I bought a new Falcon XR6 turbo every year since BA. Even bought 4 FGX XR’s as keepers. Since 2016 I have not bought a new Ford or another other make since. Not wasting my money on POS when I already have the best cars with the best engine in the world IMHO. Personally couldn’t give a fuck what anyone else thinks . In total I kept 26 Falcon . What’s the saying “better than money in the bank”.
The main reason that the Sales dropped on Holden’s/fords was not because of petrol prices in my opinion. The market became flooded with cheaper foreign cars. They became uncompetitive because the tariffs on imported vehicles drastically dropped the pricing which is what killed our local car industry.
I reckon when they made the FGX Sprints they went beyond that stupid rule that Ford had. After all the XR6 Sprints sold out immediately and the FGX XR8 ad didn’t even focus on fuel economy and that bs. It showed its sound and performance. In the end they knew they weren’t winning so they thought just give the blue oval fans what they wanted which was performance and looks instead of focusing on a more bigger demographic. After all the Sprints moto was “the car by the enthusiast, for the enthusiast.” In the end I reckon the FGX wasn’t a failure. It was perfect and I really like the look of them as well. Keep in mind though that they also had a limited budget and the FGX XR8 even made it into 2 of the biggest racing games out there, Forza Horizon 3 and Forza Motorsport 7 which basically means that the developers of the game approached Ford Australia to pay Ford Australia money to put that car in the game. Also I’d rank the FGX alongside the XY and XA on the ladder of best Falcons.
Great video man. Love this kind of format. Really good insight into the Aussie car market. Do you reckon you could do a video on the impact of the BA Turbo agaisnt Holden's Turbo and Supercharged variants? Keep up the good work! 👍
Adam Pinkerton if these kinds of videos do well I’ll start putting more time in to them and make them really slick. Just not sure if people will watch 20 minutes of me talking about business and market impact of products 😅
Don't count us out just yet, but don't sell yourself too short either, mate. You've got great content, more down to earth, practical and knowledgeable than most of the other fg, ford and other local car youtubers. I don't think a 20-30min vid would be a bad idea. Hell, if it ever got to the stage where you were putting out daily content, i'd happily watch :) keep it up mate.
The falcons were fantastic cars and now I have to say I miss the commodores too. Sales were dropping but it would of been nice to see the government supported their car industry. Tony Abbot put the final nail in Holden and Toyota manufacturing
Serena & Riley the ironic thing is that sales weren’t as big of a factor as you would think. I wanted to cover it in this, but would have blown out the video time a lot more, but Mustang sales plummeted after only 2 years. They now sell less Mustangs than they did Falcons in 2010. But mustangs have a higher profit margin, so they keep them around....
Bob Hawke Keating John Button put the first nail in the coffin. That dickhead government removed all the import duty/tariffs You use to be able to purchase 2 1987 holden Calais Turbos for the price of 1 BMW 735 or 1 Jag XJ6 or 1x Merc 300E. see this holden add czcams.com/video/WKePMrNuLIY/video.html Thailand mexico and german still have import tariffs.
@@fgmods Mustang = 2 door Falcon. 2 doors big cars dont sell in Australia the doors are to big compared to sedan access to rear is a pain etc The only people I see driving the new Mustang are old retired guys. Ford 2 door stopped with XC and the Monaro did not sell enough.
Tony Abbott did not put the final nail in the coffin. Certainly Tony along with Joe Hockey forced Holden to make a decision quicker. The Beginning of the end was when GM sold Opel/Vauxhall to PSA in 2017. Holden would have gone eventually, as Mary Barra’s decision GM to exit from all RHD Markets, pullling out of India & Thailand . Even if the Government of the day gave more money to GM it loud have only been a stay of execution, as GM had made up their minds on its future operations in Australia. I actually also got to speak to en ex Holden employee, who worked in the Elizabeth plant in S.A and he told me Holden had no intentions of Designing or manufacturing the next generation Commodore in Australia, hence why he got a redundancy in 2015. It’s also amazing how many uninformed people are here, still, blaming the government of the day rather than blaming Mary Barra !
Bloody bang on. Own a 2009 G6E T myself... Still can;t fault the car. Having driven recent euro models I can personally attest... they do no match up to what we made in the 'Great' Nation.
I've got a lightning strike silver April 2008 (so one of the very first FG's built) XR6. She's not turbo but goes hard enough for me. She's ultra reliable , supremely comfortable , gets 8l per 100km on a long run without trying too hard , otherwise better than 11 in short stop start stuff , not a single squeak or rattle other than a periodical dry pulley sound at idle that eventually goes away ...Also a 2001 AU ll Futura for 17 years so far (also silver) that'll outlast religion with big kays . She's done one alternator due to a slow leak power steering reservoir , the inlet manifold gasket many many years ago , one wheel alignment after replacing the steering boots . Everything else is original other than the usual exhaust , tyres, batteries etc...I love the Ford Falcon . nothing even comes close for me..
Great vid. Had a MK 2 BF XR8 brand new (long sold, with a GT500 engine & box swap later in its life before i sold it). Bought a MK 2 FG XR6 N/A with 67k on it; difference in the build is very fucking noticable. The BF series was far better, from the sound of the door closing, through to drivetrain noise & even the door B Pillar trims (powder coated steel prior to the FG). You can simply tell Ford Oz stopped giving a shit- and budgets were probably long gone by then (mid 2014 at the latest). Its frigging sad, because all we have now & forever, is imported shitboxes that suit Australian conditions (looking at you, ZB Vomitdore)
This just came up on my suggestions. While I agree that Ford Australia had their enemies in the USA and likely due to the fact that we could make better sedans and SUVs (and a wish to reduce costs), I'm not completely sure I agree with your conclusion. I think Ford Australia did try and keep local manufacturing going. They put the 4cyl into the Falcon to address what they thought was a problem (perceived fuel economy) and they built an SUV on the Falcon platform (which was initially a huge success.) But the Falcon eventually died not because it was somehow stopped from being a performance car (like I think you said) but because the market simply doesn't want a large sedan and this is evident by the fact that no other large sedan sells particularly well either. People didn't buy a Falcon because it was too big (so they bought a Corolla) and if they wanted a big car, they got a SUV. Fuel economy is only part of the reason because we see relatively thirsty cars, like the new Ford Ranger, selling so well even though it's fairly thirsty. Most cars on the road now are either 4cyl little cars or big ute/SUVs, and the Falcon is neither of those. In summary, I agree that Ford Aus had their enemies in the USA although the large sedan market was dieing no matter what Ford Aus could do.
Real reason UAW in USA did not let Ford Australia Export, the demand was there for a large US customer base. Same reason why the VF commodore couldn't sell in US, limited to 30k units due to UAW.
Well said, I'm glad that you made this video because it's the truth, I myself currently own 4 FG's because I love these Australian cars, I've tried to tell others that Ford Australia killed the Falcon because Ford America wanted Ford Australia to sell the mustang as it's more profit and it would be hard to compete against the Falcon, Thank you again for making this video
Really good video but you left out the most important reason manufacturing in oz stopped............ tariffs on imports. The oz car industry was protected by ever shrinking import tariffs.
I really think Toyota should of made the Corolla in Australia and ford made the focus in Australia I think they could possibly still be open if they did that
The Falcon is now a Bloody Legend. We have three FG's. My FGII Turbo, wife's FGI G6E and son's FGI XR6. My Turbo is flippin awesome (and I have owned 4 Porsches).
Top video thanks But the brand falcon and commodore was seen as a bogan car! (I still have a BA Futura and FG Ute WGAF) Australia went and still crave SUV POS inherited from the stupid yanks and pay thru the nose to get the diesel engines serviced. But your correct Ford USA killed it off, lack of proper marketing the SZ territory (aimed at woman FFS) & FG campaign was a joke and global look design soy boy BS and not letting Ford Australia make a real 4WD or the focus and fiesta let's make them in country that has import protection taxes like Thailand, Germany or China, so you can also blame successive federal governments starting with Hawke Keating govt removing import tariffs and reducing car manufacture from 5-6 brands to 3 and finally the Abbott govt gave them the sword because of the subsidies bill 1bil$A while still continuing to give the soyboy ABC 1B$A. I’d rather have a car industry. It’s a shame the Australian people could not have purchased Ford Australia from the septics and renamed it kept the Barra in production but chop 2 cylinders off it or designed a new block put a blower on it and injected LPG then put that in the Ute Falcon and Teza. Which is basically what Merc are doing! (and other manufactures are going back to I6 FFS) Ford use to make /assemble everything Transits Cortina’s etc and some they put the I6 250cub in them FFS.
They were very complacent as well. They always tested the market. Its like you were stupid if you bought a series 1 of a particular model because it would always have the very basic features or equipment and also it would be wise for them to iron any issues they had with that new model. But seriously I owned a Falcon AU Series 1 and my Dad an FG Series 1. The next revisions were so much better.
Hey that's what I thought happened to Ford in Australia too. Based on all the articles and research too. My Dad used to work at Ford in Broadmeadows from the mid 70s to the 00s. I have been there on a few occasions too. I feel that relying on a foreign entity to create locally designed and built products was never going to last. From the 80’s onwards there was always talk of Ford Australia being closed down. In the 00's the writing was on the wall, with plummeting sales. Ford Motor Company was always wanting to close this foreign operation down, to push their own agenda and products.
Always had falcons, from XE wagon and XF panel vans, to my first car (EF) right through to FGs. Unfortunately everyone i know who had a falcon now has a twin cab 4wd, including myself
Hey man, if you’re going all out with sound proofing, can you include fuel consumption and performance tests in your vid? I’ve seen claims that proofing the entire car adds a significant amount of weight and isn’t worth the impact to fuel economy and performance
Added 30kg of deadner to my BF- cust 1/10th off the 1/4 mile. But; it was such a much more enjoyable drive, and after i put lighter weight wheels on, negligible wet weight- and actually better acceleration due to less rotating/ sprung weight.
@FGmods Pretty decent video covering Ford's actions in the later years, however you haven't' taken into account the complete shift in vehicle preferences that occurred after 2000. For the last 20 years there has been a steady increase in the purchase of 4WD/SUV vehicles in Australia DESPITE them being less fuel efficient than smaller cars. This began with people wanting bigger vehicles that didn't increase in wheelbase but could fit more in it, followed by mums wanting to protect themselves and their loved ones from this increase in bigger vehicles which caused a snowball effect to the point where almost half of all personal vehicles in Australia now fall into the Ute/4WD/SUV categories. The Falcon, and the Commodore, could never compete with this trend as they fell into a category which no longer appealed to the majority of the market. Being lower in height they were limited on how much space they could provide without getting longer or wider and people could purchase a smaller SUV that had the same space but smaller in footprint. There's a significant number of people now who want a vehicle that can go off road for a more active lifestyle, and sedans not having much ground clearance, the Falcon missed on these sales as well. Ford's actions leading up to the Falcon's end certainly didn't help it, and your video certainly highlights how those choices clearly sabotaged it's ability to deal with market changes, in the end nothing could have stopped it failing. Keep up the good work, sir. Love your videos.
Awsome vid mate really shows why aussie manufacturing died i had no idea on the figures. Barra the fkn world 👌and i know its called fg mods but u should touch in the b series stuff and the birth on the barra 240 ,first turbo barra. N/a rods and all 😂 love the content bro keep it up 👍
Good video , another reason the falcon failed Ford US wouldn't let the falcon be exported to other markets overseas and when the FGX was given the green light they only gave FORD AUS a $110,000,000:00 to upgrade the FG thats why the interior wasn't really updated not given enough money to do it.
I WAS going to touch on this and the reasons the FG may have been disliked by Ford at large, for being better in a lot of ways than some of their other cars. But the video length had already got to a point I didn't think people would watch for that long, so I cut it.
That's brutal! But it makes sense. I have this falcon XB GS 2dr in my shed. I've been working hard on it lately, but today I sat down with a cold beer observing my work with my FG G6ET sitting in the background. I thought wow the G6 looks so good, but why was it a failure. Then I watched this 😑
After Falcon, Ford Oz brought multiple imported models & pulled them off the market one by one .. Currently Ford Oz is solely surviving on Ranger based models.
Sorry to be picky with such a great video. But when you’re talking about Mad Max 1 and 2. Both pictures are from Mad Max 2... 🤷♂️🙌. But nah... Was still a great video mate 👍.
Going to be honest with you and admit I've never watched either, so I had no idea haha Guess I shouldn't have trusted my google image search results there.
if they made a coupe for the Barra... Ford falcon wouldve definitely shattered Ford worldwide... even supras and skylines... i mean, their already doing beast in sedans, but imagine a coupe 👌💯
The Miami engine was introduced in 2011 in the FG II dood. The FGX XR8 saw the last of the Miami engines go out before the Falcon died . Lets face it the Designers of the FG f*cked up the dash position and the dash when compared to the VF Commodore. But at least they got the BA and BF right well except for the sedans diff cradle.
November 2010 they were up to full production banging Miamis into FPVs, and I have the photos from my tour of both the engine and vehicle plants to prove it. FG2 went on sale a year later in Nov 2012. Despite being a Holden fanatic, I’ve had a 2011 FG since new, and the Miami is one of my favourite engines. I have fond memories of working (as a supplier) with the Prodrive engineers, developing components that eventually went into production Miami engines. Lots of local content in the Miami, from both big and small companies, located across several states of AU.
Unions pushing wages upto ridiculous rates when sales and profits were falling had a lot to do with Ford and Holden shutting down. Was the end of my new car buying days as I've only ever have only owned/own Falcons and Holden/HSV's( VB, HX Shagging Wagon, ED GLi, new VX S, new BA XR6T Ute, new VE SSV Ute, VX GTS, VX II SV300, new GenF GTS, XR50T)
With living expenses soaring to insane heights, the unions were doing the right thing. Nobody wanted these cars besides enthusiasts. There are far many more bots who are content with driving camrys or mazda 3's than there are us. Thats it.
Fuel economy had little to do with it was the build qaulity reliably size price you basically had a poorly made car that got smaller and smaller and impractical as a family car they started as a simple decent size car that was a practical family car that's the reason people went to suvs and 4x4s it's the same thing with holdens
I don’t know where you get the FG as the “best car”I bought a new Series one FG X-R6 in late 09 and where I should have got rid of it many years ago I kept the damn thing to this day and it’s only travelled just a tad over one hundred thousand kilometres in that time, bugger all as I use my other cars the majority of the time and the reason for this is it cost me a bit of money when I bought the thing and I like to get my moneys worth to some degree when I buy something and that’s why I have kept it out of principle as not only did Ford Australia in your words murder it I reckon they really committed suicide with their inept choices due to the absolute crap that they built these things with and mixed with Inane decisions from their idiot board members I mean what effing company would build and sell a car to a low volume right hand drive market that offers 3 , yes three automatic transmissions and four if you include the manual item! The first gen had the carry over 4 speed auto from the BF in the LP Gas models, the standard atmo Barra sixes had the real piece of excrement the French Borg Warner 5R-55 detritus that was/is so bad that they dropped it for the ZF’s in the series 2, and the ZF 6 speed as an option, so Three! I reckon Ford USA used Australia as a dumping ground for their 5 speed box of rubbish to get rid of them because that’s why the series ones are few on the ground now in 2024 because I know a few other people that got rid of them because of the 5 speed auto stuffing up like mine did at only 80,000 klm’s and mind you it’s been looked after, never towed, never abused etc etc so I had it rebuilt not changed over and it had modifications done to it to make it reliable the way they should have been built and left the factory in the first place! and if I had known of what shit autos these were I would have optioned the ZF in the first place, I could go but the last thing I will say is that I’ve had to replace the Diff bushes, a big job only recently as well as centre bearing carrier and trans mounts all at a very low mileage! I would advise any young fella or anybody else not to touch a 5 speed FG with a barge pole as it will end in tears, they’re a H.O.S !
Yep ford aus had design and built 6 duel cab xf utes that became the ba duel cab motor show car long before crewman,I have the photos AWD utes and wagons again long before Holden,the cars they prototyped then canned was criminal AU was a stunning update of the ED with a more squared look Nasser fixed(f**k) that.shut it all down bit by bit for global small cars, territory only got the go ahead because polities (R.I.P) threatened to go,got moved onto land rover in the end.fg was no match interior wise to ve and when Ute buyers went to ranger it was all over for fgx before it began.
I think there was a heap of reasons as to why Australian car manufacturing failed. One that comes to mind is high manufacturing costs and how much they were paying their employees for pretty basic jobs
Another thing I really wanted to cover in the video but couldn't because of time. I felt that it was sort of secondary to the other issues I brought up, but still a factor involved for sure.
Labour costs & manufacturing costs were not an issue. Ford, GM & Toyota all stated this when they were closing down. Their gripe was the active non-support from the LNP government, specifically Joe Hockey who dared them to leave. There are a few incorrect details - 1. the original US mustang was a derivative of the US falcon, not the other way around. 2. The reason for sales decline starting in the 1980s was due to workers (the historical market) wages were going backwards & the professional/management types would be seen dead in a locally made car - they must have an import. 3. Ford US started sandbagging the falcon after ford Australia to an BA XR6 turbo to US headquarters & the yanks didn't like seeing a ford product that was about 10 to 15 years ahead of their products. 4. Ford Australia's advertising was absolute crap since the 1980s. 5. Ford Australia's halo car, the FPV F6 310 wasn't advertised at all. I have an FG Mk2 F6 & I considered replacing it with a mustang last year until I drove a mustang - it was a piece of rubbish that is still backwards compared to my old F6.
Ridiculous.. Ford Australia was a private company it's still had to listen and comply to international. Ford.. just like the Commodore which is basically just an Opel omega. My parents came out to Australia in a.. car manufacturing was great.. now we can't even build Matchbox cars...
Yes. But mostly I didn't find very concrete stats for Mitsubishi while doing research so decided to just go with Toyota's massive sales as it made the point.
@@urabusliberty9258 you also got to remember that Mitsubishi was in a lot of trouble financially and the 380 sold even worst then both commodore and falcon in 2006 and when FG 2008 come around tonsley closed and the 380 was canned!
Politics! Jeez that mustang is ugly - if only they made a 2 door stock falcon to meet the fantasy man market...oh well, death to the falcon. Sad really.
failed because of dorks wanting dual cab shiteboxes where 110kw is a biiiiig deal.
I bought a new Falcon XR6 turbo every year since BA. Even bought 4 FGX XR’s as keepers. Since 2016 I have not bought a new Ford or another other make since. Not wasting my money on POS when I already have the best cars with the best engine in the world IMHO. Personally couldn’t give a fuck what anyone else thinks . In total I kept 26 Falcon . What’s the saying “better than money in the bank”.
you sir, are a lucky man.
I have 1 falcon. It's a 2003 ba fairmont shitbox.
I love it
Well done ...I still love the Aussie made Fords
Great video mate, couldn’t believe my belovered fgx made the video! That’s awesome man! #335xr8
The main reason that the Sales dropped on Holden’s/fords was not because of petrol prices in my opinion. The market became flooded with cheaper foreign cars. They became uncompetitive because the tariffs on imported vehicles drastically dropped the pricing which is what killed our local car industry.
I reckon when they made the FGX Sprints they went beyond that stupid rule that Ford had. After all the XR6 Sprints sold out immediately and the FGX XR8 ad didn’t even focus on fuel economy and that bs. It showed its sound and performance. In the end they knew they weren’t winning so they thought just give the blue oval fans what they wanted which was performance and looks instead of focusing on a more bigger demographic. After all the Sprints moto was “the car by the enthusiast, for the enthusiast.” In the end I reckon the FGX wasn’t a failure. It was perfect and I really like the look of them as well. Keep in mind though that they also had a limited budget and the FGX XR8 even made it into 2 of the biggest racing games out there, Forza Horizon 3 and Forza Motorsport 7 which basically means that the developers of the game approached Ford Australia to pay Ford Australia money to put that car in the game. Also I’d rank the FGX alongside the XY and XA on the ladder of best Falcons.
Nailed it- Ford Oz went out with a bang, in both the XR6 & XR8's. Threw what they had at it, and said hooray
Great video man. Love this kind of format. Really good insight into the Aussie car market. Do you reckon you could do a video on the impact of the BA Turbo agaisnt Holden's Turbo and Supercharged variants? Keep up the good work! 👍
Adam Pinkerton if these kinds of videos do well I’ll start putting more time in to them and make them really slick. Just not sure if people will watch 20 minutes of me talking about business and market impact of products 😅
@@fgmods Typo in description "took" should be "look"
RODS that 1am tired typing lol
FGmods ford killed of one of the best engine ever made long live mighty barra
Don't count us out just yet, but don't sell yourself too short either, mate. You've got great content, more down to earth, practical and knowledgeable than most of the other fg, ford and other local car youtubers. I don't think a 20-30min vid would be a bad idea. Hell, if it ever got to the stage where you were putting out daily content, i'd happily watch :) keep it up mate.
Go the mighty au.
Love my au sr.
But love the fg aswell.
do you still have it? :)
The falcons were fantastic cars and now I have to say I miss the commodores too. Sales were dropping but it would of been nice to see the government supported their car industry. Tony Abbot put the final nail in Holden and Toyota manufacturing
Serena & Riley the ironic thing is that sales weren’t as big of a factor as you would think. I wanted to cover it in this, but would have blown out the video time a lot more, but Mustang sales plummeted after only 2 years. They now sell less Mustangs than they did Falcons in 2010. But mustangs have a higher profit margin, so they keep them around....
Bob Hawke Keating John Button put the first nail in the coffin. That dickhead government removed all the import duty/tariffs You use to be able to purchase 2 1987 holden Calais Turbos for the price of 1 BMW 735 or 1 Jag XJ6 or 1x Merc 300E. see this holden add
czcams.com/video/WKePMrNuLIY/video.html
Thailand mexico and german still have import tariffs.
@@fgmods Mustang = 2 door Falcon. 2 doors big cars dont sell in Australia the doors are to big compared to sedan access to rear is a pain etc The only people I see driving the new Mustang are old retired guys.
Ford 2 door stopped with XC and the Monaro did not sell enough.
Tony Abbott did not put the final nail in the coffin. Certainly Tony along with Joe Hockey forced Holden to make a decision quicker. The Beginning of the end was when GM sold Opel/Vauxhall to PSA in 2017. Holden would have gone eventually, as Mary Barra’s decision GM to exit from all RHD Markets, pullling out of India & Thailand . Even if the Government of the day gave more money to GM it loud have only been a stay of execution, as GM had made up their minds on its future operations in Australia. I actually also got to speak to en ex Holden employee, who worked in the Elizabeth plant in S.A and he told me Holden had no intentions of Designing or manufacturing the next generation Commodore in Australia, hence why he got a redundancy in 2015. It’s also amazing how many uninformed people are here, still, blaming the government of the day rather than blaming Mary Barra !
Tony Abbott was one of Australias best PMs.
Just saw this vid now, how tf does this have only 6,260 views? Really well made mate deserves alot more.
loved the video mate, i also loved how you did the transitions. keep it up hey, always looking forward to the next upload :)
Love my xf and my xh. Sad that we'll never get to see a new falcon model
Bloody bang on. Own a 2009 G6E T myself... Still can;t fault the car. Having driven recent euro models I can personally attest... they do no match up to what we made in the 'Great' Nation.
I've got a lightning strike silver April 2008 (so one of the very first FG's built) XR6. She's not turbo but goes hard enough for me. She's ultra reliable , supremely comfortable , gets 8l per 100km on a long run without trying too hard , otherwise better than 11 in short stop start stuff , not a single squeak or rattle other than a periodical dry pulley sound at idle that eventually goes away ...Also a 2001 AU ll Futura for 17 years so far (also silver) that'll outlast religion with big kays . She's done one alternator due to a slow leak power steering reservoir , the inlet manifold gasket many many years ago , one wheel alignment after replacing the steering boots . Everything else is original other than the usual exhaust , tyres, batteries etc...I love the Ford Falcon . nothing even comes close for me..
6:01 The Fairmont what? Ghia- pronounced ‘gear’ ?? But, good vid
Never heard it said out loud tbh
FGmods I work for ford and we all avoid saying it 😂
Great vid.
Had a MK 2 BF XR8 brand new (long sold, with a GT500 engine & box swap later in its life before i sold it).
Bought a MK 2 FG XR6 N/A with 67k on it; difference in the build is very fucking noticable. The BF series was far better, from the sound of the door closing, through to drivetrain noise & even the door B Pillar trims (powder coated steel prior to the FG). You can simply tell Ford Oz stopped giving a shit- and budgets were probably long gone by then (mid 2014 at the latest).
Its frigging sad, because all we have now & forever, is imported shitboxes that suit Australian conditions (looking at you, ZB Vomitdore)
Panty dropping, straight piped AU's ftw.
You can really tell by the time FG came around, that both budget and build quality just did not exist
This just came up on my suggestions. While I agree that Ford Australia had their enemies in the USA and likely due to the fact that we could make better sedans and SUVs (and a wish to reduce costs), I'm not completely sure I agree with your conclusion. I think Ford Australia did try and keep local manufacturing going. They put the 4cyl into the Falcon to address what they thought was a problem (perceived fuel economy) and they built an SUV on the Falcon platform (which was initially a huge success.) But the Falcon eventually died not because it was somehow stopped from being a performance car (like I think you said) but because the market simply doesn't want a large sedan and this is evident by the fact that no other large sedan sells particularly well either. People didn't buy a Falcon because it was too big (so they bought a Corolla) and if they wanted a big car, they got a SUV. Fuel economy is only part of the reason because we see relatively thirsty cars, like the new Ford Ranger, selling so well even though it's fairly thirsty. Most cars on the road now are either 4cyl little cars or big ute/SUVs, and the Falcon is neither of those. In summary, I agree that Ford Aus had their enemies in the USA although the large sedan market was dieing no matter what Ford Aus could do.
Real reason UAW in USA did not let Ford Australia Export, the demand was there for a large US customer base. Same reason why the VF commodore couldn't sell in US, limited to 30k units due to UAW.
I love my fg xr6 , best car ive ever owned ,
Great video! The photos used for the AU were backwards though (with the earlier mk1 design shown last)
Well said, I'm glad that you made this video because it's the truth, I myself currently own 4 FG's because I love these Australian cars, I've tried to tell others that Ford Australia killed the Falcon because Ford America wanted Ford Australia to sell the mustang as it's more profit and it would be hard to compete against the Falcon, Thank you again for making this video
Really good video but you left out the most important reason manufacturing in oz stopped............ tariffs on imports.
The oz car industry was protected by ever shrinking import tariffs.
That was awesome. I like finding out more history of the Falcon as theres none here in the uk. I'm lucky to have a fg here...
Martin Ivory they must be fun to take to car meets, maybe some day I’ll visit some of the overseas owners and make a vid about it
You have an FG in the UK ?
@@australiantruckspotting8883 yep. I imported it 2 years ago . Xr6 in green
Martin Ivory that’s cool, how did you know about them, had you lived in Aus ?
@@australiantruckspotting8883 best mate lives there and I'm a massive v8 supercars fan
I loved my EBII Falcon that was dual fuelled, and upgraded to an FG EcoLPI after 600,000KM
Such a shame that this car is gone.
Got halfway through and was expecting a Nord VPN ad spot. This is some Internet Historian shit but for cars.
I really think Toyota should of made the Corolla in Australia and ford made the focus in Australia I think they could possibly still be open if they did that
The Falcon is now a Bloody Legend. We have three FG's. My FGII Turbo, wife's FGI G6E and son's FGI XR6. My Turbo is flippin awesome (and I have owned 4 Porsches).
Top video thanks
But the brand falcon and commodore was seen as a bogan car!
(I still have a BA Futura and FG Ute WGAF)
Australia went and still crave SUV POS inherited from the stupid yanks and pay thru the nose to get the diesel engines serviced.
But your correct Ford USA killed it off, lack of proper marketing the SZ territory (aimed at woman FFS) & FG campaign was a joke and global look design soy boy BS and not letting Ford Australia make a real 4WD or the focus and fiesta let's make them in country that has import protection taxes like Thailand, Germany or China, so you can also blame successive federal governments starting with Hawke Keating govt removing import tariffs and reducing car manufacture from 5-6 brands to 3 and finally the Abbott govt gave them the sword because of the subsidies bill 1bil$A while still continuing to give the soyboy ABC 1B$A. I’d rather have a car industry.
It’s a shame the Australian people could not have purchased Ford Australia from the septics and renamed it kept the Barra in production but chop 2 cylinders off it or designed a new block put a blower on it and injected LPG then put that in the Ute Falcon and Teza. Which is basically what Merc are doing! (and other manufactures are going back to I6 FFS)
Ford use to make /assemble everything Transits Cortina’s etc and some they put the I6 250cub in them FFS.
I am working on my project, putting b and f series running gear into my 68 mustang
They were very complacent as well. They always tested the market. Its like you were stupid if you bought a series 1 of a particular model because it would always have the very basic features or equipment and also it would be wise for them to iron any issues they had with that new model. But seriously I owned a Falcon AU Series 1 and my Dad an FG Series 1. The next revisions were so much better.
Hey that's what I thought happened to Ford in Australia too. Based on all the articles and research too. My Dad used to work at Ford in Broadmeadows from the mid 70s to the 00s. I have been there on a few occasions too. I feel that relying on a foreign entity to create locally designed and built products was never going to last. From the 80’s onwards there was always talk of Ford Australia being closed down. In the 00's the writing was on the wall, with plummeting sales. Ford Motor Company was always wanting to close this foreign operation down, to push their own agenda and products.
I wouldn’t mind a longer video!
Always had falcons, from XE wagon and XF panel vans, to my first car (EF) right through to FGs. Unfortunately everyone i know who had a falcon now has a twin cab 4wd, including myself
Can't figure out whether "paradigm" was spelled "paradime" as a play on words or not.
What a video. 😂👍🏻Perth australia 🇦🇺
Hey man, if you’re going all out with sound proofing, can you include fuel consumption and performance tests in your vid? I’ve seen claims that proofing the entire car adds a significant amount of weight and isn’t worth the impact to fuel economy and performance
puppet84 yeah I’ll be weighing what goes in to the car. I think a lot of people overestimate how much weight sound material adds.
Added 30kg of deadner to my BF- cust 1/10th off the 1/4 mile. But; it was such a much more enjoyable drive, and after i put lighter weight wheels on, negligible wet weight- and actually better acceleration due to less rotating/ sprung weight.
@FGmods Pretty decent video covering Ford's actions in the later years, however you haven't' taken into account the complete shift in vehicle preferences that occurred after 2000.
For the last 20 years there has been a steady increase in the purchase of 4WD/SUV vehicles in Australia DESPITE them being less fuel efficient than smaller cars.
This began with people wanting bigger vehicles that didn't increase in wheelbase but could fit more in it, followed by mums wanting to protect themselves and their loved ones from this increase in bigger vehicles which caused a snowball effect to the point where almost half of all personal vehicles in Australia now fall into the Ute/4WD/SUV categories.
The Falcon, and the Commodore, could never compete with this trend as they fell into a category which no longer appealed to the majority of the market. Being lower in height they were limited on how much space they could provide without getting longer or wider and people could purchase a smaller SUV that had the same space but smaller in footprint.
There's a significant number of people now who want a vehicle that can go off road for a more active lifestyle, and sedans not having much ground clearance, the Falcon missed on these sales as well.
Ford's actions leading up to the Falcon's end certainly didn't help it, and your video certainly highlights how those choices clearly sabotaged it's ability to deal with market changes, in the end nothing could have stopped it failing.
Keep up the good work, sir.
Love your videos.
Awsome vid mate really shows why aussie manufacturing died i had no idea on the figures. Barra the fkn world 👌and i know its called fg mods but u should touch in the b series stuff and the birth on the barra 240 ,first turbo barra. N/a rods and all 😂 love the content bro keep it up 👍
Josh Fuller there were so many things involved at once it’s crazy, but I guess at the end of the day big corporations just wanna get that bread.
Good video , another reason the falcon failed Ford US wouldn't let the falcon be exported to other markets overseas and when the FGX was given the green light they only gave FORD AUS a $110,000,000:00 to upgrade the FG thats why the interior wasn't really updated not given enough money to do it.
I WAS going to touch on this and the reasons the FG may have been disliked by Ford at large, for being better in a lot of ways than some of their other cars.
But the video length had already got to a point I didn't think people would watch for that long, so I cut it.
Great video
Miss the falcon
That's brutal! But it makes sense. I have this falcon XB GS 2dr in my shed. I've been working hard on it lately, but today I sat down with a cold beer observing my work with my FG G6ET sitting in the background. I thought wow the G6 looks so good, but why was it a failure. Then I watched this 😑
Because other smaller cars are far better on fuel, no one wants v6 and v8 fuel guzzlers
All people want is the cheapest shit they can get there hands on. No wonder Holden and ford were dropped
Unfortunately, the cheapest shit is all many people can afford, due to wages going backwards for the past 30 to 40 years.
After Falcon, Ford Oz brought multiple imported models & pulled them off the market one by one ..
Currently Ford Oz is solely surviving on Ranger based models.
If you can’t afford the fuel , stay off the highway. I’ve never owned a foreign car!!!!!!!!
Sorry to be picky with such a great video. But when you’re talking about Mad Max 1 and 2. Both pictures are from Mad Max 2... 🤷♂️🙌. But nah... Was still a great video mate 👍.
Going to be honest with you and admit I've never watched either, so I had no idea haha
Guess I shouldn't have trusted my google image search results there.
FGmods you’ve never seen them 😧 do yourself a favour and watch them mate. Don’t watch number 3 and the latest one though. They’re trash 😂.
if they made a coupe for the Barra... Ford falcon wouldve definitely shattered Ford worldwide... even supras and skylines... i mean, their already doing beast in sedans, but imagine a coupe 👌💯
People engine sawp them in to EVERYTHING now for that power to weight
@@fgmods 100 bro murders the Ford america by miles...
The Miami engine was introduced in 2011 in the FG II dood. The FGX XR8 saw the last of the Miami engines go out before the Falcon died . Lets face it the Designers of the FG f*cked up the dash position and the dash when compared to the VF Commodore. But at least they got the BA and BF right well except for the sedans diff cradle.
November 2010 they were up to full production banging Miamis into FPVs, and I have the photos from my tour of both the engine and vehicle plants to prove it. FG2 went on sale a year later in Nov 2012.
Despite being a Holden fanatic, I’ve had a 2011 FG since new, and the Miami is one of my favourite engines.
I have fond memories of working (as a supplier) with the Prodrive engineers, developing components that eventually went into production Miami engines. Lots of local content in the Miami, from both big and small companies, located across several states of AU.
Unions pushing wages upto ridiculous rates when sales and profits were falling had a lot to do with Ford and Holden shutting down. Was the end of my new car buying days as I've only ever have only owned/own Falcons and Holden/HSV's( VB, HX Shagging Wagon, ED GLi, new VX S, new BA XR6T Ute, new VE SSV Ute, VX GTS, VX II SV300, new GenF GTS, XR50T)
With living expenses soaring to insane heights, the unions were doing the right thing. Nobody wanted these cars besides enthusiasts. There are far many more bots who are content with driving camrys or mazda 3's than there are us. Thats it.
Bought my fgx xr8 from new, still own it to this day only 17,000kms on the clock, she’s a keeper
please drive it lol
Pretty close to the bone mate cheers
How is the na to turbo conversion going
Well I'm great full they put the FGX XR8 out its a beast and I love mine
Fairmont Gi-ha, haven't heard of one of those.
To be fair I don’t speak French
@@fgmods I'll let you off in that case, but only this once!
Other French words, Shitron and Pigout.
@@fgmods Actually Ghia is Italian, nearly forgot that.
I’ve got a Ford Territory 2.7L Diesel. Love it. But, Ford lost the plot when they stopped caring about the customers.
glad i got mine while i could
Fuel economy had little to do with it was the build qaulity reliably size price you basically had a poorly made car that got smaller and smaller and impractical as a family car they started as a simple decent size car that was a practical family car that's the reason people went to suvs and 4x4s it's the same thing with holdens
But still keeping my b series turbo manual ute
You're underrated 110%
Love the content mate
I don’t know where you get the FG as the “best car”I bought a new Series one FG X-R6 in late 09 and where I should have got rid of it many years ago I kept the damn thing to this day and it’s only travelled just a tad over one hundred thousand kilometres in that time, bugger all as I use my other cars the majority of the time and the reason for this is it cost me a bit of money when I bought the thing and I like to get my moneys worth to some degree when I buy something and that’s why I have kept it out of principle as not only did Ford Australia in your words murder it I reckon they really committed suicide with their inept choices due to the absolute crap that they built these things with and mixed with Inane decisions from their idiot board members I mean what effing company would build and sell a car to a low volume right hand drive market that offers 3 , yes three automatic transmissions and four if you include the manual item! The first gen had the carry over 4 speed auto from the BF in the LP Gas models, the standard atmo Barra sixes had the real piece of excrement the French Borg Warner 5R-55 detritus that was/is so bad that they dropped it for the ZF’s in the series 2, and the ZF 6 speed as an option, so Three! I reckon Ford USA used Australia as a dumping ground for their 5 speed box of rubbish to get rid of them because that’s why the series ones are few on the ground now in 2024 because I know a few other people that got rid of them because of the 5 speed auto stuffing up like mine did at only 80,000 klm’s and mind you it’s been looked after, never towed, never abused etc etc so I had it rebuilt not changed over and it had modifications done to it to make it reliable the way they should have been built and left the factory in the first place! and if I had known of what shit autos these were I would have optioned the ZF in the first place, I could go but the last thing I will say is that I’ve had to replace the Diff bushes, a big job only recently as well as centre bearing carrier and trans mounts all at a very low mileage! I would advise any young fella or anybody else not to touch a 5 speed FG with a barge pole as it will end in tears, they’re a H.O.S !
Yep ford aus had design and built 6 duel cab xf utes that became the ba duel cab motor show car long before crewman,I have the photos AWD utes and wagons again long before Holden,the cars they prototyped then canned was criminal AU was a stunning update of the ED with a more squared look Nasser fixed(f**k) that.shut it all down bit by bit for global small cars, territory only got the go ahead because polities (R.I.P) threatened to go,got moved onto land rover in the end.fg was no match interior wise to ve and when Ute buyers went to ranger it was all over for fgx before it began.
Oops they introduced the Miami engine in 2011.
Yes
i would like to thank the australian taxpayer for subsidizing major american corporations for decades.
I think there was a heap of reasons as to why Australian car manufacturing failed. One that comes to mind is high manufacturing costs and how much they were paying their employees for pretty basic jobs
Another thing I really wanted to cover in the video but couldn't because of time.
I felt that it was sort of secondary to the other issues I brought up, but still a factor involved for sure.
Labour costs & manufacturing costs were not an issue. Ford, GM & Toyota all stated this when they were closing down. Their gripe was the active non-support from the LNP government, specifically Joe Hockey who dared them to leave.
There are a few incorrect details -
1. the original US mustang was a derivative of the US falcon, not the other way around.
2. The reason for sales decline starting in the 1980s was due to workers (the historical market) wages were going backwards & the professional/management types would be seen dead in a locally made car - they must have an import.
3. Ford US started sandbagging the falcon after ford Australia to an BA XR6 turbo to US headquarters & the yanks didn't like seeing a ford product that was about 10 to 15 years ahead of their products.
4. Ford Australia's advertising was absolute crap since the 1980s.
5. Ford Australia's halo car, the FPV F6 310 wasn't advertised at all.
I have an FG Mk2 F6 & I considered replacing it with a mustang last year until I drove a mustang - it was a piece of rubbish that is still backwards compared to my old F6.
Ridiculous.. Ford Australia was a private company it's still had to listen and comply to international.
Ford.. just like the Commodore which is basically just an Opel omega.
My parents came out to Australia in a.. car manufacturing was great.. now we can't even build Matchbox cars...
Funny, but now everyone want a Falcon.
The FG was not as good looking as the BA/BF and the FG X.
3:31 Mitsubishi am I a joke to you
Yes.
But mostly I didn't find very concrete stats for Mitsubishi while doing research so decided to just go with Toyota's massive sales as it made the point.
FGmods huh I found some on Wikipedia or do you not trust that?
@@urabusliberty9258 you also got to remember that Mitsubishi was in a lot of trouble financially and the 380 sold even worst then both commodore and falcon in 2006 and when FG 2008 come around tonsley closed and the 380 was canned!
Boomerang
PARADIME ya recon?
Ghia is pronounced gear.
THE AU FALCON
Max Krause awesome cars, but easily outdone by the FG
@@australiantruckspotting8883 lmao I know, the AU is a meme
Very sad
Politics! Jeez that mustang is ugly - if only they made a 2 door stock falcon to meet the fantasy man market...oh well, death to the falcon. Sad really.
so fucken sad
😔