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Ford Falcon Finished

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"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!
 
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)
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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.
 
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.
 

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.
 
nulla nulla said:
while Ford was (and still is) able to stand on it's own feet.
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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.
 
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.
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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
 
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.
 
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.
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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
 
Macquack said:
My first car was the XR Falcon, have had an XF.
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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.
 
awg said:
I had an XF...had to replace the door handles AT LEAST 10 times,
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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
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A socket and extension through the inner door panel was easier.
awg said:
engine leaked oil like a sieve from every orifice
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Never had any oil leaks.
awg said:
then got stolen again, whilst unregistered.
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Good reliable car to steal and the door handles were in high demand.
 
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...
 
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.
 

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?

 

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.
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Been tried but no serious investors.

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

Heres the web site
http://www.joss.com.au/
 
Macquack said:
Yes, but the handles on cost $20 and I learned quickly to be very gentle opening the doors.
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haha yes exactly $20

me to, not so mrs and kiddies


Macquack said:
A socket and extension through the inner door panel was easier.
Click to expand...


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

Macquack said:
Never had any oil leaks.
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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.
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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
 

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

cheers
Surly
 
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