Do ford market the falcon well!

[FgNewbie]

Originally Posted by jpd80

The vast majority of Falcon fans don't buy new ones and forbid discussion of it ever changing.

So what is Ford to do........

Improve after sales service or have less issues.
They are the reasons that will stop me from buying another new one.

I'm willing to ignore some things but I'm particularly disgusted they can still deliver a car where rust appears within weeks of delivery.

In terms of service, even with dud dealers, I found Ford to be more co-operative & helpful in the days of RJV. Maybe it was the era opposed to the structure.

[SEZ213]

Originally Posted by MY270

Holden VE Commodore: cool and fun, looks smart, touchscreens

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hcL4SGSQ2k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXlKcwDaUd8

FPV FG (the only ad I've seen recently): volume controls and old people?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDtyls4nDUg

Yeah that's gold, they harp on about FE3 suspension...fine print says only available in Sedan...so no sportswagon or ute...

Second one the reversing cameras are only standard for CalaisV & SS-V, all others you pay for...high end only...hrmmm...

It seems they focus on the fact that people don't read commercials, they just listen to them.

They use a woman with dulcet tones to put the listener at ease, it sounds believable...a little too good to be true, and then you read the fine print...and it is...

Originally Posted by jpd80

The vast majority of Falcon fans don't buy new ones and forbid discussion of it ever changing.

So what is Ford to do........

This...Truer words have not been typed yet...

It's fine to say 'If they have an xr8 I'll get one...' the XR6T is a far better vehicle performance wise...but for some reason...there's always an excuse not to buy a Falcon...

Originally Posted by FgNewbie

Improve after sales service or have less issues.
They are the reasons that will stop me from buying another new one.

I'm willing to ignore some things but I'm particularly disgusted they can still deliver a car where rust appears within weeks of delivery.

In terms of service, even with dud dealers, I found Ford to be more co-operative & helpful in the days of RJV. Maybe it was the era opposed to the structure.

And this...After Sales Service at many dealers is still exceptional. There are some fantastic dealers out there - if you really want a Falcon...they're not hard to find, in fact, some are sponsors of this site.

[G6E Turbo 2]

NO !!!!

And the after sales service from a sales perspective is poor

[Ford_The_Win]

We recently had a terrible experience with a Mitsubishi dealership and were completely snubbed by the Toyota salesmen who didn't want to talk to us...so it's an industry-wide issue, not just restricted to Ford.

[Yellow_Festiva]

No, not at all.

I hardly watch TV at home. It just doesn't interest me. Every weekend I visit either the in-laws or my olds. During that time I watch some TV.

I know that the i30 has a sale at the moment. $18,990 or there abouts with $500 free something or other. apparently people are buying these cars because we are all 'feeling the pinch' and want more for our money.

Hyundai Santa Fe has free automatic as well apparently.

The Getz has a deal, 5dr for the price of 3 dr.

Kia Cerato is on sale. The add also mentions a heap of other cars what are 'best sellers' with a 5yr warranty.

Suzuki swift is on sale.

Honda has a new Jazz.

Holden Cruze is now the only Australian small car for under 20k drive away.

Just seen an add with a red Corolla driving around.....

Another manufacturer (Mitsubishi??) is offering extras as well as capped price servicing.

I can't remember the last time I have seen Ford advertise ANYTHING.

I have no clue they have a new, high tech 5L engine that puts out more grunt than the other 6.XXL big car.

I have no clue that a new Focus is just around the corner, if not here already.

I have no clue that the Fiesta Econetic is STILL Australians lowest consumption vehicle (bit of advertising at launch, but that's it).

Well, in fact, I do. But that's because I'm a member of this site, and I like to keep tabs on what Ford has to offer.

My God.... What the hell is Ford Marketing doing??? They all need to be sacked and they need to hire a marketing company with proven results.

Who remembers the Falcon V8 targeting female corporate types in one of their adds several years ago?? how many sales did that create??

If you think it can't be done, look at what happened in the US when 'Old Spice' changed it's tune and took a different approach to marketing it's product (they used that ((retired?)) Grid-Iron player).... Google it

Diesel way too late, in both Tezza and Falcon. Pricing needs to be more competitive (for smaller - mid sized cars), cars need to be better optioned, longer warranty (5yrs is now the benchmark) and better after-sales service to ensure customers keep returning to a Ford dealership (fixed / capped servicing???).. Products that are as good or better than the competition and no advertising to promote them...

The competition is doing it... and some brands are doing very well it seems.... why can't Ford??

[FgNewbie]

Originally Posted by Sezzy

And this...After Sales Service at many dealers is still exceptional. There are some fantastic dealers out there - if you really want a Falcon...they're not hard to find, in fact, some are sponsors of this site.

Over 30+ years of owning Fords I've been to enough service depts & had my share of fighting the system. One service dept was absolutely BRILLIANT for many years until staff changed. I stand by my comment which doesn't refer to site sponsors which are not within reasonable distance

As for the dealership that I bought my car from, it appears they have put my rust (seen after delivery) in the too hard basket. Life goes on.

[In Focus]

Short short U.S. ads for new Focus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHBmjFSLADY

Effective?

[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.

[kaniSS]

Best ad they ever did was the one here they had the Ego G6ET driving through the empty city and over a bridge. The car looked amazing. Looked classy and made you take notice.

Now you have **** ads that show, crap colour combinations, crap music, no colour ICC screens..nothing.

[Whitey-AMG]

Originally Posted by mik

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.

Most mid sized sedans now have 5 star crash safety.
The new family dynamic seems more and more to be the Mid sized SUV complimented by the small to mid sized 4 cylinder in the driveway.

Sure there will always be families / couples that only have 1 car and there needs may lean towards the big Falc / Commodore as their 1 and only car.....but I reckon they are becoming more and more the exception rather than the rule. FORD's bread and butter is the RULE and not the exception, hence they are struggling to move large numbers of the Falcon variants. I don't think any form of advertising will help them.....people are voting with their wallets and unfortunately - there's not much going the way of the Falcon.

It will be interesting to see how the new Territory models with the diesel option are marketed and what the uptake on that will be. I wonder if FORD have mis timed this as well ???? There's plenty of competition from Hyundai and KIA in this segment, so if they get this wrong as well........the Falc will have plenty of company in the Broadmeadows staging LOT.......if there's any room left to store the additional TERRI's ??

Basically......FORD OZ are trying to market an OLD Style NOKIA Brick phone in a world full of iPhones and ANDROID smart phones. It leaves me wondering what cars FPV will have at their disposal in 10 years time ?
HSV have been toying with the idea of a locally developed HSV / CRUZE variant.......

[Dave_au]

You can lead a horse to water - but you can't make it drink. You can also flog a dead horse. And that is exactly what large cars are becoming in Australia.

Ford could spend millions advertising the Falcon, but I doubt the expenditure in advertising would result in serious gains in sales, simply the cost would outweigh the benefits.

[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.

[stang65]

Watching big bang theory today and they had acoomercial with an xr6 ute with 6 speed auto for $32990. Nice commercial too. Guy driving with his cute missus( unlike holden she had all her teeth.... bwahahaha only joking)

[Dave_au]

Originally Posted by redman

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.

Yeah but your Falcon will depreciate a lot more too - at a whopping 60% over three years, which actually makes it (when depreciation is included) one of the most expensive standard cars to own.

[SumoDog68]

Originally Posted by EF_6

So true jpd.... And so many others overlook the versatility of the Falcon... Good power/torque figures, all the mod cons, locally made, great towing capacity, the first aussie built 5 star safety and now, EcoLPG with great economy too.... A great 'all round' long lasting package.
They need to sell these exact features..

Sedan body shape is the least versatile of all car body shapes. I would love a Falcon wagon. Everytime wagon gets mentioned some try and justify its non exsistance. Or someting like Subaru Outback 4wd Falcon diesel , maybe a Falcon coupe like a Monaro . I know there is are no $$$ for development of these. Some of the best cars came from limited development budgets.
Smaller production numbers of niche vehicles instead trying old rwd tow car bussines case...

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by SumoDog68

maybe a Falcon coupe like a Monaro...Smaller production numbers of niche vehicles instead trying old rwd tow car bussines case...

Yep and no one would buy them just like the Monaro and the last Falcon coupe. Sure fire way to lose money and make FoA's fortunes take a turn for the worse.

They need to make the Falcon more relevant than it is now and the only way they can do that is with a styling, feature and powertrain update to bring it up to spec with consumer expectations. Like it or not, Ford are stuck with the E8/Orion/FG platform until 2015 or 2016 so they can't just radically change the game plan this far into the deal.

[jpd80]

One could argue that the SS Holden Ute with IRS is actually a cheap Monaro with a big boot....

[mrbaxr6t]

Originally Posted by jpd80

One could argue that the SS Holden Ute with IRS is actually a cheap Monaro with a big boot....

[ltd]

Ford won't advertise falcon until something happens in the model line up such as, the ecoLPI engine, the new territory officially goes on sale, the FG2 etc. Whilst I tend to agree that the ads aren't that strong, they do however lack the bogan factor which tends to plague the opposition. Further, has anyone seen Toyota flogging the camry or even the hybrid camry lately? In mid model life cycles less is spent on advertising and tends only to ramp up around the time of model replacement.

Ford should target the Australian-ness of its product; the fact that onesteel supply the sheetmetal yet Holden sheets come from Korea; the fact that the 6 cylinder engine is cast here and not overseas, manufactured here from Australian parts for Australian jobs where Holden's is only assembled here from imported bits; the fact the plastics for falcon are made here and not overseas like the opposition etc etc.
With whats happening around the world the populace is getting rather parochial especially given what's happening in the local political sphere; more patriotic than ever in spite of governmental stupidity. It may just become a USP for ford.

[Whitey-AMG]

Originally Posted by ltd

Ford should target the Australian-ness of its product; the fact that onesteel supply the sheetmetal yet Holden sheets come from Korea; the fact that the 6 cylinder engine is cast here and not overseas, manufactured here from Australian parts for Australian jobs where Holden's is only assembled here from imported bits; the fact the plastics for falcon are made here and not overseas like the opposition etc etc.
With whats happening around the world the populace is getting rather parochial especially given what's happening in the local political sphere; more patriotic than ever in spite of governmental stupidity. It may just become a USP for ford.

I don't think we are that parochial anymore........everyone is out to get the best deal / best car for their individual circumstance. There is waaaaaaaay too much choice out there at the moment for people to ignore in favour of being kind to FORD because they manufacture Falcon dashboards in Australia.

The only advertising that may save the Falc at the moment is $29990 Drive away for a new XR6 with all the trimmings.

[jed]

all this talk of depreciation , bad service blah blah blah

i drive a lot of k's and it was simple for me , the G6 kicked commodores butt in comfort and power ....

i drove a commode international sportswagon , sedan and a berlina sedan up hill down dale round corner etc etc

i only drove the G6 500 metres and i was sold

quality

[jpd80]

The bigger problem seems to be that Ford has gotten out of step with fleet customers and since
they account for around 75% of Falcon sales, Ford had better get back in step quickly with EcoLPI.

Ford built all those base XR6s to sell to fleets who really wanted LPG cars, now Ford is stuck with them.
What they should be doing is offering killer deals to leasing firms to clear the backlog.

[jed]

i agree , i went to get an xr6 but didnt like them compared to the G6 LE

same 195kw but much more comfy

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by ltd

the fact that onesteel supply the sheetmetal yet Holden sheets come from Korea

Is this true??

Originally Posted by jpd80

The bigger problem seems to be that Ford has gotten out of step with fleet customers and since
they account for around 75% of Falcon sales, Ford had better get back in step quickly with EcoLPI.

Ford built all those base XR6s to sell to fleets who really wanted LPG cars, now Ford is stuck with them.
What they should be doing is offering killer deals to leasing firms to clear the backlog.

I'm betting that those XR6's were for hire car fleets who have decided to hang onto their existing stock for a little while longer due to tourism downturns in QLD etc - surely the bottom line would have been hit for the car rental mob which means they can't cycle their fleet as often as they usually do.

[burnz]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

Is this true??

no holdens rolled steel comes from bhp billiton

[ltd]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

Is this true??

According to Ross Smith from Onesteel yes. My father owns a metal business and I often visit his workplace when I'm not working and have known Ross for around 20 years. He told me directly that Ford still use Onesteel, Holden recently (last 2 years) started getting their metal from Korea.

[burnz]

bhp's hastings plant..
http://www.bluescopesteel.com.au/fil...tember2008.pdf

holden toyota and ford..

[stevz]

the fact the plastics for falcon are made here and not overseas like the opposition etc etc.

This is also false. Holden have their own plastics facility and produce most of their plastics in-house. As for the steel I would prefer to see proof from a reliable source rather than hearsay from somebody's father's mate's brother who works at onesteel etc etc.

[redman]

Originally Posted by burnz

bhp's hastings plant..
http://www.bluescopesteel.com.au/fil...tember2008.pdf

holden toyota and ford..

That article is dated September, 2008. It specifically mentions stamped steel components produced by Precision Components Australia.

There is no mention at all about the steel used for the panels of Ford, Holden or Toyota.