The Ford Capri is testing the ‘all publicity is good publicity’ adage to breaking point

An interesting line from Fiat’s CEO Olivier Francois circled me back to the hottest motoring topic of the past few weeks. He was talking about station wagons (estate cars) being iconic for Fiat in Italy, but the firm will be building utility vehicles “because that’s what we know people want”.

All this links neatly to the new Ford Capri, and the ongoing controversy/internet outrage over the use of one of the company’s most beloved nameplates on an electric SUV. Despite its protestations about the design language and a “Darwinian” line from the 1986 coupé to the 2024 electric SUV, Ford must have predicted that the online masses wouldn’t take kindly to any perceived sullying of their automotive history.

But the company’s job is to sell cars, and it’s done the cost-benefit analysis. Just as it did when it decided to drop the Fiesta. Again, there was much consternation, but if Ford were making money out of the car and it made sense to keep it, then there wouldn’t be a small-car hole where Fiesta used to be. 

Fiat’s CEO gets straight to the point about delivering what people want. Like it or not, the new-car sales charts are now dominated by these higher-riding models.  

The difference with Fiat, which probably means Italians won’t riot in the digital streets, is that Francois has said the new SUVs won’t be called Panda. Whether they will end up with a branding that doesn’t get enough attention in a crowded marketplace is a different matter, but Ford appears to be testing the ‘all publicity is good publicity’ adage to breaking point at the moment. 

Maybe it’ll all settle down after the initial shock of the badge coming back and the car it’s attached to. Ford has certainly been reverential enough when talking about the Capri name, and the “young urban fun” audience it’s aiming for won’t care about a car their parents owned or pined over in the eighties. And the ruckus has made sure that anyone interested in cars won’t have missed the arrival of Ford’s latest electric SUV.

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