From: Noddy on
There was a small article in this morning's Herald Sun where Ford announced
late yesterday afternoon that the Falcon station wagon has reached the end
of it's production life, and as of now is no longer part of the Ford model
line up. After 50 years, production effectively ceased yesterday and the
model is now confined to the history books.

They also claimed that the Falcon Wagon will be replaced by some Mondeo
something or other with the option of both diesel and petrol powerplants,
although they didn't give any specifics about exactly what it would be or
where it would come from.

The death of the big wagon has been on the books for ages, and given that
the thing has largley been neglected by Ford in terms of the antiquated
equipment it was being furnished with in it's last few models it can hardly
come as a surprise to anyone that the thing is now dead and buried, however
I see this announcement as a prelude to the death of the Falcon as a locally
built car before very long.

The FG model is not doing well in the sales department (it's currently
being outsold by Toyota, Holden and Hyundai), and the Territory is currently
selling less units per month than the Mitsubishi 380 was when it was finally
canned.

The rot has very definitely set in at Broadmeadows, and it won't be long
before local production is wound down methinks.

--
Regards,
Noddy.





From: Clocky on
Noddy wrote:
> There was a small article in this morning's Herald Sun where Ford
> announced late yesterday afternoon that the Falcon station wagon has
> reached the end of it's production life, and as of now is no longer
> part of the Ford model line up. After 50 years, production
> effectively ceased yesterday and the model is now confined to the
> history books.
> They also claimed that the Falcon Wagon will be replaced by some
> Mondeo something or other with the option of both diesel and petrol
> powerplants, although they didn't give any specifics about exactly
> what it would be or where it would come from.
>
> The death of the big wagon has been on the books for ages, and given
> that the thing has largley been neglected by Ford in terms of the
> antiquated equipment it was being furnished with in it's last few
> models it can hardly come as a surprise to anyone that the thing is
> now dead and buried, however I see this announcement as a prelude to
> the death of the Falcon as a locally built car before very long.
>
> The FG model is not doing well in the sales department (it's
> currently being outsold by Toyota, Holden and Hyundai), and the
> Territory is currently selling less units per month than the
> Mitsubishi 380 was when it was finally canned.
>
> The rot has very definitely set in at Broadmeadows, and it won't be
> long before local production is wound down methinks.

Ford have already announced that the Falcon is due to be canned in 2012
which effectively kills local production.


From: Clocky on
Premier wrote:
> Looks like Ford have killed this one, just as they killed the
> Fairlane in a similar fashion.
>
> They didnt keep the Fairlane up to date with new model releases,
> lagging behind almost a year before it got upgraded. Holden didnt
> with the Statesman, and looks what happened. Ford lost that one from
> a position of close to complete domination. Same story with the wagon
> - dont update it, and it encourages everyone to look elsewhere.
>
> Territory selling slow - well - dumb decision not to offer a diesel,
> but also - how long since it was upgraded?
>
> No large wagon now hey - the Commodore Sportswagon is a joke of a load
> carrier when a Skoda Roomster can carry only 10% less, (1780L vs
> 2000L) yet have about half the fuel consumption. Yes the Commodore
> may be a better drive than the mid-size and small wagons, but it
> comes at a cost penalty. Yes, wagon buyers have reason to look
> elsewhere - a diesel Mondeo could be the go.
>
> The Falcon is looking like its on a similar path to the 380, which is
> a real shame considering how good a car it is by any objective
> measure.

The current Falcon is apalling and deserves to be put to rest.



From: Premier on


>
> It *might* be, but it'll depend a lot on how much "US influence" they end
> up having. The Taurus, the Probe, the 380, and the Avalon are all perfect
> examples of how late model American cars have proved to be incredibly
> unpopular in this country.
>

Very true - but why did those fail?

Taurus - ugly - and the Falcon was a better car for a lower price

380 - shite marketing - when Aussies were looking for more efficiency - it
was launched with a name to place emphasis on its engine size (go figure??).
Mitsubishi was full of bad publicity at the time, so any new model in that
segment was doomed to fail.

Avalon - was actually quite a good car - much better drive than the Camry of
the time. But the last night it needed was to be seen as an old fogey's car.
So what did TOyota do? - get Les Patterson and Dame Edna to do the ads -
chracters with zero appeal to anyone under the age of 70. It looked
outdated - looked like an old car the day it was launched.

No car has really made any inroads into the Falcon/Holden domination - with
the possible exception of the Magna in the mid 80's up to the early 90's (it
sold about 40,000 one year by memory - and I bet many of these would have
come from Falcon/Commodore sales) - but of course we know what happened
later.

From: Premier on


>
> The current Falcon is apalling and deserves to be put to rest.
>
>

On what grounds???? How would you improve it???


>
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