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Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6
For some reason, Ford opted to skip the E-Series generation with the Falcon Ute and Van. From memory, the painful teething issues that the EA brought had Ford apprehensive about tainting the reliability reputation of Falcon Ute and Van. How true that is I don't really know. Another angle would be they ran out of money fixing quality and production line problems, the cheap solution being to just facelift and update the XF and be done with it.
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I have some knowledge here.
EA26 Program (EA Falcon) did not have Ute/van included because they had much lower margins than passenger vehicles (from having to partly compete with cheap one-tonners like Hilux etc), which combined with high investment required for the unique stamping, meant they weren’t financially justified. The decision was made to carryover the XD platform and phase out over time. Besides, even back then, the EA platform was probably going to be the last Falcon.
Exactly the same was true of the EA169 (AU Falcon) and the program was originally approved without a Ute/van. The plan was to continue facelifting the XD platform/XH. However, it became apparent during the EA development process that this carryover was just too old and would not cut it in the market. At the same time, or because of it, the Ford Australia engineers came up with the concept of the separate-tray-ute which came with a much lower investment level, albeit without the ability to have a van. This made the Ute financially viable so it was added to the program. And that is why the Ute arrived about 9 months after the sedan.
Great thread DFB, and a great collection of photos. Thanks for sharing them. Do you have higher resolution versions that would be suitable for printing and framing? I’d like to add some of them to my garage walls.
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