# Ford Falcon Finished



## Garpal Gumnut (12 January 2010)

It would appear that the Ford Falcon and all its family of cars is finished under the globalisation plan of the Ford Company.

Thus all cars will probably be primarily made in the US or cheap overseas countries and each brand will be distributed globally.

There will be no more local brands for local markets such as the Falcon.

This is a major blow to the local Ford operation.

http://smh.drive.com.au/motor-news/end-of-the-road-nears-for-falcon-20100112-m334.html?autostart=1

I haven't driven a Ford for over ten years but believe there have been problems with some of their brand in relation to quality, breakdowns and customer service.

gg


----------



## Dowdy (12 January 2010)

Geelong will turn into Detroit if this happens but it's a good business decision.

If i was a shareholder, i'd be happy


----------



## nunthewiser (12 January 2010)

Might be time to grab a brand new GT for the shed then m8.


----------



## Garpal Gumnut (12 January 2010)

nunthewiser said:


> Might be time to grab a brand new GT for the shed then m8.




My thoughts exactly, great minds think alike mate.

gg


----------



## sam76 (12 January 2010)

most cabs you see on the road are Ford.

it's becasue they last.


----------



## nunthewiser (12 January 2010)

Garpal Gumnut said:


> My thoughts exactly, great minds think alike mate.
> 
> gg





I,ll grab my handbag and meet ya in Geelong.


----------



## Macquack (12 January 2010)

My first car was the XR Falcon, have had an XD, XF, XH utilities and now drive a BA XR6 Turbo Ute.

Long live the Falcon.


----------



## nunthewiser (12 January 2010)

sam76 said:


> most cabs you see on the road are Ford.
> 
> it's becasue they last.





Easy to pop the dents out of also


----------



## Smurf1976 (12 January 2010)

I've long thought that the Australian car industry needs to shift to building something other than mass produced mid price sedans. We're just not going to compete with the Chinese etc in that market.

In all seriousness, I'd like to see the "average Australian car" be one that the average Australian can't afford to buy. Make cars that sell internationally for $200,000 and the issues of production costs in Australia, wages, regulations etc versus China are overcome. Keep building $30,000 cars for the mass market and we'll lose the battle.

Compete with the Italians or Germans, not China. The latter will simply send us broke.


----------



## GumbyLearner (12 January 2010)

Hopefully Geely and Tata will make better doors and seals than those on the old Falc's.


----------



## nioka (12 January 2010)

I bought one of the first Ford falcons produced and a new one every 2 years for 30 years. Then I got a dud and a friend quoted "If you cant afford a Dodge, dodge a Ford"


----------



## Macquack (12 January 2010)

Smurf1976 said:


> In all seriousness, I'd like to see the "average Australian car" be one that the average Australian can't afford to buy. Make cars that sell internationally for $200,000.....
> Compete with the Italians or Germans, not China.




I agree that Australia should produce a world class supercar and I would be prepared to donate to the cause. 

However, to think we could compete against the likes of Lamborghini, Ferrari, Mercedes, BMW and Porsche is but a distant dream.


----------



## So_Cynical (12 January 2010)

I mite be able to afford a nice beach front place in Geelong....robots wont be happy as it will hold back the median Victorian house price.


----------



## Old Mate (13 January 2010)

I'm more of a holden man, but I like falcons as well. In particular I'd love to have one of those new G6E turbos, very nice cars indeed. Sorry to hear they're stopping production.


----------



## stevenc (13 January 2010)

Its a shame that the car companies/governments went different ways in regards to which side of the road to drive on. I couldnt imagine the costs involved in trying to design and market cars to drive on the opposite side to their normal market. 
Anyway back to the Falcon they could build them on the moon and I still wouldnt buy one.


----------



## Beej (13 January 2010)

Macquack said:


> I agree that Australia should produce a world class supercar and I would be prepared to donate to the cause.
> 
> However, to think we could compete against the likes of Lamborghini, Ferrari, Mercedes, BMW and Porsche is but a distant dream.




Maybe not Ferrari etc, but the EU badged versions of some of the Holden/ HSV models (like the Monaro based hi-po GTO Coupe, and the Clubsport R8 etc), have certainly done well in the UK/middle east etc when pitched against cars like the BMW M5 and similar. They are priced/marketed as slightly cheaper/better value versions of those hi-po German sedans.

Cheers,

Beej


----------



## Mofra (13 January 2010)

So_Cynical said:


> I mite be able to afford a nice beach front place in Geelong....robots wont be happy as it will hold back the median Victorian house price.



Robots wouldn't notice as he would just switch to the St kilda median house price figures & keep posting.

I drive a falcon at the moment, haven't had a single problem with the car. It seems inevitable that with single-country manufacturing in lowly populated countries the struggle against economies of scale will be a losing battle. 
Vale Falcon but that's progress.


----------



## Timmy (13 January 2010)

Only one Ford in my past - a Falcon.  Loved it, no problems.  Still some time to go before they are finished, so might get one of the last ones.


----------



## manuelg (13 January 2010)

Smurf1976 said:


> I've long thought that the Australian car industry needs to shift to building something other than mass produced mid price sedans. We're just not going to compete with the Chinese etc in that market.
> QUOTE]
> 
> Not that i wouldn't love to see an aussie supercar, but the thing thats always baffled me is reluctance to build mid-size sedans in australia.  Imagine if either holden or ford were willing to build quality rear-wheel drive mid-size sedans (a la bmw 3 series, c-class mercedes or lexus is250).
> ...


----------



## Trembling Hand (13 January 2010)

About time. The Aussie car industry is still around because its a tax on every Australian. Costing us billions in Tariffs and "assistance". Now because of the gutless pollies unable to say "no, stand on your own two feet" the industry has be left behind producing cars that are only wanted by the westies, ironically the same ones that cannot afford such poorly made inefficient rattle buckets.

And the billions that could of gone into innovation and new industries has been wasted!


----------



## swm79 (13 January 2010)

Trembling Hand said:


> About time. The Aussie car industry is still around because its a tax on every Australian. Costing us billions in Tariffs and "assistance". Now because of the gutless pollies unable to say "no, stand on your own two feet" the industry has be left behind producing cars that are only wanted by the westies, ironically the same ones that cannot afford such poorly made inefficient rattle buckets.
> 
> And the billions that could of gone into innovation and new industries has been wasted!




"Such is (the moronic Australian Govt way of) Life"

how do you stop govt's from being stupid? 

if they dumped ford they might get a bit of an uproar and lose a few votes but they'd save us millions.... hmmm.... what is greater - the $$$s or the votes?.... surely they put a price tag on votes... e.g. $2,000,000 = 10,000 votes.... wonder how much ford would cost them?

how about doing something smart and getting rid of thr redundant state govt... in this day and age what is it there for???? does anyone know? can anyone find a valid point to keep them around????...... but we will.... in perpetuity.... and we'll pay handsomely for it too!


----------



## nunthewiser (13 January 2010)

Looks like me, GG and Timmy are the only geniuses here .


----------



## Smurf1976 (13 January 2010)

manuelg said:


> Changing perceptions and rising fuel prices will all but kill our current large, overweight family cars. (good excuse to revive the torana namplate too)



Think about it. We're trying to produce inherently uneconomical vehicles, on a relatively small scale and using high cost labour. That puts us at the "expensive" end of the car industry except that our cars don't actually sell for a high price.

Either make them good enough to command a premium price or start building something that is inherently more economical. I just can't see too much of a future in what we're doing now - not good enough for the rich, too expensive for the rest. We're in the middle of nowhere.


----------



## nulla nulla (13 January 2010)

It is amazing how the Ford versus General Motors "discussion" always drags out the trolls, quick to tell us how General Motors (and their product) is so much better than Ford. 
Interestingly though, it was General Motors that went Bankrupt and had to be bailed out by the U.S. government, while Ford was (and still is) able to stand on it's own feet.


----------



## Boggo (13 January 2010)

Trembling Hand said:


> About time. The Aussie car industry is still around because its a tax on every Australian. Costing us billions in Tariffs and "assistance". Now because of the gutless pollies unable to say "no, stand on your own two feet" the industry has be left behind producing cars that are only wanted by the westies, ironically the same ones that cannot afford such poorly made inefficient rattle buckets.
> 
> And the billions that could of gone into innovation and new industries has been wasted!




Precisely, in SA the government just kept on pouring millions of taxpayers dollars into mitsubishi while roads and infrastructure was (and still is) in decline.
The big saviour was going to be the 380, naturally the thing was a debacle and then mitsubishi just shut up shop.

To add insult to injury the SA government then 'bought' the now disused plant from mitsubishi for $32.5 million, thats after they had given them over $300 million since 2001 to keep them running.

What a joke, why make crappy taxpayer funded cars in Australia, everyone is paying for them.


----------



## Trembling Hand (13 January 2010)

nulla nulla said:


> while Ford was (and still is) able to stand on it's own feet.




HARDLY!!!!

What about the billions in tariffs, special innovation schemes, tax concession, training grants, "assistance packages" the list goes on and on and on. If they had to stand on their own feet they would be gone long time ago.


----------



## Garpal Gumnut (13 January 2010)

Trembling Hand said:


> HARDLY!!!!
> 
> What about the billions in tariffs, special innovation schemes, tax concession, training grants, "assistance packages" the list goes on and on and on. If they had to stand on their own feet they would be gone long time ago.




I have posted elsewhere on the large subsidies that our taxes are spent on supporting ailing industries, in the rust bucket states, of SA, NSW and Victoria.

It is an utter waste. 

These people could get jobs in Queensland or WA or the NT or in the Defence Forces. Their suburbs are a disgrace full of grime and crime.

We can no longer afford to support a car making industry in Australia imho.

gg


----------



## Trembling Hand (13 January 2010)

Garpal Gumnut said:


> I have posted elsewhere on the large subsidies that our taxes are spent on supporting ailing industries, in the rust bucket states, of SA, NSW and Victoria.
> 
> It is an utter waste.
> 
> ...



Yes gg I believe we could all come up there and set up latte' carts and basket weaving lessons on the banks of the wild rivers when Abbott come into power.


----------



## Boggo (13 January 2010)

Garpal Gumnut said:


> These people could get jobs in *Gods waiting room* or WA or the NT or in the Defence Forces. Their suburbs are a disgrace full of grime and crime.
> 
> gg




That's what you really meant wasn't it gg


----------



## Garpal Gumnut (13 January 2010)

Trembling Hand said:


> Yes gg I believe we could all come up there and set up latte' carts and basket weaving lessons on the banks of the wild rivers when Abbott come into power.




Not a bad idea TH.

Many of our councils, resorts and transport services cannot find enough workers to be garbos, waiters and bus drivers, as our young people all want to earn $120,000 plus in the mining or building sectors.

Perhaps we could have a system that rust bucket migrants could serve a year or two in these jobs before being eligible to work in the better paying jobs our youth manage to get.

But first the people down south need to give up these useless tax payer subsidised jobs like building Mitsubishis or Fords.

gg


----------



## Garpal Gumnut (13 January 2010)

Boggo said:


> That's what you really meant wasn't it gg




I've been to Adelaide for a few test matches, and it looks more like God's consulting room, never mind a waiting room.

gg


----------



## awg (13 January 2010)

Macquack said:


> My first car was the XR Falcon, have had an XF.




I had an XF...had to replace the door handles AT LEAST 10 times, specially the drivers door, used to just snap off in yr hand, carried a spare in the glovebox and a 6mm spanner

worst engineered auto part I ever seen

got very quick at doing this akward job.

engine leaked oil like a sieve from every orifice

got stolen but broke down on them, cause they couldnt figure my bypassed busted ignition switch wiring, then got stolen again, whilst unregistered.


----------



## Macquack (13 January 2010)

awg said:


> I had an XF...had to replace the door handles AT LEAST 10 times,



Yes, but the handles on cost $20 and I learned quickly to be very gentle opening the doors.


awg said:


> carried a spare in the glovebox and a 6mm spanner



A socket and extension through the inner door panel was easier.


awg said:


> engine leaked oil like a sieve from every orifice



Never had any oil leaks.


awg said:


> then got stolen again, whilst unregistered.



Good reliable car to steal and the door handles were in high demand.


----------



## Smurf1976 (13 January 2010)

awg said:


> I had an XF...had to replace the door handles AT LEAST 10 times, specially the drivers door, used to just snap off in yr hand, carried a spare in the glovebox and a 6mm spanner
> 
> worst engineered auto part I ever seen
> 
> ...



Had the door handle problem in a much newer Falcon. Basically if someone tried to open from the outside at the same time you opened the door from the inside, it would break the mechanism and then the door wouldn't stay closed at all - effectively making the car un-driveable.

It's a scenario that is entirely possible in normal use, especially if you have kids. You go to open the door, someone does the same thing on the other side and that breaks it. I've never heard of this problem happening with any other car.

As for the engine oil, think of the convenience. If it keeps leaking out then you don't need to do oil changes, just keep filling it up! We used to have a truck like that at work - it got about 150km to the tank of fuel (!) and always needed 1 or 2 litres of oil each time it was filled up. 

That was back in the days when they had oil bottles next to petrol pumps so at least it wasn't a major hassle. Not sure where the oil actually went, we never found an obvious leak and when following in another vehicle it didn't seem to be going out the exhaust either (not that we actually had a proper exhaust pipe on it, but that's another story - let's just say times weren't good, the company didn't have a lot of $, so we tended to improvise a bit keeping things going...). But it sure did use a lot of oil, we just never really knew where it was going. 

Back to the Falcon. What really worries me is the decline of Australian manufacturing in general. What happens when there's a war? It will happen someday, that's the lesson of history, and at this rate we'll totally lack even basic manufacturing in this country by that time. Good luck defending ourselves with a few lumps of coal and iron ore when the other side, whoever that might be, has factories making things. We'll be totally stuffed...


----------



## theasxgorilla (14 January 2010)

Remember that "free trade" in it's purest form seems largely to be a myth.  Everyone is getting a free lunch, on the other hand, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

The French subsidise their farmers, the UK nationalises it's banks, and the US brings 1 trillion USD of stimulous funding to bear on it's economy, on demand.  The Chinese certainly play by a different set of rules.  

I don't think globalisation has been in existence long enough to conclude that the net-benefit of killing national icons is good for the long term well being of a nation.  This must be particularly relevant for a country as thin on culture as our own. The Ford Falcon has an identity value.  In 2005-06 official gov stats motorsport was the fourth most popular sport in terms of crowd attendence.  We (Australians) love this stuff.


----------



## Aussiejeff (14 January 2010)

Smurf1976 said:


> What really worries me is the decline of Australian manufacturing in general. What happens when there's a war? It will happen someday, that's the lesson of history, and at this rate we'll totally lack even basic manufacturing in this country by that time. *Good luck defending ourselves with a few lumps of coal and iron ore when the other side, whoever that might be, has factories making things. We'll be totally stuffed... *




Naah.... who needs manufacturing?

Our dutiful overlords the Chimericandians will stand resolutely by our sorry side and supply us with ALL our needs - as they almost entirely do now - for the continuation of our blissful existence...

*poof*

Oh, was I dreaming?


----------



## moXJO (14 January 2010)

Smurf1976 said:


> I've long thought that the Australian car industry needs to shift to building something other than mass produced mid price sedans. We're just not going to compete with the Chinese etc in that market.
> 
> In all seriousness, I'd like to see the "average Australian car" be one that the average Australian can't afford to buy. Make cars that sell internationally for $200,000 and the issues of production costs in Australia, wages, regulations etc versus China are overcome. Keep building $30,000 cars for the mass market and we'll lose the battle.
> 
> Compete with the Italians or Germans, not China. The latter will simply send us broke.






Macquack said:


> I agree that Australia should produce a world class supercar and I would be prepared to donate to the cause.
> 
> However, to think we could compete against the likes of Lamborghini, Ferrari, Mercedes, BMW and Porsche is but a distant dream.




Been tried but no serious investors.

http://www.motorauthority.com/blog/1028250_the-demise-of-the-aussie-supercar


> The Australian built Joss supercar prototype is on sale for only $180,000, a fraction of the $2m+ it cost to build. The designer, builder and owner of the Joss supercar, Matt Thomas, has said he has exhausted all avenues to build a production model in Australia and is selling off the prototype to raise money and look at possible production partners in Europe.




Heres the web site
http://www.joss.com.au/


----------



## awg (14 January 2010)

Macquack said:


> Yes, but the handles on cost $20 and I learned quickly to be very gentle opening the doors.





haha yes exactly $20

me to, not so mrs and kiddies




Macquack said:


> A socket and extension through the inner door panel was easier.





yes, you are so correct, with just the right length xtension is what made the job quick 



Macquack said:


> Never had any oil leaks.





long story, got a Higginbottoms rebuilt, leaked front and rear mains, sump, rocker covers and other places.



Macquack said:


> Good reliable car to steal and the door handles were in high demand.




I actually liked the car, was our family car for years.

The design flaw with the handle was twofold.

Insufficient thickness and poor design of the external alloy casting, leading to a stress crack.

Very poor design and material quality of the internal actuation mechanism, leading to premature wear, causing the operator to exert increasingly more force, with predictable results.

If I was an automotive engineeer, I sure wouldnt want that on my CV


----------



## Surly (14 January 2010)

awg said:


> The design flaw with the handle was twofold.
> 
> Insufficient thickness and poor design of the external alloy casting, leading to a stress crack.
> 
> ...




"Ohhh you designed the XD-XF series door handle...we need you to design our new AU Falcon!"

cheers
Surly


----------



## MACCA350 (14 January 2010)

> Ford Falcon Finished



'Bout time:


----------



## Go Nuke (17 January 2010)

I saw this story and couldn't believe it.

Quite frankly I think it would be business SUICIDE to just make 1 model of Ford for Aus. And to make it worse....they said it would be posslible a Taurus...omg....are they kidding?

Suicide Ford......

Australians WON'T get over their love of rear wheel drive cars..no way...just look at the Falcon F6...awesome car...and for the record I drive a Holden ( though first car was a 1970 XW )


----------



## Trembling Hand (18 January 2010)

Go Nuke said:


> Australians WON'T get over their love of rear wheel drive cars..no way...




What hub cap have you been hiding under? They already have. Although the Commodore is still the highest selling individual model in Oz as a category they are not the most popular. Games over. Move on.


----------



## theasxgorilla (18 January 2010)

Go Nuke said:


> *Australians WON'T get over their love of rear wheel drive cars..no way...*just look at the Falcon F6...awesome car...and for the record I drive a Holden ( though first car was a 1970 XW )




I know I won't!  BMWs will have to suffice over this side of the world, but I'd have a Commodore given the choice... seriously.


----------



## Airfireman (18 January 2010)

Ford have been struggling for years now,,,i worry about all the workers at Ford plants,,they will be chewing their finger nails on a decision that will certainly cost jobs.....


----------

