Ford Falcon 2009 News

The findings of an international survey of 148 new vehicles released jointly today by NRMA Insurance, SGIC and SGIO shows seven out of 10 new cars scored well, compared with three out of 10 five years ago when testing began.NRMA Insurance head of research Robert McDonald praises the improvements, but says head restraints in nearly 30 per cent of new cars tested still rate as ‘marginal’ or ‘poor’, with commercial vehicles among the worst."Unfortunately there does seem to be a trend to skip on safety features in commercial vehicles," he says. However, he says Volvo and Saab had made significant improvements in head restraint design.Volvo has seats which support the driver or passengers' entire back and head and in a rear-end collision the back rest moves forward for support, he said.Ford Falcon FG was the best locally produced performer achieving a ‘good’ rating, coming on the back of its five-star ANCAP crash rating.McDonald says that, based on NRMA Insurance/SGIO/SGIC claims data, whiplash cost the Australian community hundreds of millions of dollars a year. He encourages new car buyers to take safety into consideration when purchasing a car.Only 18 per cent of Queensland consumers make safety their top consideration when choosing a car, although most rank it in their top three, while other states fare barely better at 19 per cent for Western Australia, 20 per cent for NSW and 27 per cent for SA.McDonald says better head restraint design could reduce the risk of a neck injuries in a crash, but passengers should adjust them correctly.The head restraint research was conducted and funded by NRMA Insurance, SGIC and SGIO in Australia, Thatcham Motor Insurance Research Centre in the UK and the American Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

And the car industry is not immune from being saddled with these potentially damaging problems.Apart from Ford's recent problems with brake hoses and brake booster valves on E-Gas Falcons the other ‘big two’ carmakers have had their fair share of recalls.Holden has had five recalls for its VE Commodore and Statesman range since its introduction in 2006, involving things like fuel vapor lines, fuel lines and defective valves on LPG cars.ToyotaToyota had a range of recalls for its Camry, HiLux, RAV4, Yaris and LandCruiser over the past three years. Most, like a headlight dimmer switch on a Camry, have been minor. Others, like the potential fire hazard stemming from a poorly installed insulator pad on a Yaris, raised alarm bells among some customers.NissanLast week Nissan was forced to recall 11,743 Maximas and 4972 Muranos because of a vibrating air intake in the engine bay.AudiEven the luxury German brands are not immune. Last year Audi had to recall its TT for a piece of rear side trim in its cars that unless fixed, could potentially injure passengers.Mercedes-Benz This year Mercedes-Benz has recalled its M-Class off-roader for a possible glitch in its electric rear hatch. It was also forced to recall S-Class sedans fitted with active body control because of problems with the front lower ball joints on its suspension. On some high-mileage vehicles, the front suspension could fracture on rough roads. Faulty left and right windows in the Viano van also required the replacement.BMWOf the German carmakers, BMW has fared better. It has not had a official government recall since 2006.Volvo Volvo has had three recalls this year of its S80, XC70, V70 and new XC60 for engine cooling fan problems and windscreen wiper problems with the S80 and XC70.JaguarJaguar, once widely ridiculed for its poor quality cars, has come a long way over the past few years. Jaguars these days have no less, or no more, problems with recalls than some of the other luxury brands. Last year it experienced some minor problems with the XF range involving wiring and rear seatbelts.In all cases, recalls by carmakers are handled quickly and responsibly. If you want to check out whether your vehicle has had a recall, go to www.recalls.gov.au

In the blue corner, Ford is getting to within a whisker of Holden in the red corner in the passenger car sales race. Last month Ford came to within 1 per cent of Holden's share of vehicle sales. Ford had 11.2 per cent of the May market versus 12.2 per cent for Holden.Holden is still ahead in year-to-date terms with a total vehicle share of 12.5 per cent against Ford's 10.3 per cent but the individual model count shows the gap is closing.Sales of the tradies' favourite, the Falcon and Holden utes, are with 0.1 per cent of each other this year. The Falcon ute has a 17.2 per cent market share and the Commodore ute a 17.1 share.In overall terms Ford has experienced a modest gain in passenger car market share, up from 9.5 per cent last year to 10.5 per cent this year. By comparison, Holden's passenger share has remained relatively stagnant since last year but the Red Lion brand is still ahead by 3.9 per cent.Ford is soon to ramp up its marketing message by launching a Fiesta and Focus assault on its toughest market, Sydney, to go head to head against Toyota."Sydney remains our toughest market," Burela says.At the other end of the Ford scale Burela says the FG Falcon, after a slow sales start at launch last year, is gradually winning over large car buyers.In overall terms both sedan and ute sales are still down 2 per cent and 14 per cent, but importantly Falcon, along with the VE Commodore, is improving its large car market share. The Falcon's share of the large car sales pie has increased this year to 31 per cent against 25 per cent for the same period last year. The Commodore's share has increased from 42 per cent to 47 per cent.Burela says the FG is also bringing younger buyers to the brand. The average age of a Falcon owner has also come down from 55 to between 35 and 45. Although it is still too early to forecast full-blown large car recovery, Burela believes the signs are good.A key indicator for Falcon's climb back into buyers' minds is that Ford is selling a richer, more profitable, mix of high-end FG Falcons than the previous model.The XR sports models are the most popular, accounting for more than 50 per cent of FG sales, followed by the luxury G-Series cars, with 43 per cent and the XT accounting for 4.5 per cent. In the previous Falcon the XT was by far the most popular car, accounting for 60 per cent of sales.With Holden's new VF Commodore around the corner, Ford plans to respond with a range of initiatives to maintain its FG sales momentum by promoting the car's economy and technology.

Ford is expected to decide by the end of next month on its future fuel-saving technologies for its six cylinder Falcon and Territory to go head-to-head against the Holden Commodore and Toyota Aurion.With GM-Holden tipped to show off new fuel economy tricks in the Commodore update due later this year, the pressure is on Ford to reply with its own strategies.Ford president and CEO, Marin Burela, says the company will make a decision on its technology within two months."We will get to a powertrain decision by the end of July," he says."If we go beyond that we will not be able to get the powertrain strategy deployed in time to meet the requirements that we need to meet internally as well as those we need to meet to satisfy the Australian market.“Burela says there is some fine tuning to be done but the importance of the decision cannot be under-estimated."Derrick Kuzak, the global product development head for Ford, is personally involved in working with us to help us get to the best solution," Burela says."That shows you the level of focus that Ford Motor Co is applying to make sure we get this right."With fleets and governments identifying fuel economy among the key drivers in purchasing decisions Burela is keen to make sure the Falcon keeps pace with consumer demands.More than 70 per cent of all Falcons and Commodores are bought by fleets.Burela says there is still room for fuel economy improvements in the Falcon's in-line six cylinder engine, which cracks 9.9 litres/100km combined for the optional six-speed automatic XT sedan and 10.5 litres/100km for the five-speed automatic model."We're continuing to work on that," he says.The I6 engine remains a part of the Falcon and Territory's future even though Ford is looking at turbo-diesel engines and a range of eco-saving technologies like stop-start and dual-clutch transmissions as well."The I6 it's part of our plans," Burela says.Burela says it will remain a part of the local landscape until the next-generation of fuel emission standards are identified "and we don't expect that to be clear for some time".Ford has not yet approached the Federal Government for access to its Green Car Fund to help fast-track these new technologies."We've been very quiet and the reason we've been quiet is that we take the view that we don't want to go to government every five minutes and asking for their support or engagement on things that we're not ready to make a statement on," Burela says."I want to make sure that once we're ready to move forward with our powertrain strategy that it's a very cohesive, very comprehensive and very thought-out plan."And how we then engage government in terms of the green car fund will be an important part of that overall strategic direction and discussion."

Some people have attacked us for bias, particularly when we point out Ford's failings with its locally-made Falcon and Territory, but a lot of people want to know what's really happening at Fishermans Bend.Holden has survived the giant purge which came when General Motors filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy but there is a lot more to come than just a 'jobs are safe' declaration from the trump.Mark Reuss has done a great job since he became chairman at the red lion and he makes a lot of sense as he talks about everything from the future of the Commodore to the financial situation at Holden.But he really gets riled if you ask about the need for a car industry in Australia and the support the industry gets from Canberra."We pay $420 million a year in R&D . . . create almost 7000 jobs and we pay wages of $500 billion back into the economy every year," Reuss says."We make Commodore here and we pay a lot of wages here and we actually create a tax basis for the industry. That's what manufacturing's all about, it's about making things."I'm not sure this is looked at the right way . . . this is a reinvestment in the scheme of things to make sure that jobs pay back into the tax basis here."It gets really negatively reported, unfortunately, by people who don't really understand the dynamics of how the business creates value in Australia and it creates huge value."If you don't make cars and you don't make wages and people don't make livings then you can't really buy things.”      

Despite new entrants coming into the market, the preference for hybrid vehicles has fallen 74 per cent among private buyers this year, according to the latest VFACTS industry figures on fuel and buyer

No-one is a stronger believer in the blue oval and the Falcon, Focus and Fiesta - especially the Fiesta - are among my personal favourites.But we have to blow the whistle on the quality problems at Broadmeadows after months of letters, emails and telephone calls complaining about everything from brakes to rust, paint to balljoints.Graham Smith has his own take on things in Ask Smithy today, as well as a huge collection of complaining emails from Falcon and Territory owners. So it's not us kicking Ford, but the people who paid for a car in the belief it would do their job without drama.And now I've had a couple of other worrying emails.The first, from a brake repair specialist in Melbourne, raises again the question of the faulty brake hoses in Falcons."Ford should go down to a taxi repair shop and see what their failure rate is," he says."Admitting their own figures of two per cent affected is worse than they think, that means one in 50 BA Fords have gone barreling down the road with brake failure . . . and this is only the cars that have failed so far."Also, I expect that their two per cent rate is a survey of the cars being fixed by Ford dealer workshops, but the majority are being repaired by the aftermarket because the cars are out of warranty and Ford are probably not counting these. We even had one here this week that was still IN warrantee but the owner preferred to pay us to fix it properly. "Then I had a call just yesterday from a mechanic who had a hose fail whilst road testing a customer's car and ended up crashing through a fence."Then, as I looked at the update work on the Ford Territory, I got an email from Scott Pedder. He is one of the top men at Pedders Suspension, which has seen a lot of repair work on front balljoints in the Ford SUV.Ford claims no major mechanical changes in the 2009 update of the Territory but Pedder highlights the complete overhaul of the front balljoints. It's not just a change of component, but a re-work of the way the front end operates."One of the most noticeable and welcomed changes is the repositioning of the load carrying lower ball joint of the rear lower arm," Pedder says."The original ball joint was incorporated into the lower arm and attached to the steering knuckle in a "pull apart" situation which meant all of the vehicle weight was constantly trying to pull the ball joint out of its socket. The new design has moved what appears to be a larger and more robust ball joint to the steering knuckle itself and it then has the stud fitted through a taper hole in the lower arm in a "push together" scenario."The new design is a big step forward in making an already great vehicle even better."But what about the people who already have a Territory and have run into wear problems with the front balljoints? 

This is despite Ford recalling Territory models with similar problems.

The basis of Ford Australia’s XR performance series, the carmaker’s large sedan and largest selling car – the Falcon – was born in the US in 1960 with the original XK, but has been developed and built in Australia since 1972 starting with the XA series.In that time, more than three million Falcons have been sold - mostly in Australia and New Zealand.There has been fierce rivalry between the Ford Falcon and the Holden Commodore for sales in Australia for years now, and this spills over to their performance variants - the Commodore SS and the Falcon XRs.The XR was introduced as a Falcon model in 1966, largely based on the US car, but was the first Falcon here to carry a V8: the 150kW 4.7-litre Windsor engine. The XR as it stood was superceded by the XT Falcon in 1968, but the XR name lives on in the high-performance end of the Ford stable.In 1991, after an exhaustive global search, Ford Australia finally settled on English coach-builder Tickford to head up their high performance car division.As a result, the legendary XR series of Ford sedans were introduced with the Falcon EB range in July that year, with the XR6 and XR8 Falcons the most successful and widely recognised.Fifth generation (from 1988)1991 - EB Falcon, 1992 – EBII FalconThe EB’s predecessor, the EA, had introduced a completely new shape for the Falcon so the EB and EBII didn’t change much in design terms. However, it did offer handling improvements and, more importantly, introduced the first XR6 and XR8 sports models – bringing back a V8 engine, which had been absent in Falcons from 1983.SpecsS XR6: 161kW and 365NmS XR8: 165kW and 388Nm1993 – ED FalconFurther handling improvements came with the ED and more exterior colours were offered. Both the XR6 and XR8  gained an exclusive quad headlamp cluster.SpecsS XR6: 161kW and 365NmS XR8: 165kW and 388Nm1994 – EF Falcon An award winning new design was launched with the EF and with it, a modified engine and suspension and a new EEC-V engine management system, plus vastly improved safety features including a standard airbag and airbag compatible bull-bar.1995 – EFII FalconFord dropped the XR6 wagon off the EFII range.Specs XR6: 164kW and 366NmXR8: 170kW and 398Nm1996 – EL FalconThe final E series before the sixth generation AU saw minor changes all round. Improved ABS and steering and quad-headlamps on the XR sport models were the notable differences.SpecsXR6: 164kW and 366NmXR8: 185kW and 402NmSixth generation1998 – AU FalconThe Falcon was lucky to stay on at all as Ford looked at other products like the Mazda 929 and the Ford Taurus to take its place. But for various reasons - not least of which was the effect dropping the model would have on local employment - the Falcon lived on, this time with radical new ‘New Edge’ styling that wasn’t to everyone’s taste.2000 – AUII Falcon2001 – AUIII FalconAUII and AUIII saw the introduction of double wishbone independent rear suspension and a standard passenger airbag. During this time the Falcon also received minor styling changes and the XR8 got small power upgrades.Unfortunately though, the AU was constantly outsold by the VT Commodore.SpecsXR6: 164kW and 366NmXR6 (VCT): 172kW and 374NmXR8: 185kW and 412Nm2002 – BA FalconOver $500 million was spent on a major overhaul of the Falcon in its transition from AU to BA.Improvements to the suspension and inline six cylinder engine plus new transmissions and two brand new V8 engines were the most notable of the dramatic changes.The Barra straight-6 and Boss V8 engines were introduced.The BA received a lot of front and rear quarter changes resulting in a more Euro shape. Inside was completely revamped too giving it a more conservative and polished look and feel.XR Falcon sales go through the roof, smashing all previous records. 972 were sold in December 2002 compared with their previous best ever effort of 507 for the AU.The XR8 is only available in manual as Ford need time to reinforce the automatic transmission to cope with the enormous power outputs of the new BOSS 260 engine.A big talking point is the BOSS bonnet bulge on the XR8, due to the engine placement not compromised by the low bonnet height.2004 – BA MKII FalconA Tremec six-speed manual transmission was introduced for the XR range.SpecsXR6: 182kW and 380NmXR6 Turbo: 240kW and 450NmXR8: 260kW and 500Nm2005 – BF FalconIn 2005 motoring journalists criticised the lack of design enhancements on the BF, noting it was too similar to the BA. But several mechanical enhancements made up for lack of style, including improvements in power and fuel economy.2006 – BF MKII FalconIn response to Holden’s VE Commodore, the BFMKII was introduced with two new hero colours, different trim levels and a modified front end.SpecsXR6: 190kW and 383NmXR6 Turbo: 245kW and 480NmXR8: 260kW and 500NmSeventh generation2008 – FG FalconStarting a new generation with an impressive 5 star ANCAP safety rating, the latest Falcon was introduced in early 2008. The letters ‘FG’ are a nod to the discontinued Fairmont Ghia.The inline six cylinder engine received a power upgrade and the XR6 Turbo produced 270kW(and 533Nm), the same as previous FPV turbos, thanks to a new induction system and extra boost.A gas option became available for some variants.The XR8 is the only V8 in the Falcon line-up, carrying the same V8 as the previous generation GT and produces 290kW and 520Nm.The XR6 Turbo is more powerful than its Commodore equivalent but - like the XR8 - does not look as aggressive as its FPV cousins.SpecsXR6: 195kW and 391NmXR6 Turbo: 270kW and 533NmXR8: 290kW and 520Nm

PETFOOD magnate Tony Quinn scored the biggest success of his motorsport career when he drove to victory in the 2009 Targa Tasmania with his Nissan GT-R. His job was made easier when Jim Richards and Kevin Weeks both crashed out of contention, leaving the VIP Pet Foods boss with an eventual winning margin of six minutes over Jason White in a Lamborghini. Rex Broadbent completed a hat-trick with classic victory in his Porsche 911, while Greg Johnston took the showroom class in a Mitsubishi Evo.FOUR points was the margin between success and failure for Chad Reed in this year's AMA and World Supercross Championship as the superstar Aussie came up just short in the grand final in Las Vegas at the weekend. Reed scored 11 seconds places from 17 starts in the supercross series with his Suzuki, as well as three wins, but it was not enough to stop James Stewart lifting the title with a safe third place in Las Vegas.MARCUS Marshall surprised his V8 Supercar rivals by re-setting the lap record at Winton last weekend in his unsponsored BF Falcon. The speedy young Queenslander did the job in an ex-Triple Eight Ford on the soft Dunlop racing tyres used for the first time at Winton, dropping the benchmark time to 1 minute 22.9813 seconds as he raced to a memorable ninth place on Sunday afternoon.NICK Percat made another clean sweep of the Formula Ford championship races at Winton last weekend, with Chaz Mostert following him home in each of three heats. The weekend result gives Percat a 61-48 break over Mostert, with Mitchell Evans and Scott Pye next in the junior series.MARCOS Ambrose finished just outside of the top 10 in his latest Nascar start at Richmond in Virginia despite contact with the wall early in the event. Finishing 11th, after his benchmark fourth place a week earlier at Talladega, gave him his seventh top-20 result from 10 starts and moved him up to 19th in the Sprint Cup standings with his Toyota Camry.DEAN Canto and Luke Youlden have filled the co-driving seats at Ford Performance Racing for this year's V8 Supercar enduros. It is their second year alongside FPR regulars Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards at Phillip Island and Bathurst, as Nathan Pretty also returns for the long-distance events as a member of Kelly Racing.The pace-setting car in V8 Supercar racing is now driven by a woman. Amber Anderson, a 25-year-old Melbourne lawyer who is trying to build a racing career, has been chosen to drive the Nissan GT-R safety car at several rounds of the series and had her first start at Winton last weekend.SWINE flu meant an early end of the A1GP season which was planned to finish in Mexico City at the end of May. The series ended instead in Britain last weekend, when Team Ireland raced to the championship with Adam Carroll, as Team Australia trailed in eighth after an identical finish in the feature race in the UK by John Martin.THE popular Speed on Tweed historic festival has been revived as part of the program for Repco Rally Australia in September. The course through the streets of Mulwillumbah on the NSW north coast will also be used as a special stage during the running of Australia's event in the World Rally Championship.THE remaining events in the Aussie Racing Cars championship have been re-jigged for the rest of 2009, with a break until the Shannons Nationals meeting at Winton on June 27-28. The baby racers then head to Eastern Creek on August 7-9, Oran Park on August 29-30 and Homebush for the Sydney 500 meeting from December 4-6.The re-scheduled Victorian Open Sprint Kar Championship will be held this weekend at the Hume International Raceway near Seymour. More than 400 of Australia's best racers will compete at an event which was postponed from February 13-15 because of the tragic Victorian bushfires.