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>> Orion tidbits start: V8 and wagon, yes; LWB, forget it!
The official release of information on Ford's new generation large car might still be some months away, but the unofficial 'drip-feed' has begun.
Codenamed Orion, the new car will not surface until sometime in 2008. That 'sometime' is still the subject of debate among those outside Ford. That said, it seems unlikely the new car will hit the market until at least mid-year.
That means the current generation has a good 12-15 months of 'runout' to face -- no wonder the official information campaign is still some way off.
So what tidbits have been thrown to the chooks so far? For one thing, Ford Oz boss Tom Gorman has confirmed that the car will offer a V8 engine option. Gorman confirmed that fact this week, touching wood when he joked he was hoping somebody would buy one.
In reality, there was little question that the car would not go the bent eight route. Though troubled currently by politics, FPV has already signed off its Orion-based product with the icon engine configuration a large part of the strategy underpinning it.
There'll be no diesel -- at least in the first generation of the new generation. Gorman too has stated this as a fact.
The first locally-produced Ford turbodiesel will arrive in the Territory. Whether this is via an updated version of the current SY model Territory or the first of the next generation cars (probably due 8-12 months after Orion, ie: late 2009) is unclear.
There will be an Orion wagon, Ford has confirmed the variant. Details? The guessing has already started -- load hauler or Euro-style 'Touring/Avant', take your choice.
A ute is a good bet too -- Ford is banking on the softening of the car-based light commercials will turn around when Holden's VE ute arrives.
What is not confirmed, but is almost a fait accompli is the death of the long-wheelbase Falcon variants -- the LTD and Fairlane. Left largely to wither on the vine and without an export market for the car, Ford Australia is highly unlikely to invest dollars it sorely needs elsewhere on a monthly LWB volume that is, in real terms, unsustainable.
At his press conference this week, Mr Gorman all but nailed the lid shut on the big Fords.
"I imagine you guys can do the maths," Gorman commented in answering whether Ford has stopped building the long-wheelbase cars.
"That segment is very, very small and [due to the small volume] it becomes very challenging for us. We haven't declared our position on this yet but this segment is very challenging and we just have to be blunt…
"I think Holden said publicly that it spent $190m on their long-wheelbase product… Let's assume that number is even close to accurate -- you'd have to have a big chunk of volume to make it pay off," Gorman concluded.
For the record, in the last 25 months, Fairlane and LTD have only totalled more than 200 units per month four times. In 2006, they averaged less than 100 cars per month.
>> The end of the end of the year
Another interesting opinion to come out of Ford's February briefing was Mr Gorman's theorizing of a change of local buying habits.
No, not the wholesale shift to small and light cars -- that structural change has been pretty well admitted by all. Rather the growth of January and the post-Christmas holiday period and a new car sales highpoint.
With reference to the traditional end of financial year sales boost, Mr Gorman suggested that, in terms of private buyers at least, January is the new June.
>>FPV: still a work in progress
FPV was still a hot issue within the Ford and media camps this week with Gorman moving to clarify the reason behind the structural changes (read: sackings) and clarify the shift in responsibilities.
In the process, he arguably raised more questions about how FPV will function in practice.
In broad terms, Gorman stated that Ford will be taking over more backroom activities on a fee per service basis, while Prodrive will concentrate more on the sales support, contract engineering and manufacturing.
Said Gorman: "As Ford and Prodrive stepped back and had a look at this business there were things we wanted to do going forward… Certain actions that we want to take… The only way we could take some of the actions was to come to grips with some of the challenges in the structure of the business
"Really what that means is it [FPV] had a structure that in the long run was put in place for a much larger business.
"Part of what will come out of this is more joint sharing -- there are things that Ford will provide to FPV and there are things that Prodrive will provide to FPV and then we'll charge FPV for those services," he said.
Gorman gave the example of the Ford corporate affairs team (which will now handle FPV's press relations, launches, etc) as well as finance, logistics, supplier issues and the like. It was also implied, but not stated point blank, that Ford would take a stronger role in the product development for FPV.
"We have plans now to expand their [FPV] product range. We are going to do more things with them that are frankly far more creative than our facing competitor [HSV] in that segment," Gorman said.
"If you only stay in one space and that space is declining you will inevitably decline. If you don't re-invent yourself and re-invent the products you bring to market, consistent with the overall DNA of a high performance vehicle line, then you're going to go out of business and that's not what FPV is about," Gorman said.
Ford's more active role represents a major shift from the highly-successful business model where Holden management actively quarantines HSV from the inertia of the 'parent' company.
After the failure of the FTE operation (which shared product and media responsibilities between Ford and Tickford in a similar fashion to what Gorman decsribed this week), former Ford Australia President Geoff Polites established FPV with its own marketing, product planning and media functions. FPV's more than ten-fold sales increase over FTE would suggest that Polites got it right.
Gorman's latest comments suggest a partial, if not complete dismantling of the Polites' initiative.
In response to questions about the latest moves at FPV, senior executives at Toyota Australia claimed that the dismissals at the Ford performance arm were of no interest to Toyota and that Prodrive was "no more than an outside supplier."
It is worth comparing Toyota Australia's preparation for its new Prodrive-run TRD (Toyota Racing Division) operation with Ford's current position.
Not only has Toyota established a new Australian design studio and presented ongoing performance car concepts, but it has actively linked TRD to its own people including former Holden designer and architect of Nissan's Special Vehicles Division, Paul Beranger and his assistant, Nick Hogios. Ironically, Hogios (a former Wheels Young Designer of the Year) was the designer who did much of the foundation work for FPV.
There can be no debate that Ford Australia, with one of the best engineering teams globally, is more than capable of delivering new models worthy of its local muscle car heritage. What is of concern is the apparent lack of corporate will to keep Ford's own performance models fresh and at the top of the tree and whether this will impact on the FPV range.
Sales of Ford's once hugely-popular XR models are currently in free fall, as they languish under virtually no discernible appearance changes since 2002, despite the fact they still enjoy a significant engineering advantage over rivals.
Not only does the FPV range delivered under the sacked executive look different to the first BA GT, their sales were still on a record-breaking climb at the close of 2006. Does the FPV range now face a similar fate to Ford's XR models?
Ford or Prodrive are yet to announce who will 'own' the responsibility of FPV product development. Nor has anyone said whether this role will be independent of similar responsibilities at Ford itself.
On the subject of recruiting for the new head that will run the trimmed FPV operation, a Ford spokesperson confirmed: "They [Prodrive] are actively recruiting for a marketing and sales manager who will be responsible for running the business -- including liaising with Ford and Prodrive on product direction. They're looking for a 'car person' because the importance of having performance cars in their blood is recognised as being imperative. It may take some time to appoint someone but they are determined to ensure they get the right person and not rush into a bad decision."
We're guessing the positions vacant ad is headed: "Wanted -- Superman…"
>> Plastic fantastic for NSW finest
From the "why didn't we think of it first" files comes hot news that Lotus Cars Australia has donated a Lotus Exige (see pic) to the NSW Police Bankstown Local Area Command.
Lotus says the Exige will be used "for a number of community policing roles over the next six months, including most importantly, helping to build better relations between police and local performance car enthusiasts and youth."
Community policing translates to PR appearances… Which is just as well, we could imagine the response times blowing out given the how long it might take for two of NSW amply-proportioned finest to squeeze into the Pommy pocket rocket complete with leather caps, phonebooks and batons.
Good on you, Lotus… But if the NSW Police really want to identify with the Bankstown crowd, shouldn't they be turning up with a couple of VS-vintage Commodore SS…
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