Just a few thoughts I am thinking at the moment.

Why is it that Ford has not even face lifted the wagon? Holden comes out with a brand new Sportswagon, which is smaller than previous Commodore wagons. There is a crucial market there, people need the extra room and the Falcon wagon is a LOT bigger than the Commodore, yet the 2009 model looks pretty much exactly the same as the model that came out in late 2002. They haven't even updated the rear end of the wagon since the AU and even then it looks pretty similar to older models. Even HSV has an R8 model! Whatever happened to the XR wagons?!

Why doesn't Ford advertise better? Even Toyota has an official Facebook page. That appeals to the younger markets. They hardly advertise the Falcon anymore, yet everyday I see an ad about Holden and their new SIDI technology. They also promote how 'Australian' their vehicle is, even though the Falcon is just as bigger part in Australian car culture. Ford doesn't seem to play the "if you buy our cars you will help the Australian economy" card at all. Instead they are promoting the Mondeo and Focus, which are great cars nonetheless. Without Ford, we wouldn't have the iconic Ute. Yet that seems to be forgotten in their advertising.

Why do you pull funding from your TWO BEST DRIVER'S? We all know how stupid that was.

Also, Holden/HSV manages to export their cars to the UK. We have seen the video of the R8 Bathurst and the ute on Top Gear and seen how much they love our cars. I would imagine that they would have as much fun with the Ford variants if they managed to get on to Top Gear.

I'd love to take a Falcon around Europe and the US and see just how popular the car would be. I have American friends that drool over our Falcons, and they became attached to them during our dreaded AU phase!

It just seems like they don't care about the car, the country, the company or their jobs.

So, its all about money, if there was money to be made ford would do it, but there isnt, so they dont. I would love to see falcon go overseas, I think the poms would absolutely love it for the bang for buck factor, but dont expect it to happen anytime soon, if at all. You forget that just a few months ago falcon was going to become an american engined, FWD s**t box, in order to come up with a global platform? Well, luckily they canned that idea, but that just shows, how much money they DONT have to spend at the moment

--Dave

Okay lets break it down paragraph by paragraph.

1. Ford made the descision to discontinue the wagon and replace it with the territory some years before the VE commodore was even dreamt up. At the moment our surplus wagon bodies are known as BF3. Nothing about them is FG and when these wagons run out, that's it.

2. Ford Aus marketing department should all be shot.

3. Ford Aus bean counters should also all be shot.

4. Ford Aus have an agreement with the parent company that we can not sell a model in a country that Ford US has a vehicle for sale. Top gear have tested the current shape stang and since it is available in Europe, Ford Aus can't export a falcon overseas. Not much we can do about it except for sit tight and wait for Ford US to realise that they f**k themselves by not allowing the rest of the world to experience the falcon.

5. Blame Ford Seppo division and aour s**t for brains marketing and finance departments whilst you are at it. The engineers are some of the best in the country but they are forced to cut costs.

The only thing that GMH has over Ford is that GM head office has said "f**k it do what ya want".

Ford America has been holding Ford Australia's C**k, every tighting it.

You can say these things but which motoring company in America had to put their hands out for money?
Ford did a similar thing and didn't bother to update the ute from 1988-1998 but they kept selling utes with a body that was the same from 1978. I guess they did alright?

Money is tight and the car market isn't like it was a long time ago. People are not willing to buy BIG cars as much as they used to as the costs keep going up and then there is the media, the people that have killed many cars over the years, they have a hand in making sales go up or down.
There is no quick fix and maybe there will be a resurgence in BIG vehicle sales but not likely.

I think in the next 10 or so years we are going to see the gradual decline in manufacturers and maybe cars themselves will evolve into something else?

Just please don't bite the hand that still feeds me

It is all about money. The only reason why Ford is doing what they are doing is to cut costs, minimize fuss and maximise profit. However, due to the economy and many other determining factors, they are struggling. They redesigned the falcon range with the release of the FG. Although all us on the forum love our cars very much, most people are tending to veer away from the expenses of owning and running a larger car.
People who pay attention to the advertisements that rival companies employ will believe that Ford is destroying the environment. Truth is, Ford is arguably the best it has ever been. 5 star ancap safety rating, 9l/100km highway on a 4l l6. Most people just believe that bigger cars = bigger wallet burn.
Fortunately, this is not the case. But when will the rest of the population realise this and start investing money BACK into the failing Australian car production market.
Just my two bobs worth...

Bloody oath its about money. Ford decided to save themselves $4.68 per car buy not using the correct case hardened diff gears and substandard bearings. And what was the end result? B series diff centres would need rebuilds at least 4 times as often as AU centres.
That is cost cutting gone mad if you ask me.

havent heard that...got a link, reference?

It's not all about money.. to me much of it is cluelessness...

Some truths need to be made by ford..

1. Falcon isn't that much bigger than a V6 camry.
2. Falcon is right up there in fuel efficiency, emissions etc.. and it looks better and handles better than Aurion/commodore.
3. For gods sake.. do something to appeal to the new generation before you lose all of them too.. you're doing a crap job so far as most of them are holden nutters now. They'll be the ones you'll be trying to target in a few years and it'll be too late then as they'll be died in the wool holden fans if they are not already.
4. If the boss of Ford US drives around in an FPV falcon.. surely there is hope for Falon overseas?
If the mustang isn't selling well, try not try a split profit arrangement with the Falcon? Nothing to lose...
5. Don't just target one demographic... just targetting people over 32 isn't going to cut it for you for long... find out what company Holden is using for marketing and then find out who that companies biggest most successful competitor is and then hire them... stop thinking you can do it yourself because you obviously can't.
6. Next time you have some really good race winning drivers... hang onto them.. your current batch don't seem to be doing so well so you're not getting a good return on that investment are you?
7. Sack your CEO, I suspect he works for Holden.
8. Try to be hip.. if you can at least look hip.. it would help your sales. As a company you look gumby right now. (I say that and I'm a fan.. imagine what the non fans are saying).. As it stands right now, your as hip as my grandma.

The evidence comes from almost everly BA MK1 owner. The early taxi diffs needed rebuilds every 60-90 thousand kms (AU cabs could last 350-450 thousand kms between diff rebuilds). Also several xr owners had shattered crownwheels after a handfull of clutch dumps. There was a s**t with ford refusing to do warranty work on the diffs and claimed they were all mechanically abused. In the end ford went to the Dana diff in the BF.

This is true. BA MKI and early MKII. Had diff dramas. And it also can been scene in interiors 90% just hard plastic. Compared to the vynl like dashes from AU to plastic BA BF FG.

Dude, 9L/100 on the highway is a little high, the FG XR6T got 6.98L/100k's in the Global Green Challenge. Also, the Fiesta Econetic, which is undoubtably the future of Ford Aus, got 2.9L/100k's. Ford have pulled cash out of V8 Supercars to put it into other resources, Motor racing is not the be all and end all for FoMoCo Aus. Since the GFC, Commodore sales decreased, while the Fg sales remained steady, does this say anything about the Falcon?

Also, to the OP, Ford pulled cash out of 888 Motorsport LAST YEAR. The un educated where assuming Red = Holden. Also, Holden have puled cash out of Supercars, you don't see that getting advertised.

Proving that Ford is going in the right direction at the moment is - GM - Went Bankrupt, Chrysler - Bankrupt. Ford have put themselves in a position where they:
A. Did not need to rely on Government handouts to survive
AND
B. Did not need to go bankrupt.

IMHO, Ford have done the best possible job given the current financial situation. Hell Toyota even posted the first loss since the 60's. Ford Can't be doing too bad.

dot take the global green car challenge fuel economy figuress for granted.. they are in no way close to the driving style of youre average motorist..

on the fuel test.. no windows down/no air con.. driving like miss daisy.. -even under the speed limit..

Maybe so, but it was to show the OP that 9L/100 was a little high for the 6Cyl Falcon

Bit of a correction here - Ford got caught with there pants down with the BF mk3 Wagon. The plan was to replace the Wagon with an Egas territory. However that plan failed when the egas prototypes kept catching on fire in teh rear impact and roll over crash tests. To fix this ford were going to have to fit 4 safety shut offs in each corner of the car. In teh end they ran out of time and had to launch the FG and had no replacement for the wagon. So they kept building the BF body for wagons.
They still are building them at present - they arent using surplus bodys, and being that almost every sales rep is given an egas wagon these days due to fuel prices, they are too scared to drop it given they will loose a truck load of sales!