Indeed there are multiple reasons for manufacturers to drop apparently popular vehicles.
Mergers with other companies creating competing products within the same sector by the two merged companies is a common one.
This was a problem that befell a lot of vehicles produced by 'Rootes Group' back in the 1970s, and also with vehicles produced by British Leyland (however that was probably more welcomed than mourned).
Also a manufacturer can decide to focus on a different market which they know will need to be developed along different lines, so pull production of a vehicle that they consider is less likely to be popular than other models.
'Big Car' is a great channel for looking at the history and demise of various models, and they recently covered the death of the Fiesta.
(I thoroughly recommend the channel)
Here is the excellent episode where he discusses the 'GM EV1' which was so popular that GM had to force the people testing them to sell them back to the parent company!!!!
When GM was ahead of the EV game. The GM EV1 Story
By the end of the 1980s electric vehicles had taken baby steps towards becoming practical. And companies would continue to produce small, lightweight vehicles into the 1990s, using heavy lead-acid batteries. But one company would strive, and some would say succeed in producing the world’s first electric vehicle that was a practical replacement for an internal combustion engine car. It would take almost ten years of work to produce and would come from the unlikeliest of sources, stodgy old General Motors.
Mergers with other companies creating competing products within the same sector by the two merged companies is a common one.
This was a problem that befell a lot of vehicles produced by 'Rootes Group' back in the 1970s, and also with vehicles produced by British Leyland (however that was probably more welcomed than mourned).
Also a manufacturer can decide to focus on a different market which they know will need to be developed along different lines, so pull production of a vehicle that they consider is less likely to be popular than other models.
'Big Car' is a great channel for looking at the history and demise of various models, and they recently covered the death of the Fiesta.
(I thoroughly recommend the channel)
Here is the excellent episode where he discusses the 'GM EV1' which was so popular that GM had to force the people testing them to sell them back to the parent company!!!!
When GM was ahead of the EV game. The GM EV1 Story
By the end of the 1980s electric vehicles had taken baby steps towards becoming practical. And companies would continue to produce small, lightweight vehicles into the 1990s, using heavy lead-acid batteries. But one company would strive, and some would say succeed in producing the world’s first electric vehicle that was a practical replacement for an internal combustion engine car. It would take almost ten years of work to produce and would come from the unlikeliest of sources, stodgy old General Motors.