The Eagle has Landed..or The Falcon has plummeted

[roddy1960]

G'day all...I just looked for myself..This is what I found on the net...I've rounded out the numbers to the closest thousand and it doesn't factor in years where a new model took over from the previous one . but it includes cars-wagons , utes and vans variants.. Here goes..1990 - 58, 0000 , 1991 -50,000 , 1992-62,000 , 1993 -61,000 , 1994- 81,000 , 1995- 88,000 , 1996-86,000 1997-88,000 1998 -75,000 , 1999- 81,000 2000 - 73,000 2001 -69,000 2002- 71000 , 2003- 93,000 , 2004- 85,000 , 2005 - 71,000, 2006- 57,000 , 2007- 50,000 , 2008- 43,000, 2009 - 43,000 ..now the slide really happens..how depressing is this ? 2010 - 37,000 now free fall 2011 - 24,000 2012 -19,000 ...look out here it comes...2013 -14,000 then in 2014- 8,000 and 2015..8,000 all up again..The Falcon ...So wrong...so frustrating....Cheers Rod...

[Brazen]

It was always cool seeing so many Falcons on the road, it gave Australia a unique vehicle landscape

[Ford17]

To make better sense of your figures:

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by Ford17

To make better sense of your figures:

image

G'day..Thanks..Graph really shows it in a nutshell .... I agree about the comment in regard to BA 2002-04 comments too 2002 would of course include a few AU lll's as well..and even the BF to 2007 would be figures to dream of now..Even to 2009 ish..if those numbers had stabilised ..who knows..but I suppose Territory especially on the manufacturing schematic would be a part of it as well.. Falcon alone would probably still not cut the mustard ...Not too sure on that though....Does anyone know what the Territory sales charts looked like since 2002 by the way..Cheers Rod..

[new2ford]

Originally Posted by Ford17

To make better sense of your figures:

Territory sales need to be overlaid onto that graph. 2004 just happened to be the year that Territory came out. I'm pretty sure it had some significant impact on Falcon sales, but by the same token it was a defacto Falcon in terms of sales benefits to Ford.

[Vesper Martini]

Originally Posted by new2ford

Territory sales need to be overlaid onto that graph. 2004 just happened to be the year that Territory came out. I'm pretty sure it had some significant impact on Falcon sales, but by the same token it was a defacto Falcon in terms of sales benefits to Ford.

Exactly! the demise of the Falcon was not because people wanted smaller cars. They wanted bigger with 7 seat options.

Territory kicked butt in 04-05 until the rest of the SUV brands took on.

Id like to see that graph too

[Ford17]

Originally Posted by new2ford

Territory sales need to be overlaid onto that graph. 2004 just happened to be the year that Territory came out. I'm pretty sure it had some significant impact on Falcon sales, but by the same token it was a defacto Falcon in terms of sales benefits to Ford.

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by Ford17

image

G'day...Awesome combined graph ..Thanks...Tells a story better than my original numbers..What fascinates me with the Territory numbers is that it is relatively consistently in the mid teens x thousands..and only last year dropped below 10,000...Highest sales in a single year 19,000..IF the Falcon had been the same near consistency I wonder whether it would have made a massive difference because the cynic in me is beginning to wonder if Headquarters in Dearborn kind of /sort of wanted the Falcon to fail and as touched on elsewhere the abysmal advertising in recent years wouldn't help at all...Is that too cynical ? Cheers Rod..

[malazn mafia]

Australians have forgotten what a good, practical car is and wouldn't know one if it slapped them in the face. Instead they opt for High undies and small buzz boxes and Light Trucks of third world origin. While the rest of the brand snobs line the pockets of the local BMW, Mercedes, Audi, etc snob dealer / importer .

I will always remember the mid 90s fondly, every second car was a Falcon of some vintage, plenty of X-Series, E-Series and the shiny new EF's and EL's which looked so modern and futuristic at the time. That is how I will always remember them...

[Revolver]

Originally Posted by malazn mafia

I will always remember the mid 90s fondly, every second car was a Falcon of some vintage, plenty of X-Series, E-Series and the shiny new EF's and EL's which looked so modern and futuristic at the time. That is how I will always remember them...

I was thinking about this today actually. Looking at a very shiny VP Commodore in Brisbane. I thought "That looks new, but if it was...." I started looking around, ".....that Corolla would be a Falcon, that Getz would be a Magna, that Mazda 6 would be A Commodore, in fact, most of these cars would be, Falcons, XE, XF, EA, EB, Commodores, VC, VH, VP, or Magnas of the same era, and the occasional steel carolla hatchback, and some of these forby's would be Patrols, or Landcruisers. AND THAT'S IT. I remember those days".

Its then I realised how much our automotive landsacpe has changed. And not for the better.

The Government (That's every administration) did more than let this happen. They encouraged it. They too away our local car manufacturers right to manufacture Aussie Cars for the Aussie Environment and the Aussie way of life.

[Wretched]

Originally Posted by malazn mafia

Australians have forgotten what a good, practical car is and wouldn't know one if it slapped them in the face. Instead they opt for High undies and small buzz boxes and Light Trucks of third world origin. While the rest of the brand snobs line the pockets of the local BMW, Mercedes, Audi, etc snob dealer / importer .

I will always remember the mid 90s fondly, every second car was a Falcon of some vintage, plenty of X-Series, E-Series and the shiny new EF's and EL's which looked so modern and futuristic at the time. That is how I will always remember them...

Sorry? I and many others here have a hatchback (XR5, ST, etc) and I have no issues with practicality, actually we have two in the family, a XR5 and a Mazda 3. We have no practicality issues, both do what we need of them.
We have the baby seat, enough room in the boot for a stroller, the shopping, both cars are comfortable for urban and distance driving, very good on fuel and have been exceptionally reliable. Added bonus is the XR5 goes well and sounds great. So i am not seeing where I have missed what a practical car is.

So, your definition of practicality may differ from mine and others but to slap a generalisation like yours around is very ignorant and as usual lacks the facts.
If and IF people are so lacking in the knowledge of what a practical car is for their needs, then does that mean all those people who ditched the Falcon for a Territory are in the same boat of ignorance?

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by malazn mafia

Australians have forgotten what a good, practical car is and wouldn't know one if it slapped them in the face. Instead they opt for High undies and small buzz boxes and Light Trucks of third world origin. While the rest of the brand snobs line the pockets of the local BMW, Mercedes, Audi, etc snob dealer / importer .

I will always remember the mid 90s fondly, every second car was a Falcon of some vintage, plenty of X-Series, E-Series and the shiny new EF's and EL's which looked so modern and futuristic at the time. That is how I will always remember them...

Go stick your head back in the sand, much as I liked the local cars over the years Ford & Holden failed to keep pace as to what people wanted, sales statistics talks the truth.

[TheInterceptor]

Originally Posted by trublu

Go stick your head back in the sand, much as I liked the local cars over the years Ford & Holden failed to keep pace as to what people wanted, sales statistics talks the truth.

The sand in nice. I would rather keep Falcon Commodore around than have SUV buzz box truck take over. Too late though, the aussie public like to buy ugly crap, not that the latest Falcon looks good and can compete featurewise because people like thier cars filled with useless gimmicky crap which the Falcon lacks.
Its sad when people think an SUV is better. They pay more in fuel, have a larger body with not much more if any gain in interior room (especially these days where pillars are 3 miles thick and you require 10 sensors and a HD cam to see behind you, or allow the car to park itself if you are that way incapable of controlling a vehicle), also more expensive tyres among other things.

So sick of looking at i30 Corrollas and the complete fleet of boring buzz boxes that all look the same every day.

I hate people!

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by TheInterceptor

Its sad when people think an SUV is better. They pay more in fuel, have a larger body with not much more if any gain in interior room (especially these days where pillars are 3 miles thick and you require 10 sensors and a HD cam to see behind you, or allow the car to park itself if you are that way incapable of controlling a vehicle), also more expensive tyres among other things.
I hate people!

I did own an FG XR ute, not a bad car but did have some serious issues, now my Ranger is far better on economy than the FG, tyre costs on par, to be honest I prefer it over the FG, if any I was quite surprised how much better quality it is compared to the FG, just my comparison of the two.

Don't knock a vehicle before you try one out, I too once thought Australian made cars were the ants pants.

[XD 351 Ute]

Originally Posted by trublu

Go stick your head back in the sand, much as I liked the local cars over the years Ford & Holden failed to keep pace as to what people wanted, sales statistics talks the truth.

Yep, I plan on doing exactly that.
Once our Aussie cars are gone, vehicles will just be another appliance in my eyes. Boring and soulless......

Ed

[malazn mafia]

Originally Posted by roddy1960

G'day all...I just looked for myself..This is what I found on the net...I've rounded out the numbers to the closest thousand and it doesn't factor in years where a new model took over from the previous one . but it includes cars-wagons , utes and vans variants.. Here goes..1990 - 58, 0000 , 1991 -50,000 , 1992-62,000 , 1993 -61,000 , 1994- 81,000 , 1995- 88,000 , 1996-86,000 1997-88,000 1998 -75,000 , 1999- 81,000 2000 - 73,000 2001 -69,000 2002- 71000 , 2003- 93,000 , 2004- 85,000 , 2005 - 71,000, 2006- 57,000 , 2007- 50,000 , 2008- 43,000, 2009 - 43,000 ..now the slide really happens..how depressing is this ? 2010 - 37,000 now free fall 2011 - 24,000 2012 -19,000 ...look out here it comes...2013 -14,000 then in 2014- 8,000 and 2015..8,000 all up again..The Falcon ...So wrong...so frustrating....Cheers Rod...

Wow, didn't realise Ford sold so many BA's and BAII's from 2002 to 2004. What was it? Advertising, design, power, tech, the colour range? Show's how good the car was for its time, given the oil prices and rise of small cars. Many Holden loyalists even bought Falcons and Territories at that time.

[Lukeyson]

Originally Posted by malazn mafia

Wow, didn't realise Ford sold so many BA's and BAII's from 2002 to 2004. What was it? Advertising, design, power, tech, the colour range?

Had uncle Geoff steering the ship with passion for the brand!

IMO the BEST Ford ad to draw people into the new XR6 Turbo.

So many good and exciting things happening for us Ford fans when the BA came out. Then Ambrose/Ford winning in V8s. Many good memories for me that time !

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by Lukeyson

Had uncle Geoff steering the ship with passion for the brand!

IMO the BEST Ford ad to draw people into the new XR6 Turbo.

So many good and exciting things happening for us Ford fans when the BA came out. Then Ambrose/Ford winning in V8s. Many good memories for me that time !

G'day Lukeyson Wholeheartedly , absolutely agree..Geoff Polites would be turning in his grave now..I remember his joy , talking up the Ford Australia products...A true blue Aussie , selling a true blue platform..The BA XR6 ad was probably the last time they had a REAL GO at inspiring us to buy the car..Sales showed that this worked ...That ad is a classic..The two US guys that we refer too were hatchet men..Nothing more . Not naive enough to think they were the sole reason but their lack of passion for our car has to have influenced prospective buyers and maybe the Marketing Dept had the rug pulled from under them..Cheers Rod..

[xr6turboford]

Just what we needed another doom and gloom the Falcon is dead thred. Come on October then people can start on the Holden commodore. I've owned a few Falcons my favourite was the XBGT Coupe but I'm moving on Ford have more than enough good cars to choose from. We have the Mustang, Focus ST/RS just to name a few.

[cro142]

Originally Posted by malazn mafia

Wow, didn't realise Ford sold so many BA's and BAII's from 2002 to 2004. What was it? Advertising, design, power, tech, the colour range? Show's how good the car was for its time, given the oil prices and rise of small cars. Many Holden loyalists even bought Falcons and Territories at that time.

This was the Geoff Polites era.

He had the vision to produce an attractive product, and understood the need for quality marketing.

Since Polites, the succession of brainless Yanks in the chair did NOTHING.

[AussieCJ7]

Now overlay the graph with the number of government fleet sales of falcon in each year and draw a refence axis for the year the Fed gov removed the policy mandating australian manufactured cars from its fleet programs

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by AussieCJ7

Now overlay the graph with the number of government fleet sales of falcon in each year and draw a refence axis for the year the Fed gov removed the policy mandating australian manufactured cars from its fleet programs

G'day...Good point...Falcon , and Commodore relied on fleet sales a great deal I understand...Actually my AU ll was a Tasmanian Government Agriculture Department vehicle..Many of us would have picked up relatively new cars , mine had 60,000 kms on it at two and a half years old.from ex fleet cars .Another interesting comparison would be the effect the slackening of the Import Duty on cars had over time...Lots of causes and effects no doubt..Cheers Rod

[Brazen]

With so many Falcons and Commodores on the road, it was absolutely vital that the new models are quite revolutionary design wise or they will date very quickly or simply not get traction in the market. The XF to EA, EL to AU, AUIIi to BA were all massive design changes and were big hits. On first appearance FG was way too similar to BFII and never recovered even though nowadays we can see the differences a lot more clearly.

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by Brazen

With so many Falcons and Commodores on the road, it was absolutely vital that the new models are quite revolutionary design wise or they will date very quickly or simply not get traction in the market. The XF to EA, EL to AU, AUIIi to BA were all massive design changes and were big hits. On first appearance FG was way too similar to BFII and never recovered even though nowadays we can see the differences a lot more clearly.

G'day Brazen..Your comments on the FG..are backed up here actually in this Cars Guide review..Have you ever seen this . If not you'll appreciate Toby Hagon's opinion on that too..He says that same thing right at the end that some believe it's evolutionary not revolutionary..and it's hard to believe that this was eight years ago and five years before Ford announced the end of the marque.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xZFJvGwdx4 ..I love the FG by the way and finally bought one three weeks ago . Cheers Rod..

[Highway star]

There is nothing on this list that I would own. What ever happened to just buying a decent work ute and a good highway car? Now it seems you need a 60k twin cab to carry your lunch box to work or your kids to school and something that looks like a pie van for the around town commute.


BEST SELLING CARS

• 1
  
  Mazda 3
  
• 2
  
  Toyota Corolla
  
• 3
  
  Ford Ranger
  
• 4
  
  Toyota HiLux
  
• 5
  
  Hyundai Tucson
  
• 6
  
  Hyundai i30
  
• 7
  
  Mazda CX-5
  
• 8
  
  Volkswagen Golf
  
• 9
  
  Holden Colorado
  
• 10
  
  Nissan Navara

[SYZ]

Originally Posted by Highway star

There is nothing on this list that I would own.....

BEST SELLING CARS.....

Can I ask you which of those 10 vehicles you've actually driven yourself, and over what sort of time and/or distance. Or are you simply relying on the often dodgy impressions of motoring journalists, with all their inbuilt biasses?

[Highway star]

Originally Posted by SYZ

Can I ask you which of those 10 vehicles you've actually driven yourself, and over what sort of time and/or distance. Or are you simply relying on the often dodgy impressions of motoring journalists, with all their inbuilt biasses?

Certainly, Let's start with the utes. I'm 6'4 tall, I don't fit in a Ranger/Hilux/Nissan/Toyota etc etc, tried them all at some stage, That's why I still have 2 RTV's for work Plenty of leg room comfortable on long trips and enough ground clearance to drive over dead roo's especially where I live. Then there's the tray size? The RTV's have a 2.4 meter tray , I can carry all my tools with ease and a decent load of materials, try that in your twin cab?

Now for the cars, Again I don't fit in the Pie vans so cancel out any of those in the top 10, secondly if I make a trip to town which by the way is a bit more than your average city commute, then I'm going to do it in comfort and cruise with a bit of grunt when I need to overtake a tripple road train, that's why I have the G6e Turbo for that very job.

So sorry to burst your bubble, but we did use to make cars here that made sense, they just weren't fashioned enough for the latte sipping crowd or the 3'oclock house wife doing the school run.

[Brazen]

Just needed to export them really. But Ford and GM have always not made things ideal to export overseas in conflict with their other models.

[Brazen]

Yeah the similarity was a common complaint at the time. I own a FGII ute and love it.

[commodorenutt]

Originally Posted by Brazen

Yeah the similarity was a common complaint at the time. I own a FGII ute and love it.

image
image

On more than one occasion, Ford, and even Holden, have seen fit to "soften" the public up for a new model launch by having design cues incorporated into the end-of-line model before a new model. It also helps the uninformed public recognise the new model, or at least have half a clue what stable it comes from.

The front of the VZ commodore incorporated many cues from the upcoming VE that helped bridge the gap, and provide "face recognition" that car companies strive to achieve - which Mazda are arguably one of the best at (although Ford have them a good run for thei money during the Aston Martin grille styling phase they went through with FG, Focus & Mondeo around 2010-2011).

The BF2/3 was deliberately styled to ease into the new FG style - and the idea at the time was that this would not shock people like the EL-AU model change.

Some would say it was a good move by Ford. At the time even some of the press said the same. But in hindsight it didn't do any favours.