New Ford Fiesta ST sales double expectations – production increased

The new Ford Fiesta ST is proving a big hit with car buyers with order running at double the expected levels, compelling Ford to increase production.

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The new Ford Fiesta ST may have taken longer to get from concept to showrooms than expected, but now it’s here it’s proving to be a big hit for Ford.

Ford finally managed to get the new Fiesta ST in to production in February, and at the time we commented that we thought the new ST would be a big hit with buyers.

That’s down not just to how good the new Fiesta ST is, but because it comes at a very appealing price – just £17k for the regular ST and £1k more for the much better equipped ST2 – which undercuts Peugeot’s 208 GTI by £2k whilst offering similar performance but better dynamics.

When Ford put the Fiesta ST on sale officially in March they reckoned they would sell around 5,000 a year across Europe, but Ford UK alone has received orders for 3,000 all by itself, a third of all ST orders in Europe.

Ford has also revealed that more than half of buyers are opting for the ST2 trim and that almost half of all ST orders are being specced with one of the two colours unique to the ST – Pearlescent Molten Orange and Spirit Blue.

Roelant de Waard, Ford’s Marketing VP, said:

The customer and media reaction to the Fiesta ST has been extraordinary – it’s really become an instant classic and orders have been extremely strong.

We are doing what we can to increase production and try to meet demand.

To that end, Ford are increasing production immediately by 15 per cent to 60 cars a day to try to keep up with demand.