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2014 Ford Fiesta ST

Concentrated ST Formula Proves Just As Potent
I'm not the jealous type... usually. But I will fully admit to being somewhat of a Pouty Polly when I read executive editor Chris Paukert's report after driving the then-new 2013 Ford Focus ST through the impossibly pretty southern French Alps region last June. I feel like a broken record saying this yet again, but hot hatchbacks hold a special place in my heart. And while I'm always giddy to drive any sort of small, turbocharged three- or five-door at home in Detroit, my jealousy was indeed piqued after hearing Paukert tell about the challenging yet breathtaking roads he encountered while driving the flamin' yellow Focus. You know, the sort of roads that, from above, look like carelessly drizzled lines of icing on the frosted Alpen caps.
Several months later, I found myself piloting a Focus ST just west of metro Detroit, pitting it head-to-head against one of Autoblog's perennial favorite cars, the Volkswagen GTI. It was fantastic - enough so that I fully stand behind my statement that in terms of balls-out performance, the Focus ST cannot be beat as far as today's front-wheel-drive hatches are concerned.

Ford Focus Electric gets $6,000 price drop, now starts at $29,995

In early 2013, the Nissan Leaf shed a massive $6,500 from its $35,200 base price to offer a new starting price of $28,800. Since then, we have seen numerous other plug-in vehicles get smaller price tags, from the Honda Fit EV (lower lease price) to the Chevrolet Volt (around $5,000 lower) to the Mitsubishi i (a $6,130 drop). Last year, Ford lowered the $39,200 price of the Focus Electric by around $4,000, but that hasn't been enough to get the Ford EV to really compete, saleswise, with other plug-in vehicles on the market. But wait, as they say, there's more. This past weekend, Ford lopped another $6,000 from the price of both the 2014 model year Focus EVs currently on dealer lots as well as the redesigned 2015 models that are now rolling out (they're basically the same car, minus some appearance changes). Ford spokesman Aaron Miller confirmed to AutoblogGreen that the Focus EV will now start at $29,995 and said that reducing the price should make the Blue Oval's only pure EV competitive. "We hope by reducing the price we're giving consumers another reason to consider it," he said. Through the end of September 2014, Ford has sold just 1,534 Focus EVs in the US (the model sold 1,335 in the first nine months of 2013). For comparison's sake, the Nissan Leaf starts at $29,010 and sells around 3,000 units a month in the US. Miller notes that the Focus EV has been selling the best on the West Coast, and is also doing well on the East Coast. After that, he said Atlanta and the Great Lakes area also see decent sales of model's admittedly small pie. We can only assume that offering the EV for under $30,000 will make that pie somewhat bigger.

Ford considering bringing Ranger pickup back to the US

When Ford announced last month that it was moving Focus and C-Max production out of the Michigan Assembly Plant after 2018, it said that it was looking for other products to build at the facility and such proposals would be part of discussions with the UAW on a new contract. According to a report in The Detroit News, one of those vehicles could be a new Ford Ranger midsize pickup. We're a long way out from a decision being made, and both the UAW and Ford's board of directors would have to sign on, but the report says it's in the air. The last Ranger was built in the now-shuttered Twin Cities Assembly Plant in St. Paul, MN, in December 2011. After 29 years on the market, slow sales for the truck itself and the midsize truck segment doomed it, annual Ranger sales numbers having dropped from a peak of roughly 350,000 in 1999 to just 70,832 in 2011. The midsized truck market is still coming out of its own doldrums, with 211,797 sold through July 2015, the Toyota Tacoma accounting for 50.1 percent of that, followed by the Chevrolet Colorado, Nissan Frontier, and GMC Canyon. Even with analyst predictions that the market will grow to 300,000 in the near future, compare that to the fullsize truck market that has already sold 1.2 million units this year. The Wayne plant has built trucks before over its 57-year history, but it would likely need more than just the Ranger to keep it afloat; it builds five vehicles now, pumping out 265,000 units last year. According to Bloomberg, this could also mean the possible return of the Bronco. If we do get a new Ranger, it probably won't be anything like the old Ranger. Ford still makes it for 180 global markets, but if you've seen one you know it's a different animal. The wheelbase on the 2015 Ranger sold in Australia is fifteen inches longer than our 2012 Regular Cab model, about an inch longer than the 2012 Supercab. It has a bulkier design, weighs 700 pounds more, and can be had in numerous configurations we didn't get like a five-seat Dual Cab. A new version for us would also need updating for US regulations, and Ford would want to make sure it could be built with price and size separation from the fullsize F-Series.