What Ford Australia could have done next (Drive article)

[Blue Shadow]

http://www.drive.com.au/motor-featur...26-groyrc.html

[TheInterceptor]

Ford Australia was screwed anyway. People these days love big on the outside small on the inside thirsty SUV's or soulless buzz boxes. The yanks want to spread their stuff globally as usual and wanted Ford Aus to step aside.

Really really sucks, blame the general public and government who are anti car culture. That and some past decisions by Ford Aus that may have had yank intervention to help get their stuff into Aus in the future.

Drive really needs to pick new topics to produce verbal diarrhoea about.

[Raptor]

Nice drawings though

[Blue Shadow]

Yeah, great looking car

[Wretched]

Originally Posted by TheInterceptor

Ford Australia was screwed anyway. People these days love big on the outside small on the inside thirsty SUV's or soulless buzz boxes. The yanks want to spread their stuff globally as usual and wanted Ford Aus to step aside.

Really really sucks, blame the general public and government who are anti car culture. That and some past decisions by Ford Aus that may have had yank intervention to help get their stuff into Aus in the future.

Drive really needs to pick new topics to produce verbal diarrhoea about.

The current Ford range is quite extensive and well represented. Performance cars are there and there is a muscle car too.
The large sedan market is a shrinking one, why spend the $$ on something they will never get a return on? You cannot blame them for wanting to make money, they are in business to do that.

Falcon has been behind the 8 ball for a while, Ford could see the writing on the wall and stopped funding it.

What's wrong with the article? I thought it was ok, no negative spin on it.

Funny how you're criticising people's buying habits but judging on your car lit, you haven't bought a new Falcon in a long time (unless your list is outdated).
How many here bought a Focus RS as a performance car? Are they to blame when they should have bought a XR?

[malazn mafia]

Who knows with the advent of 3d printing, in not too long, we could be making our own future Falcons like in that drawing an actual reality, in our own garages.

[CobraJet351]

Good luck trying to get any 3D printed car registered.

[Vesper Martini]

This 2026 Falcon looks a lot like a 6 series BMW

[kypez]

Honestly, the article served no purpose other than provide another opportunity to call Ford out on their decision to pull out. Sure a couple of sketches, but thats it. They talked about a 400kw XR8 in 2026?! The XR8 is already at 400KW on overboost! Or that Ford would have got to where the LSA Clubby is at in 10 years (suggesting its 10 years behind...).

Reading it was a few minutes I'll never get back...

[chevypower]

For years on this forum, I've been saying Ford should ditch the mainstream Falcon models and make it a global sports sedan. I still think that's the direction Ford should take it. Looks like somebody at Ford was thinking the same thing.

[mik]

Originally Posted by TheInterceptor

Ford Australia was screwed anyway. People these days love big on the outside small on the inside thirsty SUV's or soulless buzz boxes. The yanks want to spread their stuff globally as usual and wanted Ford Aus to step aside.

Really really sucks, blame the general public and government who are anti car culture. That and some past decisions by Ford Aus that may have had yank intervention to help get their stuff into Aus in the future.

Drive really needs to pick new topics to produce verbal diarrhoea about.

Indeed it sucks Mate, ford oz was up against it with having a limited budget to soldier on with , and the powers that be did the rest with decisions that made the economic playing field as hard as it could be for not just ford oz , but all our local car makers .

[CyberWasp]

Maybe a car such as this is on the drawing boards and is currently being worked on.
Like what are all these people working on now that Ranger and Everest are on the road.

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by CyberWasp

Maybe a car such as this is on the drawing boards and is currently being worked on.
Like what are all these people working on now that Ranger and Everest are on the road.

Prehaps the next range of everest and rangers?

[malazn mafia]

Originally Posted by chevypower

For years on this forum, I've been saying Ford should ditch the mainstream Falcon models and make it a global sports sedan. I still think that's the direction Ford should take it. Looks like somebody at Ford was thinking the same thing.

Back when FG was in infancy, someone scratched Lincoln onto one of the mules. Sadly this never eventuated. The then president Allan Mullaly had nothing but praise for the Falcon and remarked there was nothing like it in the FORD Empire, but it was all empty talk. The massive flop that was the Commodore (Pontiac G8, Chevrolet SS) probably sealed the Falcon's fate. Does anyone know why the Yanks just never warmed to the commodore, but warmed to much dynamically inferior Camrys, Optimas, Sonatas etc and their local equivalents (dodge challenger, Chrysler 300, Ford Fusion, etc)

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by malazn mafia

Back when FG was in infancy, someone scratched Lincoln onto one of the mules. Sadly this never eventuated. The then president Allan Mullaly had nothing but praise for the Falcon and remarked there was nothing like it in the FORD Empire, but it was all empty talk. The massive flop that was the Commodore (Pontiac G8, Chevrolet SS) probably sealed the Falcon's fate. Does anyone know why the Yanks just never warmed to the commodore, but warmed to much dynamically inferior Camrys, Optimas, Sonatas etc and their local equivalents (dodge challenger, Chrysler 300, Ford Fusion, etc)

"Not invented here" syndrome, internal politics and the GFC.

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by malazn mafia

The massive flop that was the Commodore (Pontiac G8, Chevrolet SS) probably sealed the Falcon's fate. Does anyone know why the Yanks just never warmed to the commodore, but warmed to much dynamically inferior Camrys, Optimas, Sonatas etc and their local equivalents (dodge challenger, Chrysler 300, Ford Fusion, etc)

At the end of the day its pick ups and suvs over there. Then its also features in the car. Wouldn't surprise me if there wasnt enough crap in the car. Quality and dynamics are not that important.

[FalconXV]

The Chevrolet SS was only ever a limited allocation so GM made sure it couldn't be a roaring success.

[Giant Cranium]

And it is just cheaper than a corvette and about the same price as a camaro.

It also gets slammed for its reserved looks and similarity to a Malibu.

That's why the SS would never be loved by yanks

[jpd80]

It's surprising to me that in a country the size of the US, 325 million and 17.5 million vehicle sales a year,
that full sized RWD cars sell in such low volumes, a bit like Falcon and Commodore in the 1990s.
Around 2/3s of all sales are now SUVs and trucks they all love there and not surprising when you see
the fuel economy regulations there favor large more profitable vehicles over economy cars.

The biggest hope is that Ford will take our Falcon and Territory as inspiration for developing
a new range of vehicles, a brownfield start to get them on the right path to begin with but we'll see..

Falcon was never going to be on Mustang's new S550 platform, the unique proportions of
that extra long bonnet and short tight hip area in the Mustang ruled that out fairly early.

If anything, Falcon would benefit more from something like CD4 Taurus with a firewall cut
and then, add a new RWD engine bay/crash zone to complete the job, that's very expensive.

A parts share like that would be greater with Taurus/Fusion/Mondeo than a Mustang.

[aussie muscle]

Originally Posted by malazn mafia

Does anyone know why the Yanks just never warmed to the commodore?

Most enthusiasts didn't even know about it, let alone the general car buying public. Those that managed to find it loved it.

The 'GTO' monaro was too understated and they should have went with the HSV version from the get-go.

[chevypower]

Originally Posted by malazn mafia

Does anyone know why the Yanks just never warmed to the commodore, but warmed to much dynamically inferior Camrys, Optimas, Sonatas etc and their local equivalents (dodge challenger, Chrysler 300, Ford Fusion, etc)

Optima, Sonata, Camry, Fusion, Altima, Malibu, and Accord are all part of the highly competitive mid size segment. The majority are naturally aspirated 2.4L 4cyl FWD. The market wants affordability, economy, and reliability. There are performance variants of those with V6 or turbo 4 cyl, but they aren't the majority sales of those cars. There is still a high priority for value and economy even on those. Large sedans are in low demand, and performance variants are even lower demand. Even the Taurus SHO doesn't sell in significant volumes. I would say it has nothing to do with the car being Australian, it's just not what many people want. People who want performance sedans want a premium product, and most Americans who want "American muscle" want a coupe or convertible. Something that doesn't look like what they think they associate with their grandparents car. Of course there is a small niche for an SS or Falcon, just don't think it's big enough to excite them. That's why I think it needs to be a global product and a premium product. Lower volume but higher margin.