Saturday, May 31, 2008

Why Doesn't Ford use the Falcon?

Ford has lots of cars that they should, but don't sell in North America. The fact that the only place they sell the Falcon is Australia. They only sell 30,000 of them every year. It is completely crazy that they will design such a great car and sell it in a very small market when they have both Europe and North America. GM has brought their big rear wheel drive Australian sedan, the Holden Commodore to the U.S. in the form of the Pontiac G8. The new FG Falcon is an even better car than the new VE Commodore (they use two letter names for the RWD Aussie sedan plarforms) and the Holden is better than a BMW 5-series. Ford could use this platform for the next Mustang. It has everything the Mustang needs, RWD, a very modern and lightweight independent front and rear suspension, not the the crappy rigid axle that ruins the current Mustang. In a recent Motor Trend comparison the 425hp Dodge Challenger SRT-8 beat the 500hp Shelby GT500, because it has an outdated rigid axle at the rear. The next Comaro will use the VE Commodore platform and the Challenger has a platform from the old W210 Mercedes-Benz E-class. The FG Ford Falcon is a better car than any of those. Ford could also bring the normal Falcon over here with the 260hp 4.0L straight 6 or the 270hp 3.5L V6, the 360 hp 4.0L turbocharged straight 6, and the 388hp 5.4L V8 engines that are offered in Australia. That would mean that for in the low $30,000 range there would be two cars that can compete and win against the $60,000 BMW 550i. The Falcon is a car Ford can't afford to sell only in Australia. The same is true for the crossover version of the Falcon, the Ford Territory.

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