Fanfare for Falcon - Falcon is out in the open officially

Australia's motoring media has just witnessed the unveiling of Ford's newest Falcon, the FG model.

Ford had arranged for the press contingent to gather in Melbourne's Collins Street, where we boarded blacked-out coaches for a short ride to a secret location -- later revealed to be the Exhibition Centre, where the Melbourne International Motor Show is held each year.

A short walk down a black-curtained walkway led us to a blacked-out pavilion with a large dais, from which a string trio played up-tempo themes while the tension built. The Ford PR folk attended to our needs and ushered us to our seats in time for a presentation by new Ford Australia President, Bill Osborne.

With cars dropping from the ceiling and popping out of the stage, the new Falcon range arrived.

Osborne detailed Ford's aspirations for the new model, before introducing a modern dance group that symbolically represented the Falcon's intended demographic, as the new cars were driven into the pavilion.

'Family' featured in almost every part of Osbourne's delivery. According to the new Ford boss, the new Falcon is: "set to blow off the cobwebs and reassert its place in family life.

"It has the right blend of luxury, road presence, refinement, cleverness, safety and innovation," opined the new CEO after referencing the car's advances in safety (though curtain airbags are still an option on most models) and fuel economy.

He also outlined the strategy behind the delineation of the range. For the first time, Falcon will literally have three faces -- the standard XT, the G Series' 'luxury sports' arm and the XR 'performance sports'. Expect to hear more on this three-pronged approach.

While there were some surprises from this showcase event (the appearance of the FPV models for one -- more soon), as we predicted, the FG spells the end of the Futura and Fairmont nameplates for the higher levels of trim (more here).

Futura, in particular, is dead in the water, effectively ceasing to exist even as a distinct grade. The XT remains the entry level car and the only car in the range to still wear Falcon badges. Above the XT there's 'air' and the new G6.

It's early days but assume that sales that would have previously gone to Futura-spec models will possibly now go to optioned-up XT models or 'Special Value Pack' editions, based on the XT... A case of watch this space.

The G6 therefore replaces the Fairmont grade -- not the Futura as we surmised -- with the G6E's trim and equipment levels stepping up again to exceed that of the BF MkII Fairmont Ghia.

The new range-topping Falcon, the G6E Turbo, features detailed changes from the G6E and is a variant that hasn't previously existed in the range. Meantime, the XR6 Turbo and XR8 will share the top rung in the sports performance 'arm' of Ford's model line-up. For the first time the two variants will share trim and equipment levels.

In the Light Commercial arena, Ford has launched a two-pronged attack on Holden and Toyota's HiLux. There'll be work utes and play utes -- and never the twain shall meet! Not exactly, but you get the idea.

There's no news on pricing for any of the models four-door or two. Like us, you'll need to sit tight to learn more. In the meantime check out our model-by-model rundown for more details and more pics as they come to hand... 

NEW FALCON: The FG model range - including photo galleries (more here)
NEW FALCON: Engineering boss says FG is all-new (more here)
NEW FALCON: more on Engines (more here)
NEW FALCON: more on Packaging (more here)
NEW FALCON: more on Refinement (more here)
NEW FALCON: more on Dynamics (more here)
NEW FALCON: more on Controls (more here)

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