Ford announce extension to Geelong plant beyond 2010

[Cuey]

Fan-Falcon-tastic

Some of the best news we've heard in a while about the Australian Economy in general. I hope this gets some news tonight about Ford Australia securing jobs for at least another 5 years.

With Focus confirmed from 2010, and possibly Fiesta and Kuga.

Things are finally looking good!

[SirHenry]

Falconunbelievable!

Long Live the I6!

"Never before have so many owed so much to so few!"

Winston Churchill.

[XWGT]

Now waiting for Paul Glovers editorial to herald the investment in the local product................

[Fairlane]

Oh my god. This is like the best news of the year, ok maybe not the best but pretty damn good.

A new Euro 4 I6, long live the RWD i6 Falcon, I can see a brand new hot shot LPG Falcon in my future.

[CAMS290]

Bloody awesome news !

[NGN 351]

Great news for Ford

Great news for Australian workers and their families

Great news for us punters who love Australian ingenuity and know how- saves exporting all our ideas off shore

Jobs for future generations

Well done all around :

[Bluehoon]

Simply fantastic news all round, and well received.

Now - what's they gonna do with the turbo model? if it's gets an alloy block and the turbo i6 remains, i see a world class export engine on the cards.

[antoni]

Good news for Ford and the their workers.

Bad news for me and other FG owners that were hoping the FG would have been a 'future classic' because it was the last of the inline 6 :P

[Fordman1]

Originally Posted by music189

There may be more to this than is being let on!!!!!!!!!!!

On the reduced Volumes it was cheaper to get the I6 Euro iV compliant with a fair bit of Government money then spend the dollars on modifying the car to take a V6 ?

In the end this has been a business decision based on the mighty $.

1. Funding ? -- from the Government ?

2. Aussie dollar ? -- 65 c US make importing more expensive

It's great news for the employees and Geelong in the end. And having just got an FG XR6T I couldn't bear having to get a weezy V6 in 3 years !!

Lets hope DI LPG is part of the solution, as well as having DI across the board. I think the solution they come up with will be a LOT less complex though.

[joolz]

Originally Posted by Barraxr8

On the reduced Volumes it was cheaper to get the I6 Euro iV compliant with a fair bit of Government money then spend the dollars on modifying the car to take a V6 ?

In the end this has been a business decision based on the mighty $.

1. Funding ? -- from the Government ?

2. Aussie dollar ? -- 65 c US make importing more expensive

It's great news for the employees and Geelong in the end. And having just got an FG XR6T I couldn't bear having to get a weezy V6 in 3 years !!

Lets hope DI LPG is part of the solution, as well as having DI across the board. I think the solution they come up with will be a LOT less complex though.

I would have to agree with the above. Its a simple matter of money in the current financial climate. All suppliers would have quoted for the next platform at a higher price as the build volumes have dropped. So why would Ford spend millions more to go to a V6 which involves changes to the entire driveline and other aspects that the V6 will effect or to just spend $21 million to "upgrade" the I6 to meet EuroIV criteria.
Would you spend thousands renovating your house to sell when the market is in serious trouble? I think not as it would be money and time down the drain.

[bathurst77]

Cant wait to see how the likes of Paul G(mh l)over and GM-Drive spin this.

Somehow they will show that this yet another nail in the coffin for ancient ailing inefficient Falcon and break through for Holden and their world class Commodore, surely?

[belvo]

great news

means i dont need to stock pilling i6

[ThePistonHead]

YES!

One question, where does this leave the Diesel option which was supposed to arrive alongside the V6 for Falcon & Territory?

[Silver Ghia]

I say it may also give the FG sales a shot in the arm with more consumer confidence in Ford.

Coupled with the widening knowledge that FG is actually a far better (better performing, smoother, more fuel efficient) car than the VE.

I have noticed a lot more FG's on the road these days.

[JTFG]

That's great news!

Long live the I6 :P

oh yeah I also see lots of fg's now!

[davocol]

That is fantastic news, made my day.

[Falc'man]

Originally Posted by HSE2

To get the engine Euro compliant it was only a question of money. The balance between spending and seeing a return for such a small volume didn't add up.

Such an announcement has far greater implications towards the medium term survival of the Falcon platform.

The question now remains where does that leave the V8?

Hi Ian, what makes you think this will have an effect on the V8?

Originally Posted by Russell

No V6 also means no FWD

Ford Au still need approval for the go ahead of the 2013 Falcon, which I think will be a shared platform (and may not even be designed here), and potentially may even be FWD - which I highly doubt - but is a possibility.


Oh, and one more thing...

: : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
:evil3: :evil3: :evil3: :evil3: :evil3: :evil3: :evil3: :evil3: :evil3: :evil3: :evil3:
:sm_headba :sm_headba :sm_headba :sm_headba :sm_headba :sm_headba :sm_headba :sm_headba :sm_headba :sm_headba :sm_headba :sm_headba :sm_headba :sm_headba


Holden should be shi tting bricks after hearing about this; for a while they were thinking their alloycrap was going to be "competitive" for once.

[Paxton]

So you've done your backflips then Youssef?

Hate to say I told you so.

[Falc'man]

Originally Posted by Paxton

So you've done your backflips then Youssef?

Hate to say I told you so.

And then some... The Barra was singing all the home after I heard the news.
/Kickdown... bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap... back off.. kickdown... bwaaaaaaaaaaaaap bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap. Back off... over and over and over again.

You were saying this 2 months ago; I remember when you initially told us there's a black cloud hanging over the V6... that never made sense to me, as there was no other alternative to meet Euro4...
And thanks for the heads up on the I6 a few weeks ago.

[brm-xr6]

Originally Posted by King Nothing

God Drive is negative. Why make it sound like its a bad thing to be keeping the engine? The use of terms like "aging" and "decades-old" hides the fact that the I6 had more power and torque than the V6 that would replace it, while having less technology and development behind it.

They seem to forget that the 6.0ltr chev motor is just as old and the only thing that has changed is the matirial the engine is made out of as it still runs pushrod the I6 has evolve quiet alot since the 200ci was released in the 60's

If it ain't broke why fix it : :

[nothin suss]

Originally Posted by MRJUCY

Great news now we've just to hope they can sell some.

True, its all up to Management and Marketing now!

[Windsor220]

Does anyone know what the deal is with the V8 now?
Is there even going to be a v8 option?

[RG]

Originally Posted by bathurst77

Cant wait to see how the likes of Paul G(mh l)over and GM-Drive spin this.

Somehow they will show that this yet another nail in the coffin for ancient ailing inefficient Falcon and break through for Holden and their world class Commodore, surely?

Already hit him with an email regarding his "research"

He said a lot of things at the start of this week in an email to me that have just been dispelled today.

How embarrassing, clown :

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by XWGT

Now waiting for Paul Glovers editorial to herald the investment in the local product................

Dont hold your breath, unless Holden has some involvement it will get a small two column article that will mention Holden 15 times and will hint at Ford shutting down.

Hopefully they get DI happening it would be more beneficial then an alloy block. I'm so happy about the I6 living on, I know there was talk of this, but its still a shock like when it was dropped.

Are there any other cars out there in Fords arsenal that can take the I6 motor?

As for Goreman he was a fool that should never have run the company, he never looked into the future and thought of the direction FoAAP should be going. He is terrible and is a blight on Ford as a company in general.

V8's....I dont know the way they're selling I can see it getting dropped. But then again if the R&D has been done then importing the engine may be alright.

[TurboUteris]

HIPHOOREY At last some common sense.

Long live the Ford Inline 6.



: : : : : : : :

[fou_bleu]

WOO!!! The Barra lives for ever more!!! (I hope! ) Maybe some other ideas other than DI & new materials could be well worth the investment? (Hybrid anyone with a smaller version - 3.0l perhaps + battery out back). I'm not the most technically minded but something like a 3.0l Barra [turbo]diesel could be a possible path.

I think the [anchor] V6 is some Ford products could be dropped & replaced with the new & improved Barra I6 (think Taurus, Fusion, Milan [Mercury], MKZ/MKS [Lincoln] etc.). Though maybe keep the new EcoBoost engines... V8-wise - I think the new 6.2l still under development would be a worthy replacement for the [well loved by enthusiasts, but] underrated BOSS...

PS: If they could make a smaller 3.0l Barra - what about a Barra powered Mondeo - or even better - a turbo diesel Barra-powered Mondeo?! :P (now I'm dreaming!!! :( ).

[uranium_death]

Originally Posted by bathurst77

Cant wait to see how the likes of Paul G(mh l)over and GM-Drive spin this.

Somehow they will show that this yet another nail in the coffin for ancient ailing inefficient Falcon and break through for Holden and their world class Commodore, surely?

Originally Posted by Potential Report

FORD UNABLE TO COMMIT TO U.S-ENGINE
By Paul Gover

As another sign of Ford's financial struggles, Ford Australia has backflipped on its plans to discontinue their locally built inline-six engine and import a V6 engine from the U.S.

Doubts continue to surface on the viability of the Falcon, as it struggles for sales in its segment.

Now, Gover will never say how superior the FG may be, will never say that Ford supports Australia a hell of a lot, and will never mention how Holden isn't exactly looking safe.

While some articles in Carsguide are okay, some of them just get on my nerves.

[phillyc]

This is great news. Great news all round. Shame I didn't see a single thing on TV news tonight...

[Gobes32]

There has been a few crazy statements made so will try my best to explain the facts without giving too much away.

$22 million to develop I6 and convert to Euro 4. No mention of whats involved to do so.

Falcon to stay in Australia until we stop buying it. Then the engine plant shuts down too, but not all manufacturing operations in Australia.

Pretty sure the diesel option was the V6 motor thats now just a memory. Problem is that its expensive to buy motors off other manufacturers now because of low dollar.

No word on DI etc but was told that alternative fuels are now a priority.

Focus still on track and with the falling dollar all of a sudden we are looking good for Fiesta as well ( Fiesta just a rumor at the moment )

Whispers abound that the I6 can be turned into a diesel option with some slight engineering changes that were not possible until todays cash injection?

[Lukeyson]

that is top news !
very excited when i heard that today, thought it would give Ford some good press, and prove how aussie they really are.
Well done