FG X, The Last EVER Falcon - Picture & Discussion Thread

[XR Martin]

Didnt Falcon invent the chrome 'monobrow' above the number plate?
I know the AU them, I was thinking the Jag S-type had one first but it came out a year after the AU.

[Road_Warrior]

The EF and EL had it as well.

[stevefreestyle]

Originally Posted by Polyal

Im sure it had nothing to do with a failed business case, high labour costs, small market, flakey quality and poor service. Lets not forget the fuel prices, increased competition, people having smaller family's, "small and midsize" cars not actually being that small etc.

Good products sell, its that simple, yes amazing marketing can help but if the core product is not what the market wants or the competition offers more for less then why would someone buy it.

Dissagree 100% - Good even brilliant products without social / street credibility / kudos will NOT sell to the general (ie Ignorant and easily influenced) public - regardless of how good they are - without effective Marketing. And the same works in reverse .....vis a vis M***onalds.

The BA ("Can't Get Enough Of This") sold well largely because it was presented as a statement of successful, sexy, dynamic and desirable with testosterone - the anthesis of their failed subsequent marketing strategy.

Marketing engineers "consensus" - simple as that, as like it or not, most people "think" emotionally (except me of course), and are fashion sheep.

If only Ford would revisit this with the next Falcon ...and a special version for the XR8.......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDaLxN5FIjE

[malazn mafia]

Originally Posted by stevefreestyle

Dissagree 100% - Good even brilliant products without social / street credibility / kudos will NOT sell to the general (ie Ignorant and easily influenced) public - regardless of how good they are - without effective Marketing. And the same works in reverse .....vis a vis M***onalds.

The BA ("Can't Get Enough Of This") sold well largely because it was presented as a statement of successful, sexy, dynamic and desirable with testosterone - the anthesis of their failed subsequent marketing strategy.

Marketing engineers "consensus" - simple as that, as like it or not, most people "think" emotionally (except me of course), and are fashion sheep.

If only Ford would revisit this with the next Falcon ...and a special version for the XR8.......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDaLxN5FIjE

Ford Aus lost the drive to survive after BA (after Tom Gorman left). Now Ford Australia's marketing campaign is a stressed out guy with his hands in the air, staring off the edge of the cliff, and telling himself to 'go further'...

[XR Martin]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

The EF and EL had it as well.

Of course!
They were real metal too!

[gtfpv]

12 YEARS AGO !!!! where has time gone !!!

[stevefreestyle]

Originally Posted by malazn mafia

Ford Aus lost the drive to survive after BA (after Tom Gorman left). Now Ford Australia's marketing campaign is a stressed out guy with his hands in the air, staring off the edge of the cliff, and telling himself to 'go further'...

Change of management and with it with a change of marketing and brand positioning strategy and orientation - fully focused towards twenty something females (who don't buy Falcons!) - and alienating everyone else.

[Kieron]

Originally Posted by stevefreestyle

Yes, unfortunately a lot of people do deliberately buy Un-Australian. Its is called the CULTURAL CRINGE.....and its a sociopathically self-destructive phenomena peculiar only to Australia - where there is a pervasive and irrational cultural inferiority complex with everything created by australia - with the notable exception of sport.

Thats why intelligent and effective Marketing of Australian cars is so important - where sadly Ford Au has failed dismally since the BA.

It's not peculiar to Australia and I doubt it's due to buying non Australian.

As an example, i'm up in Malaysia quite often and the locally grown Proton is looked down on and due to protectionism (import duties), the Proton products are stagnent.

As for buying non Australian, thats a little hard to prove or disprove. Perhaps if Ford/Holden read the market more accurately, they would have adapted and produced an Australian car that the punters wanted. Perfect example was the late great Geoff Polites vision with the Ford Territory, he correctly read the market trends and pushed for the produciton of the Terri which went on the become a runaway success in it's market segment and i'd suggest is the Falcons lifeline now. It's up against stiffer competition now but still hanging in there.


This is well off topic of course, we need more sneak peeks from Spyman

[malazn mafia]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

Of course!
They were real metal too!

EF/EL: The interior chrome door handles were real metal, bits and pieces held together with screws and not clips. Ah the good old days of Ford Australia...

[XR Martin]

Go to France, everyone drives French cars, go to Italy everyone drives Italian cars, same goes for Germany, Japan
Renault accounts for more than a 1/4 of cars sold in France

[Road_Warrior]

Pics or GTFO

It's disappointing that Ford themselves arent playing the teaser game this time. I'm grateful to Spyman for his pics, but some nice teaser shots from Ford would be totally rad.

[gtfpv]

Originally Posted by stevefreestyle

Change of management and with it with a change of marketing and brand positioning strategy and orientation - fully focused towards twenty something females (who don't buy Falcons!) - and alienating everyone else.

you mean the focus add . Ooooow LOOK thereth another Ford Focuth

[b0son]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

Go to France, everyone drives French cars, go to Italy everyone drives Italian cars, same goes for Germany, Japan
Renault accounts for more than a 1/4 of cars sold in France

Those companies are owned by the countries they're in, they have no one telling what to build. OTOH, none of our manufacturers were locally owned. They never had final say in what they got to build, otherwise we'd have had locally built buzzboxes long ago.

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by malazn mafia

Ford Aus lost the drive to survive after BA (after Tom Gorman left). Now Ford Australia's marketing campaign is a stressed out guy with his hands in the air, staring off the edge of the cliff, and telling himself to 'go further'...

You mean after Geoff Polites left. Tom Gorman was the one who screwed everything up.

[Nikked]

Originally Posted by b0son

Those companies are owned by the countries they're in, they have no one telling what to build. OTOH, none of our manufacturers were locally owned. They never had final say in what they got to build, otherwise we'd have had locally built buzzboxes long ago.

Actually, I would really doubt that.

Australians are very stubborn, as everyone has seen now, there has been all sorts of venom directed at Ford for dropping the falcon. Even the prospect of FWD, downsizing etc spooked people.

"Australian cars are big RWD sedans so you can tow caravans and have better driving dynamics"

For so long this was the accepted phrase, the only choice in cars for Australians was a Falcon or Commodore, be True Blue, my father had one, only cars built for our conditions...even the locally built/assembled Cortinas, Escorts and Lasers etc were acceptable by association.

Now, was it some miss-judged product predictions, or reluctance to abandon buyers that meant we kept pumping out 3-box RWD sedans? This oversight, combined with the strip back of industry protection (The button plan has gotta share the blame) and wages all contributed to the fact. Its not as simple as "'Merica abandoning us", "killing off" or "not wanting to export as to kill its products"

Imagine if the Au falcon was replaced by a locally designed and built large 5-door hatch, with the "big six" replaced by global engines? A shocking idea to the purists, but a idea that could have brought content inline with global design, tech and economy updates...and more plausible export possibilities...


But at the end of the day, there is no single reason....

[Dr Smith]

Originally Posted by Nikked

image

Great effort. Could I make some suggestions. The upper grill opening is a little more symmetrical in the horizontal plane with the lower half of the top grill slightly larger or in other words the mirror image of what you have shown. The below bumper opening is closer in size to the upper grill. This is taken from the video Ford revealed last year. From Drive: http://media.smh.drive.com.au/cars/c...o-4657636.html

[stevefreestyle]

Originally Posted by Dr Smith

Great effort. Could I make some suggestions. The upper grill opening is a little more symmetrical in the horizontal plane with the lower half of the top grill slightly larger or in other words the mirror image of what you have shown. The below bumper opening is closer in size to the upper grill. This is taken from the video Ford revealed last year. From Drive: http://media.smh.drive.com.au/cars/c...o-4657636.html

I think you will find that is a mustang nose, cleverly superimposed

[GTP-814]

Originally Posted by DJR-351

Kids!! I'm 53 and 4 doors is 3 too many, well unless the missus wants to come for a ride that is......

Ha ha, & then you need a load sterio...or is that just me

[Sam_Boss260]

Looks like Wheels mag has posted up a "scoop picture". Saw it on facebook....

[Dr Smith]

Originally Posted by stevefreestyle

I think you will find that is a mustang nose, cleverly superimposed

Yep and the next Falcon is "Mustang bred to use the old slogan"

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by Sam_Boss260

Looks like Wheels mag has posted up a "scoop picture". Saw it on facebook....

You mean this?



No scoop there. A chop of a Taurus front on an FG base image, these morons just can't let go of their Taurus wet dream. Plus the spy photo they show there is the black G6E/T shown by Spyman earlier.

[Nikked]

To be fair, the overall grill shape is probally closer to the GCI's that Ford had at the motor show...

[Focused]

Originally Posted by stevefreestyle

Change of management and with it with a change of marketing and brand positioning strategy and orientation - fully focused towards twenty something females (who don't buy Falcons!) - and alienating everyone else.

But those twenty something females are buying Focis and Kugas and then they're getting families and demanding Territorys.
And they're selling way more Focis (not sure about Kugas) than Falcons.

I'll generalize Falcon buyers into three categories. The first group can't afford to buy a new Falcon (which isn't much help for Ford.) The second group are retired empty-nesters who've always had Falcons, but they're now getting SUVs to tow their caravans (or dieing of old age). And the final group is the small number of enthusiasts (who're probably members here) and contribute to the 200 FPVs/XR6T/G6ETs that sell per month. And 200 a month won't keep a factory alive no matter how well something is marketed.

[Focused]

Here's the picture from WHEELS.
https://www.facebook.com/WheelsAustralia


and here's an image from Carsguide:

Haven't these people seen the images from the Going Further event in Sydney?!?! We already know what the rough outline of the headlights (including the quad LEDs) looks like so why don't they integrate that into these images?

[The Stylist]

Originally Posted by Sloth

Where has "The Stylist" got to?

...Still lurking about, and cobbling together something rather interesting.

[JPFS1]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

You mean this?

No scoop there. A chop of a Taurus front on an FG base image, these morons just can't let go of their Taurus wet dream. Plus the spy photo they show there is the black G6E/T shown by Spyman earlier.

at least they've got the fog surround basically right.

[CyberWasp]

Hey this is the 3rd biggest thread ever in this section of the website.
That has to say something.

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by DASH GT

Means there's no basic ute anymore just xr6 upwards.

There is. I know the 3 seater column shift will be around.

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

You mean after Geoff Polites left. Tom Gorman was the one who screwed everything up.

Bob is currently doing a good job of stuffing it up.....seems to be when the Yanks are around it goes to hell.

[FGX-351]

Originally Posted by malazn mafia

EF/EL: The interior chrome door handles were real metal, bits and pieces held together with screws and not clips. Ah the good old days of Ford Australia...

Not all of them, some of them are chromed plastic I believe.
I made sure to get metal ones when I got mine.

[Cuyper]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

Didnt Falcon invent the chrome 'monobrow' above the number plate?
I know the AU them, I was thinking the Jag S-type had one first but it came out a year after the AU.

Don't think so brother, just off the top of my head the FC Holden had a chrome strip above the number plate both inbuilt into the bumper and on the boot. I'm sure 1000's of cars have had such a trim before the AU