Major Ford announcement

[Venomous1]

such a sad story having emigrated from South Africa and seeing rear wheel drive Ford Sapphire/Sierra get culled this feels in the same vein when Europe Ford And Us Ford speak the smaller markets have to fall inline no matter how much they don't want it.

As for me My Xr6T will stay and I'm Sure the aftermarkets will keep enough stuff to keep the wheels turning for many years after 2016.

2015 though I will be into a new V8 ute if they are available still.

[BHDOGS]

rather amusing really dont back ford dont advertise ford dont improve the car much complain people dont buy it because its not what they want close factories spend a couple million building twin turboed v8 awd mega ferrari fusion/hybrid **** mobile. import it people buy it claim it was all our plan how bout just make ford that instead of importing some asian/american made **** in the first place. It sickens me money is all it means anymore doing a good job making a difference to the community nope **** you some asian twat will do it for 5 seashells an hour.

[69XWGT]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

Detroit sent Graziano out here to shut the place, I have been saying this for the past year or 2 and alot of people tried to shoot me down for saying it, but it was quite clear what was happening.

He is the highest ranked Ford executive to ever work for Ford Australia, an important person to do an important job. All advertising pretty much stopped, no promotion of EcoLPi and Ecoboost, dealers supply being held back etc etc. It was quite clear Ford were trying to accelerate the end.

Screw Ford HQ. They only care about themselves, and whatever is in their best interests. They never gave Ford Australia a chance to spread their wings. They always kept them down, and continually denied them export markets.

And then they have the audacity to top yesterdays announcement with rubbish about how positive this is for the company and how bright a future they have beyond Falcon and Territory. What an insult.

It's quite obvious that Ford HQ have been keeping Ford Australia down.
The way they've promoted everything else but the Falcon is all the proof you need.
I hope all the affected staff can fine employment elsewhere

I've had the displeasure of driving a Taurus and it's rubbish.
Mondeo pfft. Give me a Mazda 6 any day.
Mustang is like driving an XD. No offence to XD owners but it's archaic
Falcon and Terri is a better drive than anything that comes out of Ford NA

I been a Ford fan since I was 6 after seeing my first XWGT. Took me a while but I got one eventually and it's staying in the family.
Had a quiet time with it last night.

Very angry with the way our politicians have been selling us out for 30 years. It's not just the car industry. Farmers are getting flogged as well.
******* lobbyists have got a lot to answer for.

Ford HQ can go and get ******.
They've made no effort to ensure production in this country remains.
Notice the Nth American mouth piece Graziano made no mention of what it cost them to produce a car in Nth America.
Ford HQ, idiot governments, lying salesman, shoddy dealers and some of the poorest customer service known are all responsible for the Falcon/Terri demise.

Unfortunately it will be like the song.
You don't what you've got till it's gone

[AG3]

Originally Posted by BHDOGS

rather amusing really dont back ford dont advertise ford dont improve the car much complain people dont buy it because its not what they want close factories spend a couple million building twin turboed v8 awd mega ferrari fusion/hybrid **** mobile. import it people buy it claim it was all our plan how bout just make ford that instead of importing some asian/american made **** in the first place. It sickens me money is all it means anymore doing a good job making a difference to the community nope **** you some asian twat will do it for 5 seashells an hour.

It's not where the vehicle is made, its what type of vehicle it is.
Falcon enthusiasts will always love the Falcon, but the general public is downsizing.

If the Falcon retained the size of the late 80's Falcon EA and offered both right and left-hand drive export versions, they'd probably be exporting that to many global markets and Australia would have been a manufacturing hub.

Originally Posted by 69XWGT

I've had the displeasure of driving a Taurus and it's rubbish.
Mondeo pfft. Give me a Mazda 6 any day.
Mustang is like driving an XD. No offence to XD owners but it's archaic
Falcon and Terri is a better drive than anything that comes out of Ford NA

Is this the Taurus you drove?


A new more compact global Mustang (with IRS) will be launched for its 50th anniversary.

[JG66ME]

Originally Posted by Venomous1

2015 though I will be into a new V8 bakkie if they are available still.

corrected for you

[mick457]

without going back threw all the threads im not sure if anyone has said this but here goes

now I havnt lived in Brisbane for a number of years and I assume the bulk of taxis are still falcons
so without them what are they going to use?

[BJB]

Originally Posted by mick457

without going back threw all the threads im not sure if anyone has said this but here goes

now I havnt lived in Brisbane for a number of years and I assume the bulk of taxis are still falcons
so without them what are they going to use?

Down here they use the Toyotas also. ( don't forget the Camry is as almost as big as the Commodore/Falcon now)


We all know Falcons make the best taxis as they are very robust compared to Commodores....
perhaps like what happens in Egypt today maybe in 30 years time you will still FG Falcons driving around all battered and tired. ( in Egypt 10 years ago they were still using Peugot 504's )

[Dr Smith]

The first car I ever sat in, well more correctly carried home in my mother’s arms while my dad drove us home was a Falcon XM. This was replaced by an XP where I can still remember the old black and white photo showing me, head out the window, less then 4 and pretending to drive it. I learnt to drive in my family’s XW and in 1984 sat in the front passenger seat as my mum drove home her brand new XE Falcon “Eclipse” s/w. My brother and I searched for the replacement XF Fairmont that replaced the XE after it was stolen and I drove home the shiny new EL from the dealer when they bought that. My parents have now had a few Territories. I’ve bought a BA Futura wagon, FG G6ET and now have a Terry as well.

So I’ve grown up in a “Team blue” driving family and raising one myself and hopefully with future Ford imports will remain so.

My thoughts go to the Ford staff and I wish them well in their future



Thinking about the opportunities that Ford Oz must have looked at to try and maintain manufacturing here the simple truth is the plant needs to run at close to capacity which iirc was near 100,000+. To do so just on domestic sales could never happen unless the plant built the three top selling cars in Aust just to get near this level. And none of the top sellers are a large car so Falcon wouldn’t even be the best car to build here in trying to achieve this. And then if the comments are true that here it costs 2 -3 time more then building in Europe or Asia means Ford Oz’s products would be too expensive to compete overseas while also meaning we would have to pay more to buy local cars or more correctly deny Ford Oz the ability to make decent profits. To expect Ford US to shift the production of a product out of the US or Europe or Asia and to here just wasn’t going to happen as well, both politically (US) and more so financially. I know the local Ford people agonised over this for a very long time, if the all the spreadsheets were actually printed out it would have blown the stationary budget. The decision stinks but I can understand why, I hate it however I’m not sure what else there was to do with this mire of international self interest, global economics and what not.. Some of this country’s trading partners are running policies that hurt us directly (Japan/yen, Thailand/Ind support) from a manufacturing sense but help us from a consumer sense. Which does the average Australian consider more important, “what I spend or save now in my fully loaded import” or “what will the future hold for employment, skill development, self-reliance etc etc….

We need leaders that think beyond the next 4 year term of office, we need citizens to vote for people that think this way, which is even more important and we need a combination of practicality, passion and will power to achieve all of this.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by BJB

Down here they use the Toyotas also. ( don't forget the Camry is as almost as big as the Commodore/Falcon now)


We all know Falcons make the best taxis as they are very robust compared to Commodores....
perhaps like what happens in Egypt today maybe in 30 years time you will still FG Falcons driving around all battered and tired. ( in Egypt 10 years ago they were still using Peugot 504's )

See my comments in the thread about falcon taxis.

The more I read here the more angry I'm getting at Ford NA....

If I was ever to buy another Ford that was Falcon sized I would know which cars were 'NA' to me....

Hope those workers find jobs fast rather than be unemployed...

[2011G6E]

http://news.drive.com.au/drive/motor...104-2c83p.html
Top selling vehicles (of all types) were:
1. Mazda3 - 44,128
2. Toyota HiLux - 40,646
3. Toyota Corolla - 38,799
4. Holden Commodore - 30,532
5. Holden Cruze - 29,161
6. Hyundai i30 - 28,348
7. Toyota Camry - 27,230
8. Nissan Navara - 26,045
9. Toyota Yaris - 18,808
10. Ford Focus - 18,586

Top selling "cars":
1. Mazda3 - 44,128
2. Toyota Corolla - 38,799
3. Holden Commodore - 30,532
4. Holden Cruze - 29,161
5. Hyundai i30 - 28,348
6. Toyota Camry - 27,230
7. Toyota Yaris - 18,808
8. Ford Focus - 18,586
9. Mazda2 - 17,574
10. Volkswagen Golf - 17,289

As for top selling brands, Ford as a maker is way down at number five...not a nice position to be in.

If I "go away" it won't change those figures...Falcons aren't selling. The public has changed, the majority now don't buy purely because of the badge (or the one single make within the brand) and are far more willing to shop around several different makes before deciding, and simply because a particular name has been around for a while doesn't guarantee sales. Trying to keep what has sadly become a niche market (odd to call a "normal" large sedan a "niche" model, but the figures don't lie) is no way to keep in business.

I'm a realist...I am not badge blind and loyal to the death to one particular badge from one particular maker, as many people seem to be. Look at the big picture and ask yourself what Ford was supposed to do with the Falcon...it's not selling in anywhere near sustainable numbers, so are they to just keep on flogging a dead horse and sucking up taxpayer subsidies just to suit a smaller and smaller number of buyers, while bleeding money all over the place?

History and heritage are nice...but the bottom line is what runs a business, not warm and fuzzy feelings.

[Gadgetman]

I think whats most staggering in all the media releases I've read so far was Graziano's quotes on the cost of building locally being twice as much as Europe and 4 times as much as asia. That being the case, The choice Ford has made albeit tough on the local industry, it is the right call for them as a company. Here are a couple of comments I've heard in the last couple of days which I must say shows how much our politians have their fingers on the pulse of local manufacturing.

(1) Tony Abbot."Ford should develop LHD Territory's and export them"
Yeah no worries. They cant even move the 100 or so that hit Thailand. Nearly a $100k landed in Thailand. Sure that was gonna work! The Territory is a great car. Is it world class though? To be a world class car with world class features and LHD, I reckon R&D through to production costs would be close to a billion dollars and who exactly is going to apporve that given high production costs, the high dollar and the massive tariffs that most of asia has to protect their local manufacturing. Great one Abbot. I'm no fan of both governments by the way. Sure Senator button put the plan in place in the 80's to make it easier for imports but every government that came into power since had the opportunity to arrest the program so I'm quite happy to blame this manufacturing issue our country has directly on poor governing.

(2) Now all the talk is. Lets sit down with the other 2 manufactures and work out a strategy to keep them going long term. Right!!! Were our pollies that far removed from what troubles this sector has been facing that they needed one to fold to do something about it. Reminds me of how councils call certain road's blackspots once a few have died and then fix it when we all drive on it daily and know that something should have been done a while ago.

(3) Finally, only in the last 2 weeks, local government depts. were given clear directions to purchase locally built fuel efficient vehicles. Another great story. Our taxpayers were paying for local govt depts to drive imported vehicles for years and years.

The conclusion to my rant is this. We haven't had a governing body in this country that has done what it could to keep local manufacturing viable. They have unknownly waited for it to detonate and now will react. They have been negligent and my guess is they are inapt to solve this crisis.

[cobramania]

Here's a couple of comments I've read on other sites over the past couple of days. Some of the die hard fans here mightn't like to read them, but I think they go to the core of the issue.

I left the industry that supplied local car makers six and a half years ago. I made a conscious effort to leave as everyone I spoke to had their head in the sand as far as competition from overseas went. By and large the bravado amongst the business owners and senior staff was just ridiculous. There just was no thought that crossed their mind that the world had changed. It was that which convinced me that when the crunch came everyone was going to look surprised. I took slightly lower wages to change however I am thankful I did. I consider myself lucky. - Steve

I worked for BMW in Germany for eight years as a young engineer in BMW advanced manufaturing division. Immigrated to Australia in 1996 and I have worked as a consultant and have visited several companies manufacturing cars and car components. I think cost is not the reason why Ford (and other car manufacturers) cannot and will not survive in Australia. Germany has a much higher cost base and its car industry is doing well. I think Australian manufacturing is suffering because of poor design, poor quality, poor planning and poor comitment." - Mark

[TMC]

Watching The Project last night and some woman was being interviewed about the situation and she said Ford keep making all these V8 cars when people just want a zippy small car. Well Hello....... Go down to your Ford dealer and ask to drive a Ford V8 luv. They'll say not here luv. Try FPV. She's mixed Ford up with Holden.!!!!!!

[2011G6E]

Go down to your Ford dealer and ask to drive a Ford V8 luv. They'll say not here luv. Try FPV.

In most places the FPV dealer is the Ford dealer, and they share floor space with the "normal" Falcons. Do they have separate dealerships in some places...?

The comments about the price of the Territory in Thailand was staggering...are they really priced like that there? I do know that in Singapore you pay through the nose for any car, and I've heard the same for some other Asian countries...might be a very hard market to crack.

And yes, to sell as a "premium" model in, for example, the USA, it would have to be loaded with features, some of which don't exist in our local Fords. Go to the Ford USA website and have a look at the features that are fitted to things like the Taurus...features that we can only dream of having in a locally built car.

[Matty4]

Originally Posted by TMC

Watching The Project last night and some woman was being interviewed about the situation and she said Ford keep making all these V8 cars when people just want a zippy small car. Well Hello....... Go down to your Ford dealer and ask to drive a Ford V8 luv. They'll say not here luv. Try FPV. She's mixed Ford up with Holden.!!!!!!

I dare say she probably has a similar mindset to the majority of the population, not the enthusiasts who actually know about the products.

Therein lies part of the problem.

[Anchor]

http://focus2move.com/item/643-austr...e-climbed-at-8

April.

Ranger - Ranked 7th - 1683 sold in April - 6557 YTD.
Focus - Ranked 8th - 1670 sold in April - 6857 YTD.
Territory - Ranked 19th - 1260 sold in April - 4796 YTD.

As i said, Falcon is nowhere at the moment. Territory is holding up the fort for the Aus built models.

[barnz_xr8]

Originally Posted by TMC

Watching The Project last night and some woman was being interviewed about the situation and she said Ford keep making all these V8 cars when people just want a zippy small car. Well Hello....... Go down to your Ford dealer and ask to drive a Ford V8 luv. They'll say not here luv. Try FPV. She's mixed Ford up with Holden.!!!!!!

damn I hate that show it just spews out left wing garbage, its called the project because its goal is to turn the whole population into limp wristed hippys.

[block58]

Back in the days when Ford NA appreciated the Falcon...

http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mell...2573F300206152

[Smoke Pursuit]

Originally Posted by block58

Back in the days when Ford NA appreciated the Falcon...

http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mell...2573F300206152

That was 5 years ago tho!

Sadly I think the 2014 update should have been FG2. All FG needs to finish it off is a bit more techo, like keyless entry, blind spot assist etc, all things that Ford spent money on the factory for, things that are going to be pretty much wasted come 2016.

Ill stand by my comment, Graziano was not committed to Falcon when he came here, he was only committed to making sure it died before he left. Come 2016 he will be gone, and some other individual from Fords Asia Pacific team will be running the company.

G6E Turbo and G6E Ecoboost are probably 2 of the best laymans sedans around. But does anyone know? Same goes for Territory, what other AWD soft road SUV matches it for similar money? None!

[Mercury 8]

It has been a few days now and after digesting the end of Ford manufacturing in Australia I am still left wondering why.Focus had the go ahead which may also have been able to accommodate Kuga on the same line,two vehicles which will survive and flourish for years to come as they are what people want in a car these days.Ranger nearly got the nod.this would have been a master stroke for Ford with its wagon based brother running down the same line when ready to go.
I know it has been said that manufacturing a car is to expensive here but Holden and Toyota have announced they are not going anywhere soon.Ford's announcement this week plays right into those two car companies hands. Ford has strengthened there push for government funding with the very real threat that car manufacturing in Australia is in dire straights..With the government and unions all of a sudden waking from there head in the sand stance and finally recognising something is wrong.Two weeks ago the government called on it's agencies to buy Australian made,all well and good but about two years to late.Do they have any clue at all.Scary to think they have the future of our great country in there hands.
Been doing a lot of thinking and wondering where it all began for me,after riding in the middle of the back seat of dads 56 Customline star for many years and then into the fawn XL Falcon,no seat belts in those days so I was always leaning forward on the back of the bench seat with the ashtray in my chest I would constantly be checking the speedo and gauges thinking that I was the one driving and enjoying every minute. From there we progressed to an XP sedan,white in colour and then came the blue XT Falcon with four wheel drum brakes that were power assisted,boy did the old man nearly put us all through the windscreen a few times in that the first couple of weeks. This was the first car we had seat belts in and I remember us kids fighting over who sat in the front so as we could wear the seatbelt,all very novel in those days.That car was the turning point for me, we used to travel to my grandmothers place about every six weeks which was a four hour return trip and often my brother and I would get to ride in the front with dad while mum and my sister would be in the back.On one of those weekend trips which the Falcon was so well suited for and effortlessly did the job I was in the middle with my lap only belt on in the front bench seat we were coming out of a small country town which we all knew so well and with the radio playing we crossed the railway line following a Holden when the puff of smoke from the exhaust in front saw dad grab that three on the tree and back to second gear with the raspy noise of the reliable six cylinder bursting into action.I will never forget that moment with Don McLean's "bye bye miss American pie blaring on the radio dad rounded up that Holden with the speedo touching on 90 miles per hour pulling back to the correct side of the road the whole family was singing madly and loving the thrill of the ride.I never really got on with my dad when I was a young fella but that day he looked across and smiled at my brother and I and a sense of pride filled my heart.
Ford Australia may have killed the Falcon come October 2016 but for me it will be a part of my life forever.The Falcon may be dead but it will never die!!!!

[Fowl Can]

Originally Posted by MickyB

This is so true! Ford NA have obviously directed them to spend nothing on marketing or creating awareness of the product. I don't blame Ford Aus for this, I blame head office. I share your anger.

Perhaps not dissimilar to the Valiant's death three decades ago. The Aussie Val was urgently in need of updates, but the R & D $ simply were not coming from the Seppos. Result: the CL & CM Vals weren't much more than mildly rebodied & reengineered versions of the VH thru VK series. Small fandooglies like the economical Electronic Lean Burn were much too little too late, not unlike the EcoBoost Falcon.

One could argue that that was because Chrysler USA was going down the gurgler in the late 1970s; but then perhaps in this day & age, it's the GFC and the various ways in which that has hit the US, not to mention they've had a few domestic crises themselves in recent years.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

In most places the FPV dealer is the Ford dealer, and they share floor space with the "normal" Falcons. Do they have separate dealerships in some places...?

You could be right there. Probably not a terribly accurate thing for me to say then. But whether every Ford dealer is an FPV dealer is a bit of a question mark for me. Whenever I've been to a Ford dealer there didn't appear to be any FPV promotion anywhere. If you go to the Ford website and want FPV it directs you to another website with a disclaimer saying that you are leaving the Ford website. FPV and Ford virtually operate as separate companies.

Anyway what people seem to have missed is that if you buy a Ford you aren't buying some big gas guzzling car. If you want a V8 you have to buy FPV, but in the main the I6 is a very economical engine, especially when you look at its output. What the press deliberately forget is the Ecoboost 4cyl Falcon, which pulls like a train yet sips its drinks. When they talk about the Euro 5 and 6 requirements and that the I6 doesn't qualify and has to be replaced, they forget that the EcoLPi engine is already Euro 6 compliant. My thoughts are that the I6, if it was direct injected would have passed Euro 5.

But some may say that the Territory in petrol form is a gas guzzler. I say it's a 2 tonne car that is very economical. Toyota has big cars too. The Kluger is a big car too with similar fuel consumption to the Territory, but no one goes, "Oh Toyota, the company that makes big gas guzzling cars". Toyota's are "economical" to the knockers.

Then there's Holden with the biggest engines of them all.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by block58

Back in the days when Ford NA appreciated the Falcon...

http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mell...2573F300206152

I like that review.

It's that sort of passion that the CEO had that should be instilled into the dealers.

I know I come across as a bit of a dealer knocker (and there is bound to be some great dealers out there) but I've not met one who has come across passionate for the product. I once talked to a dealer about the Ecoboost Falcon "looking interesting" and the guy basically said to me that he's not interested at all in it. Sort of said I hope it falls through, doesn't happen, words to that effect. How can you sell a product like that?

[stevz]

Originally Posted by block58

Back in the days when Ford NA appreciated the Falcon...

http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mell...2573F300206152

Highly ironic when it was probably Mullaly who orchestrated the closure of Ford Australia.

[Franco Cozzo]

Essendon Ford has the FPV logo on their dealership, but they aren't actually a licensed FPV dealer.

The owners were looking into it when the dealership was being built, but apparently they had to pay some sort of fee to FPV to sell their cars (?) and it wasn't worth it.

But the sign was already up on the dealership.

Hence why they have the sign, but not the cars.

[Bonn]

Originally Posted by TMC

I like that review.

It's that sort of passion that the CEO had that should be instilled into the dealers.

I know I come across as a bit of a dealer knocker (and there is bound to be some great dealers out there) but I've not met one who has come across passionate for the product. I once talked to a dealer about the Ecoboost Falcon "looking interesting" and the guy basically said to me that he's not interested at all in it. Sort of said I hope it falls through, doesn't happen, words to that effect. How can you sell a product like that?

Can't argue with that. A Ford salesman talked us out of getting a Falcon wagon (BF III) when he could have offered to pimp it up. My brother's work always got Futura wagons, and their dealer optioned up an XT to suit - but alas, their local dealer recently got bought by a Toyota franchise who couldn't handle the competition so guess what? He's going to have to have a Holden for the first time after XB, XF, XG, AU, BA, BF's galore (not counting his teenage LJ)......some work to be done there.

My FG came from a newly established family Ford dealer, after their local Ford franchise was similarly gobbled up, and the service could not be better- i.e. warranty honoring after max kms reached, etc etc - that's the stuff that keeps you loyal.

[Fab]

Great article by Ken Gratton......

http://carsales.mobi/news/2013/large...d-falcon-36772

[Bonn]

Originally Posted by Hietbrink

For all the upset members, I liken this to a niche car market. We enthusiasts always go for the 'Exclusive' models such as Ghia, G6 XR6 Turbo, XR8 FPV etc...

For these buyers, much like Ferrari and Lamborghini buyers, which also aren't manufactured in Australia, we will still get what we want, and I truly beleive we will still have the goosebumps and raised heart rates from the models to be imported here.

Just imagine Boss Mustangs or differently styled Mustang powered sedans?

I think the Boss and Turbo cars will live on...

image

The voice of reason!
This is a particularly enthusiastic market sector for performance (which makes the current V8SC series so frustrating) but nevertheless, if we have good muscley V8s (& Turbos if you must) to perv on in the garage, whilst downing a cold/hot one, or to take out and put HSVs away - that may well ease the pain. XTs and G6s aren't exactly setting any sales figure records, but the major rental companies seem to gravitate toward XR6s, so there's hope for the Aussie psyche.
"Bathurst - it's who we are"
(please can an FG win Bathurst?? Pretty please?)

[Fowl Can]

Originally Posted by dom_105

I've really got nothing further to add to what's already been said in this thread, except that I've been laid off in the recent past when a large organisation in this company disappeared up it's own ****, and it was horrible.

My thoughts first and foremost are with the workers at Broady and Geelong.

I identify with all of that; in at least two instances of my being laid off, it was promptly after the US parent company swept through the place, determining where the scalpel was to be brandished.

I realise businesses have to be run, but when it's your job being slashed from under you, it's not nice to be on the receiving end

As others have remarked, it is at least a small consolation that the Ford workers have as much notice as they do. All too often these days workers arrive for yet another shift to find that overnight their job & their employer have simply imploded into a black hole....

[Bonn]

Originally Posted by Fowl Can

All too often these days workers arrive for yet another shift to find that overnight their job & their employer have simply imploded into a black hole....

..or Friday knock-off time - effing cretins