Fiesta Notebook: Sitting down with Ford’s small car chief, Sam De La Garza

As one of Ford’sitting “Fiesta Agents,” I lately had the opportunity to speak in length to Ford’sitting Small Car Brand Manager, Sam De La Garza, to address several questions that have come up on Leftlane’s comments part and on various enthusiast forums. It was time to address them head-on and get the answers (or at the same time that close as he could give) we have been waiting for.

De La Garza is charged with promoting small cars in North America – traditionally not a stronghold for the segment. Yet with upcoming, more stringent fuel efficiency standards, not to mention a consumer sentiment shifting away from extensive SUVs, the segment seems to subsist gaining traction.

As you’ve seen in my previous Fiesta Notes entries (located here and here), I’ve been rather impressed with the European-specification Ford Fiesta the Detroit automaker has loaned me in order to preview the upcoming North American Fiesta debut.

Although many persons closely following the Fiesta Movement or Ford Focus may be aware of you as “the small car brand manager” for Ford, can you tell us exactly what it is that you do for Ford Motor Company on a day-to-day foundation?

Sam De La Garza: As the Fiesta brand governor I have sum of two units diverse roles: The harvest marketing role, and the consumer marketing role. For the product marketing role I am the not equivocal interface to the engineering community for the Fiesta. I work management and hand with developing the content, and I am the marketing voice of the customer to the engineers, helping to decide content that ends up on the car.

I also have the responsibility of looking into the subsequent time two to three years out to consider what possible changes we may want to make at that peculiarity as well.

On the consumer marketing side, my role is to effectively communicate the reproach. to the mass market. This requires that I properly communicate with all of the various teams of Ford to make sure that they are communicating the right message, and the same message. I work to make positive that the key messages that we want to get in the hands of the consumers are clear, and inner reality communicated in the exact channels.

Ford will most likely be launching the Ford Fiesta in the United States and Canada as a sedan and five-door hatchback like I have and like the consumer ride and drive events turn of expression now. What is the likelihood of a three-door variant like what was once offered in the Focus?

De La Garza: We work get that motion a lot, but at this time we do not currently have plans for the three-door hatchback. I’ll give you a few reasons why. When you consider the B-segment, roughly 60 percent are hatchbacks, by the remaining group being sedans. Now, although the B-segment is growing fairly rapidly, the U.S. B-segment is still only 4-5 percent of the total US market, as opposed to Europe, which is closer to 25 percent. So essentially you are left with a with reference to something else low volume of sales, meaning offering three different variants would increase production costs that likely would not be recouped in sales. So, in other words, although we realize there is more inquire in quest of the outcome there is also a lack of economies of scale (that we enjoy in Europe), which means we had to choose the body styles with the best volume potential.

What can you tell us about the U.S.-bound cars’ final specification to quell fears of the historical “de-contenting” for our market?

De La Garza: There are certainly some fears out there, and it was fascinating to pay attention the responses from recent spy shots; it really made some of us laugh because we know that comments like, “Oh no, they are bringing back the cheap black door handles!”

All I be able to do is say that the specs will be released later on this year, but at the end of the day, we are really excited about those types of comments. If that is what they are worried about, we await to pleasantly surprise many people.

But I also need to remind you that again we are dealing with a segment that is less than 1/4th the emporium it had in Europe. But still, I think our competition is going to be surprised, and I think our Ford loyalists will be surprised, and we will even have some stuff that Europe doesn’t have. At the end of the day, I hope and believe that people will sit in a backward direction. \ and say, “Wow, the U.S. did more than we thought, not less.”

Fiat and Chrysler have announced that the Fiat 500 will be coming to the US, and convenient will be produced in Mexico. In Europe (Poland), Ford and Fiat share a platform between the Fiat 500 and the Ford Ka, the Fiesta’s little sibling- what can you distribute about the possibility of a similar joint venture taking place according to the U.S. market?

De La Garza: I wish I could say something on this, but I have been in this way focused on the Fiesta Movement that I asylum’t really been involved in many of the ostentatious flat meetings about the Ka. I will say, though, that Alan Mulally has mentioned this several spells, including the time he had the “Tweet-up” with [Ford social media marketing guru] Scott Monty. We will definitely have any air at this, but honor in mind this segment [A-segment] is even smaller than the B-segment, so at a time like this we absolutely need to focus our resources wisely on vehicles that we be persuaded can forbear return us to long-term profitability.

Although the general people doesn’t seem as dedicated as the online/forum community, in that place are restrain many that question Ford not bringing the diesel Econetic Fiesta in the present state. My understanding is that it stems from a combination of the small market as a whole in the US for subcompacts at less than 5 percent, combined with a traditional American have a smack that isn’t fond of the diesel in cars. What can you add to clarify why Ford may, or may not offer a small diesel on the Fiesta conducive to the U.S. market?

De La Garza: As you pointed out the whirl really does make or break a business contingency for something similar this. The two major requirements for bringing a excipient to the U.S. from anywhere in the world are safety and emissions. There is a misconception that European standards are higher or very similar, when in fact the U.S. standards, especially because of late, are more stringent than in Europe. One specific issue is the emissions at abortive, something not an issue in Europe, and this has a hap to translate with why we could or couldn’t bring over diesels.

Beyond that, at a higher corporate level Ford is committed to the Ecoboost technology, which is combining the efficiency gains from both direct injection and the use of turbo chargers through smaller gasoline driven engines for a combined greaten in power and firing economy. Another plus to the Ecboost option is that the increase of power and efficiency comes with lower initial and throughout term costs when compared to the diesel options. At the end of the day, this is the road that Ford has committed to taking to increase the efficiency of its vehicles, at the same time that of course check keeping them fun to drive.

You leave be seeing this later this year with several Ford vehicles, including the Flex, Lincoln MKS, and the Taurus. I can’privately really share what is going on with the Fiesta, but I would say that overall that Ecoboost is something we are focusing on a lot, a lot of platforms across the board.

What, if anything, does Ford contrive to do in order to counter the upcoming Honda Fit Hybrid scheduled to release on all sides the same time as the Fiesta, especially given Alan Mulally’s commitment to releasing segment leading vehicles for fuel economy?

De La Garza: That car is something obviously steady our radar, but at the end of the day you know that the B-segment is really about a combination of four main things: fuel economy, functionality, safety, and affordability; as opposed to any single in keeping with one’s character.

Right at that time you just don’t find the best fuel economy in the showroom for the B-segment, as evidenced by the C-segment Ford Focus being rated higher than most B-segment cars in the market today.

Then in that place is certainly every element of functionality to consider, some of the B-segment cars feature a design that was influenced heavily to allow for functionality, possibly compromising the cosmetics or driving science of forces of the vehicle in the process. We realize that functionality is key and that some of the other vehicles in the segment focused largely onward this topic. I strongly believe that the Fiesta will ultimately do quite well due to the overall design package, which included great functionality, especially for the driver.

Another point is the importance is that of safeness. At Ford we always focus in succession safety and it shows in the fact that we have more [NHTSA] 5-star crash pure vehicles and more [IIHS] Top Safety Picks than any other manufacturer in the U.S.

In Europe the Fiesta has the top 5-star crash rating, and we are in reality excited on the eve the safety message that we will be able to gain by the Fiesta. This is especially important in the U.S. where people tend to equate smaller by a lack of safety.

As for the final key element to a successful B-segment car, affordability, we certainly feel that the Fiesta will be a class leader in value as it is packed by exclusive content, and yet the Fiesta will be right in line with the Yaris and Fit upon price.

Is there any timeline on crash discriminative characteristic ratings and EPA ratings?

De La Garza: I think it might come a little after the unveiling of the U.S. spec car that might happen towards the end of this year, but I am not certain attached the exact date. We would like to gain this take advantage of then of course, and I know our engineers are working really, really hard to execute sure the U.S. Fiesta has the best possible fuel economy and safety ratings.

Time to switch gears a bit: Imagine you walked into a scheduled board meeting and instead of sight Alan Mulally and William Clay Ford Jr. at the put a head on of the table, you saw Henry Ford himself. What would you say or do?

De La Garza: Very interesting. Henry Ford himself: The man, the myth, the fiction. I personally am fascinated by the fact that Ford Motor Company has so many descendants suppress working with Ford, and I particularly have had the pleasure of working under Elena Ford who is the Director of Global Marketing Sales and Service Programs, and so I would commend him on to that which extent his family has really taken center stage and tried to keep the company moving in the rectilinear direction. I would in addition applaud him on how his family has continued the strong legacy Henry Ford left behind by going off and finding such strong leaders, like when Bill Ford took it upon himself to go find a CEO that wasn’t even in the industry. It was an incredibly gutsy move on his part.

Then I would invite him to come outside and check wanting the Ford Fiesta!

If you could send a message to the savvy, skeptical, and well-informed potential buyers across America with respect to the upcoming Ford Fiesta in one precise or less, what would you say?

De La Garza: I am likewise thrilled that Ford Moto Company is going to be entering the B-segment with such a highly competitive vehicle. This was a long time coming and I am very lofty of what we are doing here with the Ford Fiesta; this is the car that everyone has been asking for and it is finally going to be hither.

For anyone that has any doubts that Ford be able to make a game-changing product, think again. Nothing backs that up more than the fact that Ford has enough confidence in its products that it handed out 100 Fiestas to vulgar herd we know fairly little about, gave them a voice, and told them they can say whatever they want as for a long time as it is true. This is uncensored. We have that much confidence in the Ford Fiesta, which like many recent and upcoming Ford products elect help to re-define what segments should be about with segment leading technology, style and value.

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