The Ford Fiesta made its ASEAN debut at the recent Thailand International Motor Expo, and will go into production next year at the AutoAlliance Thailand plant. The USD 500 million facility is a joint venture between Mazda and Ford.

The Thai factory will supply Fiestas to the ASEAN region, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa , which are all the major right-hand drive markets. A sedan version of the Fiesta will be made available at a later date.

Over the past 10 years, more car manufacturers are moving their production to Asean cities to lower their production and probably distribution cost. However, consumers do not really benefit much from this. For example, a 2.0L Thailand made Toyota Camry is going at SGD 98,488 whereas a Japan sourced 2.0L Nissan Teana is priced at SGD 89,500 (source: www.sgcarmart.com, data updated as of 10 Dec 09).