Ford Ceases Production of the Fiesta

After 46 years in production, Ford has recently announced that it will end production of the Ford Fiesta - arguably the manufacturer’s most successful model of all time.

The decision was made in order to free up space for the development of more electric cars, with the S-MAX and Galaxy models also seeing production end during 2023. 

The Fiesta is the decision that’s seen the most widespread response, however, in part due to its undeniable popularity across the globe. Sold in more than 50 countries, more than 22 million Fiestas have been produced around the world – with almost 5 million of those being sold in the UK. 

In fact, the Fiesta was the UK’s all-time best-selling car – outdoing the second best-selling car in the UK, the Ford Escort, by more than a million sales. The Fiesta even held the top spot as the best-selling car of the year every single year between 2009 and 2020 – a pretty impressive feat! 

From supporting the rise of female drivers in the workforce in the 90s, to appearing in a James Bond film alongside Roger Moore, no one can say that the Ford Fiesta has had an uneventful life.

The Fiesta and Kwik Fit

With the end in sight for Fiesta production, we’ve had a look back through our records to see how many have been into our centres.

Over the last two decades, around 2.4 million Fiestas have been into Kwik Fit centres and, during those visits, we have fitted over 1.2 million tyres to the nation’s favourite car. In that time we’ve also carried out almost half a million MOTs and nearly 150,000 services on Ford’s famous supermini. 

One of our favourite stats was the repeat custom of Fiesta owners; in fact, 50% of Fiestas visited Kwik Fit centres six or more times - hopefully due to the amazing service they received! 

While the Fiesta is now manufactured at the marque’s facility in Cologne, Germany, the car was first produced in the UK at the famous Ford Dagenham plant in Essex. Perhaps these historic ties to Essex are partly why the car is still so popular there; data on the top 10 Kwik Fit centres by Fiesta visits in the UK show that 6 of these 10 are in Essex, with Brentwood coming out on top overall.

Whilst production of the Fiesta may be coming to an end, our work here at Kwik Fit is far from over and we will continue to provide Fiesta repairs and maintenance for many, many years to come. 

A push towards electric cars

Electric cars are becoming more and more of a fixture on UK roads, and moves like this from big players such as Ford are only going to see this trend continue. 

With Ford’s pledge to get three new electric car models launched in Europe by 2024, and its aim to sell more than 600,000 electric vehicles in the region by 2026, it’s going to be interesting to see how the cars we see on the road change over the next decade. The fiesta might be over, but it seems the party’s just getting started.

For now, though, we join Ford in saying: “Thank you, little car.”