New Falcon, old battle

By ALASTAIR SLOANE

Rumours earlier in the year that Ford Australia would call its heavily revised Falcon the BA have panned out. The new handle is short for the project's codename Barra and gives Ford a fresh string of names to use in the future.

The BA Falcon was unveiled in Melbourne the other day and will go on sale in New Zealand in October/November.

"Ford Australia's design team has done a superb job with the BA Falcon," said Ford New Zealand Falcon brand manager Ian Swann.

"It is essentially an entirely revised model - only the door skins are carried over from the previous AU derivative.

"The BA also features refined styling enhancements, representative of the Ford DNA already associated with vehicles such as the award-winning Mondeo and Focus."

The new model is certainly more near-new than upgrade - the name change alone ruthlessly cuts short the previous AU model's lifespan.

"The reality is this is a new car and to reflect its newness this facelifted Falcon will be known as the BA Falcon," said Ford Australia president Geoff Polites.

"BA Falcon signals the start of an exciting new era. This is a car that will lift the bar for local manufacturing at all levels - design, innovation, safety and production." The project cost Ford Australia about $580 million, the most expensive mid-life Falcon facelift ever.

The unveiling comes weeks after Ford began drip-feeding on its website information about the AU's successor.

But Ford is still keeping a lid on details of the new interior, safety features and engine line-up. These will come later.

It is expected that the BA will be powered by a choice of either a 5.4-litre V8 or reworked version of the 4-litre straight-six, with double-overhead camshaft.

Ford has already released some information about the BA's seating, suspension, adjustable brake pedal and electronic technology.

The new Falcon is much cleaner looking than the car it replaces. The all-new front and rear styling, longer wheelbase and wider track and bumpers give the BA more of a presence on the road.

The 10mm lower roof and higher-sitting headlights add to the image. The bigger 17-inch wheels do not leave as much vacant space in the wheel arches either.

The AU's drooping rear-end - or "sad tail", as Ford's international design chief J. Mays called it - has gone and the flatter boot now has a lip at its trailing edge. The bonnet is flatter, too.

The radio aerial has gone from the quarter panel to the windscreen and the windscreen washers are now recessed below the bonnet.

Ford Australia design director Simon Butterworth said the BA Falcon boasted a design that was both elegant and powerful.

"A major contributor to that look is the proportion of the vehicle or the relationship of wheels to body, the height from the ground and front and rear overhangs," he said.

"A minor increase in the wheelbase and track has assisted us in achieving excellent stance and visual road presence," he said.

"In addition, the clean contemporary surface language combined with simple, geometric line work and great attention to detail, gives the car a solid, premium look of refined power."

Ford says it has offered a glimpse into the future of motoring Down Under with a car that will set new standards. The reality is that the BA Falcon will have to do just that.

It will go on sale about the same time as the VY Holden Commodore, the facelifted replacement for the VX.

The VX Commodore has dominated the large car market in Australia and New Zealand for four years and Ford aims to redress the balance with the BA.

It especially wants to hit the Commodore hard in Australia, to rekindle the head-to-head rivalry it once had.

New-vehicle sales in Australia to the end of June were 406,966 units - the first time the 400,000 barrier had been broken in six months trading.

The record figure represents an 8.5 per cent increase on the same period last year, when 375,076 vehicles were sold. The industry is forecasting 810,000 sales this year.

Holden's sales for the first half of this year were 88,476 units - a figure higher than Holden's entire sales in 1991. In other words, Holden has doubled its output in the course of a decade.

The two top-selling cars to the end of June in Australia were the Holden Commodore with 41,730 sales and Ford Falcon AU with 23,921. In New Zealand at the end of June, Commodore had sold 2968 units against 1858 for the Ford Falcon. Ford has some work to do in both countries.