As one of Ford’s “Fiesta Agents,” I recently had the opportunity to speak in length to Ford’s Small Car Brand Manager, Sam De La Garza, to address several questions that have come up on Leftlane’s comments section and on various enthusiast forums. It was time to address them head-on and get the answers (or as close as he could give) we have been waiting for.

De La Garza is charged with promoting small cars in North America – traditionally not a stronghold for the segment. Yet with upcoming, more stringent fuel efficiency standards, not to mention a consumer sentiment shifting away from large SUVs, the segment seems to be gaining traction.

As you’ve seen in my previous Fiesta Notes entries (located here and here), I’ve been rather impressed with the European-specification Ford Fiesta the Detroit automaker has loaned me in order to preview the upcoming North American Fiesta debut.

Although many closely following the Fiesta Movement or Ford Focus may know you as “the small car brand manager” for Ford, can you tell us exactly what it is that you do for Ford Motor Company on a day-to-day basis?

Sam De La Garza: As the Fiesta brand manager I have two different roles: The product marketing role, and the consumer marketing role. For the product marketing role I am the direct interface to the engineering community for the Fiesta. I work hand and hand with developing the content, and I am the marketing voice of the customer to the engineers, helping to decide content that ends up on the car.

I also have the responsibility of looking into the future two to three years out to consider what possible changes we may want to make at that point as well.

On the consumer marketing side, my role is to effectively communicate the brand to the mass market. This requires that I properly communicate with all of the various teams of Ford to make sure that they are communicating the right message, and the same message. I work to make sure that the key messages that we want to get in the hands of the consumers are clear, and being communicated in the proper channels.

Ford will most likely be launching the Ford Fiesta in the United States and Canada as a sedan and five-door hatchback like I have and like the consumer ride and drive events feature now. What is the likelihood of a three-door variant like what was once offered in the Focus?

De La Garza: We do get that question a lot, but at this time we do not currently have plans for the three-door hatchback. I’ll give you a few reasons why. When you consider the B-segment, roughly 60 percent are hatchbacks, with the remaining group being sedans. Now, although the B-segment is growing fairly rapidly, the U.S. B-segment is still only 4-5 percent of the total US market, as opposed to Europe, which is closer to 25 percent. So essentially you are left with a relatively low volume of sales, meaning offering three different variants would increase production costs that likely would not be recouped in sales. So, in other words, although we realize there is some demand for the product there is also a lack of economies of scale (that we enjoy in Europe), which means we had to choose the body styles with the best volume potential.

What can you tell us about the U.S.-bound cars’ final specification to quell fears of the historical “de-contenting” for our market?

De La Garza: There are certainly some fears out there, and it was fascinating to see the responses from recent spy shots; it really made some of us laugh because we know that comments like, “Oh no, they are bringing back the cheap black door handles!”

All I can do is say that the specs will be released later on this year, but at the end of the day, we are really excited about those types of comments. If that is what they are worried about, we expect to pleasantly surprise many people.

But I also want to remind you that again we are dealing with a segment that is less than 1/4th the market it had in Europe. But still, I think our competition is going to be surprised, and I think our Ford loyalists will be surprised, and we will even have some stuff that Europe doesn’t have. At the end of the day, I hope and believe that people will sit back and say, “Wow, the U.S. did more than we thought, not less.”

Fiat and Chrysler have announced that the Fiat 500 will be coming to the US, and likely will be produced in Mexico. In Europe (Poland), Ford and Fiat share a platform between the Fiat 500 and the Ford Ka, the Fiesta’s little sibling- what can you share about the possibility of a similar joint venture taking place for the U.S. market?

De La Garza: I wish I could say something on this, but I have been so focused on the Fiesta Movement that I haven’t really been involved in many of the high level meetings about the Ka. I will say, though, that Alan Mulally has mentioned this several times, including the time he had the “Tweet-up” with [Ford social media marketing guru] Scott Monty. We will definitely look at this, but keep in mind this segment [A-segment] is even smaller than the B-segment, so at a time like this we really need to focus our resources wisely on vehicles that we believe can help return us to long-term profitability.

Although the general population doesn’t seem as dedicated as the online/forum community, there are still many that question Ford not bringing the diesel Econetic Fiesta here. My understanding is that it stems from a combination of the small market as a whole in the US for subcompacts at less than 5 percent, combined with a traditional American taste that isn’t fond of the diesel in cars. What can you add to clarify why Ford may, or may not offer a small diesel on the Fiesta for the U.S. market?

De La Garza: As you pointed out the volume really does make or break a business case for something like this. The two major requirements for bringing a vehicle to the U.S. from anywhere in the world are safety and emissions. There is a misconception that European standards are higher or very similar, when in fact the U.S. standards, especially as of late, are more stringent than in Europe. One specific issue is the emissions at idle, something not an issue in Europe, and this has a lot to do with why we could or couldn’t bring over diesels.

Beyond that, at a higher corporate level Ford is committed to the Ecoboost technology, which is combining the efficiency gains from both direct injection and the use of turbo chargers with smaller gasoline driven engines for a combined increase in power and fuel economy. Another plus to the Ecboost option is that the increase of power and efficiency comes with lower initial and long term costs when compared to the diesel options. At the end of the day, this is the road that Ford has committed to taking to increase the efficiency of its vehicles, while of course still keeping them fun to drive.

You will be seeing this later this year with several Ford vehicles, including the Flex, Lincoln MKS, and the Taurus. I can’t really share what is going on with the Fiesta, but I would say that overall that Ecoboost is something we are focusing on a lot, a lot of platforms across the board.

What, if anything, does Ford plan to do in order to counter the upcoming Honda Fit Hybrid scheduled to release around the same time as the Fiesta, especially given Alan Mulally’s commitment to releasing segment leading vehicles for fuel economy?

De La Garza: That car is something obviously on our radar, but at the end of the day you know that the B-segment is really about a combination of four main things: fuel economy, functionality, safety, and affordability; as opposed to any single characteristic.

Right now you just don’t find the best fuel economy in the showroom for the B-segment, as evidenced by the C-segment Ford Focus being rated higher than most B-segment cars in the market today.

Then there is certainly an element of functionality to consider, some of the B-segment cars feature a design that was influenced heavily to allow for functionality, possibly compromising the cosmetics or driving dynamics of the vehicle in the process. We realize that functionality is key and that some of the other vehicles in the segment focused largely on this topic. I strongly believe that the Fiesta will ultimately do quite well due to the overall design package, which included great functionality, especially for the driver.

Another point is the importance is that of safety. At Ford we always focus on safety and it shows in the fact that we have more [NHTSA] 5-star crash tested vehicles and more [IIHS] Top Safety Picks than any other manufacturer in the U.S.

In Europe the Fiesta has the top 5-star crash rating, and we are really excited about the safety message that we will be able to bring with the Fiesta. This is especially important in the U.S. where people tend to equate smaller with a lack of safety.

As for the final key element to a successful B-segment car, affordability, we certainly feel that the Fiesta will be a class leader in value as it is packed with exclusive content, and yet the Fiesta will be right in line with the Yaris and Fit on price.

Is there any timeline on crash test ratings and EPA ratings?

De La Garza: I think it might come a little after the unveiling of the U.S. spec car that might happen towards the end of this year, but I am not certain on the exact date. We would like to have this available then of course, and I know our engineers are working really, really hard to make sure the U.S. Fiesta has the best possible fuel economy and safety ratings.

Time to switch gears a bit: Imagine you walked into a scheduled board meeting and instead of seeing Alan Mulally and William Clay Ford Jr. at the head of the table, you saw Henry Ford himself. What would you say or do?

De La Garza: Very interesting. Henry Ford himself: The man, the myth, the legend. I personally am fascinated by the fact that Ford Motor Company has so many descendants still working with Ford, and I personally have had the pleasure of working under Elena Ford who is the Director of Global Marketing Sales and Service Programs, and so I would commend him on how his family has really taken center stage and tried to keep the company moving in the right direction. I would also commend him on how his family has continued the strong legacy Henry Ford left behind by going out and finding such strong leaders, like when Bill Ford took it upon himself to go find a CEO that wasn’t even in the industry. It was an incredibly gutsy move on his part.

Then I would invite him to come outside and check out the Ford Fiesta!

If you could send a message to the savvy, skeptical, and well-informed potential buyers across America about the upcoming Ford Fiesta in one minute or less, what would you say?

De La Garza: I am so thrilled that Ford Moto Company is going to be entering the B-segment with such a highly competitive vehicle. This was a long time coming and I am very proud of what we are doing here with the Ford Fiesta; this is the car that everyone has been asking for and it is finally going to be here.

For anyone that has any doubts that Ford can make a game-changing product, think again. Nothing backs that up more than the fact that Ford has enough confidence in its products that it handed out 100 Fiestas to people we know fairly little about, gave them a voice, and told them they can say whatever they want as long as it is true. This is uncensored. We have that much confidence in the Ford Fiesta, which like many recent and upcoming Ford products will help to re-define what segments should be about with segment leading technology, style and value.

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