There has been an advert recently broadcast on television which depicts a disassembled Ford Focus reassembled as a small orchestra of musical instruments. This particular idea got me thinking about the sort of music other cars might represent. Apparently the Focus produces stately sounding classical music, with very elegant tones and understated beauty. I disagree with this entirely; to me the Ford Focus represents the car for the everyman and as you are no doubt aware, classical music isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. In my humble opinion, the Ford Focus would sound like pop music for the middle aged; U2, Mike & The Mechanics and all those bands that everyone over 35 has on cassette and is waiting to transfer to MP3 (“whatever that means!”). Cars like the BMW Z4 would probably sound like whatever smarmy estate agents listen to…Coldplay, I guess…and would generally leave people feeling a little bit less inclined to get out of bed in the mornings.
As I created a list in my head of all these cars and their respective soundtracks I repeatedly came up against the same conundrum over and over again; what music accurately represents the brand new Ford Fiesta?
The difficulty here is that the new Ford Fiesta is a chameleon amongst the automotive industry. It changes its character completely dependent on who is sat behind the steering wheel. If you put a 17 year old in the driving seat, the Fiesta could easily represent the cutting edge of dance/electronic, with all the stylish bodywork and eye-catching colour options. You could also feasibly stick a bearded 50 year old man in it and all of a sudden it would sound like a Charlie Mingus Jazz opus, all angular, improvised and free. I just couldn’t pin the Fiesta down to one particular target demographic. That’s when it hit me; the engineers and designers who created the new Ford Fiesta must be absolute geniuses.
There are very few cars available that aren’t particularly targeted to one consumer type. BMW’s are designed for executives, the VW Golf GTi is tailored for twenty something men trying to impress women with growling engines and the Fiat 500 is designed for women who have no taste. The Brand New Ford Fiesta has successfully defied market generalisation and will therefore enjoy a considerably larger market share as a result. The question is; how on Earth have Ford managed to achieve this?
In my opinion they either conducted one of the largest market research projects in history, or they have some clever people in their workshops who have a pretty good idea of how to please everyone. The Ford Fiesta combines understated but stylish looks, excellent handling, high performance engines, great safety ratings and unrivalled reliability. Who could ask for more in a car that is available on the road for less than £8,000?
To me, the Brand New Ford Fiesta represents the perfect automotive choice for anyone, regardless of age, sex, or any other attribute you care to combat it with. Ford has done the impossible and has manufactured a car that anyone would look respectable whilst driving.
So what of the Fiesta’s soundtrack? Well if you ask me it would sound like a screaming Jimi Hendrix solo that burst into life every time you turned the key in the ignition. But that’s just my opinion…