WHAT is Australia's best family car? If you ask the nation's motoring clubs, it's Ford's new BA Falcon Futura. And we tend to agree. Offering improvements in some key areas over the entry level XT, Futura aims to appeal more to the private buyer than fleets. As such, it offers Falcon's excellent new automatic transmission with manual shift mode as standard, along with alloy wheels, a fully colour-coded exterior, different interior trim, cruise control, four power windows and other conveniences for rear-seat passengers. But it still misses out on the traction control offered as standard by its direct rival, Holden's updated VY Commodore Acclaim, and faces further competition in the shape of Toyota's new Camry Ateva V6. While the smaller and much cheaper front-drive Camry makes its most convincing argument ever for a share of the large sedan market, the Acclaim simply cannot match the refinement and driver involvement afforded by Ford's brilliant new $500 million Falcon.