French filmmaker takes '97 Fiesta to ‘motherland'

When a mechanic told French filmmaker Dorian Degoutte that the 1997 Ford Fiesta he inherited a decade ago from his grandfather was on its last legs, he decided the car deserved more than just a tow to the scrapyard.

Instead, Degoutte took it on a journey of more than 6,000 miles to its manufacturer's birthplace in Michigan that serves as the centerpiece of a movie he's making about the attachment people feel to their cars.

"To make this movie, I needed to do something special with my car, and I decided to share a last trip with her," Degoutte told TV station WDIV in Detroit. "I also put myself into the mind of my car, asking her where she would love to go for her farewell trip. ... And of course she answers to go on [to] her motherland, the roots of Ford: Detroit, Michigan!"

Degoutte shipped the Fiesta to New Jersey from Belgium and then drove it across Pennsylvania and Ohio, chatting with people along the way. In Michigan, he visited Ford Motor Co. headquarters, the original Model T plant and other sites tied to the automaker's history.

He planned to head back to France with his video footage this month, leaving the car behind. He and his girlfriend have upgraded to a used Volvo station wagon.

"For me, it's fascinating how crazy [it is that] we get attached to a piece of metal. A piece of metal that is a tool for freedom and independence, but also a trap and one of the main factors of global warming," Degoutte said. "A car is [a reflection of] your personality, and a period of life. My small Fiesta was really the car of my youth. At a symbolic level, getting rid of her is a step toward adulthood."