My little rant.

[Noporian]

the Fiesta was engineered and is built in Germany.

Okay fine and everything but if you look at fords US website (which is hard to go to from europe) it says 28mpg.
Just saying
Fine.
And i knew that many fords are german.

[Leonardo9613]

It says 28 mpg, but you've got to consider some things.
First, those are the city economy numbers, which are always lower, so you should compare to the 31 mpg (37 mpg UK)of the combined number.
Second, the engine in those US Fiestas are the last-gen 1.6 16V so it is a cheaper and older engine,they've done so because those cars in the US are the cheapest ones in the market, in Europe the 1.0 Ecoboost is quite expensive.
Third, the testing system is different, often the cars in the US really get what the manufactures claim, otherwise they are prosecuted by false marketing (Kia and Hyundai had to pay millions recently because of that). In Europe the tests achieve huge numbers, that can't be reproduced in normal driving.

[Junny]

Basically the moral of the story is that if fuel costs actually was an important factor in purchasing and the market was deregulated, American Car companies would go bust within the year. :p

[Jakgoe]

Basically the moral of the story is that if fuel costs actually was an important factor in purchasing and the market was deregulated, American Car companies would go bust within the year. :p

Not necessarily, in America, fuel itself is much cheaper than in most, if not all of Europe.

[oldgreg]

Basically the moral of the story is that if fuel costs actually was an important factor in purchasing and the market was deregulated, American Car companies would go bust within the year. :p

Fuel costs are an important factor for most American car buyers, it's one of the biggest reasons why so few soccer moms are driving v8 powered 3+ ton truck-based SUVs over here these days. But since fuel prices are still much lower here than in Europe (purely because of the lack of government interference, ie. massive gas taxes), it's a much smaller concern. Most Americans would love to get better gas mileage, but we're not desperate enough for it that we'd be caught dead driving a 70hp "city car" to get it, well... none of us except for the idiots that are buying Smart Fortwos.

If gas taxes and gas guzzler taxes where abolished and "corporate average fuel economy" regulations were rescinded American car companies would do just fine.