THIS MOTORING YEAR 2016: Car company of the year

Only the Ford Motor Company of Australia could be the car company of the year in 2016. When you shut down local manufacturing after a 91-year run and kill off one of the oldest continuous nameplates in the global industry then – for right or wrong – you have earned that title.

At motoring.com.au, we prepared a lot of editorial material to mark these occasions, including our centrepiece trip to Cape Catastrophe to celebrate the earliest true Aussie development of the Falcon and the genesis of Ford Australia’s R&D capability – which is now intrinsic to Ford’s global product development network.

But all those words didn’t attract the interest we thought they would. And quietly checking with colleagues at other automotive websites (yes, we do speak occasionally) they reported similar experiences.

It was as if you, like us, had become weary of the long, slow, sad decline, something that had been predicted and then expected years before it was announced and then took three-and-a-half more years to come about.

We were all truly adjusted to the idea by October 7 2016 (Ed: see also Disappointment of 2016), even the diehards who had hoped against hope for a change of mind or a white knight to sweep in.

Ford did the right thing releasing the final limited edition Falcon Sprint models, giving enthusiasts a car with which to remember a true Aussie icon – an over-used word but appropriate in this case. The Sprint allowed the committed, passionate groups of engineers, designers and manufacturing people at Ford one last shot at showing their ability to build an exciting car on the smell of an oily rag.

It also tried to give its employees a public voice in the closure, providing an interesting and disparate bunch to the media for interviews… They for me proved the shining light of a sad moment, their pride in working at Geelong and Campbellfield providing a palpable, human context to a corporate business decision played out by blue suits in halls of power far, far away.

More than one unashamedly cried during our conversations.

As a son of a former Ford dealer who bled blue as a kid, I felt like joining them.

But there were dumb, awful decisions too; the closure fell on qualifying day at the Bathurst 1000, an event intrinsic to the creation of the Falcon legend.

Ford argued that the shutdown process made the date a necessity, but did anyone actually even make the connection in the first place? In a company that once lived and breathed racing, Supercars and motorsport in general had long been dismissed as irrelevant.

Then there was the move of the Ford Australia historical archive from Melbourne to global headquarters in Dearborn. Exposed by former Wheels editor Peter Robinson, this was a shameful example of the lack of understanding and appreciation by current management of what Ford Australia has meant to this country.

All sorts of gobbledegook was foisted on us about the wonderful advantages of this move, when the reality is it’s a globally-driven decision that takes no account of local sensitivities.

So we now arrive at the point where Ford has divested itself of its local manufacturing and cars (remembering Territory was a vital and high-quality contributor right to the end) and is now solely an importer, one of 60-odd brands fighting for your attention, bucks and loyalty.

It’s got some incredibly good vehicles in its line-up; Ranger and Focus RS are the best at what they do globally, while Mustang, Mondeo and Focus are outstanding. It needs the new Fiesta to kick and it desperately needs a more complete and compelling range of SUVs.

But most of all it needs to learn how to become a complete car company, something that’s been underlined by the constant emphasis on improving customer satisfaction.

The man in charge of achieving that is English/Kiwi Graeme Whickman, a compelling talker who manages to lace the spiel with enough self-deprecation to keep himself human and his passion convincing.

Yes, the workers in the trenches do the hard yards of taking concept to reality, but if Ford is to be more than a “remember when” car company in Australia – as in “remember when we owned a Ford” - then it requires strong leadership. By definition, that starts at the top.

Put it this way, the late Geoff Polites led Ford Australia brilliantly. Others who preceded and succeeded him didn’t.

Judging by Whickman’s CV he is obviously a man marked for success within the Ford empire, so don’t expect him to be managing the local show a few years from now.

It will be fascinating to see what sort of business he shapes and leaves in his wake.