Ford boss: Falcon safe beyond 2015

Falcon is safe... The boss of Ford Australia, Marin Burela, has given the clearest indication yet that the future of the Falcon -- and Ford's local manufacturing operations -- are solid beyond the lifecycle of the current model.

The comments come less than a week after the global boss of Ford, Alan Mullaly, told Australian journalists in Paris that Ford fans Down Under will "get what they want".

The future of a locally manufactured Falcon had been cast in doubt following weakening sales over the past decade and Ford's new global policy to not have one-off cars for individual countries. The Falcon is, in car terms, an orphan that shares no bloodlines -- and few components -- with any other cars in the Ford world. However, that will likely change.

Speaking at the launch of the new supercharged Falcon GT in Melbourne, Burela told journalists: "We have no plans to make any change [to our local manufacturing operations]. We have a facility here that is certainly capable of manufacturing cars and we've invested hundreds of millions of dollars over the years to do so. Why would we invest all this money if it wasn't for the future?

"When the world was in [financial] meltdown and everyone was ... closing hatches because it wasn't a sensible thing to do to spend money, we came out boldly as a company and announced a significant investment to continue to invest in local manufacturing and local products such as Falcon, ute and Territory."

Burela confirmed Ford Australia was working on the next Falcon, as planned.

"We are currently in the process of evaluating what a new Falcon will be. We need to make a decision by late 2011, early 2012.

"Working out the size, the engine, the package etc, all that is taking place right now... We are very fortunate. When we launched the current generation FG Falcon it actually bought us time. We've actually got time on our side which allows us to then choose which technologies, where the styling is heading, where the car is heading and where customer preferences are heading," Burela elaborated.

"We don't have to have a replacement vehicle in place until we get to around the 2016 timeframe."

Burela insisted that Mulally's comments last week were no different to those he made earlier.

"I think what Alan has said, he has consistently been saying. If you listen to the words that Alan has used and the comments that he has made, he has always been very consistent, as we have here in Australia.

"And that is: would we ever do a stand-alone vehicle specifically for any individual market? The answer is: we would be hard pressed to do so."

A Ford Australia insider insisted the company was "always confident" of building the next generation Falcon here, and that there has been "no significant internal changes or decisions" that might have prompted Mulally's apparent change of heart last week.

Speculation on the future of the Falcon has continued to bubble -- and Ford executives are continually questioned -- because the 'One Ford' policy means the next Falcon will ultimately be shared with a North American-made large car.

That then poses the question: why does it need to be built in Australia? A mass-output factory in North America or Canada could knock out 30,000 Falcons (the current annual output) in no time.

Ford insists the Broadmeadows and Geelong factories are viable, and pointed to the company's Australian operations posting a profit last financial year as proof of this.

"The Falcon is still a great success, it's a car that's now in its segment, capturing share that ranges month to month anywhere between 35 and 38 per cent of [large] sedan sales. We're very happy with that...

"We'd rather be competing in a segment where there are three main players, rather than a segment that has between 19 and 25 competitors such as the small car markets.

"The large car segment over the last 15 to 20 years has declined, there is no question about that. But ... as the industry has grown, the number of cars manufactured in Australia has remained [about the same].

"People in Australia are not averse to driving large cars, what they're absolutely focused on [is] that you deliver them value for money, cost of ownership, fuel economy. And we're working on that," Burela said

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