The future of Falcon and Ford Aust. - A research tool

[galaxy xr8]

Thanks Ian,
two passages from the quoted article are worh repeating:


AND

That spell's out local manufacturing to improve and go beyond 2016 to me, and USA are quite happy and forth coming about it, pleasing new's indeed.

[Paxton]

I see 2026 as the watershed year for manufacturing. I'll even give a prize to the person who works out why*.

*no prizes will be given.

[Archilino]

101st anniversary of Ford manufacturing in Australia?

[Elks]

101st anniversary of ford manufacturing in australia?

lmfao

[Paxton]

101st anniversary of Ford manufacturing in Australia?

lmfao

Correct. You can collect your prize on the 12th of Smarch, at 2500 hours...

Seriously, the future of Ford Australia is still in flux. The bigwigs at Ford don't even know what to do with Ford Australia. They are a revenue centre, an 'engineering powerhouse', have some fantastic facilities, and a heritage that not even Holden can match (who remembers what the Holden's coach building company built before the FJ?). If the FU can actually re-inject some excitement back into the Ford range, then Falcon might just make it. E8 is a throughly new platform, which has little left from BA, let alone AU. It is closer related to the not yet ten year old Territory Platform, than it is BA.

Ford USA have a RWD future in their sights, and E8 is the best RWD platform they have (out of a grand total of two). If a fraction of the investment into the RWD platform is increased, then the E8 platform will have what it takes to take it to BMW - especially in Lincoln guise, with the EcoBoost V6. For Falcon itself, to move forwards, the I6 has gotta go. I'd love for it to become a world engine, like the V6, but it just isn't possible. For the FUII, We have got to see Falcon become 3.5 DI (along with the V8, and EcoBoosts), Corporate Transmission, shared IRS and IFS, Shared ECU, and styling that looks like either the Fusion or the Taurus. Exporting the Falcon to Europe (the UK would like an EcoBoost Falcon, no?) might be a good next step, too.