Whats stopping people from buying the Falcon?

[stevz]

I don't know how people can possibly say the Mondeo has better interior than Falcon. The Mondeo dash looks horrid imo and the audio/climate control has small lcd displays that look like they're straight from the 80's. The Falcon has a much nicer dash and a proper colour touch screen. Who cares if it's missing a few useless features which are more or less gimmicks anyway.

[bad moon rising]

Originally Posted by stevz

I don't know how people can possibly say the Mondeo has better interior than Falcon. The Mondeo dash looks horrid imo and the audio/climate control has small lcd displays that look like they're straight from the 80's. The Falcon has a much nicer dash and a proper colour touch screen. Who cares if it's missing a few useless features which are more or less gimmicks anyway.

i suppose the customers care if they can get a car for 2/3 of a falcon price with all the extras.

[dkpioe]

Originally Posted by stevz

I don't know how people can possibly say the Mondeo has better interior than Falcon. The Mondeo dash looks horrid imo and the audio/climate control has small lcd displays that look like they're straight from the 80's. The Falcon has a much nicer dash and a proper colour touch screen. Who cares if it's missing a few useless features which are more or less gimmicks anyway.

thats a staunch falcon lovers view. but most people dont buy their cars with the notion that falcon is the best. they buy a car based on their needs, fuel economy, size etc. a lot of people find the mondeo interior better, that is their oppion, and probably one of the smaller oppionions after things like size, fuel economy and style - all of which no doubt sway people to buy a mondeo over a falcon. to many people a falcon is too big, uses too much fuel, has useless extra power on public roads, and has not much resale value. both the mondeo and falcon interiors are nice modern interiors, im suprised people use such words as "horrid" and "straight out of the 80s", and not every one cares for a touch screen, in fact many people like 80s features, hence why so many people on this forum buy 80s cars. infact some 80s falcons using twice as much fuel as a 2000+ model falcon are now worth twice as much as a 2000+ model, with much less fancy interior...

[prydey]

falcon comfortably outsells mondeo.

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by stevz

I don't know how people can possibly say the Mondeo has better interior than Falcon. The Mondeo dash looks horrid imo and the audio/climate control has small lcd displays that look like they're straight from the 80's. The Falcon has a much nicer dash and a proper colour touch screen. Who cares if it's missing a few useless features which are more or less gimmicks anyway.

Each to their own I guess, falcon is quite nice inside but IMO I like the mondeo better.

[prydey]

Originally Posted by DJM83

Each to their own I guess, falcon is quite nice inside but IMO I like the mondeo better.

for years people whinge that manufacturers weren't listening to what the customer wants, and now with so much choice on the market to suit nearly every persons needs, people still whinge....

if people can't find a car that suits them in the australian market (which has a larger choice of vehicles than america!!) then there is something wrong.

falcon sales are less due to choice. people no longer HAVE to buy large cars to get all the fruit. air travel is cheaper so driving holidays are not as frequent and suv's have become more versatile. its not just affecting falcon, but all models. the pie is the same size but is now being cut into even more pieces.

[brett7777]

I know one definite reason that sales might have decreased over on this side of the Tasman. The police here used to use Falcons and Commodores; now they only exclusively use Commodores.
I dunno how big their fleet is but they definitely wouldn't be a small customer. This is not just the uniform cars but the plain enforcement ones as well, plus detectives etc.

[Josh_XC]

There is a lot more competition out there in todays market - I am currently looking at buying a Kia Optima as my daily driver.

Why - simple it has 5 year warrently and load more extras for similar/lower price. It has heated/cooled seats/sunroof/LED daytime lightes (cannot remember what they are called)/Reversing sensors + others as standard, for all that for a similar price as an XR6

[prydey]

kia optima isn't a bad looking car from some angles but the rear looks a bit ordinary and the dash just looks too busy for mine. obviously this is only my opinion as looks are subjective. personally i would still buy a ford over the optima. titanium mondeo or even falcon would suit me. most of the 'extras' in cars these days is just ****y stuff that i don't need.

[SS_01]

Poor Seating Position, Steering wheel cant be moved up far enough. Inside is better presented then most Australian built cars, but it lacks features as standard compared to the Internationals coming in.

I am actually starting to think that the end of the falcon in Australia will be a good thing, because they can have a fresh start with a fresh product at a more reasonable price with the right equipment. I dont want the falcon to finish, but they really havent come that far in the last 10 years, in fact, i think the FG took them backwards because of the seating position.

I agree with what some people have said about the Mondeo, I think its a much better product, and when the new one lands at the end of this year, it will blow the falcon away for quality and equipment.

I use to have faith in the Australian built product, but in the last two or so months, My fathers BF mk2 with 75kms on the clock stopped, with what looked like 200,000km of carbon build up in the cylinders, and my sisters Territory Turbo Ghia with 95kms has blown its turbo. Not good enough imo, and my BF XR6 Interior is falling apart, im sick of trying to glue &%^* back together.

As i said above, Ford need an all new Product at a similar size, hopefully with rear wheel drive to mend whats wrong with the falcon product.

[stevz]

Originally Posted by DJM83

Each to their own I guess, falcon is quite nice inside but IMO I like the mondeo better.

Each to their own alright, but I just cannot for the life of me see what makes mondeo's interior more appealing than falcon's. If the falcon had 80's style lcd displays for the audio/hvac instead of the large colour screen it would be ridiculed to no end, yet somehow this is perfectly acceptable in the mondeo.

[Joe5619]

Originally Posted by stevz

Each to their own alright, but I just cannot for the life of me see what makes mondeo's interior more appealing than falcon's. If the falcon had 80's style lcd displays for the audio/hvac instead of the large colour screen it would be ridiculed to no end, yet somehow this is perfectly acceptable in the mondeo.

I agree 110%... The inside of the current Mondeo is TERRIBLE.. I looked at Mondeo before I bought my FG Falcon, saw the inside & it was a complete deal breaker. Looks crap to say the very least. But yes, it does have some nice features that I’d like to see in the Falcon. However, now that FGII has touch screen, Mondeo just got even further behind..

New Mondeo, might be a very very different story!!

[buggerlugs]

Spoke to a Dealer Principal at Mazda today Re a Mazda 3 for the daughter. He said they are trading big sixes and V8's in on the small cars. All brands. They are having to wholesale them as well as they are to hard to move.......

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by stevz

Each to their own alright, but I just cannot for the life of me see what makes mondeo's interior more appealing than falcon's. If the falcon had 80's style lcd displays for the audio/hvac instead of the large colour screen it would be ridiculed to no end, yet somehow this is perfectly acceptable in the mondeo.

Both cars have their pro's and con's.
The falcon gets enough curry from the brand faithful on here, let alone joe blogg.
Its simple the way i see it, i cant see it surviving as long as other models in the Ford line up. I mean how many doom and gloom falcon threads do we have.
I havnt seen one for any other model.
Im happy to be proven wrong though, all i know is i wont contribute to its sales.
Also its funny the people that defend it wont buy one, because they want it fully loaded with tech and performance for next to nothing, (Well most do).

[stevz]

Originally Posted by DJM83

I mean how many doom and gloom falcon threads do we have.
I havnt seen one for any other model.
.

Probably because the Falcon is iconic and has a long history in this country, whereas the 'other' models are imported 4cyl fwd econoboxes that nobody would miss if they were to disappear.
Despite all the doom and gloom the Falcon is still the highest seller in the Ford range.

[naddis01]

Originally Posted by Joe5619

I agree 110%... The inside of the current Mondeo is TERRIBLE.. I looked at Mondeo before I bought my FG Falcon, saw the inside & it was a complete deal breaker. Looks crap to say the very least. But yes, it does have some nice features that I’d like to see in the Falcon. However, now that FGII has touch screen, Mondeo just got even further behind..

New Mondeo, might be a very very different story!!

I agree and it is one of the main reasons we did buy the Mondeo last year. Not that the dash in the Mazda we got is great but it is acceptable.

[FalconXR6]

Why do people buy a car ?

As in, pay money for a car, not just provide an opinion on a car.

And let's be clear on this because it's one thing to review a car and provide either your real world ten minute drive experience or your pre-conceived ideas on what a particular car would be like but it's a completely different ball game when you're actually paying money for a car.

Here is my call;

Transport - A to B with two kids; my wife chose a Ford Fiesta for this task. Why ? Because it's fun to drive, gets 6.2 litres / 100km and was $16500.00 driveaway. Fits the kids and a pram and all their gear. Oh, and did I mention that it's fun to drive ? This thing is more fun to drive than my old FG XR6T (seriously, it is - no joke), despite the massive power deficit, AND the Fiesta has a heap more features standard, better build quality and a nicer interior ! She could have looked at something like a Focus (which we did), Mazda 3, Hyundai i30, etc but the purchase price would be around $20-$25k driveaway. You get more room and fuel economy is slightly worse, but the feature list and drive experience is no better or worse - just different. So is that extra room worth $3 - $8k ? No, we didn't think so.
Thought about a Falcon. But why ? Does she need or want RWD ? No. Does she need or want 11.0 / 100km on the same driving route (vs 6.2) ? No. Does she want less equipment ? No. Does she want higher insurance ? No. And purchase price v purchase price, she would have been looking at a well used BA XR6 - nat atmo... with no warranty compared to a brand new Fiesta with 3 years / 100,000km warranty.

So in this instance, the Falcon's size wasn't an advantage, the fuel consumption was almost double for no real advantage on her typical drivin route, and the comparison is simply unfair to the Falc' in almost every which way you look at it.


Performance; this is tricky. First you need to define performance in a motor vehicle. What is your preference ? Out and out straight line acceleration ? In gear acceleration ? Handling ? Braking ? Tactility in steering, braking and gear shift response ? Power down ? And WHERE will you be using your performance ?
Pick only one or two because at the Ford Falcon price point, you're NOT going to get them all !!!

Speaking from a personal perspective, here was my little conundrum;
I had an FG XR6T. An outright weapon in a straight line (once it got it's power down) - I'm sure anyone whose ever driven one will agree. With the 6 speed ZF auto it was easy too. Mash the throttle and you were gone. There weren't too many vehicles that could stick with this thing in a straight line ! But when it came time to haul it up the brakes were poor. Turn the steering wheel left, right, left right through some twisties and yeah it was ok, but hardly inspiring.

Being a car which was used as a daily (this is the part where the "WHERE" will you be using your performance comes into play) you're not smashing the accelerator pedal to the firewall flat knacker (unless your a loony tune). So what are you doing ? You're driving. You might be trying to get good economy (I used to always have the instant L/100km readout on my dispaly). You're taking notice of your interior. Your build quality (interior and exterior). Your feature list. Do you know which wheels are driving the vehicle ?

So for me, "performance" was being used around 40% of the drive. The rest was utilizing features and trying to get good fuel economy.

Now, the FG XR6T (mine was an 08) has no real features unless you try and find one with leather, tech pack, etc and even then the feature list is average. The economy isn't there (and yes, even I've tried to talk up the Falc's supposed good fuel economy in the past) and the build quality for both the interior and the exterior is pretty bloody ordinary.
On quality; I remember the first time I drove my dad's FG F6 when he first got it. Do you know what one of my FIRST impressions was ? "hmmm... the controls (which you TOUCH) is pretty poor for a $70k driveaway car.

So sticking with "performance" and why I originally chose the FG XR6T as my "performance" vehicle of choice; MONSTER straight line grunt !!!!

But as a I get older (29 is not old, but I feel I'm maturing) I need more than just tyre frying grunt.
I still want the grunt, but I also want my performance car to handle. I want it to stop. I want it to be tactile. I want it to be a quality, feature packed car at an affordable price and if I want to throw a small amount of money at it on performance modifications, it's got to respond (bang for $$$). I want it to be friendly on the juice. I want great in gear acceleration. I want quality.

I now drive a BL Mazda 3 MPS.

There are only two things it doesn't do as well as the FG XR6T; grunt as hard from 0-whatever and doesn't look as tough or appeal to my group of friends from an exterior design point of view as well as the black FG did.

But for absolutely everything else, the Mazda wins hands down. Wack a "check" next to the following;
* Handling
* Braking
* Tactility
* Economy (8.2 / 100km - and it gets canned just as much as the Falc did, if not more because it's more fun)
* Exteroir build quality
* Interior build quality
* Feature list
* Resale
* Handling
* Handling
* Handling !!!!!!!!

Am I sad that this is the case?
You bet !!! I've been a Falcon man for 14 years !
But until Ford can produce a "Falcon" with the same performance formula, my hard earned will go to the likes of the XR5T, MPS, WRX, GTi, and if one day I can afford it; BMW 3 series.

So that is what's stopping me from buying a Falcon.

[Bossxr8]

The 3 MPS also torque steers like a pig, which would put plenty of buyers off.
Time to step up to a front end like the revoknuckle on the Focus RS and the similar system on the Renaultsport Meganes me thinks.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by stevz

I don't know how people can possibly say the Mondeo has better interior than Falcon. The Mondeo dash looks horrid imo and the audio/climate control has small lcd displays that look like they're straight from the 80's. The Falcon has a much nicer dash and a proper colour touch screen. Who cares if it's missing a few useless features which are more or less gimmicks anyway.

Here's the latest iteration in 2013 Fusion, much better IMO:

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by jpd80

Here's the latest iteration in 2013 Fusion, much better IMO:

image

Now if that gets sold in Australia, it'll be twice the price, with less features, it'll have a 2" monocrome orange LCD screen instead.

I had a look at the new Focus today in the flesh and looked on the USA website, why don't we have MyFord?

[drew`SEVNT5]

Originally Posted by FalconXR6

Why do people buy a car ?

As in, pay money for a car, not just provide an opinion on a car.

And let's be clear on this because it's one thing to review a car and provide either your real world ten minute drive experience or your pre-conceived ideas on what a particular car would be like but it's a completely different ball game when you're actually paying money for a car.

Here is my call;

Transport - A to B with two kids; my wife chose a Ford Fiesta for this task. Why ? Because it's fun to drive, gets 6.2 litres / 100km and was $16500.00 driveaway. Fits the kids and a pram and all their gear. Oh, and did I mention that it's fun to drive ? This thing is more fun to drive than my old FG XR6T (seriously, it is - no joke), despite the massive power deficit, AND the Fiesta has a heap more features standard, better build quality and a nicer interior ! She could have looked at something like a Focus (which we did), Mazda 3, Hyundai i30, etc but the purchase price would be around $20-$25k driveaway. You get more room and fuel economy is slightly worse, but the feature list and drive experience is no better or worse - just different. So is that extra room worth $3 - $8k ? No, we didn't think so.
Thought about a Falcon. But why ? Does she need or want RWD ? No. Does she need or want 11.0 / 100km on the same driving route (vs 6.2) ? No. Does she want less equipment ? No. Does she want higher insurance ? No. And purchase price v purchase price, she would have been looking at a well used BA XR6 - nat atmo... with no warranty compared to a brand new Fiesta with 3 years / 100,000km warranty.

So in this instance, the Falcon's size wasn't an advantage, the fuel consumption was almost double for no real advantage on her typical drivin route, and the comparison is simply unfair to the Falc' in almost every which way you look at it.


Performance; this is tricky. First you need to define performance in a motor vehicle. What is your preference ? Out and out straight line acceleration ? In gear acceleration ? Handling ? Braking ? Tactility in steering, braking and gear shift response ? Power down ? And WHERE will you be using your performance ?
Pick only one or two because at the Ford Falcon price point, you're NOT going to get them all !!!

Speaking from a personal perspective, here was my little conundrum;
I had an FG XR6T. An outright weapon in a straight line (once it got it's power down) - I'm sure anyone whose ever driven one will agree. With the 6 speed ZF auto it was easy too. Mash the throttle and you were gone. There weren't too many vehicles that could stick with this thing in a straight line ! But when it came time to haul it up the brakes were poor. Turn the steering wheel left, right, left right through some twisties and yeah it was ok, but hardly inspiring.

Being a car which was used as a daily (this is the part where the "WHERE" will you be using your performance comes into play) you're not smashing the accelerator pedal to the firewall flat knacker (unless your a loony tune). So what are you doing ? You're driving. You might be trying to get good economy (I used to always have the instant L/100km readout on my dispaly). You're taking notice of your interior. Your build quality (interior and exterior). Your feature list. Do you know which wheels are driving the vehicle ?

So for me, "performance" was being used around 40% of the drive. The rest was utilizing features and trying to get good fuel economy.

Now, the FG XR6T (mine was an 08) has no real features unless you try and find one with leather, tech pack, etc and even then the feature list is average. The economy isn't there (and yes, even I've tried to talk up the Falc's supposed good fuel economy in the past) and the build quality for both the interior and the exterior is pretty bloody ordinary.
On quality; I remember the first time I drove my dad's FG F6 when he first got it. Do you know what one of my FIRST impressions was ? "hmmm... the controls (which you TOUCH) is pretty poor for a $70k driveaway car.

So sticking with "performance" and why I originally chose the FG XR6T as my "performance" vehicle of choice; MONSTER straight line grunt !!!!

But as a I get older (29 is not old, but I feel I'm maturing) I need more than just tyre frying grunt.
I still want the grunt, but I also want my performance car to handle. I want it to stop. I want it to be tactile. I want it to be a quality, feature packed car at an affordable price and if I want to throw a small amount of money at it on performance modifications, it's got to respond (bang for $$$). I want it to be friendly on the juice. I want great in gear acceleration. I want quality.

I now drive a BL Mazda 3 MPS.

There are only two things it doesn't do as well as the FG XR6T; grunt as hard from 0-whatever and doesn't look as tough or appeal to my group of friends from an exterior design point of view as well as the black FG did.

But for absolutely everything else, the Mazda wins hands down. Wack a "check" next to the following;
* Handling
* Braking
* Tactility
* Economy (8.2 / 100km - and it gets canned just as much as the Falc did, if not more because it's more fun)
* Exteroir build quality
* Interior build quality
* Feature list
* Resale
* Handling
* Handling
* Handling !!!!!!!!

Am I sad that this is the case?
You bet !!! I've been a Falcon man for 14 years !
But until Ford can produce a "Falcon" with the same performance formula, my hard earned will go to the likes of the XR5T, MPS, WRX, GTi, and if one day I can afford it; BMW 3 series.

So that is what's stopping me from buying a Falcon.

I bought a 370z over a F6 for much the same reasons as you list here.

Unfortunately, what the falcon offers and what I want have gone in different directions.

Today, my best mate traded in his G6ET, which he has had for 11 months, in on a VW Golf GTI.

His biggest thing was, as much as he tried to love it, all it does is go fast in a straight line. The quality niggles, lack of factory support and reliability issues have brought him around to really, really disliking it... (He had one of the rare BA XR6T's that was fairly issue free, which was the memory that prompted him to buy the G6ET.. He ignored the fact he had a BF and FG base model pooh-boxes that were rubbish)
So much so, he took the big step of getting out of it. He picks up his new car next friday.


And has vowed to never buy another Ford, be it built in AU or elsewhere.

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by stevz

Probably because the Falcon is iconic and has a long history in this country, whereas the 'other' models are imported 4cyl fwd econoboxes that nobody would miss if they were to disappear.
Despite all the doom and gloom the Falcon is still the highest seller in the Ford range.

Yeah probably right with the icon bit.
But the sales. It IIRC I did see someone post a sales list of the ford range and Falcon wasn't at the top last month. Yeah thought it's history here it is.
Edit -here

Originally Posted by jpd80

Falcon 931
Territory 804
Ute 394
Mondeo 364
Focus 1575
Fiesta 888

[jpd80]

IMO, the reason why we're seeing godd sales with Focus is because of good advertising at
two levels, Titanium with all its high series features and also Ambiente at $19,990 drive away.

Amazing for a car with restricted volume coming from Europe, this could become much bigger
when Focus production shifts to Thailand. Maybe Ford Australia can win Mondeo production
and get similar volumes through smart advertising campaigns..

Falcon sales will come back to them but I think this is a warning not to rely on Falcon,
they need a different vehicle going forward as the old Falcon formula doesn't work today.

[Majestic]

mate that's a huge post lol I don't believe I actually read it all lol

but everything you said sums it all for me too! the average family only has two kids, there simply is no justification for buying a new falcon over some of the smaller cars out on the market today (for the reasons you have pointed out). This is the real reason why Ford will need to go into a new direction if they want to survive.

I totally hear you about the performance part too, I've had supercharged AU and BA XR8's and again like you said, they're only good for straight line performance really. I too have given up on ford for my performance addiction toy needs - I now have a R33 GTR 450awkw with the best brake and suspension setup money can buy! No ford that I have ever driven would even come close to the GTR around a track (or anywhere else for that matter). The GTR is just simply a better engineered performance car. The falcon chassis is designed for family motoring - not performance - no matter how much work FPV puts into the falcon chassis - it's still nowhere near the likes of an old 1995 model GTR.

Originally Posted by FalconXR6

Why do people buy a car ?

As in, pay money for a car, not just provide an opinion on a car.

And let's be clear on this because it's one thing to review a car and provide either your real world ten minute drive experience or your pre-conceived ideas on what a particular car would be like but it's a completely different ball game when you're actually paying money for a car.

Here is my call;

Transport - A to B with two kids; my wife chose a Ford Fiesta for this task. Why ? Because it's fun to drive, gets 6.2 litres / 100km and was $16500.00 driveaway. Fits the kids and a pram and all their gear. Oh, and did I mention that it's fun to drive ? This thing is more fun to drive than my old FG XR6T (seriously, it is - no joke), despite the massive power deficit, AND the Fiesta has a heap more features standard, better build quality and a nicer interior ! She could have looked at something like a Focus (which we did), Mazda 3, Hyundai i30, etc but the purchase price would be around $20-$25k driveaway. You get more room and fuel economy is slightly worse, but the feature list and drive experience is no better or worse - just different. So is that extra room worth $3 - $8k ? No, we didn't think so.
Thought about a Falcon. But why ? Does she need or want RWD ? No. Does she need or want 11.0 / 100km on the same driving route (vs 6.2) ? No. Does she want less equipment ? No. Does she want higher insurance ? No. And purchase price v purchase price, she would have been looking at a well used BA XR6 - nat atmo... with no warranty compared to a brand new Fiesta with 3 years / 100,000km warranty.

So in this instance, the Falcon's size wasn't an advantage, the fuel consumption was almost double for no real advantage on her typical drivin route, and the comparison is simply unfair to the Falc' in almost every which way you look at it.


Performance; this is tricky. First you need to define performance in a motor vehicle. What is your preference ? Out and out straight line acceleration ? In gear acceleration ? Handling ? Braking ? Tactility in steering, braking and gear shift response ? Power down ? And WHERE will you be using your performance ?
Pick only one or two because at the Ford Falcon price point, you're NOT going to get them all !!!

Speaking from a personal perspective, here was my little conundrum;
I had an FG XR6T. An outright weapon in a straight line (once it got it's power down) - I'm sure anyone whose ever driven one will agree. With the 6 speed ZF auto it was easy too. Mash the throttle and you were gone. There weren't too many vehicles that could stick with this thing in a straight line ! But when it came time to haul it up the brakes were poor. Turn the steering wheel left, right, left right through some twisties and yeah it was ok, but hardly inspiring.

Being a car which was used as a daily (this is the part where the "WHERE" will you be using your performance comes into play) you're not smashing the accelerator pedal to the firewall flat knacker (unless your a loony tune). So what are you doing ? You're driving. You might be trying to get good economy (I used to always have the instant L/100km readout on my dispaly). You're taking notice of your interior. Your build quality (interior and exterior). Your feature list. Do you know which wheels are driving the vehicle ?

So for me, "performance" was being used around 40% of the drive. The rest was utilizing features and trying to get good fuel economy.

Now, the FG XR6T (mine was an 08) has no real features unless you try and find one with leather, tech pack, etc and even then the feature list is average. The economy isn't there (and yes, even I've tried to talk up the Falc's supposed good fuel economy in the past) and the build quality for both the interior and the exterior is pretty bloody ordinary.
On quality; I remember the first time I drove my dad's FG F6 when he first got it. Do you know what one of my FIRST impressions was ? "hmmm... the controls (which you TOUCH) is pretty poor for a $70k driveaway car.

So sticking with "performance" and why I originally chose the FG XR6T as my "performance" vehicle of choice; MONSTER straight line grunt !!!!

But as a I get older (29 is not old, but I feel I'm maturing) I need more than just tyre frying grunt.
I still want the grunt, but I also want my performance car to handle. I want it to stop. I want it to be tactile. I want it to be a quality, feature packed car at an affordable price and if I want to throw a small amount of money at it on performance modifications, it's got to respond (bang for $$$). I want it to be friendly on the juice. I want great in gear acceleration. I want quality.

I now drive a BL Mazda 3 MPS.

There are only two things it doesn't do as well as the FG XR6T; grunt as hard from 0-whatever and doesn't look as tough or appeal to my group of friends from an exterior design point of view as well as the black FG did.

But for absolutely everything else, the Mazda wins hands down. Wack a "check" next to the following;
* Handling
* Braking
* Tactility
* Economy (8.2 / 100km - and it gets canned just as much as the Falc did, if not more because it's more fun)
* Exteroir build quality
* Interior build quality
* Feature list
* Resale
* Handling
* Handling
* Handling !!!!!!!!

Am I sad that this is the case?
You bet !!! I've been a Falcon man for 14 years !
But until Ford can produce a "Falcon" with the same performance formula, my hard earned will go to the likes of the XR5T, MPS, WRX, GTi, and if one day I can afford it; BMW 3 series.

So that is what's stopping me from buying a Falcon.

[prydey]

i forgot that people bought falcons for their handling

the falcon (and every large car in its class) has always been about family motoring. some models get given extra performance or luxury features for those that want a bit extra, but essentially it is still based on a family sedan.

i prefer promite to vegemite. does that make vegemite rubbish? that seems to be the way some people think on here.

maybe some people should be grateful at the amount of choice we have on this island of 20 odd million people. more choice than the USA and a govt that does nothing to protect the locals.

just because people are now swapping to different size and shape cars does not make the falcon rubbish. the falcon doesn't have to be able to do everything like so many want it to. Ford realised this long ago, which is why other models are now getting much more of the limelight.

[Majestic]

mate we just are posting opinions here, I apologise that mines doesn't match yours lol

Originally Posted by prydey

i forgot that people bought falcons for their handling

the falcon (and every large car in its class) has always been about family motoring. some models get given extra performance or luxury features for those that want a bit extra, but essentially it is still based on a family sedan.

i prefer promite to vegemite. does that make vegemite rubbish? that seems to be the way some people think on here.

maybe some people should be grateful at the amount of choice we have on this island of 20 odd million people. more choice than the USA and a govt that does nothing to protect the locals.

just because people are now swapping to different size and shape cars does not make the falcon rubbish. the falcon doesn't have to be able to do everything like so many want it to. Ford realised this long ago, which is why other models are now getting much more of the limelight.

[csv8]

Whats stopping people from buying a Falcon ? the trade in I was offered on my BF MK 2 GHIA, I rolled out the door laughing!!! same with other dealers. Thats why I haven't upgraded....

[SS_01]

Originally Posted by csv8

Whats stopping people from buying a Falcon ? the trade in I was offered on my BF MK 2 GHIA, I rolled out the door laughing!!! same with other dealers. Thats why I haven't upgraded....

Let me guess around 15k????

[MelsGolf]

Originally Posted by csv8

Whats stopping people from buying a Falcon ? the trade in I was offered on my BF MK 2 GHIA, I rolled out the door laughing!!! same with other dealers. Thats why I haven't upgraded....

Easily fixed, sell it privately, now that that problems solved let us know when you've ordered your new Falcon!

[P6LTD351]

Originally Posted by VW_060606

Let me guess around 15k????

No way would you even get 15k for it as a trade. I've seen them selling at dealers for 16k. I think you'd be lucky to get 10k as a trade. Sad, but true.