End of the Ford Fiesta
The business news that matters
Hello and welcome to the latest Off to Lunch…
The last ever Ford Fiesta is due to be made today. Ford is ending production of the Fiesta at its factory in Cologne, Germany, as the American car maker turns its focus to electric vehicles.
The Fiesta is the best-selling car of all-time in the UK and is still the most registered car on the road. Nearly five million Ford Fiestas have been sold in the UK and it was the best-selling car in the country for every year between 2009 and 2020.
The Fiesta was launched in Europe in 1976 and was developed by Ford under the codename Project Bobcat. The company launched the vehicle to meet demand for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles after the 1973 oil crisis sparked a surge in fuel prices. The Fiesta was made at Ford’s factory in Dagenham, east London before production moved to continental Europe.
Martin Sander, the boss of Ford in Europe, has posted this message on LinkedIn…
Ford has said that the two last Fiestas that come off the production line today will be kept by the company. A right-hand drive model will be kept in the UK as part of a heritage collection, according to a report by Mail Online, which you can read here
Ford announced last year that it would end Fiesta production. The company published this video to mark the end of the vehicle…
The end of the Fiesta is a fascinating story not only because of how prominent the Fiesta has been on UK roads, but because it highlights the shift to net-zero technologies in the car industry and is an example of a business scrapping a product when it is still popular. The latest UK figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders show the Fiesta was still the ninth best-selling car in the UK in the first half of 2023…
If you want to find more about the history of the Fiesta and the different versions of the vehicles over the years then you can find a piece by Auto Express here
Other stories that matter…
1. The 9,500-acre Rothbury Estate in Northumberland is up for sale for £35 million. This is the largest plot of land to be put up for sale in the UK for 30 years. It includes 12 farms, woodland, a grouse moor, a caravan park, a pub, popular walking areas and more. The land is being sold by Lord Max Percy, the youngest son of the Duke of Northumberland, who wants to pursue a career down south. The land has been held by the family since the 1300s. You can read more on this story here. You can also find the brochure advertising the sale of the land (and try to book a viewing with agent Knight Frank) here
2. Tom Hayes has won the right to appeal his conviction for Libor-rigging, which saw him spend nearly six years in prison until his release in 2021. The Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred his case to the Court of Appeal. You can listen to Hayes’s story in our Business Studies podcast episode here. The BBC has more details on the CCRC’s latest ruling here. Hayes also appeared on Newsnight last night…
3. House prices in the UK fell by 2.6 per cent year-on-year in June, the biggest annual decline since June 2011, according to the latest data from Halifax, the mortgage lender. London and the south-east suffered the biggest drop in prices, with a 3 per cent decline in the south-east and a 2.6 per cent fall in London. However, prices in the West Midlands are up 1.5 per cent while Yorkshire, Humberside and Northern Ireland prices reported a 0.2 per cent increase. You can find the latest Halifax report here
4. A new digital version of the pound being developed by the Bank of England could be used to verify the age of someone buying alcohol or cigarettes, according to a Bloomberg story. The digital version of the pound - which has been nicknamed Britcoin - would be held in an online account and work in a similar way to Paypal. Bloomberg story here
5. The Economist’s latest Bagehot column is brutal on the NHS and the UK’s infrastructure, calling for a more constructive debate about the topic. It describes the NHS as “distinctly average” and the celebration of its 75th anniversary as a “bizarre spectacle”. It says: “Britain has low expectations. Treating a bare necessity as wanton decadence is common. Bog-standard housing developments are described as ‘luxury’. A redbrick, four-bed house in Lichfield, a cathedral city in the Midlands, is by no definition luxurious. Yet it is marketed that way and costs £400,000. Britain does not build luxury homes, it builds expensive ones.” You can find the piece here
And finally…
After writing about the Seaburn Inn and the beaches in Sunderland earlier this week I have been asked about other seaside hotels I would recommend. Well, the ever-reliable Which? has just published a list of the ten best beach breaks in the UK. This list is based on reviews by its team of secret hotel inspectors. Top of the list is Harbour Beach Club in Salcombe, Devon, followed by the Harbourmaster Hotel in Aberaeron, Wales and The Harper in Langham, Norfolk. You can find the full list here
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Best
Graham