Yet again, we probably cannot buy this good Ford stateside. This choice has probably been made by the following incorrect assumptions:

--Americans won't drive with a manual transmission.

--Americans won't drive a diesel.

--Americans always insist upon the largest engine option.

--Americans won't buy small cars.

--Americans don't care about keeping feul expenses low.

What a shame it is that Ford, GM, and Chrysler perpetuate these false assumptions. Toyota, VW, and Hyundi are laughing as their stock price heads up, while the big-3 heads down.

+1 to Jim

The "Drill Our Way to Energy Independence" theme might be the only myth that might change the auto purchasing trends of the last few months.

"Drill Here, Drill Now my azz!" Get that "Ka" over here beeyach!

GM and Ford could probably engender soem credit for federalizing and bringing these "A" sized cars to the USA. After all they do make them and sell them in some markets. Smart's "advanced safety designs", once heralded still resulted in poor but passing US crash ratings.

The constant complaining from self-hating, anti-American posters here, would at least cease.

They might even sell enough, from a total estimated US market of 20-40,000 per year for a few years, to not lose their shirts doing so. Or more probably, at least only a small loss.

It all depends on the cost of federalizing these vehicles.

The window for selling such vehicles is pretty short though. HEVS and PHEVs will rapidly close the market for these "high-mileage" compromises pretty quickly. A Prius, much, much, larger even now, gets better mileage than these guppies, and many more Prius type choices are rapidly coming.

Both Ford and GM are already planning on bringing in the slightly larger "B" sized vehicles that obtain mileages only slightly lower than these "A"s. To my knowledge no one has brought any "A"s into the US except for the Smart, and that is only starting to arrive. I suspect sales wil exist while it's a novelty and then rapidly dry up.

None of the Japanese, Korean, or European firms do so. The smallest they import is teh larger "B" and super "B" sized cars.

Maybe GM and Ford execs should wander over to the VW Dealerships in thier area and ask them if they are having problems moving manual transmission VW Jetta Sedans and Wagons...

Most dealers in the USA have waiting lists with customers placing deposits to get in line for a Diesel VW... Some dealers already have thier entire alotment from now until May '09 spoken for.

"Chicken or egg"

Americans won't buy small cars because there are not many desirable small cars to be found. Self-perpetuating. Yet the Mini is successful, and the smart seems to be doing okay, and in Canada, we buy plenty of Yarises.

If you make a small car desirable, decent to drive, nice looking, and comfortable, rather than a "penalty box", perhaps people will buy it!

I think the Fiesta will be successful. And I really like the way the new Ka looks - much better than the previous model, and arguably better than the Fiat 500 (which I also like).

But, I am a small car fan.

Why do the Ford, GM, and Chrysler all refuse to import these cars when they can get rich? Incredible !
OK; Let’s think about this.
Maybe they think;
1. We won't drive with a manual transmission.
2. We won't drive a diesel.
3. We always insist upon the largest engine option.
4. We won't buy small cars.
5. We don't care about keeping fuel expenses low.
They could be making some/all of these wrong assumptions if they have never done a market survey and are not as smart as the average geek on GCC.
Ummmm No. Not likely and not possible, because;
They have imported/made small cars continuously in the past.
So they must know if these assumptions are valid or not.
Must be something else.
And why do their cars get labeled "penalty boxes".
Consider our wage scales.
--Are Ford, GM, and Chrysler responsible that we can not make competitive TVs, Camcorders etc here? No – that might be a clue that there is a common reason.
What will make things better?
How about laws that require the Ford, GM, and Chrysler to pay US auto workers more than Honda and Toyota pay US auto workers. Probably will not help.
Well what if they had started making small cars years ago?
They would have no problem now.
They would be already bankrupt.
Labor rates, aggravated by labor laws – the simple cause (and an acknowledged problem); And it applies to all 3.
If you need paranoid storybook fantasies about conspiracies that require complete cooperation between Ford, GM, Chrysler, EPA, CARB, Exxon, coal miners etc, etc to explain this you need a full time caregiver.
Get a grip.
Oh, and a market void is NOT self-perpetuating.

I do think that Ford is seriously looking at selling the Ka here in the USA (it won't take much to make the car NHTSA safety compliant), and the Ka will be built likely at one of Ford's assembly lines in Mexico.

Mind you, the US version will likely use the engines from the Mazda2, since those engines will need less engineering work to make them meet EPA Tier 2 Bin 5 emission standards. And it may use Ford's Powershift dual-clutch transmission as one of the transmission choices.

Wouldn't a two year US localization exception for vehicles that meet EU vehicle certification requirements allow these manufacturers to pilot these vehicles in the US without significant engineering or retooling efforts? Let the consumers decide if there is a market for these products before the manufacturers have to make any engineering efforts.

Excuse me but Bob Lutz has already proposed that the NHTSA et al provide a waiver for import of cars that meet Euro crash standards.
This is a good idea that deserves immediate consideration and publicity- certainly if there is any federal bailout as being discussed a waiver should come with it, and advancment of the 2020 cafe standards to 2015( since Hyundai already confirmed they can meet the standard sooner).