Next Falcon: Decisions loom for Ford

FORD Australia will lock down the key design and engineering aspects of the next generation Ford Falcon by the end of 2004.

The car is due on sale in 2007.

Vital decisions to be made include whether Falcon should have all-wheel drive capability and if it should be package protected for left-hand drive conversion.

The issue of the car’s styling is also being hammered out at the moment.

“I think the next six to nine months will be pretty critical for us to decide a lot of these (forward model plans) that I would call strategic,” new Ford Australia president Tom Gorman said.

“First, you set all the hard points in the design and those become inviolable. When you package left-hand drive versus right-hand drive you do it once and you are done, you don’t rip it up.

“You can’t be ripping things up one month or even one year before job one. So we are about at that stage, the next couple of months will be pretty critical.

“So it’s a great period of time to be here because there are some very big issues that we are wrestling with.

“Further, there’s been a huge move in currency in just the last four or five months.

“All of those issues influence us and they play into our strategy development. We are on the cusp of doing some pretty interesting and exciting things.” The message from Ford executives including Mr Gorman is not to expect all-wheel drive to be a key component of the next Falcon, unlike the next generation Holden Commodore which through the Zeta architecture will offer that capability.

The Zeta-based Commodore and its spin-offs start appearing from the first half of 2006.

“We’re not convinced there’s a place for a mass market all-wheel drive locally built sedan,” Ford Australia product development boss Trevor Worthington said during last week’s launch of the Territory cross-over in New Zealand.

“Refinement and dynamics were two things we learned we had to deliver with Territory to convince people there didn’t need to be a compromise.

“But that costs money and the sedan market is more price sensitive.

“An all-wheel drive sedan may have a place at the low-volume, high-performance end of the market, but not as a mainstream vehicle.” Ford is also debating left-hand drive packaging. Mr Gorman has said he believes there is some potential to export into Asia.
– with MARTON PETTENDY