Final day for Ford Australia
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Yes, the timing couldn't have been worse really as far as Bathurst goes. I'll bet the mood in Geelong is fairly ordinary today. As a devoted "blue blood", it is indeed a sad day.
Originally Posted By: Shannow
Only ever had one Ford, and it was a Falcon, and a mistake that I won't do again...
Which model, out of interest?
Only ever had one Ford, and it was a Falcon, and a mistake that I won't do again...
Which model, out of interest?
XF 4.1 S pack manual.
My Y10 history teacher's Amber XE 4.9 Manual Wagon (very unchick like) inspired me to the falc, and I didn't like it.
(edit, I've done some seat time in a fairly recent XR-6 turbo, and I don't think that would be a "mistake" in my yard.)
My Y10 history teacher's Amber XE 4.9 Manual Wagon (very unchick like) inspired me to the falc, and I didn't like it.
(edit, I've done some seat time in a fairly recent XR-6 turbo, and I don't think that would be a "mistake" in my yard.)
Fair enough, you won't see the XF on too many "Best Falcon" lists! Especially the woeful EFI versions...nice while they were running well, but that was a very rare occurrence!
Yes a sad day.
I always liked the XR6 Turbo Falcon
I always liked the XR6 Turbo Falcon
I had a late XC Staion wagon, with the Blue Oval....bright yellow. We needed a 6 seater, and I wasn't going to stoop to a Japanese people mover. Originaly they had the horrible cast iron X flow engine, this one had the red rocker cover 250 - max torque at 1600rpm. I fitted power steering from a XF, it was pretty heavy for around town use. I needed a bonnet and a couple of doors, and picked up an XC Fairmont with a 302 and scoop bonnet, it was a runner, but not road legal. I never did the swap, the older girls started to drive, and the Big Yellow Bird sat in the garage for months...my wife started using a Telstar Giha meant for one of the girls.
Falcon or Holden? I think a Falcon with a 3.8 V6 would be the best option. Taxi drivers wouldn't touch a Holden - one of my customers had a fleet of Falcon taxis, and once got a new Commodore for his personal car, but didn't like it, so put it in the Taxi fleet...and no one would drive it. (drivers were all Pacific Islanders) Another always got a Forte station wagon every couple of years, but they stopped making them, so got a Commodore....his back hurt so much he had to go back to a Falcon. I also looked after some Falcon body transfer vehicles, again, they racked up big kms, and the drivers liked the comfort of a Falcon.
Rebadged Mondeo replacement ?
Falcon or Holden? I think a Falcon with a 3.8 V6 would be the best option. Taxi drivers wouldn't touch a Holden - one of my customers had a fleet of Falcon taxis, and once got a new Commodore for his personal car, but didn't like it, so put it in the Taxi fleet...and no one would drive it. (drivers were all Pacific Islanders) Another always got a Forte station wagon every couple of years, but they stopped making them, so got a Commodore....his back hurt so much he had to go back to a Falcon. I also looked after some Falcon body transfer vehicles, again, they racked up big kms, and the drivers liked the comfort of a Falcon.
Rebadged Mondeo replacement ?
Originally Posted By: Silk
Falcon or Holden? I think a Falcon with a 3.8 V6 would be the best option.
Funnily enough, I always thought the best compromise would be a Commodore fitted with a Falcon 4.0 straight six! Commodore has better handling and brakes than Falcon, but the V6 lacks grunt - something the mighty 4.0 has in spades
Falcon or Holden? I think a Falcon with a 3.8 V6 would be the best option.
Funnily enough, I always thought the best compromise would be a Commodore fitted with a Falcon 4.0 straight six! Commodore has better handling and brakes than Falcon, but the V6 lacks grunt - something the mighty 4.0 has in spades
Originally Posted By: hpb
Originally Posted By: Silk
Falcon or Holden? I think a Falcon with a 3.8 V6 would be the best option.
Funnily enough, I always thought the best compromise would be a Commodore fitted with a Falcon 4.0 straight six! Commodore has better handling and brakes than Falcon, but the V6 lacks grunt - something the mighty 4.0 has in spades
Yes, that's the way I would do it. Falcon straight six in a Commodore body.
Originally Posted By: Silk
Falcon or Holden? I think a Falcon with a 3.8 V6 would be the best option.
Funnily enough, I always thought the best compromise would be a Commodore fitted with a Falcon 4.0 straight six! Commodore has better handling and brakes than Falcon, but the V6 lacks grunt - something the mighty 4.0 has in spades
Yes, that's the way I would do it. Falcon straight six in a Commodore body.
I just think the 3.8 is bullet proof, I've never even pulled a head on one...but had heaps off heads of 6 cyl Falcons. The old cast in manifold 250 was a good one, and the DOHC is a good one, but the X flows and SOHC heads were a problem. But, put another way...Falcons have kept me in work, 3.8's haven't been a big earner for me.
I realise it was a long time ago, but I drove a '91 Falcon hire car 1500km from Sydney, through ACT, along the coast to Melbourne and it was the best-riding car I've ever driven. I have a bad back and this car made it a pleasure.
A sad day indeed.
A sad day indeed.
I expect the same thing to happen in the US if Hillary gets elected.
I always thought the Falcon would sell well here, especially with the demise of the Crown Victoria. Might just have to bite the bullet and order a Chevy SS before the Commodore dies.
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
I always thought the Falcon would sell well here, especially with the demise of the Crown Victoria. Might just have to bite the bullet and order a Chevy SS before the Commodore dies.
Ford was really stupid not to sell the Falcon over here. It's like they've never seen a Charger or 300. Where have they been the past 10 years?
I always thought the Falcon would sell well here, especially with the demise of the Crown Victoria. Might just have to bite the bullet and order a Chevy SS before the Commodore dies.
Ford was really stupid not to sell the Falcon over here. It's like they've never seen a Charger or 300. Where have they been the past 10 years?
The last TRULY Australian car is gone forever.
Commodore was never really Australian, except the earliest iterations with the proper Holden 4 or 6 cylinder engines, maybe the V8 depending what that was. The rest of it (body, transmission and trim) was a mishmash of European and American platforms over the years. Eventually, Holden's homegrown engines couldn't compete, and were retired in favour of a Nissan inline-6 for a time, then the Buick 3800 and now some GM Modular engines since the 2000s.
Ford, however, started out with the American Inline 6 and tweaked it well enough over the years to radically change it, from a pushrod/flat-tappet 6 to a SOHC, with an Allow X-Flow head. Eventually that designed was retired in the 2000s and replaced with Ford's "Barra" engine, unique to Australia, and an evolution of the older engine.
I know several times Ford imported Ford V8 engines from the USA - whatever flavour was "popular" at the time. The Windsor was one of them.
To the best of my understanding, the Falcon never was based on any foreign platform.
I'd take one over a GM/Vauxhaull FrankenCar ANY day.
Grandfather had a 1993 EB Falcon GLi in "Everglade Green." Beautiful colour, just a base model. We purchased it from the Toyota dealership it was traded into after he upgraded to a 2005 Camry V6 Altise. Unfortunately, the change from country driving to city driving was not of benefit to the car... Cue numerous head gasket issues and warped brakes, sold in 2009 with 230,000km IIRC.
My reading these days tells me brakes need some aftermarket "thinking outside the box," and heads can be avoided with preventative maintenance on the cooling system and using high-quality copper or steel gaskets when the OEM unit does fail.
Aside from the 4L engine being rather thirsty in the city (Usually 400-450km from about 60L of 91RON unleaded {68L tank}, a comfortable car that was great for the highway!
Commodore was never really Australian, except the earliest iterations with the proper Holden 4 or 6 cylinder engines, maybe the V8 depending what that was. The rest of it (body, transmission and trim) was a mishmash of European and American platforms over the years. Eventually, Holden's homegrown engines couldn't compete, and were retired in favour of a Nissan inline-6 for a time, then the Buick 3800 and now some GM Modular engines since the 2000s.
Ford, however, started out with the American Inline 6 and tweaked it well enough over the years to radically change it, from a pushrod/flat-tappet 6 to a SOHC, with an Allow X-Flow head. Eventually that designed was retired in the 2000s and replaced with Ford's "Barra" engine, unique to Australia, and an evolution of the older engine.
I know several times Ford imported Ford V8 engines from the USA - whatever flavour was "popular" at the time. The Windsor was one of them.
To the best of my understanding, the Falcon never was based on any foreign platform.
I'd take one over a GM/Vauxhaull FrankenCar ANY day.
Grandfather had a 1993 EB Falcon GLi in "Everglade Green." Beautiful colour, just a base model. We purchased it from the Toyota dealership it was traded into after he upgraded to a 2005 Camry V6 Altise. Unfortunately, the change from country driving to city driving was not of benefit to the car... Cue numerous head gasket issues and warped brakes, sold in 2009 with 230,000km IIRC.
My reading these days tells me brakes need some aftermarket "thinking outside the box," and heads can be avoided with preventative maintenance on the cooling system and using high-quality copper or steel gaskets when the OEM unit does fail.
Aside from the 4L engine being rather thirsty in the city (Usually 400-450km from about 60L of 91RON unleaded {68L tank}, a comfortable car that was great for the highway!
By the way, I think Ford could've had success with the Falcon in overseas markets.
They found use in all the same roles the Crown Vics have in the USA... Taxis, Police Vehicles, Government fleet, private fleets and so on.
The only disadvantage would have been the higher value of our dollar in the 2000s. Take the BA Falcon of 2006. Base model had an RRP of AU$34,600. In 2016 money, that is $43,650.16 or about US$33,168. Exchange rate today is almost identical to 2006.
They found use in all the same roles the Crown Vics have in the USA... Taxis, Police Vehicles, Government fleet, private fleets and so on.
The only disadvantage would have been the higher value of our dollar in the 2000s. Take the BA Falcon of 2006. Base model had an RRP of AU$34,600. In 2016 money, that is $43,650.16 or about US$33,168. Exchange rate today is almost identical to 2006.
NZ Police dropped the Falcon around the turn of the Century - they couldn't stop and were destroying brakes. They've been Holden ever since. I can't remember what model it was, but we were doing pads and rotors all round at 70,000km, unheard of at the time, and customers were not impressed.
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