1971 Ford F250 Reviews

Ford is considering launching the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) version of its acclaimed Transit Custom in Australia – and in the near future at that.

After the locally converted Ford F-150 was removed from sale in Australia to address non-compliance issues, the Department of Infrastructure has officially released a series of recalls for the American-built pick-up truck. The recalls concern lighting features and the autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system. Owners will be contacted and can then organise the issues to be rectified at Ford dealerships.Those who took delivery of, or were contracted before, May 6, 2024 are being offered compensation in the form of a five-year/75,000km servicing package. According to the recall notices, the total number of affected vehicles is 2070. Industry sales data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries shows 1085 F-150s have been registered since going on sale in October 2023. Ford promises all vehicles sold from now on at dealers will be fully compliant with Australian Design Rules (ADRs), with the Chevrolet Silverado, RAM 1500 and Toyota Tundra rival now installed back on the Ford Australia website. Each recall concerns one of the four F-150 variants on sale: XLT standard ($106,950) and long wheelbase ($107,945) models along with the Lariat in both wheelbases ($139,950 and $140,945, all before on-road costs).For lighting, the F-150 is not compliant with ADR 06/00-Direction Indicators and ADR 13-Installation of Lighting and Light-signalling Devices. The recalls list issues with the ‘fog lamps’, ‘daytime running lamps’ and ‘indicators’.Ford’s website notes that the ‘rear centre high-mounted white courtesy lamps’, ‘tailgate courtesy lamp’ and ‘side mirror mounted indicator lamps (LWB only)’ have been disabled on the XLT, while the Lariat also has its ‘lower daytime running lamps’ turned off. Additionally, the F-150 was determined in breach of ADR 98-Advanced Emergency Braking for Passenger Vehicles and Light Goods Vehicles. The issue being that the AEB function “may not reactivate after an ignition cycle as per the requirements set out under ADR 98”.A Ford spokesperson told CarsGuide “Repair instructions relating to vehicles impacted by the Stop Sale are now being made available to enable dealers to complete work on impacted units. After the rectification work is completed on each vehicle, it can be delivered to the customer.”So far, the F-150 has been hit by three product safety recalls and two sales pauses in less than 12 months. US-built F-150s are converted locally by partner RMA automotive. RAM and Chevrolet products are also swapped to right-hand drive and revised for Australian standards locally by Walkinshaw, while Toyota is running an extended evaluation program on its Tundra pick-up. The facelifted F-150 went on sale in its United States home market in September 2023 and is expected in Australia by the end of the year. 

Australia's ever-booming new car market has hit a bump in the road, with the June sales result recording the industry's first year-on-year decline in around 16 months.

It seems like the blink of an eye but Ford’s current, all-conquering Ranger ute has been on sale in the Australian new-car market for two years.

Ford not only plans to keep selling petrol and diesel powered vehicles but has also declared none of them will be boring.

The Ford Mustang GT is headed Down Under by the end of 2024, but we got a sneak preview. We hit the road in Paris, France to find out if this new V8-powered pony car remains a true muscle car despite its hi-tech upgrades.

Give the people what they want. It sounds simple enough, as long as you know what people are going to want before they want it.

A recent trademark filing by Ford Group Philippines, registering a ‘Super Duty’ version of the Ranger dual cab ute, validates CarsGuide’s local insider tip that the heavy-hauling variant of Australia’s top-selling vehicle will come to this market in a 2025-26 mid-cycle model refresh.As reported by Ford Authority, Ford has filed to trademark Ranger Super Duty with the Intellectual Property Office Of The Philippines (IPOPHL).With the XLS-based Tremor, an entry-level off-roader, set as a mid-life update addition to the Australian line-up (filling the shoes of the previous-gen Ranger’s hard-working FX4 grade) CarsGuide understands the Super Duty’s spec will likely follow the lead of its larger F-Series Super Duty cousins in the USA.Maybe not the dual-wheel rear axle of the big-bopper F-450 but almost certainly upgraded suspension and greater payload capacity in the style of its F-250/F-350 siblings.At the same time, commercially-focused additions like on-board scales, push-button ‘Pro Trailer Hitch Assist’ and ‘Trailer Navigation’ (drive route adaptation based on trailer width and height clearances) are also possibilities.According to our inside sources, the focus will be on hard-working commercial capability rather than the Ranger Wildtrak or flagship Raptor’s off-road prowess.But how far a Ranger Super Duty stretches towards a genuine heavy-duty version of the popular dual cab ute remains to be seen with ADR compliance on things like towing hardware relative to Gross Vehicle Mass and Gross Combined Mass key factors in the local certification process.Stay tuned for more details as the Ranger’s inevitable 2025 mid-life update draws closer.

New-vehicle manufacturing will never return to Australia – at least not as we knew it. Setting up full-scale production of a new car – as we saw with the Holden Commodore or Ford Territory – would be a $2 billion exercise today, says Engineering Director and Premcar partner Bernie Quinn. Having been involved with Ford’s FPV program and Premcar’s latest remanufacturing operation producing Australian-focused off-road capable Nissan Navara and Patrol Warriors, Quinn is intimately aware of the challenges.When CarsGuide asked about the viability of a full-on new-vehicle program, Quinn summed it up simply: “That’s not where the future lies. That would be awesome, but I just don’t think that’s going to happen.“What we are proposing – and what we’re doing – is secondary manufacturing. Taking global products which have been manufactured in low-cost countries, like Thailand, and adapting those to the Australian market. “There’s no reason why that can’t apply to EVs. And there’s no reason why that couldn’t apply to an EV conversion of a dual-cab ute, for example,” says Quinn.You might have spotted the ROEV project that had aspirations of taking HiLuxes and Rangers and converting them to electric vehicles – Premcar was involved on the engineering side. “We were working with ROEV but they’ve since changed their strategy and they’re not going to go ahead with that conversion.”ROEV has pivoted into artificial intelligence-driven software that can predict the most efficient vehicle type and powertrain for certain use cases. But Bernie still sees a future in localisation projects.“There’s 20,000 dual-cab utes in the Pilbara. The companies that work in the mining industry in the Pilbara have ESG requirements – corporate requirements – that are beyond government legislation.“So if they want to say ‘we’ve got to be all-electric by 2030’, well, there’s no vehicle that can do that. How would you service that market? Well, you might do an EV conversion. That’s what that project was all about,” explains Quinn. He notes that it would cost “a few million” to service that demand, far less than the $2 billion to engineer and produce a ground-up vehicle here. Only LDV offers a basic electric ute in Australia with manufacturers like Toyota and Ford dragging their heels on this type of vehicle. And when Australian vehicle manufacturing ended for good in October 2017 with the final Holden Commodore ‘VF II’ the people with knowledge didn’t necessarily disappear from the scene. Many remain here, now being employed by companies such as Premcar, Walkinshaw and RMA automotive to work on conversions, upgrades and localisation programs.Premcar has delivered 10,000 Warriors since 2018, while EV ute conversions have gone a little quiet, although SEA electric is still around.In simple terms, Australian manufacturing isn’t dead. The future just looks very different to Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons.

The latest Ford Mustang is already the most extreme and diverse yet, stretching from the 2.3-litre four-cylinder EcoBoost offerings all the way to the supercar-rivalling, racing-inspired GTD - but this is only the beginning.