Crystal Ball Gazing for FoA

[FalconXV]

I added the following at the end of the VF Commodore thread, but removed it since it was drifting topic, and probably warrants some discussion, I feel.
In the last few weeks, the media (drivel aside) has made articles which bolster FoA's chance at survival.

-2015 Mustang article
-Confirmation that Mondeo will not be manufactured in Thailand, meaning we could be a RHD hub for it
- Territory export program
- Texas V8 Supercars ( I wonder if Ford will showcase some Falcons here to Americans)?

Anyway, I know the odds are slim,and alot of you will dismiss this as pipe dream bs, but here is a future I envision for Ford of Australia:

I expect a succesful rendition of 2014 Falcon would combine a well executed corporate fascia (sans chrome hopefully), and imported modules to better integrate it with smaller cars (VC, SYNC etc). Refined drivetrains and engines would be pretty cool, Ecoboost is still far from optimised IMO, I'd love to see a version with an intercooler and manual transmission- A new niche created for minimal outlay. Could be reborn as the Mondeos evil cousin perhaps...

Unlikely as it is, I'd personally love to see a DI version of the I6, what a fine note to bow out on!
And even though different bodystyles are out of the question, the key to a market resurgence could be drivetrain diversity, like all cars available as manual, like EA was. I know manual XT etc was dropped because there wasn't enough volume, but now Falcon needs all the volume it can get, and the 6 people who want a manual XT make a difference when sales are <1000.

Who knows; we could see a Crown Victoria scenario, where the platform is paid off decades ago, but small volume production still caters for governments etc. At the very least, I could see ute still being produced alongside Mondeo, seeing as there is no RHD hub for the latter, maybe this could be Australias new role.

Meanwhile, ute caters to a more diverse market by adding variants such as a 2T reinforced chassis version etc...
Maybe reworked K-frame to accept European engines; South Africa is definately a potential market now that they've lost their Bantam ( Mk4 Fiesta ute). But more likely Mulally wouldn't allow such an idea to permeate...
Just throwing some ideas around.
Either that or Broadmeadows closes, Geelong closes, and my passion for cars disappears with it.

I know theres scores of enthusiasts like me who come up with ideas like this, even as bleak as things are, and Mulally seems to want to squash Fords Australian arm, but if One Ford is truly global, then it would be foolish to squander the growth opportunities Aussies can offer Ford.
Is there still a chance? Or is Wheels right and Graziano is the grim reaper?

[csv8]

Ford 2016 ? KA. Fiesta. Focus. Mondeo. Kuga. with Falcon as a niche model only 2,,G6E and G6E Turbo. FPV???????????????

[washoutbeach]

The big boss Ford of has said that the future is all about technology and if we are going to have a crack at staying the distance, we probably should be offering scholarships to bright young geeks to induce them into the auto trade.

The day will come when cars will be like computer hardware and its the software that people will pay for.

The big boss was talking about congestion and integrated transport solutions. So to drive your car from A to B, you will have to book your trip and your car wont let you crash and park itself and so forth.

It wont come as quick here as other countries, but the days of freedom and going for a drive when you want are numbered.

There wont be cars as we know them now.

So just enjoy the era I suppose.

In the short term, If I was government, Id pretty much throw a lot of subsidies at Australian built LPG units (and the gas itself) to make them ultra competitive. Then we can save our 6 cylinder cars as everyone will want to buy them.

Besides that, Australian built Fords are truly world class vehicles.

[Luke Plaizier]

Originally Posted by washoutbeach

The big boss was talking about congestion and integrated transport solutions. So to drive your car from A to B, you will have to book your trip and your car wont let you crash and park itself and so forth.

It wont come as quick here as other countries, but the days of freedom and going for a drive when you want are numbered.

This is the highway vision. It could happen now. Cars with Electronic Throttle Control, full stability control modules and now EPAS can have all steering, acceleration and braking controlled by a computer - all that's needed is the computer.

The world is not quite ready. Worldwide standards for guided roads with safe ingress and egress are needed before anything can happen, but once that happens, major highways will open up dedicated driverless commuter lanes or tollways - perhaps to replace the current high occupancy vehicle lanes - where cars can travel beyond 200km/h with 1 metre gaps or less between them. Taking that one step further with lanes that can provide power to the cars themselves, and one day we'll all look up and see giants with slot-car controllers grinning down at us......

That kind of infrastructure can't be rolled out to grandma's country driveway, or to all the dirt roads through the forests, so we're never really going to give up roads where drivers have full control. Our current world will exist for a long time to come.

I don't know how much FoA is within scope of One Ford. There's been no money spent on FoA for awhile now other than the design centre. The Factory is certainly not getting any goodies. There's no talk of increasing capacity. To be profitable they need to go Niche or go upmarket, so the Lincoln partnership was always an attractive option. But we've not heard anything about that now for quite some time - and with recent announcements that Lincoln can survive as a FWD product house you have to wonder whether that door has closed too.

Ruminations on Mustang and RHD markets have long been on the agenda. Whether that volume is enough to leverage a 4 door model is the big question. The ideal would be to merge Mustang, Falcon, Territory, Taurus and Explorer onto the one platform.


Lukeyson

[washoutbeach]

Originally Posted by Luke Plaizier

This is the highway vision. It could happen now. Cars with Electronic Throttle Control, full stability control modules and now EPAS can have all steering, acceleration and braking controlled by a computer - all that's needed is the computer.

The world is not quite ready. Worldwide standards for guided roads with safe ingress and egress are needed before anything can happen, but once that happens, major highways will open up dedicated driverless commuter lanes or tollways - perhaps to replace the current high occupancy vehicle lanes - where cars can travel beyond 200km/h with 1 metre gaps or less between them. Taking that one step further with lanes that can provide power to the cars themselves, and one day we'll all look up and see giants with slot-car controllers grinning down at us......

That kind of infrastructure can't be rolled out to grandma's country driveway, or to all the dirt roads through the forests, so we're never really going to give up roads where drivers have full control. Our current world will exist for a long time to come.

I don't know how much FoA is within scope of One Ford. There's been no money spent on FoA for awhile now other than the design centre. The Factory is certainly not getting any goodies. There's no talk of increasing capacity. To be profitable they need to go Niche or go upmarket, so the Lincoln partnership was always an attractive option. But we've not heard anything about that now for quite some time - and with recent announcements that Lincoln can survive as a FWD product house you have to wonder whether that door has closed too.

Ruminations on Mustang and RHD markets have long been on the agenda. Whether that volume is enough to leverage a 4 door model is the big question. The ideal would be to merge Mustang, Falcon, Territory, Taurus and Explorer onto the one platform.


Lukeyson

An excellent post, lots to think about, thanks.

[FalconXV]

Originally Posted by Luke Plaizier

This is the highway vision. It could happen now. Cars with Electronic Throttle Control, full stability control modules and now EPAS can have all steering, acceleration and braking controlled by a computer - all that's needed is the computer.

The world is not quite ready. Worldwide standards for guided roads with safe ingress and egress are needed before anything can happen, but once that happens, major highways will open up dedicated driverless commuter lanes or tollways - perhaps to replace the current high occupancy vehicle lanes - where cars can travel beyond 200km/h with 1 metre gaps or less between them. Taking that one step further with lanes that can provide power to the cars themselves, and one day we'll all look up and see giants with slot-car controllers grinning down at us......

That kind of infrastructure can't be rolled out to grandma's country driveway, or to all the dirt roads through the forests, so we're never really going to give up roads where drivers have full control. Our current world will exist for a long time to come.

I don't know how much FoA is within scope of One Ford. There's been no money spent on FoA for awhile now other than the design centre. The Factory is certainly not getting any goodies. There's no talk of increasing capacity. To be profitable they need to go Niche or go upmarket, so the Lincoln partnership was always an attractive option. But we've not heard anything about that now for quite some time - and with recent announcements that Lincoln can survive as a FWD product house you have to wonder whether that door has closed too.

Ruminations on Mustang and RHD markets have long been on the agenda. Whether that volume is enough to leverage a 4 door model is the big question. The ideal would be to merge Mustang, Falcon, Territory, Taurus and Explorer onto the one platform.


Lukeyson

Food for thought, I think we'll see autonomous driving on some major roads at least mid way through next decade.
I especially like the 200km/h part, if human factor is taken out of the equation, then interstate trips could be that much faster!

Sooner than that (post 2016), most realistic possibility I think is Broadmeadows downsizes, and we start assembling CKD versions of of Mondeo; FPV could make a killing off Ecoboost V6 versions of it, but would probably have to branch out to other models ( bodykits on Transits etc lol).
Either way, they will have to change their business model if they intend to survive.
Now that Jost Capito has left Team RS in Europe for VW, Ford will probably lose its performance vision worldwide, and FPV might be the final outpost of Fast Fords...

The next Explorer could be based off the Fusion platform and Territory will probably merge with it. This is not a bad thing, current Explorer sucks coz its based on the Volvo platform (to be replaced). As long as we just get the bones of the US Explorer (and none of their feature creep), Terry might turn out to be a world class vehicle, and maybe the basis for a Touareg rival in Europe.
Our Territory would be a derivative of that, and based on it being the most successful car we make, will probably see a (relatively) high R&D spend (as it is the only current local model we could make a business case for).

I really hope we can retain our indigenous ute, its important because we invented it. However, dubious whether a business case could be made, but alot of companies still swear by them and buy them buy the truckload. Imagine some kind of CD4/ E8 hybrid, with the rear chassis from current Falcon ute grafted on. As long as it had some Aussie styling input, and not just that fish face grafted on, it could work.

By mid 2020's though, if the stratification of niche segments continues to eat away at sedans etc, this is when I predict Broadmeadows will close. I am very happy to be proven wrong, but its more optimistic than other predictions.

[jpd80]

Devil's advocate, Falcon splits into two distinct vehicles with no six cylinders in sight.

2.0 EB XT,

2.0 EB Zetec

2.0 EB Titanium

5.0 XR8

5.0 G8E

Which means Territory becomes available with 2.0 EB and V6 diesel, hopefully newer 3.0

[4.0i OHC]

Originally Posted by jpd80

Devil's advocate, Falcon splits into two distinct vehicles with no six cylinders in sight.

2.0 EB XT,

2.0 EB Zetec

2.0 EB Titanium

5.0 XR8

5.0 G8E

Which means Territory becomes available with 2.0 EB and V6 diesel, hopefully newer 3.0

If the I6 absolutely must go, this is what I want to happen. I like how you used the Euro Ford naming scheme; I might even go further and suggest that the G8E be badged 'Titanium V8', 'Titanium GXL' or similar. Hopefully the next gen Falcon goes further and is styled in a similar way to the Euro Fords (both inside and out). As well as this, I wouldn't mind seeing the Mondeo sound system/tech features (note that I am NOT referring to Sync here) integrated into the next generation Falcon.

[Road_Warrior]

Ford are now facing the reality that the next gen Mustang platform cannot be justified based on the numbers created by North American sales. It needs to be a global vehicle. Whether this means it will be shared with other body types (ie a sedan and a luxury coupe) remains to be seen, but one way I can see this going is that come 2016 production of the E8 based cars here will cease and we will start to get RHD Mustangs and other cars that are based on that platform. Broady will be reconfigured to produce RHD CD4 platform cars which would be more in tune with what buyers are after.

[Buntz]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

Ford are now facing the reality that the next gen Mustang platform cannot be justified based on the numbers created by North American sales. It needs to be a global vehicle. Whether this means it will be shared with other body types (ie a sedan and a luxury coupe) remains to be seen, but one way I can see this going is that come 2016 production of the E8 based cars here will cease and we will start to get RHD Mustangs and other cars that are based on that platform. Broady will be reconfigured to produce RHD CD4 platform cars which would be more in tune with what buyers are after.

Or Ford realise their best world class RWD vehicle is made by FoA. They undertake a porject to either combine, or streamline technology and parts sharing. Australia keeps Falcon, and maybe gets Mustang. And then the World gets a far more global, compliant, acceptable Mustang sports coupe. Especially to Euros who will mock it's live axle.