Dick Johnson's Plan to save the Falcon

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THE Falcon's most famous driver, Dick Johnson, believes Ford needs an export strategy to rescue the Aussie car from the scrapheap.

As Ford this week announced plans to axe 440 jobs from its two Victorian plants and throw the future of the Falcon into jeopardy, the legendary five-time Australian Touring Car champion and three-time Bathurst winner has come out in support of the family car and the company.

"Certainly from our perspective it would be a shame to see the Falcon disappear off the face of the earth," the Queenslander said.

"Surely there is still a market for people who enjoy the luxury of a car with a lot of room."

Mr Johnson said the problem was the lack of an export market. "Where Holden have a slight advantage over Ford is they have an overseas export market, which keeps production numbers up," he said.


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"That's the problem. They need an export strategy."

Ford will reduce daily production from 209 to 148 vehicles in response to an industry-wide slump in large car sales, despite a $103 million funding package Ford received from its US parent company, and the Victorian and Federal governments in January.

The package was aimed at securing the manufacture of the Falcon and Territory SUV at Geelong and Broadmeadows until at least the end of 2016.

Industry analysts predict the Falcon will be axed at the end of that period.

Unions say they had expected redundancies amid a decline in large-car sales, but workers were shocked when Ford announced so many jobs would go.

" Nowhere near that amount was expected," Australian Manufacturing Workers Union assistant state secretary Leigh Diehm said yesterday.

Union officials met Ford yesterday in a late bid to stem the number of job losses.
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