Europe says “Ciao” to the new Ford Fiesta with SYNC

Posted By Chris Elliott
Senior Marketing Communications Manager

The year is 1976.

ABBA, Queen and Rod Stewart rule the airwaves, while “Rocky”and “A Star is Born” dominate at the box office.

It was in 1976 that Ford first launched the Ford Fiesta—a small but mighty hatchback which has gone on to become one of Ford’s global best-sellers, with over 15 million sold.

Thirty-six years later, Ford is introducing the newest Fiesta to Europe by hosting an event in Rome at the famed Cinecittà Studios lot, where drivers put Fiestas to the test. Driving through the location where movies like “Roman Holiday” and “Ben-Hur” were filmed adds something to the Fiesta test-drive experience, to say the least!

Clearly, there’ve been a lot of changes to the Fiesta over the years—most notably, its technology. In the 1976 Fiesta, you would have been lucky to get an FM radio. Today it comes with one of the most comprehensive suites of in-car connectivity features available in a small car: Ford SYNC. In fact, 2012 marks the introduction of SYNC to the Fiesta in Europe, a major milestone in Ford’s approach to democratizing technology, making advanced features more broadly available to customers.

Ford is rolling SYNC out across its European vehicles with a goal of putting 3.5 million SYNC equipped vehicles on Europe’s roads by 2015, and the Fiesta will be part of this. As Ford’s key partner in the development of SYNC, we at Microsoft are excited to see more drivers in Europe get access to SYNC capabilities like voice activated phone calling, music selection and audible text messaging.

When it launched the Fiesta in 1976, Ford delivered a car that has stayed relevant for decades through countless fads, trends and shifts in customer needs. And now SYNC is helping to evolve the legacy of this enduring little car in Europe.