to describe the developing alliance between environmentalists and labor unions, specifically between communities and truck drivers serving the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.
This blog was first published in April 2007, and since then the field has been set for the 'war' I warned about. 'Business' has declared its intentions via the Journal of Commerce and the California Trucking Association, and drivers have responded with a mini-protest (a caravan of only 40 trucks). Sources inside the industry predict a full-on melt-down of the dray/trucking system this summer, whether the POLA/LB approve a 'taxi token' oligopoly or not.
If you are interested in cleaning the air in Southern California, labor rights, transporation, international trade, or why there's a big rig blocking the I-5, this blog is for you:
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