The WORST Falcon model, and why.

[ford71V8]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

XF. It was successful only because it's main rival Holden was bankrupt and almost went out of business. I don't believe any teenage boy had a poster of an XF on their bedroom wall nor do I see any demand for these cars by collectors these days. And look at the project cars forum - nobody has ever wanted to restore an XF back to factory condition.

My god, that dashboard

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

I can't remember the last time I saw an XF on the road. And even thought it is not listed amongst these numbers I'd be surprised if there was 5000 still registered.

http://fordforums.com.au/showpost.ph...&postcount=101

Those figures you refer to are for sedans if I remember correctly.

[zipping]

I'm going for the XF. I can't remember them even having as S-pack for them, a million of them that did the job but truly unmemorable as a car.

For some reason always though the XD/XE much better looking cars.

Went through around a 100 BA's as taxis while they were less reliable than the AU series, they made up for it in ride and styling. Forum being a bit tough and you got to remember all cars around that time required dash pull outs for niggly issues.

Had one single engine failure in all those cars and overall was more considerably reliable than its Holden rival.

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by zipping

I'm going for the XF. I can't remember them even having as S-pack for them, a million of them that did the job but truly unmemorable as a car.

For some reason always though the XD/XE much better looking cars.

Went through around a 100 BA's as taxis while they were less reliable than the AU series, they made up for it in ride and styling. Forum being a bit tough and you got to remember all cars around that time required dash pull outs for niggly issues.

Had one single engine failure in all those cars and overall was more considerably reliable than its Holden rival.

[FairmontGS]

Question is "worst", not the "one I dislike the most", so XK wins hands down as worst build, worst suspension, worst steering, worst road holding, worst engine/transmission. But I still like them.

Whilst EAs were poor cars, they didn't intentionally set out to kill you unlike the XK.

As you would expect, each model Falcon up until the end was always better than the prior one (even the AU was better than the EL).

[eb2fairmont]

Worst mechanically XK honarable mention Ea and BA

Worst styling XF honourable mention AU series 1 forte

[pottery beige]

B Series are crap

13 x sets rears
2 x sets fronts
3 x engine mounts
2 x rear diff covers
1 x diff (rooted again)
1 x bushes (rooted again)
1 x axle
1 x CR101 (franco )

18 months + 3 for loss of points

[383hq]

Originally Posted by FairmontGS

Question is "worst", not the "one I dislike the most", so XK wins hands down as worst build, worst suspension, worst steering, worst road holding, worst engine/transmission. But I still like them.

Whilst EAs were poor cars, they didn't intentionally set out to kill you unlike the XK.

As you would expect, each model Falcon up until the end was always better than the prior one (even the AU was better than the EL).

We had one warranty claim where the driver nearly died after picking his EA up from Adelaide to drive to Hamilton.
Running his car in on the trip home, nearly got rear ended by a semi.

No tail light bulbs had been installed, his car coasted to an unplanned stop after dark on a Fri night...

Does that count as dangerous?
Its certainly not what I'd expect from a brand new car built by a company with both QC and QA departments

[Express]

Any Falcon with an S Pak, I got sick of hearing what the 'S' stood for.




.

[CyberWasp]

Definitely the 2017 model.
It dissolved into dust and I cant seem to find any trace of it.

[zilo]

Anything after XB was rubbish.

[Adamz Ghia]

Surely it’d be EA? Head gaskets, transmission, electrical, build quality, and some of the interior plastics were just awful.

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by Express

Any Falcon with an S Pak, I got sick of hearing what the 'S' stood for.




.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bgcL0bAVLA

[Paull]

XK - the whole Falcon thing almost collapsed as soon as it started. Absolute junk
EF - you name it, everything went wrong with it
BA - not far behind the EF. Although a better looking car than the AU, it was far inferior due to build quality

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by ford71V8

My god, that dashboard

The thing I hatred most about the XF dash was the temperature dials. One of them had 3 options, (Recirculate, AC and Fresh air) the name of each option was in the middle of the curve, yet the dial clicked to one edge of the curve for each part. What a stupid system.

Why not make it like every other car where there item you dial to was on the stop of the dial, not to the right or left??

With the center AC section you could click to the left or right of the AC - which one was correct? I always forgot...

[Franco Cozzo]

Whats the premium stereo setup worth out of an XF Ghia these days? We had a mint condition one we butchered and turned into the workshop stereo as an apprentice

I liked the digital dash in the XF Ghia, it was like some 1980s representation of the year 2000 that never happened.

[MercuryT]

BA Falcon GT.

Slower than a basic turbo stock and charged a big premium for "FPV".

The "P" apparently lost on Ford people at the time......

[fnp]

Wasn't the BA GT about 30k cheaper than the equivalent GTS?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[jgmdat]

Originally Posted by MercuryT

Yep. And I (stupidly) owned it a decade.....

All the recent FPVs like GTs just as crap. Wings, stripes and spoilers don't hide what it is actually is.

Look and go well sure, but no surprise it's gone under as not even close to competition quality wise outside performance.

Well my FPV has done 270k and Iv'e only just had to put a set of shocks on the front end, so as per usual you are talking rubbish. Maybe you should try turning your computer off at 7.00pm every night, or start drinking light beer.

[Crazy Dazz]

Originally Posted by kypez

EA... If it wasn't the head gasket blowing, the rust will get you. And the 3 speed auto was terrible!

This.
The EA was just an outright abomination, and I don't think FoA ever really recovered.

The basic design for the EA26 was signed off in the early eighties. This was to be the first 100% Australian Falcon, new from the ground up.
It took them 6 years to bring it into production, and it was still half-baked.

The new OHC engine and 4spd were supposed to debut in the XG, in time for ULP in 1986. Instead we got the XF2, with bastardised version of the 4.1. We got the new 5sp, but the 4sp didn't debut until the EA2, and still had overheating problems.

The 3.9 was truly a lamentable POS, and they spent the next several years fixing it. When we finally got the 4.0L in the EB2, it was so much better, but they didn't really get it right until the EL.

Then you have the saggy front-end that needed shimming right out of the factory. With every new facelift they promised it had been fixed, but it wasn't really until the AU2.

And don't get me started on the interiors. Flagship material they were not.

Then of course you have the complete absence of a performance model. Ford had developed a factory turbo, but the then CEO nixed it. I remember reading the interview in which he said that turboes only appealed to cowboys and they weren't the kind of buyer Ford wanted.

Oh, and ute buyers? Well fekk you. I guess they were "cowboys" too.

The only redeeming thing was that its competition, the VN, was unbelievably worse.

In the 80's FoA had the opportunity to destroy Holden. Remember there were actually contingency plans back then to scrap the Commode completely and sell Chevies. If the EA had been the car it should have been, it would have decimated or maybe even pre-empted the VN.

[Dr Terry]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

The thing I hatred most about the XF dash was the temperature dials. One of them had 3 options, (Recirculate, AC and Fresh air) the name of each option was in the middle of the curve, yet the dial clicked to one edge of the curve for each part. What a stupid system.

Why not make it like every other car where there item you dial to was on the stop of the dial, not to the right or left??

With the center AC section you could click to the left or right of the AC - which one was correct? I always forgot...

The "click" position was the correct position, not where the words were.

The A/C had 2 positions, one was RECIRC & one was FRESH.

There were 4 positions in all (not 3 !!). From memory 9 o'clock was FRESH with no A/C, 11 o'clock was FRESH A/C, 1 o'clock was RECIRC A/C & 3 o'clock was RECIRC no A/C.

I remember every 2nd car coming in for service during summer with the knob at 12 o'clock (half way between the two A/C settings). So many owners were just as confused as you were.

I agree though it wasn't a very obvious switch operation.

My vote for worse Falcon series in modern times was the EA series 1, with the EF a close 2nd. How could Ford get the EF so wrong, the EBII & ED were very good cars. The XK was awful for different reasons as already mentioned.

Dr Terry

[vbvbvb088]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

XF. It was successful only because it's main rival Holden was bankrupt and almost went out of business. I don't believe any teenage boy had a poster of an XF on their bedroom wall nor do I see any demand for these cars by collectors these days. And look at the project cars forum - nobody has ever wanted to restore an XF back to factory condition.

I had an 85 XF Ghia that never let me down. My dad had an 87 for 13 years. Was very reliable. I think leaded vs unleaded there was a difference. I remember the under bonnet heat of ULP was extreme... I recall pre unleaded XF taxi's were very reliable? 3.3 XE's and AU best taxi ever.........

[Crazy Dazz]

The XF, pre ULP, was a good car. but it was just a bit long in the tooth.

I will ALWAYS have a soft spot for the XF. We were in a horrific head-on, with 3 kids in the back. The nose of the XF was obliterated, even the engine was shattered. The other people had to be cut from their car and suffered terrible injuries.
We opened the doors and walked away.
Only injury I got was from that stupid hand-brake, got me right in the left knee-cap.

[Dr Terry]

Originally Posted by Crazy Dazz

This.
The EA was just an outright abomination, and I don't think FoA ever really recovered.

The only redeeming thing was that its competition, the VN, was unbelievably worse.

I don't know that the VN was that much worse. The VN engine was harsh sure, but it went like the clappers with good economy (better than all 3 Ford sixes) & being all cast iron didn't kill head gaskets every season. Holden had a very good EFI V8 too.

The VN had a much better 4-sp auto (T700) & the same manual as the Ford (T5). The VN's suspension had been around for over 10 years & while rudimentary, was very reliable & held its wheel alignment settings for ages. Brakes on both Ford & Holdens in those days were ordinary at best. These were the early days of non-asbestos brake pads.

The VN's electrics were better than the EA. It didn't boil its battery & kill central locking actuators. The Ford power steering rack was basically the same as the VN but Ford mounted it on rubber bushes which quickly turned to jelly because of the Ford's multiple engine oil leaks. Power steering pump leaked straight onto the alternator as well. Every EA ever built has a leaking power steering pressure switch. Holden had none of theses dramas.

The EEC IV EFI was rubbish & not a patch on Holden's Delco set-up. Many hot-rodders use the VN-VP Delco EFI system in project cars even toady.

Panel fit & finish & interior materials on both cars were average but fairly equal.

Having serviced many 100s of both cars at retail & fleet level I believe that the VN was a better car to own long term than an EA. The XF was also a much better car than the EA.

Dr Terry

[PG2]

Originally Posted by Franco Cozzo

Whats the premium stereo setup worth out of an XF Ghia these days? We had a mint condition one we butchered and turned into the workshop stereo as an apprentice

I liked the digital dash in the XF Ghia, it was like some 1980s representation of the year 2000 that never happened.

When I had my XE ESP, I thought I would go up market and bought a second hand radio/cassette player out of a Porsche.

What did I do with the premium stereo (including the graphic equaliser)? I threw it in the garbage of course, I had no use for it.



On another note...

A lot of people are saying EA and BA are the worst. The odd person is saying the EF.

I've owned all three. I blew the head gasket twice in the EA, the EF was OK but just never felt like a good car and the BA was a good car up until about 160k but had competely fallen apart by 180k.

[Adamz Ghia]

Originally Posted by MercuryT

Maybe buy a better car.

I have and not looking back.

Enjoy your striped Taxi.

Didn’t you post an apology for being a knob a while back?

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by PG2

When I had my XE ESP, I thought I would go up market and bought a second hand radio/cassette player out of a Porsche.

What did I do with the premium stereo (including the graphic equaliser)? I threw it in the garbage of course, I had no use for it.



On another note...

A lot of people are saying EA and BA are the worst. The odd person is saying the EF.

I've owned all three. I blew the head gasket twice in the EA, the EF was OK but just never felt like a good car and the BA was a good car up until about 160k but had competely fallen apart by 180k.

EF is interesting - it had that EDIS ignition system which they only ran for that model, went back to a distributor for EL then back to EDIS again for AU.

Maybe it was a lack of computer power? It would be interesting to find out, I think it was a wasted spark ignition setup similar to the mighty Ecotec.

The EL ECU only has 60 pins and the EF has circa 120 or something.

I've owned two EF's and an EL.

The EF was wild on off camber dirt roads or wet roundabouts, I accidentally put it sideways through the Gap Road roundabout in Sunbury in the wet (now traffic lights), it only had just started raining about 5 minutes prior, I wasn't even trying, I just spotted a gap in that bastard roundabout and went for it, got half way through my turn when the *** came around and I had to abandon turn and go straight

Change of underwear required for myself and the people around me I reckon.

It was something they changed in EL, the diff was slightly different with the position of those bar things across the back and change in length on some arms I think.

Maybe to assist with low traction handling moving upwards from '****en wild' to 'woeful'

[Franco Cozzo]

Honorable mention for junk Falcon has to go for any Windsor engine equipped with the mighty E7 heads as well.

What a piece of crap they are, moves about as much air as a 50 year smoker with emphysema for slovenly performance.

Put out a total of 165KW/175KW when the Tickford 6 was doing 164KW with 1000cc less displacement and 2 less cylinders.

[FERG_51]

The other thing with XF and EA, no V8 option didn't help. The EA hands down was a pig with oil leaks and head gaskets and the unleaded XF used to round the cam lobes off and also leak oil from the rear main.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by FERG_51

The other thing with XF and EA, no V8 option didn't help. The EA hands down was a pig with oil leaks and head gaskets and the unleaded XF used to round the cam lobes off and also leak oil from the rear main.

With the cam lobes rounding - Holden 5L does the same thing and its common to find pre VT examples with hydraulic flat tappet cams with damaged camshafts these days, people reckon its to do with oils not containing high levels of zinc anymore?

What was lead used for in fuel? It seemed to have very high octane levels, it was some form of lubrication as well?