Ford Australia Boss, the disarmingly forthright Marin Burela, today in a media briefing gave the clearest indication yet that the future of the Falcon is bound into Ford’s global ‘One Ford’ model strategy.
Furthermore, he said that “by the end of 2010 or 2011, we’ll be making a decision on our next large car.”
While he would not be drawn on whether that replacement would be a Taurus-based vehicle (as many have been speculating), he said, “It is important as a company we continue to develop global platforms. ‘One Ford’ is important (as a global strategy) and we’re sticking to it.”
“I’m not sure we fully understand what front-wheel-drive and rear-wheel-drive really mean to Australian consumers,” he said, putting it in a context of the growth of all-wheel-drive.
With Ford’s ‘One Ford’ strategy as the immovable foundation to these musings, the meaning behind them is clear: a Falcon as we understand it today – a model exclusive to the Australian market - is increasingly unlikely to form part of Ford Australia’s on-going strategy.
“An Australian-only product is a risky strategy for us (Ford) to adopt,” Mr Burela said. “It is important to have global reach and global scale.”
But don’t read into those words that Ford will cease production of a large car here.
Far from it. Marin Burela’s projections see large cars as holding in excess of 100,000 sales, or at least 10 percent of the Australian market, through the next decade. And Ford intends to be a major part of it.
So, a global platform for Ford Australia’s next large car. What will it be called? Falcon? And where will the platform be sourced?
You make up your mind. We don’t have long to wait for the answers – two years, tops. Meanwhile, we’ll keep you posted.
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If Ford are unsure about what FWD would do let suggest they look at the Aurion sales as indication of how Australian will accept a FWD Large Falcon. I for one will not buy a FWD Falcon.
on design,Taurus would outsell Falcon by many.
I like the FG Falcon Design over the Taurus. Clearly the Taurus is designed for the tastes of the US market. But Ford would be making a huge mistake if it dropped the RWD platform. The traditional Falcon buyer wants a large RWD car if they didn’t they would buy a Camry.
I prefer the FG over the Taurus as well. Having said that, in the future if the Taurus did become the next Falcon, apart from the loss of an ‘Aussie’ Falcon the only disappointment for me would be for it to become FWD.
An AWD F6? Now that would have me laying my hard earned down.
I have 3 reasons why Aussies wouldn’t buy a large FWD car Avalon, Aurion,380….oh damn make that 4 reasons Avalon,Aurion,380 & Magna.
In every-day driving (read A to B commute to work/shops) and non-heavy-towing applications there is nothing wrong with FWD, in fact most of the time in those conditions you wouldn’t even know that the car is FWD. FWD can also be safer in slippery conditions than RWD, unlike a RWD it will not try and swap ends on you if you are too eager under power etc. Not to mention FWD would fix one of the big issues of the Falcon interior, the HUGE transmission tunnel that intrudes greatly into the front seat footwell, let alone liberating more rear seat footroom. FWD does have interior packaging advantages over FWD.
Having said that, in a high powered large car like the current Falcon, or any sporting version with high power, it is a huge compromise if you enjoy giving your car a “hard time”. There is just too much power and torque for “enthusiastic” driving, not to mention all the extra weight over the front axles for balanced handling. Plus it would definitely not sell very well due to the aussie tradition of “we have always done it that way” and being afraid of trying something different or new. “We Aussies” would have to be some of the worst “creatures of habit” in the world!
On a side note, I hope we follow the lead of Ford Europe more than Ford US as 99% of the cars from the US have interior plastic/fit/finish quality that is even worse than some of the earlier efforts from Korea!!! No wonder people outside the US don’t take their cars overly seriously.
The FWD is safer is a myth created by car makers who wanted to build the cheaper FWD design. It is simply not true.
I have driven both RWD and FWD in the snow/ice and in my experience, the FWD was more controllable and easier to drive. You didn’t have to be as sensitive with the throttle etc. If you did happen to use a bit too much throttle, the FWD just spun the wheels up with a couple of inches sideways movement that didn’t need much correction. Where-as in a RWD, it is very easy for the rear to want to overtake the front without a fair amount of correction etc. Sure, you may not have the ultimate traction of a RWD, but when you do start to loose traction/drive in a FWD, the behaviour is more benign and requires less corrective action than with a RWD. That is not a myth, that is physics (C of G and friction coefficients etc).
As we know, the “average” driver out there doesn’t have a clue about car control in very slippery conditions with our pathetic licensing system etc, so this more benign behaviour CAN make a difference to the “average” driver. Not everyone is a race driver, even though many think they are….
I currently own FG XR6-T and I can tell you right now no 2L engine will match perfomance simply there is not enough, if ford produce which they allready said they will then I’ll be looking elsewhere for my next car. Wouldn’t it be more feasable to actually replace falcon with mondeo even if they have to re-enginer to make it RWD it would be success, imagine blown Mondeo RWD or even AWD gee that would be a dream-car, one that I would buy but not this nonsense 2L Falcon, it will still tip the scale at over 1600kg so what’s the point of 4cylinder 2L engine… It’s gonna be so slow even the cyclist will be overtaking the Falcon… C’mon Ford don’t kill the Falcon but in the other hand they are doing me and other owners of XR6-T favour since in a few years time this car will be a hot collector’s item… Thanks a lot Ford….
What ever happened to the good old days, australia wants RWD powerful falcons, its time we stick it up to holden and produce one of the best RWD/powerful vehicle we can.. c’mon FORD
front wheel drive better then rear wheel for traction hey. Why do all drag cars use rear wheel drive.
Why does the Toyota TRD run 14.5 sec lighter and 245kw same as ba xr6t that ran sub 14sec
Man some people say some silly stuff.
Were you referring to one of my posts F6TYPHOON?
Yeah sorry for the shoot down lol
Don’t get me wrong I don’t mind driving fwd cars I drive toyota echo to work every day. But today in the pooring rain as there was starting to get some serious puddles you have to drive with 2 hands. The engine revs as the front wheels slip and slide when just driving down the highway.
Have you ever driven off from the traffic light and felt a front wheel drive car pull hard left ?
Even better leg go of the steering wheel for a moment and feel what happens to the steering wheel.
Don’t worry, no offence taken! I get misunderstood often!
The funny thing is I never mentioned the traction was better! LOL. As per the April 16 post I said that “while FWD doesn’t have the ultimate traction of RWD…” I was just trying to convey that when a FWD looses traction it will either tug the wheel a little or as you said move a little to the left, unlike a RWD it will not try to swap ends on you! In otherwords, the reaction is a little more benign (most of the time) and requires less corrective action. That can make a big difference to many drivers on our roads who don’t have a clue and means those same idiots who don’t know how to drive won’t spin out in front of you!! The ‘average’ driver who drives their car from A to B with no interest in cars wouldn’t know the difference. However for us enthusiasts… 
Well the Taurus is already ahead in that it’s designed to handle Ford’s more global engines and that it comes LHD and is possible to convert to RHD.
Nemo said:
> Aussies wouldn’t buy a Magna.
What roads have you been driving on? Were you blindfolded?
Fords rock said:
>The FWD is safer is a myth
Nope, just a fact that the characteristics of FWD make it easier to control in poor conditions than a RWD equivalent.
The Falcon’s problem is that it is a RHD only product, and catering mostly to the Australian market - By contrast, GM offers Commodore in LHD for export markets (rebadged of course).
I hope this doesn’t happen of course (though I would not be too surprised if it does) but I get the idea that by 2015 if Ford US have their own way with Australia that the Falcon would be replaced with the FWD Taurus (sedans) and Explorer (wagon and Territory) - the Ford Ranger taking up the ute sales…