Has the Falcon become too narrowly focussed?

[SumoDog68]

Originally Posted by Cuyper

As a life long buyer of large rwd sedans, I'll tell you why I only own fwd hatchbacks now.

As the years have passed large cars have gained about 500 kilos in weight on average, you can not blame this on safety laws alone as small cars have the same side intrusion bars sand the same number or more airbags and they have only gained 1 or 200 kilos over the same time, its mostly been lack of effort due to being able to easily poke large enough motors in therm to tow the fat around.

As a result of both these, they use far to much fuel to be competitive in the market, their power to weight ratio is no better than the average 1.6 litre hatch. They are not much bigger inside than the average hatch despite being a metre or so longer, so long as you only have 2 or three people in the car you can actually carry more in a small hatch.

The lighter small cars handle much better, are more competent in adverse conditions. There's effectively no advantages to a large rwd car other than being faster in a straight line in the upper end sport models, do you spend an extra 30 grand on a car to go 2 seconds faster over a 1/4 mile? Doubt it.

The only future for large cars is fwd or awd wagons and only diesels. Holden could if they wanted to extend the sportswagons lifespan if they choose to go in that direction but I can't see the sedan continuing much longer and then even with a wagon you have to compete with the Skoda and Hyundai etc, even with the sedan how can you possibly compete against a Mondeo with a Falcon or Commodore, the Mondeo is just so much better. The utes could go the same way in awd if they build them taller and stronger. Other than that I can't see the point.

Falcon XT has 9.17 power to weigh ratio while Focus 1.6 is 13.9 - that is much better and not even in the same league. Power is a good thing to have in a car just as it is good to have the car that handles and brakes well. Size is also good to have as it relates to mass which is also good to have in a car.
People buy small hatchbacks because they are cheap to buy and run not because they are better than bigger cars.
Hot hatches are a different category altogether and buyers of those dont come from cheap hatchbacks but more likely from large performance cars.

[KIWI-1]

Originally Posted by galaxy xr8

What's this "Ecoboost" that you talk about...., never heard of that before. (end sarcasm)

It's the engine in the Mondeo, Focus, Fiesta...