Ford Fiesta Print Ad Rips on 21 Hybrids, Including Five Made by Ford
By Scott Doggett May 19, 2010
Ford wants everyone to know that its all-new 2011 Fiesta will go on sale in North America this summer.
To help spread the word, the automaker is running print ads that note the $13,995 sedan "gets 40 highway miles per gallon. That's more than 21 hybrids. Seriously."
That's an attention-grabber, for sure. Here's another one: If you read the fine print, you'll see that five of those not-so-impressive hybrids - meaning, they don't get 40 mpg in highway driving - are Fords.
They are the Ford Fusion hybrid, Mercury Milan hybrid, Lincoln MKZ hybrid, Ford Escape hybrid compact SUV and the Mercury Mariner hybrid.
Among the pricier cars from other automakers that don't come near 40 EPA-certified mpg as well are the BMW X6 ActiveHybrid, Lexus LS 600h L, Mercedes-Benz S400 hybrid and the Toyota Camry hybrid.
Granted, those are bigger vehicles. To be fair, none of the Fiesta's direct competitors size-wise pass 40 mpg on the highway, either. Toyota Yaris comes closest at 36 mpg.
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It's a dumb marking ploy anyway. Hybrids only get a minimal increase in highway mpg. Their real advantage is with city mpg, where most (all?) of these hybrids beat the Fiesta.
Plus I wonder if car makers are now able to detect and optimize well for EPA (just like they do already for European ECE which is easy to detect)? E.g. the new Sonata '11 gets 35mpg which beats Camry Hybrid but Edmunds didn't get nowhere near that number.
That said still good to see (relative) improvements in EPA numbers for new cars. Let's wait until we see real-world fuel economy numbers. If it's correct then Ford did a great job.
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