It seems we never get the hot hatch Ford’s here stateside but maybe that wind is changing a bit. At Laguna Seca last week Ford’s Marketing director mentioned that the Fiesta would get the ST treatment. I suppose it would not be a huge surprise seeing as the car did debut at the LA Auto Show.
So just what is the Fiesta ST? It’s a five door 178hp turbo 4 cylinder ecoboost engine with a six speed manual transmission. It should also get the same torque vectoring system as seen on the Focus ST to control torque steer. Typically the ST packages come with some visual upgrades and race seats so we could expect that too.
To get out of the land of educated guessing and into the land of pure speculation I have to ask if it makes sense to bring the ST here? Sure we want it but would it sell? The Fiesta is already struggling mightily in America and with an ST version likely to be at or even top $20,000 would anyone buy it? Also with a manual transmission only offering you have to ask if there is much of a market for it in a country where only 7% of new cars are sold with a manual transmission.
I like manual transmissions and my own daily driver has one, but I’m not exactly one of those manual or nothing guys. Ford has access to a nifty paddle shift transmission and it might be time to put it into the mix on the Fiesta ST.
No matter what they do, I’m glad to see we are getting another Ford hot hatch. Now where is the Chevy Sonic SS news?