Cheapest Ford Fiesta trims binned before Ka+ launch

Ford has pushed up the starting price of its Fiesta hatchback to £13,395 in order to make room for the smaller Ka+ budget offering.

The sixth-generation Fiesta is now available with Zetec trim as the base spec, after Studio and Style were taken off-sale.

A new version of the hatchback, which in its current form has been around since 2008, will be unveiled in Autumn 2016 year and is expected to be a larger and more upmarket offering.

Before then Ford is launching a cheaper small hatchback, called Ka+.

A Ford spokeswoman said: “We’re launching Ka+ next month and that will available for under £10,000 (£8,995 base price, £9,995 for a Zetec) and what we didn’t want to see was cannibalisation of our own products.

“Also, Studio and Style only made up 3 percent of our sales mix, with the majority of customers opting for Zetec and Titanium trims, so we thought it made sense to make the Fiesta a bit more upmarket.”

The cheaper Ka+ will go on sale in September 2016, and should fill the gap left by the no-longer-available cheaper Fiesta trims.

Ford also suggested the pricing structure would remain for the seventh-generation Fiesta too, which could also start at the Zetec level.