Remember the idiot? All the buzz when his Fiesta was "stolen" but not a peep now?

Just about a month ago there was a tweet from Fiesta Movement's Brooklyn Agent saying his car was stolen. The net was abuzz, blogs updated as the car was "sighted" either on it's way to Boston or being driven around Washington D.C. Scott Monty, Ford's Social Networking guru was sending updates to Jalpnik and others and even I was intrigued. What about the GPS tracking system? How hard could it be to find a purple Ford Fiesta with pink spots?

And then we found out it wasn't stolen, the idiot had just parked illegally and the car was towed away. And then there were posts by said idiot saying he found the car in an impound lot, but the NYPD wouldn't give it up, He even took photos of it in the lot. So, how did this soap opera end?

No tweets from Scott Monty, no updates on the major blogs, nothing I could find on Google or any other site. So, reluctantly I checked the idiot's webpage and it seems that back on May 29th he did what seems to be his last Fiesta Movement post. Yes the car was stolen, no the NYPD were not conspiring against him or incompitent or evil. The idiot had given them the wrong plate number. And that's why the Fiesta didn't show up on their system. But he got the car back on May 29th, without any mass protest or spontanious party at the impound lot. No fan fare, no muss no fuss, the idiot got the car back.

Now, I should point out that when I say he posted his last Fiesta Movement post, I don't know if he's out of the program, I just mean that I endured scanning through his site and can't find anything related to the Fiesta or Movement since May 29th.

I know the Movement's agents are supposed to be trendy, hip, internet savy folks who at the same time generate buzz for themselves and by extension the Fiestas, but why not even a whimper about how this resolved itself? Could it be that when it was "stolen" it was buzzworthy, but when the agent is an idiot it's not?

I debated posting a link to him or his video and I decided he's too stupid for that and I'm just not that nice.

Trying to "follow" the Fiesta Movement, but it's sooooo stupid sometimes

Ford's "Fiesta Movement" campaign, is it working? The idea was to get 100 Euro-Spec Fiestas in the hands of "Agents" who will get the car free for six months and help promote the car ahead of the US intro next year. Young "Tech Savy" hip kids who'll jump through hoops and Tweet the hell out of it.

Tweet, FB, YouTube, what ever their choice, they'll use the "Social Networking" sites to generate buzz about the car. And in an effort to "follow" I myself have joined FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube and even LinkedIn to see how they're doing. I "follow" a couple of "agents" on several sites and of course Scott Monty FoMoCo's guru of Social Media on Twitter. But I'm not learning much about the Fiesta at all. I'm seeing cute/funny kids making stupid videos of themselves, sometimes with friends sitting in the cars and giggling. I'm reading reports about "stolen" Fiestas, that weren't really stolen, just impounded because it was parked illegally.

Ocassionally there'll be some video of the kids playing with the SYNC system, but it's never informative in any real substansial way. These "agents" are promoting themselves more than the car. Several are comedians, actors, or just Idiots as in the case of the Brooklyn New York agent.

I tried to have an open mind about the entire thing, I really did, but how many cars are going to be sold because of the "Movement"? Will the 100 agents buy them? Some of these folks didn't even know how to drive a stick shift until they were handed the keys.

Now, to be fair, there are an additional 40 or so press cars that are being assigned to journalists and "Mommie Bloggers" so that they can write about their impressions. Ford is also aparently doing this with the new Hybrid Escape and Fusion, the Mommie Blogger thing anyway.

Does this generate any real buzz? I know I'm a little light headed from watching stupid YouTube videos and reading stupid tweets and blogs, but dizzy doesn't equal buzz.

Well, that's not fair or true, I do know that several Agents have appeared on local TV stations, on morning shows or local news, so I guess there is some buzz to it, but what about the Internet?

I'm not making any friends by writing this and crushing any hopes that Ford would ever let me drive a new car. But let's face it, they weren't going to before this anyway. I'm a man in my 40's who's not interested in putting my mug on YouTube or being someone's dancing bear.

Business Week's "Car that could save Ford" article and my take

David Kiley of Business Week wrote a nice piece on the upcoming 2011 Ford Fiesta. He's had seat time in a Euro Spec version, talked to a Fiesta Movement Agent and interviewed FoMoCo Euro design personel. And he's got nice things to say, but I of course take issue with a couple of things. First is this dig at the top "The Bad: Lacks a few features, like a sliding rear seat, to keep costs down." David this is odd, how many competitors have this "Sliding rear seat" you're looking for? I've read up the Fiesta, watch reviews on Fifth Gear and Top Gear and many many others and nobody but Nobody including the notoriously cranky Jeremy Clarkson ( who stands well over 6' ) complained about a sliding rear seat. Many mentioned that the seat doesn't fold flat, but nobody thought that a deal breaker. How many tall folks ride in the back of sub-compact cars for any lenght of time anyway? But I'm nit picking here.

My real issue is the implication that any one vehicle will "save" Ford at all.

David your assumption that Ford needs to be "saved" is wrong in the face of what we've been seeing lately and their "Way Forward" plan that's been working to evolve the Blue Oval.

It's going to be several models that set Ford apart. It's going to be the work that Alan Mulally has been doing with the "One Ford" and the fact that Ford has recently updated several solid models like Mustang, Taurus,Fusion and F-Series trucks while bringing new product like Flex and Edge to market.

Ford will survive because they're going to have the products and technologies to compete in a truly global market. Because of the Fiesta, Fusion, Upcoming Focus redesign and EcoBoost & Hybrid technology.

I'm sure Ford appreciates the praise of the Fiesta, it's a praise worthy car, but let's not peg our hopes on just one model or understate all the hard work that's been done.

AutoBlog has spyshots of the US version of the Fiesta sedan, cool meets Dave

This was one of the Verve concepts that became the Fiesta, I believe for the Chinese Auto Show.

Both China and the US prefer small sedans rather than hatchbacks. And while we've seen Euro spec Fiestas while following the Fiesta Movement, there will be tweaks for the US Market.

The Euro spec Fiestas get the full Kinetic Design treatment, but we're going to get a bit of the "Dave" look. If you recall, when the Iosis concepts first introduced the Kinectic design, that European Ford's have been showcasing these last few years, the response from Dearborn was the "Dave" look, also sometimes confused with a disposable razor.

You can't see clearly in the spy shots because of the camo, but you know you can expect a 3 bar grille similar to the current Focus ( US version ) and in keeping with the Fusion, Taurus, Edge etc...

Carscoop has further details about the Idiot who's Fiesta wasn't stolen

Self described Fun Consultant The Idiot ( I'm not using his name cause I don't want to give him any more exposure) has quite the history. Hell, there's even a Wikipdia article on him and of course he has multiple websites. This whole "Help your car was stolen!" twipisode seems like nothing more than a publicity stunt. As you know, the car was actually impounded by NYC.

Was it P.T.Barnun who said there's no such thing as bad press? I guess Ford's thinking was along the same lines with the Fiesta Movement. Let's see if we hear about The Idiot getting the Fiesta back. Maybe Ford should move to the B-Team, before their Fiesta ends up in the East River.

Update on Fiesta Fool, not stolen, just towed!

So, it wasn't stolen, just towed to the NYC impound lot! Figures, bonehead parks it on the street with a note saying "Climb on and take a pic!" and probably neighbors complained or the guy didn't altenate side park. Either way, the idiot's car wasn't stolen.

But you gotta wonder why Scott Monty from Ford's PR department, who's Tweeting about these things, couldn't get the facts straight? There was a Fiesta stolen, in DC, but there were updates saying the stolen vehicle was spotted on I-95 near Port Chester NY.

And what about the GPS? Considering the car has been sitting in the impound lot for 10 days, FoMoCo couldn't track it via GPS? It would be one thing if the car was in a shipping container ala Gone In 60 Seconds, but just sitting on the impound lot?

Read the AutoBlog update linked in title and ask yourself why did this get all the buzz?
I realize Twitter Updates aren't the AP, but couldn't someone from FoMoCo have gotten updated information to the various blogs following this? AutoBlog, Jalopnik, some mean guy over at MyFordDreams? Ok, I can understand not telling the last guy. Even though he does follow on Twitter and did ask for information a week ago.

Update: Scott Monty of FoMoCo left a comment; Ford didn't have all the facts and in all fairness Twitter is not a Press Release.