Ford Australia will reportedly not be producing a left-hand-drive version of the next-generation Falcon...
http://blogs.motortrend.com/6219331/australia/no-falconry-for-us-ford-kills-left-hand-drive-falcon/index.html
Brent
:cougarsmily:
I was drooling over the G8 just today. If Ford ignores me, I'll ignore them.
The G8 is EXACTLY what I'm looking for.
If Ford REALLY wants to compete in the compact market, then why isn't this sold in North America?
http://www.ford.co.za/servlet/ContentServer?cid=1163400671887&pagename=FMCSA%2FDFYPage%2FDefault&c=DFYPage
222 HP / 236 TQ out of a 2.5 Duratec (the same motor that started life in the Mystique)
I dont know those look way better then our focus though!
ford is being gay.
Read the rest of the article. Ford is not spending any money modifying the new Falcon for LHD, but the NEXT replacement for the Falcon, due in 2012 (which is only four model years away) is being engineered for LHD. Ford has bigger fish to fry right now than a limited-market high performance four-doors. Like making money. The economics just don't add up right now: Expensive gas, looming CAFE increases, weak US dollar, a tanking US economy...
Perhaps when Ford rights their ship they'll make niche vehicles, but right now they've got to focus (no pun intended) on the bread and butter. Remember: Even with the 300, Magnum, and Charger, DC still lost a buttload of money last year because their mainstream offerings were ...
I think I will just import a left handed version.
That would make everyone jealous.
I think their Focus is far and away a better looking car than the "new" one we have here even in their base trim.
It looks like a newer cleaner version of our "old" Focus styling wise.
I just can't get my arms around the new Focus' styling, it looks like they went backwards instead of forwards in the design.
Do you think they started with the 2.0L and added a cylinder to it?
Brent
:cougarsmily:
Yeah that focus has a 5 cyl.
in the direction they are going right now (not just their lineup) they are screwed. But then again, the future of this economy is very questionable.
In 2002 you could buy an ounce of gold for $310. Guess what you'd have to pay today for that ounce? $763 - and that number is skyrocketing by the day.
While eating my lunch and thinking about this Focus ST having a Turbocharged 2.5L inline 5 and thinking that it seemed very familiar...I had a light bulb moment. I couldn't see Ford spending the necessary cash needed to make one specific 5 cylinder turbocharged engine just for use in one specialty car and sure enough:
Focus ST
In 2005 Ford unveiled a hot hatch version of the Mk 2 Focus. Called Focus ST, and available in either three or five door hatchback variant, the car uses the same T5 engine from the Volvo S40/V50 T5 models, a turbocharged 2.5 L 5-cylinder engine producing 225 hp. The Ford Focus Mk 2 ST is also known as the XR5 Turbo in the Australian and New Zealand market, but is sold as a five door hatchback only.So it uses an existing Volvo powerplant which also makes sense because after some more digging, I found that it shares the same platform as Volvo C30 which is also powered by the 2.5 turbo 5.
Brent
:cougarsmily:
That focus is ass ugly and if they wanted to do anything about the looming SRT4's,Colbolt ss's and R32 PolksBritish cigarettegens and such they should have released the 300 horse 2.0 i4 turbocharged focus that never made it past prototyping.
i have a motortrend that said this (http://"http://www.fantasycars.com/1/News/FordFocus/fordfocus.html") was set for the united states as well.Also the motor trend said that it was going to be an awd. Not that that focus looks any aesthetically better.
I'm pretty disappointed that the Falcon isn't coming stateside. I love the look of the car, and Ford could definitely use more rwd cars here.
LOL finally signed up Nick. Now get the supercoupe fixed!!!!!!
If you look at it from an Industry stand point its a poor choice to bring a RWD falcon stateside the only vehicles left that are RWD are sports cars. Hell if i remember correctly even the Vics were changed over to FWD at some point after 2000.
FWD Vics? That'd be something to see...
No, the Vic is RWD. Always was. RWD is making a comeback, not just in sports cars, but Ford has got to get the bread-and-butter selling before playing around in less lucrative markets. As we all know that V6 Mustangs pay for the development of V8 models, so do the bread-and-butter cars finance everything else. For a long time the F-150 was that bread-and-butter, but times are changing with $3 gas..
as a side note volvo had a focusish hatch at last years Detroit NAINAS i personally liked it. yea the c30 is exactly what i saw. I know the Vic always was but ford was talking about a possibility of a FWD vic after 2000, i was just not sure if they did it.
(http://media.paultan.org/paris2006/c30paris1.jpg)
I actually saw my first C30 last week. A little old lady with blue hair was at the helm of the black steed.
Which is still less than it was at it's height in the '80's
I don't think the C30 looks too bad either...from the front and side view. The rear end on the other hand...I think they could have done much better.
Brent
:cougarsmily:
If it was oil that caused it in the early '80's, what is driving the price up this time?
http://goldprice.org/30-year-gold-price-history.html (http://"http://goldprice.org/30-year-gold-price-history.html")
It isn't oil, it's inflation. It takes more dollars to buy an ounce of gold because the dollar isn't worth as much. You'll notice in those charts that during the first oil crunch of the mid 70's gold hardly moved at all. In the late 70's and early 80's inflation was sky-high, and so was the price of gold. Perhaps as a coincidence, it was also during that time that the Canadian dollar was worth more than the US dollar. History really does have a way of repeating itself....