The 2 banned letters....

[JAJH]

Had me stuffed for a while what he was on about. I was thinking....letters next to B & V??? Hmmm, must be referring to C & U. Then I was thinking were's the N & T? Wasn't till someone pointed out the AU. Doh!

[FGX-351]

Arguabley the most reliable modern Aussie built car.

[b0son]

Fantastic car under the skin. But we'll never know what the designers were smoking to think it would be accepted. And the focus group were clearly blind, or planted by Holden.

[Mechan1k]

Originally Posted by Nikked

...hmm the Mercedes have had triangle taillights in the C-class since the early 90's...so...who's "copying" who?

Merc copied those from the TE cortina in the late 70's

[Vesper Martini]

Originally Posted by kcodezd

Are you all aware that the first CLS Mercedes was in fact designed by an Australian? He is also the same person that designed the nose cone on the most famous of all Falcon coupes. And also worked for Ford Australia in the 70's. Can anyone give me his name? Trivial question.

I read it was designed by American Michael Fink

[Iggle Piggle]

[whitelion65]

Man Iggle Piggle, are you "Breaking Bad"?

[nuthin' fancy]

Originally Posted by jphanna

I am talking about the current cars. No doctors would be seen with a GEN 1 Merc now....... there is no doubt that although they have changed since series 1, the rear end is unmistakely still tied the the orig shape. more scultured now and tidied up to todays standards, but the basic shape, squint if you may, is STILL similar to GEN 1 Merc, and that was definately influenced by the AU falcon.

it was too futuristic for Aussies in 1998, but to purve on current merc with that shape is ok today?

i am on the AU band wagon at moment because my son has bought 5 in last 11 months. in my other thread, i mentioned he bought an AU fairlane one evening, 4 weeks ago for $1000. 12 hours later, we hooked up my jet ski and towed it 180kms in 35 degrees to the river and back. didnt miss a beat and temp guage was just above cool the whole way. i offered to buy his fairlane for double the price and he refused. i then bought an FG on weekend.

If you got an AU, be proud of it.

He bought an AU Band wagon?

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by whitelion65

Man Iggle Piggle, are you "Breaking Bad"?

I reckon he found that interesting vehicle in the night garden

[arronm]

[QUOTE=Dauphin;5914011]The AU Falcon was so wonderful that I wrote a book about it! [/

The front of the AU was......... to late I just threw up thinking about it

[2011G6E]

A while back I honestly shocked myself. I saw one of the dreaded AU's...a dark metallic green Fairmont Ghia...which had been lowered a bit, had dark tint, and was immaculate, riding on a nice set of polished alloys of about 16" size.

I caught myself thinking "That's a nice looking AU...".

Probably because so many of the few you still see around are absolute pus-buckets, that an immaculate mildly modded well looked after one stands out like a rose among the turds....

[Sprintey]

If you want your AU styling hit today, the Merc dealer is the place to find it.

AU and CLS still > 'sad catfish mouth' styling.

[PooDog]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

A while back I honestly shocked myself. I saw one of the dreaded AU's...a dark metallic green Fairmont Ghia...which had been lowered a bit, had dark tint, and was immaculate, riding on a nice set of polished alloys of about 16" size.

I caught myself thinking "That's a nice looking AU...".

Probably because so many of the few you still see around are absolute pus-buckets, that an immaculate mildly modded well looked after one stands out like a rose among the turds....

but fairmont ghias are special .....theyre what they made the ts50 out of you know .... claaaaasy... bf11 ghias also

[OLD BALDY]

Still havn't got it!!! B&V = AU! Old and slow.

[Whitey-AMG]

Originally Posted by Bevsta007

Pretty sure the lovely Taurus was the inspiration for the AU Falcon.

Yep.
Too many people go off on tangents and think Mercedes and Bugatti and Pagani all drew some influence from the much maligned ( secret letters ) Ford....

[naddis01]

The AU was so far ahead of its time, as some say, that it's time still hasn't come yet as it is still as ugly today as when it was released.

[Syndrome]

The latest generation of models from Mercedes Benz look awful, especially the rear. So just because they look similar to the AU does not mean that the AU styling was any good. The only reason the Mercedes models sell so well is because they are good cars.