F-Series

[Elks]

Just a thought I'd like to throw out there.

Why don;t we get the F-150 / F-250 Super duty here in Australia?

F-series were sold here in Oz from there introduction as F1 in the late fourties, with the last of the F's being F250's sold 2002/2003. When the dollar was at $0.60c

Now if you look at the prices that these bring $50K+ is the norm for a 10 year old 200,000km reasonably tidy unit. The price of used ones proves demand.

Now with an F250 King Ranch dual cab with 8 foot bed, 6.7 diesel, 6 speed auto, 4x4 hamburger with the lot costing RETAIL just under $60k and a 4x2 petrol other wise same back at just under $48k. Sure it would cost a bomb to to a RHD version, but add $20K, (the price of a Focus) to those RRP's and you would still have demand.

It would be in line with the One Ford policy, so why is this much loved for icon not on our shopping list? I know I'd get one.

Some gratuitous pics for you..







Discuss

[Franco Cozzo]

I don't see why they bothered with the money on the Ranger when its like 90% of the size of the F150 anyways, and these look a crap load better.

Though, I wouldn't want some half-*** approach like what the 2002-2006 F250s where, no glove box, old style US one, etc.

[TheZHLANE]

New f series look great.

[2011G6E]

How do I say this tactfully...?

Because they're a badly built, cheaply made, plasticky, poor handling great lump of crap?

There's a reason they spit them out at such a rate that they sell one every couple of minutes...they're built down to a price (and not to last), and it shows. In the USA, they're cheap and nasty work trucks, not the nicely equipped vehicles we are used to over here. Unless of course you option them up to buggery and shoot the price through the roof.

[XR Martin]

The ones we got were made in Brazil and they no longer make RHD ones.
The US factories dont have the capacity to be making a handful of RHD ones every few weeks.

Fairly simple really

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

The ones we got were made in Brazil and they no longer make RHD ones.
The US factories dont have the capacity to be making a handful of RHD ones every few weeks.

Fairly simple really

Thailand? Like the Fiesta, soon to be Focus, Ranger comes from there, etc.

[falconnut]

They are not suitable for our terrible roads, narrow and winding in nsw, can barely pass them in traffic, also lol @ the harley davidson logo in the last interior pic, really show you there target demographic.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by falconnut

They are not suitable for our terrible roads, narrow and winding in nsw, can barely pass them in traffic, also lol @ the harley davidson logo in the last interior pic, really show you there target demographic.

Theres like 20 ddifferent versions, there is a harley davidson one, a cabella's one etc.

[janddbone]

I have always wondered why they are not sold world wide as well. People say why is the F truck around, under One Ford, when we have the Ranger. I agree that it is the other way around, why is the Ranger around when we could have the F truck...

[Paull]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

How do I say this tactfully...?

Because they're a badly built, cheaply made, plasticky, poor handling great lump of crap?.

Sad but true.

[Unco]

this is why: http://youtu.be/0klZpwlgwOw

[Elks]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

How do I say this tactfully...?

Because they're a badly built, cheaply made, plasticky, poor handling great lump of crap?

Certainly true of the F250's last sold here, more commercial vehicle than passenger car, but the current range much less so.

Originally Posted by Big Damo

I don't see why they bothered with the money on the Ranger when its like 90% of the size of the F150 anyways, and these look a crap load better.

And there is my point, why not get FOA's highly talent engineering team to work on RHD and refinement for an existing platform.

Originally Posted by falconnut

also lol @ the harley davidson logo in the last interior pic, really show you there target demographic.

Ford, International Trucks & Harley Davidson all established in middle America in 1903. All cross promote.

[chevypower]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

How do I say this tactfully...?

Because they're a badly built, cheaply made, plasticky, poor handling great lump of crap?

There's a reason they spit them out at such a rate that they sell one every couple of minutes...they're built down to a price (and not to last), and it shows. In the USA, they're cheap and nasty work trucks, not the nicely equipped vehicles we are used to over here. Unless of course you option them up to buggery and shoot the price through the roof.

What a load of rott! Not nicely equipped? Did you skip the above pictures? Ever owned one? Driven one? Looked at the spec sheet?

Originally Posted by Elks

Certainly true of the F250's last sold here, more commercial vehicle than passenger car, but the current range much less so.

Yeah the Brazilian RHD versions were nothing special. Not bad, just nothing special. Some interior quality issues, but nothing to hurt the reliability.

[falconnut]

I personally love the F series but i am glad i only see the classics getting around.

Unless its a raptor i am not interested.

[TC200six]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

There's a reason they spit them out at such a rate that they sell one every couple of minutes...they're built down to a price (and not to last), and it shows. In the USA, they're cheap and nasty work trucks, not the nicely equipped vehicles we are used to over here. Unless of course you option them up to buggery and shoot the price through the roof.

It's not the first time you've expressed your views against the F-Series trucks on this forum. What experiences do have with F-Series trucks to back up your claim that they don't last? What goes wrong with them? I know of F-250s that were sold here in the early 2000s which are still going strong without any problems and worth much more than they were when new.

There's not a single part of the interior which has any chance of falling off unless you trying to break something. There's much more of a chance of finding a quality defect in an FG Falcon than with an F truck.

[falconnut]

...

http://www.hennesseyperformance.com/62raptor800.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5paA...eature=related

...

Want

[csv8]

The dash is way better than the RANGER dash...the F series, Explorer should be sold here...but never will...

[TheInterceptor]

Hi ill take an F350 Super Duty 4x4 and a Raptor thanks cheers.

[Mark351]

I saw an orange Raptor driving into Lara a few months ago, presumably coming from Product Engineering and out to the You Yangs. Looked awesome in the flesh!!

Love the classic effies, obviously

[falconnut]

Originally Posted by Mark351

I saw an orange Raptor driving into Lara a few months ago, presumably coming from Product Engineering and out to the You Yangs. Looked awesome in the flesh!!

Love the classic effies, obviously

Could somebody translate, my communicator is broken :p

[smoo]

My old boss has a 2010 F150 5.4, well equipped (G6E level) and according to him uses 2l/100km less than his old 4.6 Explorer (12l/100km highway), but I can't see a point to the F150 in this part of the world apart from novelty value, the frugal and nearly as capable Ranger does the job.
It would be good to see the F250/F350 bought here by Ford as an alternatice to the gutless, uncomfortable and unsafe Jap **** Canter/Hino 300/Isuzu N series.

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by Mark351

I saw an orange Raptor driving into Lara a few months ago, presumably coming from Product Engineering and out to the You Yangs. Looked awesome in the flesh!!

Love the classic effies, obviously

This one.


The obvious reason we don't get F series is no RHD. The reason they stopped getting them from Brazil like they did a few years ago, cause they stopped building them there.

Also because of the high sticker price means they are always going to sell in much smaller numbers compared to Ranger. Weren't the previous versions of the F series sold here like 80k+, double Ranger. And the huge size is always going to provide a limited appeal to city dwellers.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

This one.
image

The obvious reason we don't get F series is no RHD. The reason they stopped getting them from Brazil like they did a few years ago, cause they stopped building them there. Out where I live, the local fish and chip shop owner has a 2006 F250, one other has the latest model Silverado, and there are a heap of 90s Silverados and F150-F350 getting about and even then for their age they aren't cheap either in the $20K bracket for the old Silverado.

Also because of the high sticker price means they are always going to sell in much smaller numbers compared to Ranger. Weren't the previous versions of the F series sold here like 80k+, double Ranger. And the huge size is always going to provide a limited appeal to city dwellers.

I think the F250 started at around the mid $60K mark going by Redbook price when new. Why does the price have to be so high? The exchange rate is in our favor at the moment for imports, the initial engineering costs would be high, but if they produced them in Thailand like the Fiesta or soon to be LW Focus surely that would keep costs down?

Surely there would be some other RHD countries who would want something this big?

Lots of the city dwellers in Melbourne seem to have huge-*** SUVs/4X4s like shiny new Land Cruisers, they arent cheap either.

I fail to see why they spent so much time, effort and money on the new Ranger when they already had something only roughly 10% bigger and just as modern in the fleet, for the other countries they could have used the 3.2L 5 cyl diesel engine and the 2.2L 4 cylinder diesel engine in it for places like Europe etc.

[2011G6E]

It's still a vehicle built for an America that doesn't actually realise that vehicles don't need to be that big to be able to tow a load or go off road (not that many of them actually do that...), and that it isn't actually neccisary to burn more fuel than the space shuttle on take off just driving to the shops...and no, the quality just still isn't there when you compare it to what we can buy here.

* F150: 17mpg city, 23mpg highway
* Superduty: who knows? They cleverly class that sort of thing a "truck" in the states, a clever "out" the car makers use over there whereby they don't have to conform to emissions regulations or report fuel economy...in fact safety regulations that cars have to meet don't usually apply either...

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

It's still a vehicle built for an America that doesn't actually realise that vehicles don't need to be that big to be able to tow a load or go off road (not that many of them actually do that...), and that it isn't actually neccisary to burn more fuel than the space shuttle on take off just driving to the shops...and no, the quality just still isn't there when you compare it to what we can buy here.

* F150: 17mpg city, 23mpg highway
* Superduty: who knows? They cleverly class that sort of thing a "truck" in the states, a clever "out" the car makers use over there whereby they don't have to conform to emissions regulations or report fuel economy...in fact safety regulations that cars have to meet don't usually apply either...

Last time I checked the FG Falcon wasn't too flash when I was considering buying one, went to open the bonnet and the latch broke off and fell into my hand in one case, or the seat thats too high and the steering column won't adjust up enough, or the crap stereo which my WS Fiesta, a car half the price, beats very easily on sound quality, or the abundance of hard plastics everywhere. Not my experience but the others here needing replacement diff bushes, etc.

How about the previous model Territory with its sharp edges behind the trims which will slice up hands when you try to run wires through it, I'm talking about near where the pre-tensioners sit.

My LV Focus, with its rattles, or the battery which dropped a cell in less than 20,000km needing to be replaced which left me on the side of the road, or the drivers seat which creaks and cracks as you change gears, or the out of round tyres my original LV Focus came out of the factory with which would shake the crap out of the steering wheel at 100km/h.

Or my WS Fiesta, with the stereo which acts up, saying track 2134897324586/13 when you change from FM to CD, or doesn't turn on when you start the car every now and again, or it won't display the radio station when you change from one of Melbourne's major stations to local radio. The rattle it has from behind the cluster is annoying too.

Thats my personal experience with Ford, I've worked on Territories (not the latest model though) and I've owned two LV TDCI Focus' (one I totalled in an accident) and a WS Fiesta, all of which I bought new.

Have you even been inside the latest F series? I've been in the 2002-2006 AUDM versions and they are total junk compared to the new ones, they didn't even have glove boxes and the dual cab 7.3L ones still seem to sell for $50K+ on the second hand market, or the 4.2L boat anchor TD6 single cab base model for like $30K+ with 300,000km on the clock.

[tolzero]

I like the F series from the USA, it appeals to me in a manly sort of way. Could I park it in my street in the Melbourne CBD, NO. Can I afford the Fuel bill, YES would I love to own one, YES, Can I afford a RHD version off Carpoint, NO
Does it make good financial business to have 100 trucks with varying spec in various yards around Australia waiting for a buyer, NO
I await the day I am sitting in traffic on Punt Road and look in the rearview and see a Raptor, YYYEEESSS

[Ben73]

I love the F's The only ute I would own, well the new ranger looks ownable too.

[falconnut]

Agreed, i dont really like the Falcon or Commadore Utes.

Give me a F any day ;)

[TheInterceptor]

Originally Posted by falconnut

Agreed, i dont really like the Falcon or Commadore Utes.

Give me a F any day ;)

Shame people dont just give a F

[Elks]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Have you even been inside the latest F series?

Yes. An F150 Platinum no less, LHD in California. So Factory original. Awesome modern vehicle. The privately imported ones are not a mirror of a std LHD vehicle.

I didn't get to drive it so I cant comment on it's road manners. But it plays on my mind, how nice and 'car' like it was. Hence the thread.