PARIS SHOW: Falcon may stay rear drive

2010 PARIS MOTOR SHOW NEWS SPECIAL

Ford appears to be backing away from forcing Australians to acquire a taste for a Toyota Camry-like, front-drive Falcon.

But there is still no guarantee the Falcon will continue to be made locally beyond 2015 -- when the current model is due to be replaced.

Yet another chapter in the Falcon story unfolded at the Paris motor show overnight.

Ever since Ford announced its global strategy to eliminate one-off cars for individual countries -- such as the Falcon for Australia -- there has been speculation about the fate of Australia's oldest continuously running automotive nameplate, which turned 50 this year.

In interviews over the past 18 months Ford executives in Australia and Detroit have hinted we may have to get used to the idea of the Falcon being replaced by a localised version of the front-drive Ford Taurus, a competitor to the Toyota Camry in North America.

Weak Falcon sales in Australia, a shift away from large cars, and last week's comments by Ford that it will rationalise its global line-up to just 20 models (down from more than 60) simply re-ignited the speculation.

However, there appears to be a change in direction since the media last caught up with international Ford executives earlier this year.

In a press scrum with the Australian media at the Paris motor show overnight, the global boss of Ford, Alan Mulally, hinted that the Falcon may stay rear drive.

"When you look at all of the vehicles people want, there are a set of vehicles that rear wheel drive makes a lot of sense," he said.
 
"We're going to continue to make vehicles that customers really want and value, starting with you (Australia).

"I think we're going to have great rear-wheel drive platforms and the vehicles we have on them are global platforms.

"We love our rear-wheel drive platforms and we love Mustang."

As with previous encounters with the Australian media, Mulally would not be drawn on the future of Ford's local manufacturing operations.

However he pointed out that Ford Australia played a "crucial role" as the engineering centre for the new Ford Ranger ute -- a vehicle that was engineered and tested in Australia, made in Thailand and sold in 130 countries.

The Ford Ranger and its twin under the skin, the Mazda BT50, will be unveiled at the Sydney motor show mid October.

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