Gasp! Ford Falcon May Go FWD?

Ford_FG_f_as
Aug 27, 2008
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Ford fans across the nation must surely be giving each another some rather panicked looks right now. At a recent press conference to discuss the future of Ford Australia's large car industry, Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally raised the prospect that the Falcon of the future could potentially switch from a rear-wheel-drive to a front-wheel-drive layout.

Uh oh.

The rationale behind such a switch is that having the engine, transmission and driveshafts packaged as a single unit and located up the front would cut overall vehicle weight and improve cabin space, giving future Falcon owners greater sprawling room and a slightly lower fuel bill.

While a front-driving Falcon might not be quite so popular in Australia, Ford's plans for the big Aussie sedan involve it possibly forming the basis for a future global large-car platform. As such, it would need to be able to appeal to a wide variety of markets, not all of them as enamoured with RWD driving dynamics as us Antipodeans.

A decision on whether to keep the Falcon RWD, re-jig it for FWD or even equip it with an all-wheel-drive drivetrain has yet to be made, but in Mulally's own words that decision will, "be driven by what the customer wants and values".

Mulally also wouldn't be drawn on the future of the V8 Falcon, saying that market demand would dictate whether the bent-eight stays. However, he did say that in the long term, V6's and four cylinders would feature with more prominence in Ford's lineup and that these motors would likely employ turbocharging and direct injection to make up for any lack of cubic inches.

It wasn't all doom-and-gloom at the Ford press conference, however. Mulally expressed his wish to base the company's future large-car development within Australia, and was keen to capitalise on Ford Australia's experience in building big sedans like the Falcon.

That news is probably of little consolation to the 350 or so Ford employees who have been made redundant by flagging Falcon and Territory sales, but at least it means the Falcon still has a future within Aussie shores. Whether that future involves it dragging its bum as a front-driver or triumphantly igniting its back tyres as a rear-driver is not so clear, however I sincerely hope it's the latter.

[Drive, via Autoblog]

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Comments

  • Alan Li [reply]
    2 years ago 0 points
    The government should stop passing useless P plater restrictions that ban some safe cars while permitting dangerous ones, and create a law that requires the Falcon (and Commodore) be RWD.
  • Alan Li [reply]
    2 years ago 0 points
    Also, people the world over are enamoured with RWD. That's why all the premium European sedans, seen the world over as the best-of-breed, still send the power to the back.

    Its only the cheap-as-chips, "buy it only because its all I can afford", family hacks that drag their bums.
  • Adam [reply]
    2 years ago 0 points
    RWD.. pff look at the MPS and other real cars, they're FWD. Get rid of RWD's and you get rid of hoons, thank god for that!
    • Godspeed [reply]
      2 years ago 0 points
      WTF?
  • Alan Li [reply]
    2 years ago 0 points
    Right, because hoons don't roll around in tarted up old Corollas, Excels, Charades, etc.

    The MPS is a "real car", but its not a "real sports car".
  • Blue [reply]
    1 year ago 0 points
    I am a huge Ford fan who has put his money where his mouth is, since 2004 we have bought 5 new falcons all XRs excect for one of the new cobra's and I hereby put Ford on notice that if go done the road of front wheel drive bolted, imported crap then you will loose my future buisness

    Not Joking
  • banger [reply]
    10 months ago 0 points
    FWD car is a design flaw, as we all know. They should be banned, they are unsafe. As we move forward, we should face improvement not degredation. At least make the falc AWD, but better yet make a smaller falc in the likes of BMW 320 and Subaru Liberty or even the benz CL. With the same engine (maybe an alloy block) and drive line, it would simply be a stunner, especially the v8 and turbo 6 versions. Get the weight under 1600kg and youre laughing. Imagine a AWD 5.4 Ltr V8 or T6 Liberty, it would be nuts! Ford could easily make the worlds greatest sedan..for the money.
  • Brock [reply]
    2 months ago 0 points
    Could this be the begining of the end of V8 supercars and similar motorsports in this country. The problem is we now have too many wowsers living in this great land of ours that it's slowly degrading our love of home grown motor sport. What a shame we're not more like the U.S.A. and have pride in our motor sport achievements and heros like Sir Jack Brabham. Too many whingers, too much beauracratic crap will kill our love for the thrills of action packed racing off all levels. Over the years many lives have been lost from this dangerous sport but many still want to race and for this we the spectators thank the drivers very much for the entertainment that you all give us. But it seems the so called smart boffins in parliament wants to end the sport because they feel it can influence hooning. What a load of crap! I feel that this great country of ours is not so great any more as corruption takes hold in governments and we the public cannot do a damn thing about it because it doesn't matter who you vote they all lie! Yes its political and we're all losing our democratic rights. Very sad but true.
  • Daniel [reply]
    2 months ago 0 points
    if you actually notice all the hoons are mainly in holdens, so leave the falcon RWD and change the commodore

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