Ford recently announced a series of future model plans in a surprise revelation whose openness took many by surprise.

That’s the way it has to be now, a spokesman told me. ‘One Ford’ means decisions are made on a worldwide level. To ensure everyone is in sync, they have to be revealed early.

Has one snuck through, though? We already know the Fiesta is to receive a mild facelift towards the end of the year. The model plans said so. But has Ford revealed it early, without telling anyone in the UK?

Ford, see, has just announced the Fiesta Centura, a limited edition of 1000 to mark 100 years of Ford of Britain. Only available in black (cute), it has extras, including… LED running lights.

Bear with me here. It is a minor facelift, after all… the clue is in the details.

Fitted to the front bumper, these look not dissimilar to those on the Ford Mondeo (although a close up reveals they are actually different: more LEDs in the Fiesta…).

This, though, isn’t the sort of thing you normally see on special editions. Engineers and technicians have had to work on this, to integrate it into the electrical system, ensure it passes legislation and so on: you don’t normally do all that for a limited run car.

Design, too: shaping the LEDs into the front bumper, checking the aero in this critical area, making sure they pass lighting regulations. Oh, and vehicle development: ensuring the lights last the course, don’t get in the way of anything else, don’t break after 18 months. Lots of people will have had a say here.

That’s not all for the Fiesta Centura, either. Those door mirror caps are new. And the Titanium didn’t previously have so much chrome on its upper front grille, either.

Is this, then, the look that we’re going to see on future high-series Fiestas? We know the facelift won’t be major – the Fiesta is such a good-looking car, and a perpetual UK best-seller (over 52k were sold in the UK in just 6 months of 2011 – making it, again, the only car to break the six-figure barrier by year-end?) that it doesn’t need any visual changes yet.

What Ford instead wants to do is enhance the high-series versions, to ensure people keep on choosing rich mixes of Fiestas (all the better for profit margins).

Making more money

LED running lights are supercool. They’re what make the Citroen DS3 stand out so vividly. Bring them to the Fiesta and, trust me, many people will be encouraged to make the step up to a Titanium (or whatever series they feature on).

So, is this the teaser of the facelifted Fiesta, revealed early before its official unveil later in the year? We’ll have to see. But if it is, and LEDs are coming to Fiesta, expect to see growing numbers of them in the coming years.

Ford wants to become more premium, and sell richer models: small steps like this are all part of the reason why it will do so. After all, nobody understands what customers really want better than Ford…

+ The brilliance of the Citroen DS3

+ The misguidance of the Ford Fiesta

+ New Ford Focus raises great expectations

Citroen DS3 new car prices start at £12,100. Back in 2004, the Citroen C2 range started at £7300.

That’s a £4800 difference. OK, the C2 was a 1.1 L (holiday-rental spec), whereas the DS3 is a 1.4 VTi 95 DSign (first car on a PCP spec). A more relevant comparison is a 2004 1.4 C2 Design: that started at £8600. Narrowing the difference to a ‘mere’ £3500.

Why the comparisons? Because it’s struck me: the DS3 is actually a slice of premium-pricing genius by Citroen, that shows just what smart marketing can achieve.

Remember what the C2 was: but a 3-door version of the Citroen C3, launched in 2002 as a successor to the Citroen Saxo. It had unique body panels but the interior was largely shared with the C3, and the mechanicals beneath were pure C3.

It had to sell for less than the Citroen C3 because it was a less practical car: 3 doors can rarely command as much, particularly in the price-sensitive supermini sector.

Not that much less, though. With the inevitable incentives added on too, the C2 risked ending up going the same way as the Citroen Saxo – special edition overload, piled high and sold cheap, using the Tesco principals of making money through volume, not margin.

And so to the DS3. It is, in effect, a Citroen C2, reinvented: shared platform, shared interior, bespoke body panels. Citroen has already equipped the factory (and the body part suppliers) to economically produce two distinct body variants, already secured the supply chain to feed the components, already established the logistics to ensure just-in-time parts are delivered on time, to the right car.

Making the DS3 won’t cost it that more than making the C2: it’s still based on the C3, still shares commonality in the expensive parts. Adding premium detailing inside and out adds negligible cost compared to the savings being made elsewhere.

But who, really, is aware of the link? Who looks at a DS3 and thinks ‘C3′? Instead, how many look at the DS3 and thinks ‘MINI rival’? Citroen’s achieved something of a masterstroke with the DS3, giving it a proper premium rival in a way the C2 could never hope to be.

But there’s more. The prices. Despite all what’s been suggested here, the DS3 STILL sells for less than the comparable C3: the saving’s about £1k, spec for spec. That 1.4 VTi 95 DS3 DSign costs £12,100; a 1.4 VTi 95 C3 VTR+ costs £13,790. 1.6 VTi 120 DS3 DStyle? £14,100. A 1.6 VTi 120 C3 Exclusive costs £15,190.

So buyers will STILL feel like they’re getting a bargain, despite the clear upmarket status of the DS3. It’s pitched exactly right to appear premium without actually being premium-priced, hitting the sweet spot in its brand image ascendancy.

For an extra dose of brilliance, consider this: a 1.6 MINI One costs £13,400. A 1.6 MINI First costs £11,810. The DS3 is both cheaper AND dearer than its chief rival – the cat amongst the pigeons of direct model comparisons that ensures any value judgements are utterly muddled. Quite brilliant.

Let’s just hope Citroen doesn’t get greedy and seek extra volume with a cheaper 75hp 1.4 DS3 DBasic or similar. There’s a premium platform to be built upon here, guys, that you’ve quite brilliantly formulated from nothing. Customers like it: the surprise-and-delight factor abounds within it. Be sure not to lose it.

+ Citroen DS3 Racing past

+ Journo in petrol engine love shock

+ First Impression: Citroen C3 2010

WHY only 1000 Citroen DS3 Racings,  I asked the Citroen man at the Geneva Motor Show.

Surely you could make it a permanent addition to the range, underlining its MINI John Cooper Works-challenging status?

The reason why, he revealed, was a blast from the past. It’s a mainstream maker’s homologation special. Like the Ford Escort RS 1600i, like the Alfa Romeo 155 Silverstone, like the Mercedes 190 Evolution. And thus, for me, cool.

It’s even diverted off the production line for final finishing: Citroen Racing (for it is they) send the instructions to the production line men, who add on a ‘parts kit’ of bits that turn a standard DSport into a DS3 Racing.

Changes include:

•    Stiffer springs, lowered by 15mm
•    New-spec front and rear dampers
•    30mm wider track front and rear
•    4-piston brake calipers
•    Drilled rear brake discs
•    18-inch alloys
•    Wing extensions
•    Carbon-fibre air diffuser
•    Remapping software for EPAS and ESP (including ‘off’ button)

Chuck in an interior makeover and STRICT limitations to 1000 units, and you have something that won’t be cheap but will be exceedingly collectable.

It’s quick, too. The 1.6 THP turbo has, at 200hp, 30 percent more power, plus 15 percent more torque. Thank uprated components, tuned turbo and remapped ECU for this. Rortiness is provided by a special exhaust back box.

But what is it homologation for? Next year’s new WRC rules, that’s what. These stipulate more real world cars with front-drive chassis. Kimi Raikkonen will be driving one of these next year. We’ll be able to buy one before that.

Citroen, you’ve sold me: add my name to the press fleet booking list now, please..!

Save BBC 6Music and the Ford Zephyr

Renaultsport past to inspire turbo future?

Why RenaultSports don’t have rear spoilers

NOWADAYS it is rare for motoring journalists to get excited over mainstream petrol engines.

Yes, we love our 6-pots, and get super-excited in these dying days of the V8. There’s an ethereal silence when we behold a V12.

But cooking new 4-cylinder 1.4s and the like? Lord, no. Even though the majority of small hatches sold are petrol engined, we still like to eulogise over the crazy money diesels. Well, quite right, given how good the modern diesel is.

Anyone who chooses, say, a 2.0 petrol Mondeo over its diesel equivalent really does need to ask a few logic-based questions.

So I wasn’t really expecting much from the Citroen C3 1.4 VTi 95 I had in this week. Starting it up, and hearing the familiar old PSA XU cam-clatter kinda reinforced my lack of whelm. And the god-awful digitally on-off nature of the throttle had me yearning for a nice 1.6 HDi 90.

An hour later, hat was eaten. This engine is brilliant. Smooth, powerful, torquey, classy in vocals and peachy in ability to take on Maybachs heading north on the M1, I fell in love. 1.4 VTi? One of the modern small car engine greats, it is.

And you don’t need to be a Citroen fan to enjoy it, either. PSA management is sharp, alright – it collaborated with no less than BMW on this unit, perhaps explaining why it’s so fantastic. This means not only is it in the Peugeot 207, it’s also in the MINI.

Never driven a MINI One, or a MINI First. Seriously must get one out – because if the engine’s as good as it is here, that car could be a bit of an understated peach. Certainly preferable to the – shock horror – clattery and not-so-loveable MINI Cooper D diesel…

First Impressions: Citroen C3 2010

Golf R dials cool blue point

Land Rover App out snow

FIRST impressions are everything. And so on. And on. There are a billion quotes or more I could reference. Which have given me an idea.

Here, I’m going to share those first few seconds, miles and minutiae of new, interesting, intriguing or plain cool cars with you.

Motor industry God, Richard Parry-Jones, said it was all about the 50 metre test*. Here’s a loose variation on this – something so new, I don’t even have a fancy title for it yet.

The first car to be sat in for 5 minutes, driven for a couple of miles then parked up again while I have a cup of tea is the new 2010 Citroen C3.

Head over to Flickr and let me know what you think of what I thought.

Oh, and once I’ve actually driven it some meaningful distance, I plan to post back here with more rounded impressions. Just so’s you can compare suspicion with, hopefully, a bit more reality.

Share here what you think of what I fleetingly think and share with you…

* ‘You can tell how good any car is within 50 metres from the ways it responds to your inputs and provides feedback,’ Parry-Jones told Brian Appleyard in The Times. ‘It should feel connected and coherent. If you work hard enough, you can do this for ordinary customers at ordinary prices.’

Motorsport and Twitter aim for Groundswell

Nissan Qashqai photostream on Flickr

Renault Clio 2009 photostream on Flickr

CITROEN wants to become Europe’s third-largest brand.

No, I’m not sure how, either. Right now, it’s seventh-largest.

Sixth? Its partner, Peugeot. So, a right old odd statement for new chief Jean-Marc Gales to make, then. I’m still puzzling over it. But what also caught my eye in the Automotive News interview he gave was another revelation.

That Citroen doesn’t need to produce 6 or 7 million cars to survive and thrive. Because, instead, it enjoys economies of scale from compnents alliances with other car makers. Meaning it can make big-number money on smaller-number car production.

Take engines. Citroen co-operates with Ford and BMW on them. Which, Gales tells Automotive News, are the most expensive parts to develop in a car. Pair up, share the costs with a partner or two, and that’s a whole heap of cash you don’t have to claw back in higher-volume efficiencies of scale.

But yet something else grabbed my attention in what he said. Engines remain the most expensive bit of all, aye? Well, I’ll be.

Explains a lot, mind. Why the VW TDI is omnipresent. Why car makers are so willing to sign up to co-opt deals. Why the Ford 1.25-litre Zetec is a decade and a half old.

And why electric or fuel cell cars can’t be that far away, surely.

Yes, they’re expensive. But if developing tomorrow’s combustion engines is also heinously dear, won’t car makers soon consider designing a new generation of IC engines to be economically unviable?

Car brands always look to the future. And, Lord knows, it ain’t in fossil-fuel-hungry ICs. Developing a new range to meet, say, 2012/2015 emissions legislation won’t be easy. Or cheap.

Whether Citroen will indeed be in the EU Top 3 by then is, of course, another matter entirely.

bmwblog and UK car dealer agree

Image of the week: 4 April 2009

Fuel economy economical with the truth?

Citroen, like model partners Peugeot and Toyota, shifts a fair few C1s in the UK.

That tally was boosted recently, by a substantial 1320, thanks to a deal with AccuRead. The meter reading company’s taking these cars on, for 18 months, to cover 13,000 miles a year reading, well, meters.

They’re all 1.0 five-door Rhythm 1.0-litres. In black, silver, or one of two greys. And may be extended by another six months if the demand is there.

All fine and dandy.

However, Citroen has also accurately revealed a potential blow to its C1 RVs in a few years’ time.

See, more than 10 per cent of annual sales coming from one order always leaves things slightly out of your control. The used market now knows that 1.0 five-door Rhythm C1s will be more plentiful if they wait – so could mark current cars down a little in knowledge of this.

They’ll know that silver, black or grey cars could have faced a little more abuse, so may want to avoid them. They’ll also know they could face greater refurbishment costs if they buy them ‘as seen’, so will try to avoid this on a car that, until now, has been predominantly retail.

Further to that, they’ll know that this could also mark a shift in Citroen’s thinking for the C1. All companies want to go green nowadays. Is this deal setting out the brand’s stall for drawing in fleets, who want large numbers of eco cars, at a low price?

So many ponderables. Until now, the C1’s RVs have been excellent. It’ll be worth watching if they vary from the similarly high figures of its 107 and Toyota Aygo siblings over the coming months…

… I saw a heavily cloaked test car a few weeks ago on the M42. Looked like a Jaguar, beneath the disguise. It was – the new XJ, which Hilton says will be unveiled in June.

It was going to be a reskin of the current model, but is much more than that. Jaguar’s taken the lessons from the XF – a rehashed S-Type – and applied them here, for an extensive overhaul using the same air-suspension wheelbase.

Styling will wow. Jaguar designer Adam Hatton stressed as much over a beer late last year, at a function in the Cotswolds… and I believe the Malvern-dwelling dude (who rates the Citroen C4, but doesn’t like the new MINI).

There’s even going to be an all-glass panoramic roof.

Jag’s 3.0-litre V6 diesel will feature: this is so powerful and eco, it makes the V8 diesel redundant. Range Rover only for that, then? Seems an expensive way of doing things.

… VW’s said it’s planning a Bluesport range of green performance cars. Like Bluemotion, but faster. Raking in more profits, then.

… Mercedes will sell a diesel version of the next SLK, due in two years. As it’s based on the fine current C-Class platform, expect the brilliant C 250 CDI engine to feature.

… Sweden is not to ban petrol and diesel in 2020. It will ban them in 2030 instead. So that’s why Saab and Volvo are so big on biofuels…