Quite a lot of buzz about Ford Australia this week. It seems that the Australian Federal Government and the Victoria State Government are investing in the future of Ford. The articles like the one in the title link seem to support this invest ment, but others are not all in favor .
It seems that the Australians are going to invest $50 million in a new design center that will work on the replacement for the domestically designed and built Falcon/Territory range as well as work on Light Commercial Vehicles for export. You can read more here, but these articles are leading to speculation already, that the Crown Victoria replacement will be sourced from the new Falcon much like GM's GTO was sourced from Holden.
It's too early to say, but a new "world class" rear wheel drive chassis sounds great. But all of these articles talk about the shrinking of the market for these cars in Australia, and with gas prices on the rise in the US, will it be too late? And didn't Ford just redesisgn the Ranger? So what light commercial vehicles will be designed in the new facility?
Blogging is very sporadic still, because repairs were stalled at my house, and life is still not anywhere near normal.
If the Australian press says "light commercial" they mean the Falcon Ute/Ranchero style of car-based thing, not the US-understanding of "truck".
ReplyDeleteBen, could they also mean a Ranger/Courier model? I mean the press release says it's destined for 80 countries and the Falcon Ute is only sold in 3 countries that I can think of, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
ReplyDeleteI would normally bow to your local knowledge, but in this instance I think you are mistaken. But time will tell.