Ford Falcon 2008 News

Most of the country's popular makes have shed sales during April.The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries' monthly market bulletin, to be released tomorrow, will reveal a 7.7 per cent contraction on March sales.More vehicles have been sold this year to date than last year, but the 84,296 new cars and trucks sold in April is almost 7000 sales down on March.This reverse follows record results for January and February this year and in 2007, when more than a million cars sold for the first time in a calendar year.“We're seeing the impact of all the interest-rate hikes, the continuing surge in fuel prices and the huge slump in consumer confidence,” AMP economist Shane Oliver said.“Car sales have held up pretty well, but all those factors are starting to catch up.“People can put off a decision to buy a car, but they can't put off rent or food or health.”The worst news is for local car-makers. Holden sold 650 fewer Commodores in April than in March. The company's mainstay car is 5000 units down for the year to date, compared with the same period in 2007.The one-time market leader was outsold by Toyota's Corolla, with 3722 of the imported four-cylinder compacts sold during April compared with the Commodore's 3325 sales.Toyota also lost sales, but extended its market lead. With almost 21,000 sales, it sold more than twice as many vehicles of all models as second-placed Holden.Toyota's Yaris, Camry, Aurion and HiLux models, as well as the Corolla, were among the 10 most popular models.Ford, whose new Falcon goes on sale soon, was third, with 8246 sales — its worst result.Mazda was next with 6749, then Mitsubishi on 5014.Ford and Holden's fortunes rely on large V6s, which continue to decline in popularity.The only Ford- or Holden-badged cars to improve sales during March were the Focus andthe Astra, both made in Europe and fitted with economical, four-cylinder petrol or diesel engines.Each of the top five makes lost about 1000 sales in April, but sales remain ahead of the corresponding period last year.A total of 347,749 new vehicles were sold to April 30, compared with 330,682 during the first four months of 2007.New-car sales had been forecast to pass the million mark again this year, but Mr Oliver said this was now unlikely.“Big-ticket discretionary items will be sacrificed, whether it's flat-screen TVs or cars,” he said.“The only thing that will help is tax cuts, but I would say they will be swamped by all these other factors.” VEHICLES SOLD IN THE PAST TWO MONTHS...........................March .... AprilToyota ............ 21,669 ... 20,842Holden ............ 11,203 ... 10,193Ford ............... 9206 ...... 8246Mazda ............ 7565 ...... 6749Mitsubishi ....... 6177 ...... 5014Other makes ... 35,465 ... 33,252Total new passenger vehicle sales of all makes........................ March .... April........................ 91,285 ... 84,296 (-7.7 %) 

Osborne, who took over two months ago, confirms a diesel engine, almost certainly a reworked version of the PSA group's unit used by Peugeot, Jaguar and Land Rover, will be dropped into Falcons and Territorys in 2010. He says development of the FG Falcon is too far advanced to initiate any diesel program to be ready for the May 1 launch. “I think the team made the right decision to delay introduction (of diesel) so we can get our calibration process right,” he says. “Generally speaking, we like to have two full summers and winters to do calibration work and that allows us to launch a quality powertrain with excellent calibration. In the end if you rush stuff to market you risk quality.” Osborne, as with most in the industry, has concerns about the family-car segment — in free-fall and under pressure chiefly from small cars and SUVs. “In all honesty I'm not that worried about the product but I'm a little worried about the segment,” he says. “Our goal is to have the FG Falcon ready to revitalise the segment and then bring in more fuel-efficient powertrains.” Ford is hoping to find export markets for the Falcon but the new offering first needs to be a fashionable car again on home soil before those export plans are swung into action. However, Osborne believes the new car is good enough to take on the world. Serious discussions about the export potential of the Falcon have been simmering since Osborne took on his new role as Ford Australia president two months ago. With the Commodore now being sold in the US after its huge acceptance in the Middle Eastern markets from the late 1990s, among other regions such as South America, Osborne says the new Falcon is good enough to hold its own anywhere. “I strongly believe that it is a car for all markets,” says Osborne, who was formerly based in Canada. “I came to Australia without any preconceptions about Falcon whatsoever. The minute I drove the FG my first reaction was that we should be selling it around the world.” Ford's head of global product development visited Australia this week, with Osborne outlining specific details about Falcon's export potential. “We should be trying to promote this vehicle in China and I think it would be the perfect vehicle platform for making luxury brands in the US,” he says. “Those are the discussions that I am trying to engage in now.”  

 Geoff Polites Motoring executiveBorn: Melbourne, November 3, 1947Died: Melbourne, April 20, 2008.Geoffrey (Geoff) Polites rode the many peaks and troughs as the highest ranking executive of Ford Australia and as a dealer principal for the blue oval company.At the start of his tenure at the controls of Ford, after selling out of his City Ford dealership in Sydney in 1999, Mr Polites faced the challenge of turning the company around.At the time no one in the car world wanted to be in his shoes, except for Geoff himself, because he relished a challenge and was fixated on accomplishing a mission many of his contemporaries thought to be impossible.The ugly duckling AU Falcon was unwanted in the market and the future of Australia's longest running nameplate was in jeopardy.It took a stroke of genius by Mr Polites to smooth over the ills of the AU, which took a hammering in the showroom.When the BA Falcon emerged for the first drive and appraisals around the Grampians region in Victoria in 2003, he was roundly applauded for what was critically acclaimed as a damn good fix.The BA — code-named Barra — was the facelift that could not come quick enough as the droopy and sad rear of the AU was reflected in Ford's decline in market share. More importantly, it was not just any facelift, it was one which had to work otherwise Ford Australia's much loved nameplate was at risk of falling off the automotive chart.For Mr Polites, the success of the BA was a fair measure of his ability to fix problems and he was duly rewarded by FoMoCo bosses in Detroit.He became known as the “Mr Fixit” of the Ford world, something which would take him to Europe and Britain, where he weaved more magic, helping to lift Jaguar and Land Rover back to profitability.Sales of the BA were an endorsement of his Midas touch, with the Falcon beating the Commodore for the first time for six years in September 2003 in a monumental showroom turnaround.Mr Polites had pulled the company back from one of its darkest periods. But he wasn't finished there — he never was finished really, dedicated to the cause to the end.He reaffirmed Ford's commitment to the biggest motor racing series in the country — V8 Supercars — and was responsible for the birth of the Falcon-based Territory, which has done swift business for Ford among the SUV crowd.And that icon of all Falcon derivatives — the GT — made a comeback under his command.He was passionate and tireless about the car business, which did not diminish, even in his battle with bowel cancer which ultimately claimed his life after a two-year battle.After being handed the task of running Ford in Europe, based out of Cologne in Germany in 2004, he then became chief executive of Jaguar and Land Rover in the United Kingdom.He was living in England but had recently returned to Australia for the birth of his first grandchild, Zoe, who was born on April 16, but soon after arriving he became critically ill.It was his dedication to the profession of the car business and his love of cars which injected a good dose of passion back into Ford Australia, something which filtered down through a born-again product range.He once said of his Falcon GT company car, “I drive at 60km/h on cruise control and I still feel good.”Educated at Cheltenham High in Melbourne, he gained a first-class honours degree in economics at Monash University and, after completing an academic career, joined Ford Australia as a product planner in 1970.In 1975, after training in the US and Europe, he assumed the role of marketing plans and research manager. He was appointed general sales manager in 1985, holding the position until July 1988 when he headed the City Ford dealership, credited as Australia's largest and most successful Ford franchise.A lifelong supporter of the South Melbourne Football Club, which morphed into the Sydney Swans in the 1980s, Mr Polites had an unwavering love for the club of which he was once a selector.Family and footy were his great passions outside of cars.He is survived by Linda, his wife of 36 years, sons Chris and Brent and granddaughter Zoe.  

Ford is ready to back its claims that the new FG Falcon is one of the safest cars on Australian roads

The chance to save $450 a year on fuel bills and help save the planet could be enough to lure Sydney drivers to test a new fuel-saving system.Technology company Mtech Australia is looking for owners of a wide range of cars to take part in a three-month test of the company's ceramic fuel-saving technology.Using nano-technology, Mtech claims to be able to reduce fuel consumption by as much as 15 per cent and greenhouse-gas emission by as much as 23 per cent — as well as boosting power.“We already have qualified independent test results proving Mtech Fuel Saver's credentials, and today we want Australians to step up to the plate and commit to reducing their carbon emissions and fuel consumption in their vehicles,” Mtech chief executive David Bignold says.According to Mtech literature, the system works by encouraging the fuel molecules to break down from clusters to single molecules.The result is a change in the properties of the fuel, allowing better atomisation of the fuel before delivery to the combustion chamber.This, in turn, improves volumetric efficiency and improves fuel efficiency.Mtech claims the system will work on petrol, diesel and LPG-fuelled vehicles, with a range of results depending on the age of the car and the condition of the car's engine.“We know that different vehicles and models have varying results in carbon emissions and fuel consumption, and now we want to prove that Mtech Fuel Saver gets results regardless of the vehicle type,” Bignold says.For the public test, the company is seeking models as diverse as the Toyota Prius, Mercedes-Benz A200, Ford Territory, Holden Commodore, Ford Falcon and many others.“With the average family sedan consuming more than 1400 litres of fuel each year and emitting four tonnes of carbon, participants can save up to $450 per year,” Bignold says.The greater the fuel usage, the greater the saving, Bignold says.He claims a family spending $130 a week on fuel could cut their annual bill by around $1000, while a company with a $3000-a-week fuel bill would be in line for savings of more than $23,000.Ten years of study on the system has been ratified by Associate Professor Dr Peter Dingle, from Murdoch University, in a paper published last November.“The statistics and research are compelling,” Professor Dingle says.“There are more than 14 million registered vehicles travelling over two billion kilometres a year in Australia.“This rate is growing and, as it does, so do the pollutants that result.“This (the claimed 23 per cent emission reduction) could equate to a possible saving of around 25 million tonnes of CO2 a year if applied to the Australian fleet.”Anyone interested in registering for the public test can click here for details.  Applications close on April 25.Carsguide would like to know what you think about Mtech's latest nano-technology? is 23 percent enough to help you pay your bills? 

Ford Australia's export ambitions for the new FG Falcon will be at the top of the agenda when senior global executives meet in Australia next month.

It will provide a base model XT without curtain airbags for the crucial ANCAP “pole” test.The side-impact pole test is voluntary but no new car can be awarded a maximum five star rating unless it passes. Holden and Toyota have so far declined to offer a Commodore or Aurion respectively for a pole test.Even before the critical new FG Falcon goes on sale Ford has already come under fire in some quarters for failing to match arch-rival Holden and make curtain airbags standard across the new model range.“We have designed a vehicle for real world perrformance, not for features or for marketing,” Ford Australia boss Bill Osborne said at the first Australian drive of the all-new FG range this week. “What matters is the performance of the vehicle and the performance of this vehicle in its standard form is that it it one of the safest in the market. I say that without reservation.”Osborne said the decision to volunteer a vehicle for the pole test had been made some time ago and needed only to be ratified by Ford's safety assessment committee in the United States.“It is going to happen, you can be sure of that,” Osborne said.“We are not going to speculate on our NCAP performance but what I can tell you is that this vehicle is one of the safest on the road in real world terms and you can tell from the quality and the depth of the engineering that we can back that up.“If you want to compare vehicles for safety perfomance you need to know the actual crash test deformation data and all those things _ you can't do it by comparing features lists.”Holden's recent decision to make curtain airbags standard across the Commodore range almost certainly took Ford by surprise, coming as it did after the Blue Oval had released specification levels for the new model. Ford has made the curtain bags standard on the higher level moels but left the key safety feature as a $300 option on the base models.“It is not a flaw in the planning,” Osborne said. “A flaw would have been if the work had not been done to make the curtain bags available. That work has been done and this (making curtain bags standard) is a very simple thing to fix if we so desire.”Ford's claims that the FG underwent he most comprehensive safety engineering program ever for a Falcon is supported by an impressive list of crash tests _ both real and computer simulated _ going back as far as two years before the first “real” FG was ever built.“The design and simulation testing for this car was unprecedented,” Adam Frost, Ford Australia's chief engineer for virtual safety said. “Using the super computers at (Ford hedquarters) Dearborn (Michigan) we were able to run the most complex crash simulations and repeat them for multiple design testing.”Frost said a typical four-hour simulation on the super computers would take as long as 18 months to run on a typical home computer.“We were able to run some 5000 simulated crashes.”During development of the FG 90 full vehicle crashes were conducted utilising the world-leading crash laboratories of Ford in Dearbon and Volvo in Gothenburg.Key developments in the FG safety program were the use of four grades of high strength steel, including ultra-high strength Boron in side intrusion protection; optimised load paths to shift crash energy around the passenger cell; a deformation by design structure with predetermined deformation points; a rigid occupant safety cell and the intelligent crash sensing system.The sensing system is built around a series of sensors in the front and side of the vehicle linked to a central crash computer fully protected in the centre of the car with its own sealed power supply. The computer tastes sensor input 4000 times a second with the senors capable of reading the possibility of an impact from little more than the pressure wave of an object about to hit the car.Within 1 millisecond the crash computer is alerted and by 7.5 milliseconds it has assessed the probable severity of the impact and begun taking assertive action by inflating the airbags. At 70 milliseconds the computer unlocks the doors _ and all of this before the driver is even aware of the accident. That awareness comes at around 150 milliseconds by which time all of the passive safety functions _ primarily airbags and seatbelts _ have done their job.First drive of the new FG Falcon: Carsguide tomorrow. 

But questions are being raised about the lack of standard side-curtain airbags.The car maker yesterday offered motoring media the first drive of its new sedan range and - apart from the side-curtain airbag - the Falcon looks and drives like a winner.The new model looks well worth its $750 million development costs and is further evidence of Ford's large-car prowess, offering precise steering, roomy cabin and reduced interior noise.After a short first drive in the new FG Falcon range, the feeling is Ford can breathe a little easier - if prospective buyers spend some quality time behind the wheel on varied surfaces, they'll be sold.The launch earlier this year of Ford's critical Falcon was targeted by Holden, who tried to spoil the FG Falcon's party by announcing its Commodore line-up come with standard side-curtain airbags.Ford has been caught on the hop as its curtain airbags are a $300 option on its lower-spec cars.Toyota's Aurion has standard side-curtain airbags, leaving the Falcon the only locally-produced large car without this feature.The base XT gets side and thorax bags for the driver and passenger, a fitting that Ford president Bill Osborne says is in keeping with the car's high level of safety. Osborne does not want to speculate on the car's crash test rating, but is confident it will do well.Privately, Ford executives anticipate the Falcon will score a maximum five-star crash rating when tested. “It's our safest Falcon ever,” Mr Osborne says.Taking a swipe at the Australian New Car Assessment Program, Mr Osborne says public crash testing is designed to standardise a test for many different vehicles.“But how relevant it is to real world safety is debatable,” he said.“We have not designed our car for a rating - we have designed it so people can walk away from a crash. We have designed it for real world situations not marketing,” he said. Apart from the ultra-rigid body, the car uses clever door sensors that trigger the side airbags, technology borrowed from the XF Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz S-Class.Saturday's carsguide: Full details of first FG Falcon drive. 

The entry-level Falcon XT is $36,490, just $500 more than the equivalent model in the outgoing BF range. The FG features many enhancements and revisions, including improved fuel economy and new front suspension.The Falcon's main rival, the Holden Commodore Omega, which has just been reprofiled with airconditioning as standard equipment as well as six airbags and alloy wheels, is $36,790.The new FG Falcon range goes on sale next month. For the FG Falcon, Ford has a new G series as well as the sporty XR series.The G6, which will have a five-speed (instead of standard four-speed) automatic transmission and other luxury touches, will be $39,990.The G6E will be $46,990 and gets the ZF six-speed automatic, leather trim seats and rear-view camera. The G6E Turbo, at $54,990, adds the powerful, turbo-charged six-cylinder petrol engine. The sporty XR6, which has a choice of six-speed manual or two automatic transmissions, starts at $39,990. The XR6 Turbo will come in at $45,490, the same price as the V8-engined XR8, with its 290kW powerhouse.The new Falcon ute range will run from $27,795 for a cab chassis with new six-speed manual transmission to $39,490 for the XR6 Turbo or XR8 sports utes, which have a six-speed automatic as an option.The BF Falcon wagon continues as a Mk III, and even though it gets stability control on the petrol model, stays at $37,720.For those looking to save on fuel costs, the E-gas dedicated LPG engine is $1400 more. 

He is in form, has a strong car, and Ashley Madden believes he has the right stuff to win the Tassie Sixes Classic at Hobart International Speedway on Saturday night.The problem is, the same can be said for another 10 drivers in one of Tasmanian speedway's largest fields.Madden, 24, who won the Classic in 2004, goes into Saturday's stoush having won a feature race last time out.That makes him one of the favourites for the Tassie Sixes' biggest annual race outside the state championship.To claim the Classic again, Madden will have to deal with top local drivers such as Noel Russell, Dion Menzie, Marcus Cleary, Darren Graham and Dwayne Sonners.Russell is the driver Madden fears most.“He's a very hard man to beat, very consistent, a very good car, a good driver,” Madden said yesterday.Russell's XR6 Falcon has a power advantage over Madden's Pontiac GP with a Holden motor.“The Falcon engine is an alloy-headed, four-litre job. It puts out a few more kilowatts than the Holden engine,” Madden said.“We have worked tirelessly on tire and suspension set-up to try and go faster."“I'll definitely be a chance to win."“I have to make sure I qualify in the top 10 to have a realistic chance."“As long as I start up the front with the quick blokes, I'm fairly confident I can be at least a podium chance.”Each driver will contest two heats of 10 laps to decide grid positions for the 20-lap final.With an expected field of 25-plus, some drivers will miss the cut.“I enjoy the evenness of the class, no one has got a really huge advantage,” Madden said.“There's a great camaraderie between everyone, if someone needs a hand everyone is there, and we get to race all tracks round the state.”As well as the Tassie Sixes, sprint cars will feature in the final round of their state series.