ford fe falcon

This week I am stoked as the new Falcon’s finally out and the trepidation over how it looks is over. Ford’s BA-BF series cars were brilliant. Sure the rear door access was rubbish and the drivers’ seating position a bit off, but delivered great refinement, power and above all bang for buck.

When you make a car that good, there’s always a risk that the successor can fall from a great height down to car mediocrity. Having seen a bunch of Photoshop hypotheticals over the past few months, it looked more than likely. Now the speculation is over. The new Ford Falcon FG series has broken cover.

For the first time they’re are two models the G series and the XR. This is an absolute coup de etat. Now you can get it in a Fairmont Ghia type vehicle, the G6E Turbo. Because with the BF, the only way you could get a turbo was with the XR. It was a handsome enough brute on the outside, but who wants the rear spoiler and the flouro tyre pattern interior? Not me. It was too, middle aged bloke trying to act fifteen again.

I’ve owned both a BA XT Falcon and an XR6 Turbo. And I can honestly say that I much preferred the simple sophistication of the XT’s interior and lamented the lairy XR at first. So Ford’s product department should take a bow for extending the turbo out across the range. Well done!

Now you can get all the grunt (270 kilowatts of it) you want in luxo spec car. One that even has a whiff of Aston Martin or Jaguar about it. As opposed to the bouffant, shoulder padded VE Commodore, the Ford is a far more refined sophisticated look, without loosing all the cool aesthetics of the BF. This is of course if you’re like me and think that the old Falcon was never a bad looking car, it was just getting old.

The XR spec cars are a clear improvement, however the front doesn’t look anywhere near as good as the G series IMHO. Perhaps seeing one in the flesh will resolve that. Though sadly, that’s not going to be until May, when the rubber really hits the road.

On the flip side though, Ford’s new web site for the Falcon sucks arse! It’s all Flash based and too difficult to navigate. For example, just stupid stuff like an image loads with a G series and an XR and you have to choose between them. So you move the cursor and the link moves further away! That was cool in 1999 but today it’s just plain irritating.

Plenty of ambiguous menus abound too and it looks like they spent all their money on a few movies probably intended for television that tell you nothing about the car. It’s Web 1.0 all over again and definitely form over function.

In the media though, apparently Ford CEO is sent a G6E Turbo back to the states. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the Falcon ended up being made in North America, given Falcons have been tested there. However it’s crystal clear it wont be made in Oz. It would slot in perfectly in the states and wipe the tepid Five Hundred and Crown Victoria off the deck! I genuinely hope there’s substance to the rumours.

Anyways, I can’t wait for the motoring mags to come out with full specs on the cars. Which makes you wonder WHY they launched the Falcon on a Sunday in the middle of the magazine runs?! It’s just stupid. Oh well, I guess we’ll have to wait. In the meantime here are some new Falcon photos.

Long live the Ford!