The latest Fiesta and the SUV boom

The last Ford Fiesta will be produced this week. The first came out 47 years ago. It was 1976 and it was another world: in the United States Gerald Ford was about to give way to Jimmy Carter who would have put solar panels on the White House, in Italy the third Andreotti government had started, a footballer from Turin, Paolo Pulici known as Puliciclone , won the top scorer and Peppino Di Capri triumphed in Sanremo with a song that we have forgotten. The launch of the Fiesta in Europe did not go unnoticed: it was the certification of a success and also a surrender. The surrender of the Americans of Ford with respect to the fact that here – for various reasons – small cars dominated, much smaller than those that traveled on the very wide American roads with petrol that cost a few pennies. The latest Fiesta now comes no accident. According to many it marks the end of an era. Over the past decade, noted the Economistthe sale of small cars in Europe has halved, while the number of SUVs has tripled. This is apparently inexplicable: families are fewer and fewer and the price of fuel has even risen with the war in Ukraine; not to mention the fact that the streets of European cities often date back to the Middle Ages, they are narrow, an SUV risks not being able to turn in some cases. Then there is the issue of climate change and sustainability: of course, a new car pollutes less than an old one, but an SUV still pollutes more. What does it mean? Why this race to have cars that are difficult to drive and impossible to park in our cities? I have not read any convincing answers so far but I have seen that in Paris it has been decided to vary the parking rates on the principle that the polluter pays and therefore the SUVs pay more. Is there any mayor in Italy who feels like saying it and doing it? In 1959 Volkswagen launched the Beetle in a historic campaign. Think Small, was the slogan, think small. Today I would say, Think Smart, don’t be a fool, don’t buy yourself an SUV.