Ford Falcon Gains DSC & More
July 2, 2007 by Alborz Fallah
Following Suzuki’s announcement that ESP will come standard on the Japanese manufacturers Swift Sport, Ford Australia also announced today a host of key enhancements across its popular Falcon, Territory, Ranger and Focus model lines.
With sale targets dropping below expectations, Ford Australia has been forced into price reduction and upping equipment levels to keep buyer interest before the launch of the all new Ford Falcon and the revised Ford Territory.
As of today, Dynamic Stability Control (DSC or better know as ESP) will come standard equipment on all automatic petrol and XR Falcon sedans, (as well as across the entire Territory range).
There is also a change to the interior, with Ford’s premium Interior Command Centre (ICC) – now standard for the N/A Falcon XR6 as well as XR6 Turbo and XR8 models. The ICC comes with
- automatic climate control air conditioning with dual zone temperature control
- premium audio system with large colour screen,
- six-disc in-dash CD player,
- 150-watt amplifier and 150-watt sub-woofer
Responding to Holden who has recently launched a limited edition Commodore, the XR range now comes standard with 18-inch alloy wheels on the XR6 six-speed automatic, and both manual and automatic XR6 Turbo models (18-inch alloy wheels are already standard on XR8).
Finally the Falcon has caught up the VE Commodore which comes with ESP across the range. The Ford Falcon XT, Futura and Fairmont sedan models, along with all normally aspirated XR6 variants – six-speed manual, four-speed automatic and six-speed automatic are now all blessed with DSC.
The remaining models, the Falcon XR6 Turbo and XR8 models, as well as Fairmont Ghia, already come standard with DSC.
“With the release of BF Falcon MkII in October last year, we took the deliberate strategic action of repositioning some of our most popular Falcon models, in order to deliver an even more customer-focused price and specification set for our vehicles,” Ford Australia President Tom Gorman said.
“We have now taken these actions a step further, building on the overall competitiveness of the Falcon brand with the most comprehensively equipped Falcon range we have ever released.
In order to stay competitive with the Holden VE Commodore and Toyota’s ever popular Aurion, Ford have also cut the recommended retail price of the new Falcon XR range by over 4% – although Ford says considering the extra equipment, the savings are closer to 15%!
This is in repsonse to Holden’s newly release VE Commodore Lumina which comes standard with 18″ wheels and a whole list of other features.
“Recommended retail pricing on the Falcon XR range has been reduced by up to 4.3 per cent. In conjunction with the host of improvements and pricing actions we introduced on BF Falcon MkII, the current Falcon range is now a standout in terms of value for money.” Mr Gorman said.
The table below shows the new pricing structure taking affect today for the Ford Falcon range:
Click on the picture above to see the table more clearly.
Print it: 
About time they made stability control standard. Interesting to see what, if anything, Holden will do to try and take back their ’safety’ edge.
DSC is a great addition to an already superior driveline the Falcon has over the Commode !!
I have to disagree Rick,
I think the VE chassis is far more refined than the aging Falcon.
We all hope the new Falcon will be as refined as the VE.
The six speed auto is standard on the falcon, isn’t it? DSC had been standard for a while as well I believed. Meh, I’m probably wrong about the DSC.
Um alborz, Rick did say DRIVELINE.
Falcon has always had a more refined engine (and more powerful) than the coarse and noisey V6 in the Omega and a world class 6 speed auto to boot.
All the critics agree!
Orion will improve on an already brillant chassis which will exploit Ford smooth as rear end.
Yeah thats a good invention and all, the whole DSG transmission thing… But it’s boring! Where is the fun in an automatic!? Sure enough, it is a semi-auto, but the fun lies directly in manuals! They rock! They just rule! And the Focus is going to make the Evo X look slow. Has anyone seen the Evo X? It’s damn ugly!
Compared to the new WRX the Evo is crap!
Oh yeah! The new Falcon ROX!!!
C’mon the Orion!
Azza DSG and DSC… not the same thing.
Ha… yeah i know… I was meant to say that in the RS Focus section and realised that I’d clicked on the wrong article a bit too late… whoops.
I seriously think this azza guy is a dumbass. Saying the Evo X looks crap in comparison to the less advanced WRX, which is going to fail, because the design is a disaster! The Evo X will not look slow next to the Focus, because it will handle far better (best handling production car). Hence, will have better track times, looks better, more reliable, safer, quicker off the line (most likely) as 0-100km is said to be done in 4.5 seconds, and have more power and torque. It may be heavier, but will have at least 20 more kw, have a faster shifting gearbox, and a manual will be available (if you want fun), and will smash it around a track regardless. So, basically, for a new person, you biased comments are clearly anti-mitsubishi hands down!
The only thing about the VE that is refined is the chassis yet most other avenues are very ordinary at the best. The V6 is ruff/gruff, harsh, vocal and not a happy revver at all while the transmissions would have to be at the bottom amoung those of the large car segment. The quality lags behind most of it’s competitors while the lower grade models are not very well equipped either. For a so-called 1 billion dollar investment, the VE is a very ordinary car.
I believe the new Falcon will be a welcomed relief so we can stop with the VE hype (that has failed to meet most expectations) while i believe Toyota will further develope the already quite reputable Aurion. Development of the TRD version will assist with greater development of the Aurion while Toyota is sure to improve on it’s already quite extensive offerings once the Orion arrives. All-in-all… i believe the new Falcon Orion and Toyota Aurion will be better cars then Holdens offering.
Yeah, agreed, all competitors have a gearbox they can brag about, Holden have the same 4 speed from the VN bomadore, as well as the option of a clunky 6 speed we have never heard of. Ford have made the economical fast shifting ZF standard for some time, and the same will apply to the new Falcon. Toyota have a Lexus sourced 6 speeder. Mitsubishi use a 5 speed sequential with updated ratios and multiplex wiring, sourced from a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 7-9 GT-a model!