2008 Ford Orion Fairmont Ghia CGI
February 8, 2008 by Paul Maric
With Ford’s new model just weeks away from being released to the media, our automotive stylist has released their impression of the Orion Fairmont Ghia.
From what our spy photographers have captured so far, the Fairmont Ghia has been oriented toward a sporty feel, a boot lid spoiler and side-skirts have hinted at its new sporty future.
Ford is keen to take on Holden’s attempt with the Calais and Calais V, so we expect to see new features, such as front parking sensors, along with the carryover of technology such as the reversing camera from the Territory, along with auto-dimming rear vision mirror.
As there won’t be a Fairlane or LTD any longer, it’s also possible that a luxury model will become available for the flagship Fairmont Ghia model, featuring things that the Fairlane/LTD otherwise would have had.
Print it: 
What sort of coin for this?
Still want to know how many Fords have to go down the production line to make staying in manufacture ok
Quantity = ?
Any news on what sort of LPG system they will be using?
Cheers
F-0
AS to your question on what LPG system will be used, i believe that ford ‘may’ use the Injection LPG system. The gas still goes through a convertor but instead of going through the throttle it goes through injectiors.
Also incase anyone read the last edition of wheels you may have read that base model falcons will be using a 5 speed auto. From what i believe thats bullshit and all falcons (exept E-Gas which is really stupid) will be using the ZF.
I have an idea…how about we stuff al the gear and equipment we can into every model and sell them for prices that nobody can afford! yeah…
Reality check! cost vers availability! they have to strike a balance…
Why can’t people think!
Why becasue a grand or so more to by an XT with a ZF in it is going to hurt peoples pockects is it?
Yes! it would these markets are price sensitive and thats how much you estimate, not the true figure which we don’t know.
Why do you think the VE has a 4 speed auto as the base, fleet sales make less money than retail and have to be accounted for…
It looks nice, but is it a big enough leap forward to regain all the sales ground lost recently?
Damo,
All falcons will be running a 5sp auto, excet FPV and XR, and possibly fairmont, will have a zf6sp, and all the egas vehciles at this stage are running the old 4sp
It won’t matter how good the orion maybe, it will claw back some sales but never reach the highs it used to enjoy.
Orion will be the best falcon Ford has ever produced, like BA was in 2002.
Adam I think you’re right, Orion will claw back some of the ground lost but the Commodore will always out sell it.
What Ford needs to do is shorten one of the model lifecyles.
If I had the money I’d buy one. Seeing as I don’t its a moot point.
Close. Some details are missing. The lower grill’s wrong…well, it’s not even there in the CGI.
The grille in the CGI pic looks a lot like the AUIII & the bumper has been done before. I only hope for fords sake that it looks better in the metal.
I’d like to see some original designs, not a copy of fords US corporate passenger grille (IE ford 500 and Escape ect)
It looks great, and a this time seems to be a genuine contender for the Calais. I think they have just continued down the sporty luxury path which started on the BFII Ghia.
I think you right JohnDoe. We’re likey to see a whole new front end.
Being a Fairmont Ghia, it’ll look “Trim, Taught, Terrific” in and out. The BFII looks flash already, but abit dated, so this new model will make Ford’s Falcon look fresh again.
nice…oh lala…john doe are you a spy for ford?
the day all maufactures move there operations to thailand will be a happy day because the goverment will remove tarrifs altogether meaning finally american priced cars
cool looking car
Manic Mustang
Thats what you, me and the rest of Australia have read in the latest edition of wheels magazine.. But as you are probrably aware, what they say is mostly guess work. For example, im not sure if you can remember the pre BA Launch in 2002, wheels predicted and were fairly confident that the XR6 turbo was going to have 220KW.
At the end of the day we’ll all have to wait for the real thing to know whats got what.
To me it looks too much like the current car. Ford should ditch the old names fairmont and falcon for something new and more exciting.
The CEO man at the lair HQ of Ford Australia should make a statement by having models standard with LPG motors and give the public the option of putting a petrol motor in it! Who cares me man….. just be hip and do it bro. Might make some dent in sales as an easy step to make it a production reality! Pull your finger out there as getting suspicion you might be AWOL with Mr Rudd!
I have always quoted to say it does not look ahead of superceded model. Yes I like. But overtaken by others and could spell trouble me think as not bold enough ahead of previous models! If not significant model differentiation there across all Falcons………its all over me thinks! Just would love to know what the leaping leroy basketballer CEO thinks of actually design philsophy as like I have stated = the designs seen by Ford aside from Kuga, Iosis, Verve and next model Focus are crap! NOW IF WE CAN JUST GET HIM TO HAVE SOME BALLS TO ADOPT STYLING THEMES LIKE THESE CARS WITH MANY SIMILAR VARIANTS INSTEAD OF THE VOMIT CRAP DREAMED UP BY ONE YEAR OLDS IN DEARBORN….the better!
Oh I do not like the front grille, what is that big empty space, a black hole? Go for sporty but don’t put off your businessman/family guy buyer. Maybe the Ghia will come in different trims, “sport”, “Luxury”, sort of what Holden’s got going with the Calais.
Have to agree with ‘Oz.’ the current BF Ghia looks fantastic!
Adam,
mate you are right,
the falcon possibly wont outsell the commodore but on the other hand in fords eyes it doesnt need to. ford is slowly not relying on the falcon as its bread and butter item. they currently have………
falcon sedan
falcon ute (which does outsell the commodore ute and has for many years)
Territory
and soon to come focus
holden have to rely on the commodore range a lot more than ford does its falcon, so if the falcon outsold the commodore holden is in a hell of a lot of trouble.
Alex,
also spot on mate,
ford needs to shorten its model life spans. fair enough the BA launch in 02 put it many years ahead of its competitors but the genaral public are simple human beings.
they dont see that the current 6yr old falcon still easily holds its own,
they see a car that has looked the same for too long and assume it is very old tech and out dated dynamics
O,
mate you are another dreamer that thinks if we cut the tariffs we will all get $20K BMW’s.
the thing is tariffs have been going down for many years yet we have not seen a reduction in car prices. you are silly to think we will.
also i question what is more important to you in like…
a cheap car?
or a country that still has employment opportunities?
Azza,
i agree,
the current BF11 Ghia looks great.
Why?
well ford finally realised that it might be nice to make their “grand tourer” stand out a hell of a lot.
the 2nd series BF looks loke a totally different car
hopefully the release of the BF11 ghia has shown us that they are now switched on the making another stunning ghia.
they are going sporty i guess because holden has tried it and shown that its what the majority want
ANDREW M….”ford is slowly not relying on the falcon as its bread and butter item. they currently have………
falcon sedan
falcon ute (which does outsell the commodore ute and has for many years)
Territory
and soon to come focus”
Ha Ha. Yeah right! So we throw the Focus into the mix and see if we come up with Falcon blurb. Very touchy feelie comment that Falcon is not bread and butter….IF YOU BELIEVE THAT YOU BELIEVE IN FAIRIES! Falcon is on the wane as it has not been upgraded well enough, subsequently it has lagged behind others. If you are happy with sales figures where Falcon lie and Ford are overall perhaps you think postal votes are still coming to enable John Howard to get the seat of Bennelong off Maxine McKew. And yes Ford is copying Holden in sense that sporty Calias will make Ford try it….second fiddle again on design front! Give me an Aurion Sportivo any day!
I hope they do offer a more efficient E gas option on the Orion. With the price of petrol being the main obstacle to large car sales they would have to be on a winner with an injected gas option. Run the Great Australian Road with all it’s Safety, Comfort, Performance benefits for the cost of a small buzz box.
QUOTE: Naughtyius Maximus
“Falcon is on the wane as it has not been upgraded well enough”
I always thought the Falcons have always been streets ahead of the Commodore…you’re telling me they’re not?
From what language does the word Sportivo originate?
NM how can u chose an Aurion (Johny cab) over the VE Commodore? The Commodore in sv6 guise is a thing of beauty whereas The Aurion has a Toyota badge otherwise as bland as the rest of the Jap/Korean offerings in this class.
The Aurion could be a Sonata or a Maxima with overdone tail lights and front.
Front drive cheap and nasty for similar price. No thks
NM,
you must have a split personallity mate,
omly a month or so ago you were also preaching the tune that the falcon has always been ahead of the commy now this???
i dont know what your bread and butter response was about, but what i was pointing out is that ford will have 2 passenger alternatives to a falcon passenger car.
holden only has one passenger car hence they effectively need to sell as much out of the commy as ford does out of the falcon, territory and focus put together
ANDREW M….its called reality and reading writing that is being etched onto the wall. Yes Iam a Falcon guy. Your comment does not excite me to be leader of the pack – where Falcon should be! And Iam yet to see where Ford is going since rapper man is there as CEO downunder! I do like the Falcon ahead of Commy, Commy looks good but not my tea with fairy $2 shop handbrake, over flared behometh and weirdo rear tailights! Andrew….do you like Falcon is not selling well? I dont! And no rehashing that by commenting about marketting to what not will change it greatly
…what not will not change it greatly
mate to be honest i dont have shares in ford so i couldnt care whether they sell 4000 or 10000 units a month as long as i can still buy 1 lonesome example for myself.
but yes perhaps it would be nice if my favoured brand was recieving the better sales that it deserves. i dont think its anything to do with its range though as they have some pretty damn good vehicles.
thats how i conclude that they employ hopeless marketing execs.
And don’t forget Ford have the new Mondeo. Shame it’s not a bit cheaper though.
And regarding the 6-speed auto in the base model, you never know. I mean the base Mondeo has the 6-speed sequential auto.
Go easy John.
Another company tried changing the name of a well established model.
They called it a 380…
??????
The Commodore Ute outsells the Falcon Ute, makes no differnce to BIG-T, they both are behind the over-rsted HiLux
Cheers
F-0
The new commodore ute has just only started to outsell the falcon ute.
oz
F-O, why dont you just take a hike, unless you can respect Australian cars? You seem proud the 380 is going, now you want the Falcon to go, why?
Easy,
GovCo has paid millions of MY TAXES to these inefficent home grown car makers to prop them up, for far to long.
They are manufacturing cars that FEW WANT TO BUY
They have tariffed to death imports [i for one would like my imports to be 10% less] USA/Thialand excl.
They should have NO SUPPORT from the GovCo, which other industry has been silver-spooned like this.
If they cannot manufacture without protection and hand outs, they have NO RIGHTS in my opinion to be in business.
The parent company overseas can foot the build, NOT the GovCo which = us.
CLOSE THEM ALL DOWN unless they can compete without GovCo help and holding there hand.
Cheers
F-0
Why did you just repeat what you just said on another blog!?
I’ll do the same shall i?
Do you have a clue at all????
Why do the clueless persist on spewing their crap on auto sites?
1. ALL loacl assemblers get goverment hand outs, yes Toyota included.
2. Goverment assisstance is not an Autralian concept, many countries offer the same deal around the world.
3. I don’t understand this concept that we build vehicles we don’t want to buy???? i don’t see ANY imported car take the top selling position yet.
4. Focus will be built here from 2011.
5. Tariff reduction have held a helping hand in local auto industry downturn.
6.VE, falcon, territory still outdo the camry/aurion volume for local sales!
7. When you get a clue as to the REAL reasons why the large car segment have declined you might actually understand, it’s not just one or two factors involved.
8. The auto industry is not the only industry in this country to recieve such handouts! Many others do also.
9.To be honest the goverment hand outs pale in comparison to the actuall development costs that are really involved.
10. I’m sure there’re many things you don’t like your tax dollars to be spend on, what are you going to do about that?
CHEERS!
F-O give some support for christ sake. How is that a reason to hate Australian products?
*****NON-PRIMO!*****!
I’m having a go with a F-O kind of post
….But It’s For not reason!
Cheers
Oz.
LOL.
Frugal one,
wake up and smell the roses mate.
there are plenty ofindustries out side of the auto makers that receive government money.
just have a look at how much money the QLD premier Peter Beatie handed out to many MANY companies in order to get them to migrate to QLD
if you were genuinely worried about where MY tax dollars go I’d be starting with centre link and an overhaul of the benefits they give out for absolutely no reason
Naughtimus Maximus. The Fairmont Ghia has been sports/luxury oriented since EL (xr6 engine with sports luxury suspension setting), and was also marketed sports luxury in EB/ED. Ford are definately not following Holdens lead here. Holden went down the sports/luxury road only in most recent models of its calais
i would have to say a cheap car the only reasason tarrifs are in place is to protect the industry also whoever said change the name do you not remember the 380 or tidda or possibly wat could of been auris.the current commodore also will look extremely dated next to this they should not of copied the ba falcons headlights
while austrlai used to build good cars in the 70s the rest of the worl [except america] moved ahead while we are still driving around our clunky 4speed the euros have there turbo diesels with 5 speeds australian cars are no longer competitive maybe a hybrid r dieslel but intsead we all follow holdens never ending quest to shove a 10 litre engine into a commodore whil smaller v8s get the smae power maybe if holden got up off there ass and built the torana i would be in a different position -
O – the main reason that the Australian Auromotive industry hasn’t adapted to new technology or developed as quickly as the Europeans is purely to do with the size of our market as well as our population
I mean the The average Australian isn;t able to afford to bu a new car as often as their European counterparts which is why the average age of a car on Australian roads is approx 8 years whereas in Europe its probably 4 years old
As a result it takes longer for the Australian Car manufacturers to recover the initial capital outlay involved in research and development of a particluar model Which is why Ford and Holden make a seires of minor changes or facelifts over a 8-10 year period before a completely new car is released [VT > VZ 10 years for example] Whereas again in Europe its probably half that – and even less in the USA
As for the new Torana that should be here within the next couple of years.
Andrew M is right.. another prime example of an industry that receives as much Govt “assistance” as the Auto industry.. Is the Cotton industry. In particular the
H-U-G-E Cotton Farm in Queensland.
The owners of which give almost 10-20% of it back to the govt as a annual donation only to get it back the following year.
Cotton is the last thing we should be producing Particularly in times of drought.. Those millions of litres being used to produce cotton could assist farmers in NSW VIC and SA [along the Murray] in growing quality crops produce and livestock etc which we are known for.
Water is a finite resource and should be used in areas where it will get the greater return and benefit the majority not just one particular party.
yes the new accord is only 4 years old but when the VT came out diesles wer already taking off in europe so it is taking 12 years to get here when other manufatures are using tsi engine holden leverages watever fits into the engine bay the ve is nothing special 1billion the last gen merc c-class cost 4 billion but of couse merec has that money .