2008 Ford FG Falcon gets 5-star ANCAP rating
August 6, 2008 by George Skentzos
It’s official, the new Ford FG Falcon is the safest car ever made in Australia, having secured a five-star rating from the Australasian New Car Assessment Program, ANCAP.
- David Twomey
At a well-attended media conference today the President of Ford Australia, Mr Bill Osborne, said the industry first was a vindication of the company’s faith in the safety of the new FG Falcon, all the more so because it had been secured by the base model Falcon XT, which does not have curtain airbags as standard.
The ANCAP rating will apply to all petrol-engined models of the Falcon sedan, including the V8, but does not apply to the Utility, which must be tested separately, or E-Gas powered models, which currently do not have Dynamic Stability Control, Ford’s version of ESC, fitted.
Mr Osborne told CarAdvice that one of Ford’s top engineering priorities was to get DSC into the E-Gas Falcon and he expected this would have been achieved by early next year.
The E-Gas Falcon is being increasingly marketed by Ford, not just as a fleet vehicle, but as a cost effective option for families who want to stay in a large car but are concerned about growing fuel costs.
“The petrol FG Falcon sedan range has been judged by ANCAP as being the safety leader amongst locally-manufactured vehicles, cementing Ford’s long standing reputation for safety leadership in Australia,” Mr Osborne said.
“We design our cars to deliver real-world safety benefits for our customers. This result is a resounding third party endorsement of the extensive safety development program undertaken for the all-new FG Falcon.
“Not only is the FG Falcon the safest vehicle ever produced in this country, it is also competitive with the safest sedans in the world.
“These safety test results add further validation to the extensive crash simulation process and physical crash test program conducted by Ford Australia for the FG Falcon, which was the most comprehensive in the company’s history.”
Mr Osborne said the ANCAP result vindicated Ford’s own testing in which more than 38 different vehicle crash modes were investigated during the course of the vehicle’s development, with 426 full vehicle-representative physical crash tests and more than 5000 start-of-the-art simulated crash tests completed.
The Chair of ANCAP, Mr Lauchlan McIntosh was on hand to congratulate Ford and to praise the Falcon which he said “now leads the pack in safety for the large Australian-made family car.”
He said ANCAP now had high expectations that this achievement would encourage other manufacturers to strive to build five-star cars.
When tested soon after release the Holden Commodore scored 27.5 points and got a four star rating, while the Toyota Aurion scored 30 points and also got four stars.
Mr McIntosh said the Falcon scored a very commendable 34.61 points out of a possible 37 points for the ANCAP test, and this was the highest score ever by an Australian made car “by a long margin.”
However it was not all good news for the Falcon with the FG Falcon scoring a relatively average two stars for pedestrian safety out of a possible four.
Mr McIntosh said; “This is an improvement on the previous Falcon, but there is still plenty of room for improving pedestrian protection.”
For the Falcon to be in the running for the five-star rating Ford had to donate an additional crash test vehicle to ANCAP so the challenging Pole Test could be conducted.
Mr Osborne said at the launch of the FG Falcon that a vehicle would be made available for this test, which was a departure from the previous attitude of Australian car manufacturers, which have previously refused to provide the extra vehicle for the Pole Test.
The five-star score by the Falcon is also a strong vindication of Ford’s claims that it did not need to offer curtain airbags as standard in the base XT to achieve the safety rating.
The vehicle tested was fitted with what Ford calls a ‘chest/head’ side airbag and this was sufficient for the car to win the rating.
Previously ANCAP has indicated that cars without a curtain airbag, which protects the upper areas of both front and rear passengers, had little chance of achieving a five-star rating.
Mr McIntosh said the Ford had set a new standard and it may mean that in future ANCAP would have to look at an additional rating, beyond five-stars, for vehicles with curtain airbags.
Ford Australia Vice President of Product Development Trevor Worthington said a world-class body structure and comprehensive suite of active and passive safety features had given the Falcon the opportunity to score a five-star safety rating.
He said the company’s long held reputation for designing vehicles to deliver innovative real-world safety benefits ensured that the safety development program for the new Falcon has remained a step ahead of growing consumer awareness of the importance of vehicle safety.
Mr Osborne told CarAdvice that Ford would be promoting the five-star rating of the Falcon by displaying an ANCAP sticker on all vehicles, and this would be added to other five-star vehicles in the Ford fleet, including Focus and Mondeo.
He said safety would be the point-of-difference that Ford would offer the Australian buying public.
He added that while the large-car segment of the market was struggling Ford was seeing growing sales for its entrant in the market and he expected even stronger success in the future, on the back of the Falcon’s excellent safety rating.
Print it: 
Congratulations Ford! For those who like numbers, this article gives them all they’d need for conclusive proof that the FG is the safest Aussie car.
AUSTRALIAN cars for AUSTRALIAN people, not parts that come in a box from JAPAN to be be put together here as a tax rip off for Toyota. Have you heard the term clean sheet of paper? That’s what you get with Holden/Ford,jobs for Australian Engineers and Designers…maybe your kids will go to Japan and take up one of these profession there. The sackings in this country is caused by people like, yourself selling your soul for a dollar and defending imported goods against home grown…..
Adam (aka Mada)
On the initial article that Car advice offered on this particular new item I posted a passing comment that made you fly off the handle.
“Well done Ford, you are now at a level of safety that many other manufacturers have been at for the last decade.
And Holden still have not made it yet?????? “
I apologise if I upset you but I was merely alluding to the fact that many other manufacturers with various different models had achieved a 5 star level of safety well before Holden or Ford. I know the truth can be confronting but it is the truth!
Many of these manufacturers, mostly European and some Japanese were well ahead in safety and were and still are achieving 5 star ratings more than 10 years ago!
Two such examples are the Peugeot 306 and the 97-01 Forester. Both Five star cars in their time and still today! Both were designed 11-12 years ago! I was merely voicing my displeasure that both Ford and Holden Australia took more than a decade to catch up, and Holden still has not.
The fact that they have not done the optional pole test to gain the 5th star worries me a little (That smaller cars like the Toyota Yaris have!!!). Are they afraid their car will fail the test and not achieve the extra star?
Who knows, but well done Ford for finally taking the step and achieving a well deserved safety rating! Lets hope Holden does the same!
Wheelnut, although i acknowledge your view on buying a safe car being prepared for a crash, the same can be said about driving safely. If i choose to buy a safe car incase i have an accident, it is the same as me choosing to drive in a way that doesnt subject me to a greater chance of having an accident. Im confident in my driving, but not confident in the housewive driving the prado and merging into my lane at 100kmh because she cant see properly through her thailand knock-off Gucci sunnies…
TP,
I feel that you
a) have no friends because you upset everyone around you. b) sit here stirring people and having a laugh
or most frightening
c) actually believe the crap you (and toyota) spin.
Bloody hell TP. You don’t half open yourself up for it.
Give em enough rope eh. 2/10 try harder next time.
Its like this. Congratulations to Ford for making the Falcon 5 stars. It took too long. Even though it has a 5-Star rating unless there is a safety propaganda campaign put out by the government, this won’t increase the sales. Toyota makes cars for the everyday person, but doe not make cars for the Australian conditions (bar Landcruiser in the outback).
From Wheelnut’s comment about buying a safe car cause you aren’t confident in your driving. What happens if you are going across a 4 way intersection at lights legally and someone runs a red light and t-bones you? That id definitely where it want the 5 star rating, especially a good side pole test.
Lol golf = ““One man can turn a positive into a negative…just one man…” – haha so true its so funny reading the posts after one person puts one stupid comment, and tragic in a way because the topic goes completely awol.
TP i reckon you should be always be the first poster of each article that comes out, so all the following comments will be nothing on the article itself!!! hahaha.
TP you are a one star simpleton.
I guess it’s hard to keep on topic when your precious coffin-on-wheels get’s completely reamed.
Thanks for wiping bowel-movement on this site day in,day out.
My Auld Dears have had their Falcon for 3 years and it’s required nothing but routine servicing. Not even a rattle to fix. Falcons are reliable, on the whole. Lancia Gammas weren’t.
Since it was ignored in the previous story:
All those who claim say that Aurion/Commodore wheren’t tested for the side impact test, all that it would have gotten them is 2 points. Falcon scored 4.6points more than Aurion and 7.1 more than Commodore. Bit more humble pie for ya…
Crash Mode FG Falcon VE Commodore Toyota Aurion
Offset frontal 14.6 11.5 13.6
Side impact 16.0 15.0 15.4
Bonus points 2.0 1.0 1.0
Pole test 2.0 Not eligible Not tested
Combined 34.6 27.5 30.0
Star rating 5 stars 4 stars 4 stars
Source: ANCAP, August 2008
Keep clutching at straws TP.. You’ll run out soon enough.
Toyota dont sell many cars in Europe because people there like cars which are actually a pleasure to drive and look at……..Toyota build cars that are not only ugly but are totally devoid of any character and engineering substance. They have never built a new car because all they do is change the badge and call it new………pathetic really. Sure they are selling at the moment but thats just because they slash the price so much. Well done to Ford Australia……..FG Falcon….the best car made in australia and the safest !!!
I still want one here in the US.
Brain damage…………ha ha ha ha ha you aint wrong!
When one lives with reality in mind TP it is the Ford that comes out in front in reviews on most areas you wrongly state Ford is at a one star rating! One does not need to be Einstein to work out if it was one star rated then it would have lost the comparo with the Toyota Aurion on this website! But then again being a whippersnapper nurse come accountant come Uni student come expert at cars……you only look at sales numbers like an abacus!
Go bang your head more harder as you might come good? Will be very hard bangs one must assume to awaken you from your boring Toyo world.
And you support the funny PR spin……”THE GAME HAS CHANGED” and at same time with Toyota’s how hum lacking 5star safety rating which they neglect as more obsessed about charging a certain amount and leaving some stuff out of inclusions! Smell the roses mate!
BOSSCR Says: August 6th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
To sum up in one word…………..AGREE!
I just wanna say congrat to car advice on this article! I just read one on carpoint and all they bag on about is the lack of curtain airbags on XT FG. Ok, they are $300 but compared to other brand new cars on the market, a 5* Falcon has been awarded this and thats that. This was a good read on what the cars safety is about. Keep up this site, its awesome!
FG Falcon is much safer than VE and the Name Changing Aurion even without rear curtain airbags……….thats a fact now !!!! If Toyota stopped just recycling very outdated platforms maybe they would be stronger…….
It didn’t take long…!
Lets charge and charge and charge and forget 5star safety rating!
Congrats FORD for changing the game!
This evolution of the Falcon to the current FG is great. Now that they have a 5 star rating in safety I believe it could increase their sales marketly.
Great effort Ford Australia because now we do have a world class car coming from Australia.
Congratulations Ford.
Word Class Product at a world class price.
Australia needs companies like this to stay competitive in this world and everyone should support them!!
well done ford!!!
This thing is every bit as good as the euros and leaves the aurion and commo for dead, im sure it must be hard to hear that said TP and Dingo!!!
Well done Ford, now for the Territory…
Wheelnut, you’re a hero : P
TP – one thing that has puzzled me – are you single-ply or 2-ply? Wheelnut – people buy safe cars not because of their own lack of driving ability but because they have to share the road with the likes of you.
This better win Wheels Car Of The Year
“Who knows, but well done Ford for finally taking the step and achieving a well deserved safety rating! Lets hope Holden does the same!”
The VE cant achieve 5 stars ever, only scored 11.5 in the offset frontal and the minimum score required is 12.5. Will need to totally redesign the front end at this point.
Heres an interesting link for those interested, discusses the VE’s dreaded A pillars and the ramifications of same;
http://www.editorial.carsales......50216.aspx
Interesting read, as someone mentioned earlier, Holden went
for looks rather than safety and engineering excellence, congrats to Ford, this is easily the best car made in OZ.
This result is kinda expected given it has the freshest design in its class. Good work Ford.
TP,
Wrong on the Toyota fleet sales – again.
Just over half of Toyotas sales are passenger, where the market averages out to about 50-50 private-fleet.
The rest of Toyotas sales are in the SUV/Commercial sectors where the ratio is about 20-80 private-fleet.
And (private sales) Falcon outsells Aurion 3-2!
Anyone claiming this 5 star result won’t affect sales may be right, because the falcon sales are already “on the up” without this, but it probaly will help.
Wheelnut, your thoery is flawed, people consider many aspects when buying a car, including safety – two examples of the proof are the two star Barina and the “look at me I’ve got lots of airbags” Camry. People consider safety because of other people’s inabillities, not their own.
(But I suspect that it’s just sour grapes FG betters VE)
Why all this talk about who does what proportion of fleet sales?
WHO CARES!!!
If your foot touches the ball on its way through, it’s still a goal.
I will add to the long list of people saying well done to Ford Oz.
Now I just hope the management team in Broadmeadows & particularly Bill Osbourne have the smarts to advertise this result loudly to the rest of the Ford world. Surely the Yanks have to sit up & take notice of just what a superb job the engineering team here in Oz have done with this falcon & use it as the basis of the RWD platform throughout the entire FoMoCo world. Time will tell I suppose, but it just seems such a waste if it is ignored (again).
Agree Golfy – who cares, this article is about first five car rating for any australian built car, congratulations Ford and have raised the benchmark for a the competitors.
Now the question is whether the sales will hit the mark that they want/need to achieve…
Finally a couple of posts that are on topic, well done to you and Ford. It would seem thatthe long delay in releasing the FG(6 years after last major model update) was worth the wait. Hopefully they will sell enough of them to justify designing its replacement here and not replacing it with a slightly modified US model.
Congrats Ford. What a great result.
I would be pumping this in all the adverts. Maybe even paraphrase the following:
“Previously ANCAP has indicated that cars without a curtain airbag, which protects the upper areas of both front and rear passengers, had little chance of achieving a five-star rating.
Mr McIntosh said the Ford had set a new standard and it may mean that in future ANCAP would have to look at an additional rating, beyond five-stars, for vehicles with curtain airbags.”
Into something like “the Ford had set a new standard and it may mean that in future ANCAP would have to look at an additional rating, beyond five-stars”
Also promote the scores. The Falcon has scored massively better. According to Go-Auto, it meant that the Falcon was in the Top 7% of all vehicles ever tested by ANCAP / NCAP!
The biggest thing missed here is the addition of ESC / DSC to the E-Gas Falcon by early next year.
This means that the current Gas setup will be updated!
Dlr1,
Mate why have a go at me for the reply to that twit TP’s rubbish? Didn’t you bother to read the rest “on topic” comments in my post??
Phil C,
i already picked up on that mate.
when E-Gas gets DSC, it means it will also get sequential vapour injection (or better) on its LPG range
thats the story i would be more interested in…….
Phil C,
also,
if what you say in that the falcon scored in the top 7%, imagine what it would do if it were tested with the full compliment of airbags.
as it already stands, if the falcon was a swimmer, it would easily beat its competition with out shaving down or wearing a shark suit.
wow, what other car can compete on awesomeness of the G6E turbo… 5+star crash rating, reverse camera, parking sensors, and 0-100 in 5.1sec… what an insane car all for 54,990. Have to go for something from Merc or BMW for something like that. This should be exported to britain and wipe the HSV’s off their little island.
Don’t you guys have anything better to do than just flame each other all day?
Nope…. i spend my entire day and life on caradvice intently watching for people to grill because its so entertaining and the only break i get from it is too sleep and walk too centerlink for poverty payments…. its so totally worth it dude…this is my life.
Just saw the 1st advert for the 5 Star Falcon during the Olympic Telecast, they chose the best time to advertise it. They better show it again during the opening ceremony and throughout the games.
Did they mention how unreliable Falcons are?
No TP they only mentioned FACTS not your unfounded opinions.
You obviosly have never owed a falcon long term – can’t be beaten for long term durability.
TP, Toilet Paper
i need a sh&t finally you are needed,
remember 5 stars for the unreliable Falcons,
4 stars for the unreliable Camion.
When toyoda start to make cars worth defending i should let you know “you moron”.
Go Ford
5 *****
5 *****
5 *****
5 *****
5 *****
thats it 5 stars.
Still so very, very bitter TP.
I try to just keep to topic without any baiting and TP comes on with this rubbish.
Anyways back on topic the ad has been on throughout the opening ceremony so that are going to flog the heck out of this, like they should.
I just thought of something, they’re talking about adding a 6th star for cars with curtain airbags, why didn’t they do that before when they made it mandatory for cars to have ESP to get 5 star, which just made matters confusing because before Jan 1 2007 cars that didn’t have ESP could get the 5 stars so now what we have is 2 5 star ratings. They should of just brought in the 6th star then so the ESP cars could be promoted to 6 stars and therefor no confusion.
As I drive a lot with my job, I go through a new car every 10 months. So I have driven many cars, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a new falcon. In the last 3 years I have had 2 VZ’s and 1 VE commodore, 1BF Falcon and 1 Camry and I am nearly due for a new car, and I will say that, I will NEVER touch another VE. There was always something wrong with it, and Holden never had parts to fix it. So if the FG is as good as the BF then I’ll have one next time.
Turd Pool (TP) clutching at straws again..
Reliability is the ability to keep working time and time again over an extended period of time [more than 5-10 years] as people are ABLE to RELY on them year after year after year.
Therefore TP; – once again; using 1958 [the year Toyota arrived in oz] as a starting point; how many Locally Built Toyotas that are older than 10 years are there still on our roads compared to Fords and Holdens?
Toyota Paul I think your just a little bitter that Toyota chose not to spend the extra $100,000 they estimated it would cost to do the pole test,with Toyota having all that extra cash to spare dont you think it a little strange they didnt take it up to get that extra STAR,I do! I thought you were into all those safety and nanny controls !