Road - Global cars

The new EcoSport SUV

Fiesta, by Aston Martin?

Transit's new face!

Ford is getting a bit of stick from European car fans over the looks of its new small SUV, the EcoSport, while others are saying that the Aston Martin style grille on the new Fiesta is not attractive. Oddly enough, the EcoSport uses the Fiesta platform as its base. Which only goes to show that you can't please all the people all of the time, while the rest are just too pernickety by half.

Me? I prefer the new-look Fiesta to the EcoSport, which is being billed as a 'global' car, and which is being built in Brazil and will also be built in India.

The dilemma symptomises the problems that all manufacturers are having trying to make one car, or one design, suit all tastes.

But I wonder where the inspiration for this new grille came from? There's a new 'big' Transit coming at the end of this year and which favours the EcoSport style of grille. I'm not a fan of that either, but guess who is? The Americans. They seem to like it.

Once upon a time, American cars looked like Hollywood on wheels, back when glamour had curves and chrome. Now they are about as elegant and tasteful as a Las Vegas hen night. The Americans don't do compact and attractive as well as the Europeans.

However, what will influence the final look of 'global' cars will be the biggest market, i.e. the country which will sell most cars. And that is even more worrying. Brazil and India as emerging car markets will therefore have more say in how their cars look regardless of the badge on the grille, so more tinsel and tassles then.

Mind you, it's only a couple of weeks since I said I thought the Austin Maxi was a magnificent motor!