New Falcons and Commodores too low to the ground?

[BurgerMcCartney]

i dont know what your on about. first thing i done when i got my car was lowered it. its always gonna be too high until its scrapin on the ground

[buggo]

My home street is really wobbly. There is alot of old trees on both sides of the street which would have been smaller when the street was built, but over time, as they get bigger and stronger, they have made the street into a rollercoaster. Their is one part that is real bad, if I go over 4okm/h I will scrape the front bumber. I want to lower it but don't know how bad the concequences would be.
If Ford and whoever else want to make the cars lower, why not make the bumpers a little higher but make the wheel arch gap smaller, so it is not quite tucking but almost flush. That would make it look and handle better while still being somewhat practical.

[cedric]

Originally Posted by buggo_gt

My home street is really wobbly. There is alot of old trees on both sides of the street which would have been smaller when the street was built, but over time, as they get bigger and stronger, they have made the street into a rollercoaster. Their is one part that is real bad, if I go over 4okm/h I will scrape the front bumber. I want to lower it but don't know how bad the concequences would be.
If Ford and whoever else want to make the cars lower, why not make the bumpers a little higher but make the wheel arch gap smaller, so it is not quite tucking but almost flush. That would make it look and handle better while still being somewhat practical.

yep xa,b,c tyre level with guard 200 odd mm of the ground
xd,e,f, tyre level with guard 20 odd mm of the ground!!!!!

[XR Martin]

Seriously how are people scraping new cars with stock ride height? Do you ever think if theres a steep incline or bump, maybe you should take it at an angle, rather than head on?

I used to have heaps of fun bashing the tow hook on the underside of an old '83 626 that I had, but it had stuffed shocks and was driven without care. According to on-lookers you could get a nice shower of sparks flying out going over speed humps.
I reckon it must of been made of titanium because of the amount of times i bashed it, it never bent, broke or wore out.

My ED is on superlows and ive never scraped it, neither has my EL. Also driven BF/FG XR6s, and VE SV6s and never had an issue.

[mik]

perhaps the sales thing is more about the the majority of the population being in the older fuddy duddy bracket , but that said i`m close to the big 50 and i like my henry the way it is (3" inch exhaust and all), i have no desire to drive over median strips or other obstacle that would damage my limo, and if there`s any doubt about ground clearance what is the most popular in the falcon range, i`m guessing its not the farm special xt with high profile tyres, if i`m not mistaken its the xr series.

[Ben73]

I took a Holden VE SV6 off roading. It was for work and there was no other choice. I don't want to know what the underside looked like after that, but I heard a few nice scrapes. Why they hired Sv6 and XR6's is beyond me. Our normal drive is a Toyota Prado.
I think if they want to make cars lower to the ground, they need to fix roads, drivways, speed bumps etc.
Many public driveways are not suitable for low cars Like Xr's, let alone private ones...

[oranpark addict]

Have to agree with OP. My VT Calais with its gutter knockering suspension is much more practical than most newer cars. I can take normal gutters head on!!

[Dezza]

Originally Posted by tranquilized

Ford even lowered AU's to use in advertisements!

Ford have been doing it for years. This is the owners manual that came with my EA.

This is the real ride height

[Halfmo Rocks]

Originally Posted by BFZF8

I must be the odd one out here. I've never scraped/bottomed out my stock BF XR8

my stock BAII XR6T has been cool too, not too low, i figured it was just about right...except my driveway - very steep angle, fine coming up from the road...but going from the steep drive up to the flat carport almost beaches it.
my old AUII Futura was fine, my dad's BAII futura is fine. pain in my backside though, as i can never keep my new baby undercover & out of the weather/dust & stuff

i didn't think XR ride height would be that different before i bought it, but looking at the difference between my XR6T & my dad's futura now...his thing looks like a monster truck compared to my ute.
if i had to replace my XR6 tomorrow...i'd might be thinking about RTV or Terry.

[Ryan]

My VL has superlows all around, but I haven't had any issues with it. Well until a few weeks ago I went to turn into a driveway, and the left front hand side tyre rubbed against the guard. Then again it has 235s, so I'll be going to 225s.

Other than that I've had no issues with speed bumps or whatever. I just have to be a bit more cautious, and honestly driving along you wouldn't think it's been lowered, because it still retains a good ride.

[OzJavelin]

My '03 VY1 SV8 with 17" wheels and FE2 is about as low as I could be bothered with for normal driving. It looks like cr@p, but I can drive just about anywhere without fear of bottoming out, smashing rims on potholes, hitting gutters or parking "stops", etc. Wife's FG XR6 ute is EGas is slightly higher than normal but with 18" wheels, side skirts and lower front and rear fascia it's always a cautious time parking, driving over rough roads, etc. I doubt people are buying soft-roaders and the like because of the reasons mentioned, but it's probably a very beneficial side-effect ..

[tranquilized]

Originally Posted by Dezza

Ford have been doing it for years. This is the owners manual that came with my EA.

This is the real ride height

Haha thats a classic, the one on the owners manual is sitting right down on its tyres! Ford did raise the ride height of the EA mid way through the series one model run due to suspension issues, but I doubt it would explain that big a discrepancy...

[prydey]

brazen - you're having a laugh, surely! too low?? you can't cross a median strip in a car designed for the road, and its the car's fault?

[4.0i_SiX]

No offence but sometimes I think people whinge too much. Drive according to the conditions ffs. NO family car is supposed to gutter hop, get a 4x4 if you want to do that

[Brazen]

Originally Posted by prydey

brazen - you're having a laugh, surely! too low?? you can't cross a median strip in a car designed for the road, and its the car's fault?

Well they are designed to have emergency vehicles like police cars, ambulances etc to cross. If people like they way the Falcon is then thats a good thing - lowest sales in 50 years with a population now approaching 23million means that Ford is reading the market right - nah just having a dig

The great thing is there are plenty of vehicles out there to satisfy everyone.

[prydey]

Originally Posted by Brazen

If people like they way the Falcon is then thats a good thing - lowest sales in 50 years with a population now approaching 23million means that Ford is reading the market right - nah just having a dig

this is getting off topic, but surely you would know how the fickle aussies work by now. if both major brands swapped products so that the only thing different on each was the badges, do you really think that the ford (holden)would be outselling the holden(ford). if the FG had holden badges it would sell at 4000/month like the ve.

[BurgerMcCartney]

yeah my ba has super lows and i never scrape unless i go down huge curbs. dont see how you could scrape a standard height falcon

[SteveJH]

Originally Posted by BurgerMcCartney

yeah my ba has super lows and i never scrape unless i go down huge curbs. dont see how you could scrape a standard height falcon

Driveway plus cars parked too close on either side for you to take it at an angle = Scraped Front bumper coming out, Exhaust or Tow bar on the way in.

And this is my poor old EL GLi with standard height.

I'd hate to be doing it in something lowered.

[XR Martin]

Actually that EA Ghia doesnt even look likes its at factory ride height either. Either that or the Ghias had lower suspension that the GLs.
I know the Spac was 15mm lower.
But ive definately seen EAs with higher suspension than that Ghia.

[Dezza]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

Actually that EA Ghia doesnt even look likes its at factory ride height either. Either that or the Ghias had lower suspension that the GLs.
I know the Spac was 15mm lower.
But ive definately seen EAs with higher suspension than that Ghia.

If you're referring to the pics I put up, that was factory suspension. If I started the car up, the back end probably would have risen a little bit more as it had self levelling rear suspension. That along with S-pack front springs gave the EA Ghias a very bum in the air look! But as that is my car, I can verify it was totally original.

[JamesR]

i wanna see an FG do this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWaNzBoGEyA

haha

[Murph-51]

they build these cars from the ground up....... literally!!! lol

Nah seriously my FG is all scraped to buggery underneath the airdam, doesn't bother me now, as you cant see it anyway, would have been nice though to have been told about the how low they are before I drove away in my nice new shiny car

[prydey]

my bf2 was quite scraped on the underside of the front airdam as well when i bought it. one of the first things i did was lower it an inch or so more, and since i've owned it, i could count on one hand the amount of times i've hit it since. i've always lowered my cars so maybe i've just become used to driving a certain way.

even if the car isn't lowered, its good practice to slow right down entering and exiting driveways, over speed humps etc. your wheel alignment will thank you for it. a little bit of mechanical sympathy goes a long way.

i'm forever telling my wife this sort of stuff. comes into the drive still doing a good 30km/h it seems sometimes.

[flightstrike]

My stock '10 FG XR6 Ute scrapes pretty much everything in Cairns... Makes me cringe every time! My old BA XR6 Sedan had no worries...

[Ben73]

Bought a house early in the year. Didn't think twice about the driveway. All was well for a while, until a had my first heavyish load in the boot. Middle of car scraped. It's ok with a front seat passenger, but put anything of any weight in the back and you hear a nice scrape. Even the grocery shopping will make it scrap.
Coming in on an angle helps with a moderate load, but in a single car driveway there is only so much of an angle you can come on.



This photo was not even taking at the worst spot, If I reversed back a foot I would probably not even fit my fingers under the car.

Im thinking about putting some wood where the front wheels are in this picture, hopefully that will reduce the amount of slope enough.
One day I will get it reconcreted with a less of sudden angle. Until then I am sure my next vehicle will be a 4x4.

[TheInterceptor]

Too low yes..for my needs though so i am RTVing mine

[Ford_The_Win]

I was forever scraping my old Falcon on kerbs - the underside of the front bumper and the alloy wheels are scratched to buggery as a result. My new car is lower than my old Falcon and has appalling visibility in comparison, because the hip line is very high, but unlike my old Falcon it can actually handle and isn't the size of a whale, which actually makes it easier to park. I'm not missing having to 'go wide' when pulling into a parking space, I don't have to pull all the way up to the kerb to get the car to fit into the spot (because it's not 17 feet long) and I don't miss various components of the car creaking and groaning as I make a million-point maneuvre to reverse out of a tight space. I think it's the size of Foulcans and Clunkadores that's more of a problem.

[TC200six]

late model cars have very low front bumpers that scrape most parking blocks. Although I've never had a problem with (most) speed bumps in the G6E

[NX74205]

I've also noticed that the standard ride height seems to have reduced somewhat. I used to own an EA which had a very decent ride height, it could go over almost anything. But the down side was terrible handling. The BF handles much, much better, but I have scraped the lower front bumper several times on kerbs. It's at the stock ride height, I haven't lowered it (and frankly, I just don't get people's obsessions with lowering them). The rough Aussie country roads, especially gravel roads, aren't suitable for super low cars with huge wheels and very low profile tyres.

[BadMax]

OMG, a performance orientated forum and people are complaining about low bumpers and cars being too low? What is the world coming to...

Seriously, if you're a spastic that doesn't know how low their car is, needs to be told by the dealer to watch the front bumper because they're to stupid to just look at the car or can't read the road and take due caution...What do you expect?

Passenger sedans aren't built to jump median strips or gutters, end of story.
If you must do this, buy a Territory and stop ya bitching