Bruce Newton•26 Nov 2014
NEWS
Ford undercalls XR8 demand
Reborn blue oval V8 musclecar is a showroom starFord is planning to up production of its reborn Falcon XR8 as initial demand for the 335kW super charged V8 sports sedan exceeds forecasts.
The flagship of the farewell FG X Falcon range is effectively a Ford Performance Vehicles GT RSPEC with a $24,500 price cut.
The XR8 starts at $52,490 while the RSPEC was $76,990. The XR8 range was brought back into the range after a four-year gap, following the closure of FPV.
While details of the car were first revealed back in July, it has only been on-sale in dealerships for a few days. Ford has never talked publicly about sales projections for the XR8, although its expectations would not have exceeded 2000 units per year.
It is a bright start for the FG X, which along with the SZ II Territory, will go out of production no later than October 2016 when Ford Australia closes its local manufacturing facilities.
"We haven't spoken about XR8 volume but it's fair to say we have under-called the volume," said Ford Australia general manager marketing, David Katich.
"We are just reviewing that now. Remember, the product has only been in the marketplace liter-ally the last few days at dealerships. So we are trying to get a handle now on what that XR8 demand is.
"Will it be higher than what we forecast? Absolutely, but we will gauge that demand over the next couple of months and make adjustments."
The most obvious potential restriction on increased XR8 supply is its superseded ZF HP26 automatic transmission. However, it is understood Ford Australia has already been in discussions with the German company to gain further supplies.
The Miami V8 is not a bottleneck. Base naturally-aspirated Coyote engines are crated from North America with final fettling and the addition of a Harrop supercharger done at Ford's Geelong engine plant.
"We can make some adjustments to the build mix," said Katich. "It is just a matter of what that build mix is; manual, auto et cetera. We have got various restrictions we are working through, but in a couple of months we will be a lot smarter on where we think the mix is."
Katich also confirmed Ford was hoping for a sales bump for its final Falcon edition, which is being offered as both a sedan and ute. Watch out for motoring.com.au's first drive reviews of the sedan lineup, including XR8, this Friday.
Falcon sales have ebbed consistently over the last decade. In 2004 65,384 Falcon sedans were sold. In 2013 just 10,610 left dealerships. Sales are down a further 34 per cent in 2014.
"We are expecting an improved performance, but there are a whole lot of variables," Katich said.
"There's the size of the large car market. We are expecting our performance to improve. But obviously the amount of consumers looking for a large car will be a key variable.
"As we have seen over the last 15 or 20 years the large car segment has significantly declined and so we expect our performance to improve within that."
Katich was perplexed when asked if he thought many buyers would be considering the FG X on an emotional basis because it was the last Falcon.
"I don't know," he admitted. "The reason it's difficult to answer that question is every time you launch a new model – whatever the brand is – you get those people who are loyalists and enthusiasts who want to buy the initial model regardless of what has happened to it.
"All the dealer feedback and consumer feedback we are getting at the moment is it's not around the last Falcon, it's more around they love the styling, love the specs, love the XR8. That's the consumer feedback we are getting at the moment, rather than I want to get one because it's the last one. The reality is we still have two years to go."
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Written byBruce Newton
Our team of independent expert car reviewers and journalists
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