Do ford market the falcon well!

[MexicanBatman]

How about a marketing campaign saying how it's the most Aussie car, as far as I know there is more local content in the falcon than the commodore and aurion, and it has a history dating back over 50 years, buy a new falcon a piece of Australian History...

I hope the new gas falcon gets back the big fleets that have gone to crappy diesels due to them being more environmentally friendly and green and cheaper to run and just plain crap!

[xisled]

Originally Posted by MexicanBatman

How about a marketing campaign saying how it's the most Aussie car, as far as I know there is more local content in the falcon than the commodore and aurion, and it has a history dating back over 50 years, buy a new falcon a piece of Australian History...

I hope the new gas falcon gets back the big fleets that have gone to crappy diesels due to them being more environmentally friendly and green and cheaper to run and just plain crap!

Everyone says I wanna support Australian products and such, but the end of the day it comes down to the dollar. If something is going to be cheaper to buy and cheaper to run, people will choose it over the more expensive item, even tho the item may be made in Australia.

End of the day you can pick up a small 4 cylinder car that has better features and runs cheaper than a Falcon for nearly half the price.

[trippytaka]

One of the biggest problems I would say is the Taxi fleet deals... at the end of the day people do not want to drive a car perceived by others as a taxi.

[stevz]

Originally Posted by trippytaka

One of the biggest problems I would say is the Taxi fleet deals... at the end of the day people do not want to drive a car perceived by others as a taxi.

Ford do not do taxis and haven't done so for a long time. The majority of taxis are purchased second hand at auction.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by trippytaka

One of the biggest problems I would say is the Taxi fleet deals... at the end of the day people do not want to drive a car perceived by others as a taxi.

Some taxi operators are switching to Camry hybrid and Prius as alternatives to LPG Falcons and Commodores.
I've asked a few drivers how they find the hybrids and most responses are quite positive.

[MexicanBatman]

Originally Posted by jpd80

Some taxi operators are switching to Camry hybrid and Prius as alternatives to LPG Falcons and Commodores.
I've asked a few drivers how they find the hybrids and most responses are quite positive.

I work at the airport and the trend isn't really taking off

I saw 6 G6E taxis this morning in less than 5 min, not to mention the other numerous FG's not bad for a car that's not offered in taxi pack anymore cos they outnumber everything now, really surprised as Holden offer LPG on the commodore yet it's about 1 in 10 the Commodore to ford ratio

[kpcart]

these days, a 4 cyl is more sensible then a 6 or v8, so more people buy them. in the old days (80s and 90s) a 4cyl car was too underpowered for many, and petrol prices were cheaper, but now 4 cyl engines are super efficient, relatively powerful, and mated to good gearboxes, so the cars often feel zippier in city driving then big cars. they are easy cars to drive, and and have great spacing inside now, not like in the 70s and 80s, and have great styling and dont look like huge barges. also how many people actually drive with 5 people in the car? that extra space in big cars is hardly ever needed, and the smaller car is just as comfortable to 95% of people as a bigger spaced car. so the only reason not to buy a 4cyl car these days is if you want extra power, or if you just like the look of a big car.
4 cyl cars are powerful enough for street legal commuting, and are often faster then v8s from previous years. and people dont care about the extra performance of a 6 or v8, which they could never use to any practicle effect on public roads, as no road car is as fast as a race car anyway and there is no sense in racing ANY car on public roads. the bogan mentality of owning a "muscle" car has diminished over the years, as you just look like a fool if you floor it from the lights on a 60kmh road and chew up all your petrol (money) just to be alongside a less powerful car you just outdragged... at the next lights (while the other car wasnt even dragging). Ofcourse there are "Motoring enthusiasts" and they will want the extra power, and there will always be options to buy powerful cars, but one of those options might not be a falcon, because Ford doesnt know how to market it. They really are stupid, a billion dollar company, how hard is it to copy Holden with their marketting, do ford want to make money or not?

[jpd80]

"Don't look backwards unless you intend going that way...."

With rising fuel costs and the need for increased efficiency, the new driving
force in vehicle design will be efficient use of space and power trains.

Efficient but much larger small cars are displacing traditional mid sized cars
while large midsized cars are pressuring large cars into a position they cannot win.
I believe it's only a matter of time until our Holden and Ford realise they have to change,
buyers will make them do so.

[aussie muscle]

Originally Posted by jpd80

"Don't look backwards unless you intend going that way...."
.

wow, you should put that on a t-shirt!!

seriously, what do you guys think of the 'heart and head' campaign?

[redman]

I was going to follow the general consensus and say "no", but then I had a few second or even third thoughts.

Ford have managed to market the Falcon to me at the times I have been ready to acquire a vehicle. That resulted in an ED manual Futura, and EL manual Futura, an AU II manual XR6 and an eGas G6. The missing Falcon between the AU and the FG ended up being a 7-seat TS RWD Territory as we needed to fit six bums in the car for some trips and the Falcon couldn't do it.

My need for a larger car is now well and truly past, but the eGas FG delivers 500+km for under $45. Those km include plenty of full throttle stuff with an 'antiquated' 4 speed auto (same as was in the Terry) that still delivers plenty of pleasure. Try that in a 7l/100km 4 pot, assuming it has a tank capable of a 500km range. At current prices, the 4 pot will cost more at the fuel pump than my full sized, trailer towing, smaller turning circle, Australia only Ford.

I am really looking forward to October when the current G6 gets retired, as by then there should be some very interesting merketing on the Eco LPI replacement.

I can understand why Ford's marketing department is being a bit quiet on the Australian made stuff, but I expect it to ramp up when the Diseasel Terry hits the show-rooms and should hit max when the 200 killer wasp 400+nm ecoLPI miser machine hits the market - and that is regardless of the FG2 update.

[mik]

Originally Posted by kpcart

these days, a 4 cyl is more sensible then a 6 or v8, so more people buy them. in the old days (80s and 90s) a 4cyl car was too underpowered for many, and petrol prices were cheaper, but now 4 cyl engines are super efficient, relatively powerful, and mated to good gearboxes, so the cars often feel zippier in city driving then big cars. they are easy cars to drive, and and have great spacing inside now, not like in the 70s and 80s, and have great styling and dont look like huge barges. also how many people actually drive with 5 people in the car? that extra space in big cars is hardly ever needed, and the smaller car is just as comfortable to 95% of people as a bigger spaced car. so the only reason not to buy a 4cyl car these days is if you want extra power, or if you just like the look of a big car.
4 cyl cars are powerful enough for street legal commuting, and are often faster then v8s from previous years. and people dont care about the extra performance of a 6 or v8, which they could never use to any practicle effect on public roads, as no road car is as fast as a race car anyway and there is no sense in racing ANY car on public roads. the bogan mentality of owning a "muscle" car has diminished over the years, as you just look like a fool if you floor it from the lights on a 60kmh road and chew up all your petrol (money) just to be alongside a less powerful car you just outdragged... at the next lights (while the other car wasnt even dragging). Ofcourse there are "Motoring enthusiasts" and they will want the extra power, and there will always be options to buy powerful cars, but one of those options might not be a falcon, because Ford doesnt know how to market it. They really are stupid, a billion dollar company, how hard is it to copy Holden with their marketting, do ford want to make money or not?

its only more sensible if it suits your needs, some of us would`nt trade the luxury of a big car for a shoe box any time soon, but to each his own, you talk up the performance of small cars these days, yet a person is a bogan for having a high performance large car? no doubt smaller cars are very good but they are not an all purpose family cruiser like a bigger car, or grand tourers and never will be.

[Whitey-AMG]

Originally Posted by mik

its only more sensible if it suits your needs, some of us would`nt trade the luxury of a big car for a shoe box any time soon, but to each his own, you talk up the performance of small cars these days, yet a person is a bogan for having a high performance large car? no doubt smaller cars are very good but they are not an all purpose family cruiser like a bigger car, or grand tourers and never will be.

Having both a modified BFGT to drive around in and a brand new SUZUKI Kizashi XLS for cruising as well.........I can categorically tell you that the KIZASHI drives beautifully and "cruises" on the open road just as well. Having 4 people in our family - comfort and space is always a priority as we cruise quite a bit on the weekends to all sorts of places from Heallesville - Yarra valley to Ballarat / Geelong to Apollo Bay on the Western Coast of Vic along the Great Ocean Road. The KIZASHI does it with ease and with comfort.......all the while sipping less than 7 lites per 100K on the highway and less than 9 in Heavy stand still traffic. The harshest critics in the world.....the kids in the backseats love it.....we've also had 2 full sized adults in the back on a long 2 hour trip and the compliments on the car and its comfort factor were the same.

Sure it doesn't have the neck snapping ability of the GT....but as a family tourer...it doesn't need to and I've got no qualms about driving it. And that's the crux of it.....most suburban families will get by with the newer generation of small / mid sized 4 cylinder cars.....easy. The ones that don't will go and buy mid sized SUV's......they aint lining up at the FORD dealers to buy a Falcon unfortunately.

You've only got to look at the uptake of cars like the CRUZE , ACCORD , MAZDA 6 to categorically know that there has been a quantum shift in people's perception of the "family" car......everyone is moving on......FORD should to if they are going to get through to the next decade.

*** P.S. No amount of crappy FORD 2 fingers walking around advertising would have swayed my decision anyways ***

[mik]

Originally Posted by ESP

Having both a modified BFGT to drive around in and a brand new SUZUKI Kizashi XLS for cruising as well.........I can categorically tell you that the KIZASHI drives beautifully and "cruises" on the open road just as well. Having 4 people in our family - comfort and space is always a priority as we cruise quite a bit on the weekends to all sorts of places from Heallesville - Yarra valley to Ballarat / Geelong to Apollo Bay on the Western Coast of Vic along the Great Ocean Road. The KIZASHI does it with ease and with comfort.......all the while sipping less than 7 lites per 100K on the highway and less than 9 in Heavy stand still traffic. The harshest critics in the world.....the kids in the backseats love it.....we've also had 2 full sized adults in the back on a long 2 hour trip and the compliments on the car and its comfort factor were the same.

Sure it doesn't have the neck snapping ability of the GT....but as a family tourer...it doesn't need to and I've got no qualms about driving it. And that's the crux of it.....most suburban families will get by with the newer generation of small / mid sized 4 cylinder cars.....easy. The ones that don't will go and buy mid sized SUV's......they aint lining up at the FORD dealers to buy a Falcon unfortunately.

You've only got to look at the uptake of cars like the CRUZE , ACCORD , MAZDA 6 to categorically know that there has been a quantum shift in people's perception of the "family" car......everyone is moving on......FORD should to if they are going to get through to the next decade.

*** P.S. No amount of crappy FORD 2 fingers walking around advertising would have swayed my decision anyways ***

i fully agree with the crappy 2 fingers add, and i don`t dispute what you say , its horses for courses, but for some of us with needs of a one car does all, the suzuki or the cruze would not do the job, wanna throw a decent size van on back with large bodied family members in and gear and head interstate for the holidays, the medium sizers might do it but it would be marginal at best i think, i still tow cars on a tandem now and again, also the extra sheet metal of a big car is a nice feeling, having been hit up the kyber by a loaded bedford van at 60 kph in a falcon some years ago, i`m fairly convinced he would have been in the back seat in a smaller car, all i got out of it was a stiff neck, its a pity they don`t advertise the crash safety aspect a bit more.

[GT072065]

Stay Tuned...a Couple Of Big Announcements By Ford In June. Things Are On Hold Till Then.

[Ford Falcon XR6]

I belive that Ford are artfically not advertising as a good excuse to bring in the taurus due to the sales slump of the Falcon. The few Falcon ad's i've seen in the past few years have been complete rubish just stating the price and maybe the saftey rating THAT'S IT. IMO if Ford hammered away on ad's for the Falcon the way Holden do for the commodore the sales of the Falcon would be close to the Commodore or at least much better then they currently are.

[FgNewbie]

The big plot: run Ford Australia into the ground. Australia should be seen and not heard.

Marketing will help but word of mouth advertising poor customer service and "that's normal mate" travels even faster. If you read some threads, it appears Ford doesn't mind alienating it's loyal customer base. (They'd have to be loyal to buy, there is no advertising to attract anyone else). Some of the 'true blue' buyers jumping ship are possibly responsible for fleet purchases too... I know 2 that are.

No matter, "that's normal mate".
/waffle

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by FgNewbie

The big plot: run Ford Australia into the ground. Australia should be seen and not heard.

Rubbish, if anything FoA is getting a bigger say than many other regions.

Originally Posted by ebxr8240

Would it have been different if the V6 was installed ???
The front styling would be different etc...
IMO they are TOO SLOW to change...
Diesel etc should have been out two years ago !!!

The work was well under way but with the low body line, the V6 would have needed a bonnet bulge...
It was also a much wider engine than the V8 requiring work on the inner spring aprons to make it fit.

[FgNewbie]

Originally Posted by jpd80

Rubbish, if anything FoA is getting a bigger say than many other regions.

Relax, it was tongue in cheek (ie the plot was)

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by FgNewbie

Relax, it was tongue in cheek

I need some alcohol.......

[stevz]

I just saw a Falcon ad on tv and they are still harping on about bluetooth and ipod integration. FFS, just about every new car on the market has these features, even base model Hyundais. It's not that big a deal!

[mik]

Originally Posted by stevz

I just saw a Falcon ad on tv and they are still harping on about bluetooth and ipod integration. FFS, just about every new car on the market has these features, even base model Hyundais. It's not that big a deal!

it might not be a big deal but a lot of people seem attracted to this stuff, other companies advertise it why not ford.

[FgNewbie]

Originally Posted by mik

it might not be a big deal but a lot of people seem attracted to this stuff, other companies advertise it why not ford.

especially when they work without issue

[ebxr8240]

Originally Posted by jpd80

Rubbish, if anything FoA is getting a bigger say than many other regions.


The work was well under way but with the low body line, the V6 would have needed a bonnet bulge...
It was also a much wider engine than the V8 requiring work on the inner spring aprons to make it fit.

Excuses !!!
They ARE a car manufacturing company aren't they ???
Sheesh !!!
The same body has the Boss in it !!!

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by ebxr8240

Excuses !!!
They ARE a car manufacturing company aren't they ???
Sheesh !!!
The same body has the Boss in it !!!

Just what I've been told by people who actually worked on the cars,
there's a lot more work in it than the guess so think so artists say....

[ebxr8240]

Would it have been different if the V6 was installed ???
The front styling would be different etc...
IMO they are TOO SLOW to change...
Diesel etc should have been out two years ago !!!

[xisled]

Yer i seen a few minutes ago an add about the xr6.

[DJM83]

Not only advertising, but the quality it one of the big things missing then it falls into the after sales service which is also poor.

[Road_Warrior]

One of the key issues is that they are too slow to change their products to meet the changing market. Obviously Dearborn limits how much they can spend and where, which for a regional-only product is a bit of an issue when consumers are buying vehicles which are made for global markets and incorporate features that 'foreign' car makers can quickly implement because they are feeding globals markets and can amortise the costs of implementing those features relatively quickly.

The local market seems to have changed quite rapidly over the past 2-3 years, we know the large car segment has been in decline for the past 10-12 years however recently it appears to have been accelerated and Ford has been caught flat footed. I know Ecoboost is coming but in all honesty it should already be here. I'd like to know what product planning have been up to for the past 3 years because to leave the Falcon basically unchanged for the past 3 years in the face of such an acute market shift is product suicide.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

One of the key issues is that they are too slow to change their products to meet the changing market. Obviously Dearborn limits how much they can spend and where, which for a regional-only product is a bit of an issue when consumers are buying vehicles which are made for global markets and incorporate features that 'foreign' car makers can quickly implement because they are feeding globals markets and can amortise the costs of implementing those features relatively quickly.

The local market seems to have changed quite rapidly over the past 2-3 years, we know the large car segment has been in decline for the past 10-12 years however recently it appears to have been accelerated and Ford has been caught flat footed. I know Ecoboost is coming but in all honesty it should already be here. I'd like to know what product planning have been up to for the past 3 years because to leave the Falcon basically unchanged for the past 3 years in the face of such an acute market shift is product suicide.

A lot of the XR6s built and left languishing at Broadmeadows were actually built for fleet users
and novated lease sales but it looks like that market has dried right up as fleet managers
seek best possible deals on fully maintained leases.

With only at best 25% of Falcon sales going to private buyers, it doesn't
take Einstein to work out that the XR6s sitting at Broady have been built
with the wrong options that are desired by private buyers, this is where
Ford is really in a pickle convincing different groups to buy basically
unwanted cars. They will sell them, all of them eventually but it is going
to be a very bitter pill that has to be taken before FG II can be started....

[GASWAGON]

ESP is SPOT ON...... And the EcoLPi is there best move for years.... They'd better make the most of it.... And who's going to buy any of the 3000 petrol units sitting around within the next month when they know the new lpg model is coming??? Market the EcoLpi as having 4cyl. economy with 6 cyl. power and it might just work???