The automaker announced Tuesday that 60 percent of untimely 2011 Fiesta sales had been four-door hatchbacks. That evaluated with a 2009 national hatchback market penetration of just 8.3 percent, as calculated by Ward’s Auto.“American car buyers have grown familiar to the convenience of hatch body styles after years of owning S.U.V.’s and crossovers,” said George Pipas, a sales analyst at Ford.
“Combined with a generation of younger drivers who have been exposed via the Internet to popular high-performance hatchback contributions in Europe and Asia,” he added.
The victory of the hatchback variant of the Fiesta, which went on sale just in hatch and 4-door sedan forms, bodes well for Ford’s new Focus, which will be offered as both a sedan and hatchback in the United States market. The entire global Focus line will be shown at the Paris auto show, which opens to the press on Sept. 30.
Ford also reported that Fiesta buyers in the United States have been loading up their vehicles with choices. That too could be seen as a departure from distinctive small-car-buyer behavior.
Ford’s enthusiasm for United States market hatchbacks isn’t until now shared by cross-town rival General Motors.
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