What it is doing, meanwhile, is literally smashing sales of the Ford Fiesta and Focus, both of which have been dropped in the US. Automotive News Europe reports that the Puma was Ford’s best-selling vehicle in all of Europe for the first half of this year, with a total of 83,226 units sold. The Romanian-built Puma begins at around $30,000 while the Fiesta’s base price is nearly half that.
But affordability may no longer be enough to justify the Fiesta or even the larger Focus. Sales for both were down in the first half of the year, the Fiesta by 9.4 percent and the Focus by a very troubling 40 percent. The fact of the matter is, like Americans, Europeans desire crossovers and they’re willing to pay a premium for them.