Ford Look to Australia
21 Jul, 2007
11 Comments 
Ford are considering following General Motor’s example and develop their next rear-wheel drive global platform here in Australia.
Australian engineers will develop the drivetrains for the new Mustang as well as Fairlane-based long-wheelbase limousine platforms for the Crown Victoria, Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Car which are scheduled to arrive by 2011.
Perhaps most promising of all is that Ford are considering manufacturing these vehicles here in Australia and then exporting them to the Middle-East and parts of Europe. Only a few days ago it seemed Ford Australia were in dire straits, and now their outlook could not be more promising.
Ford Australia boss, Tom Gorman has talked down the proposal, assuring the public that these decisions are still very much in their early stages and nothing is certain.
“We have a fantastic rear-wheel-drive product. The product development team globally understands how strong our product is. We are actively in discussions about that but it is still very, very early days. There have been no decisions made whatsoever.”
He continues by explaining that the discontinuation of the iconic inline-six will further progress Ford Australia toward becoming a more global brand.
“It brings us one step closer to better integrating with Ford’s global product development. The longer that we remain an ‘orphan’ in terms of our technologies in Australia, the less likely we are to fully participate in all the activity that’s under way in rear-wheel-drive.”
The new global Ford 3.5-litre V6 which is to replace the inline-six will be introduced on the Falcon in 2010. In base form, the engine produces roughly 196kW of power but a twin-turbo performance version could produce 309kW of power and 542Nm of torque. Ford says the twin-turbo can combine V8 performance with V6 fuel consumption.
The plans also stipulate that the Mustang may be engineered and sold locally which - if approved - will be the fastest car Ford Australia has released, powered by a 309kW twin-turbo V6.
All petty rivalries aside, both Ford and Holden Australia are doing us proud by producing vehicles of global quality as well as increasing global recognition of our capabilities in both manufacturing and engineering.
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July 21st, 2007 at 2:29 pm
I bet this doesn’t make mainstream news.
Anyways looks like there may be jobs for the Geelong workers, and also maybe some new jobs created. Ford has to do this to survive in Australia.
Now i hope the duratec isnt going to be 3.5 ltrs when it gets here.
(Report)
July 21st, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Glen, this has no need to make mainstream news.
It’s not confirmed at all yet and as Gorman says, it’s in absolute early stages.
Holden never received pats on the back and mainstream media coverage when it announced production of the Zeta platform, why on earth should it be any different for Ford?
This is something Ford should have considered much earlier, it’s simply something to instill some form of hope for all those who have none left in the marque.
(Report)
July 21st, 2007 at 5:46 pm
This is the best way forward for Ford Oz.
I wonder if we’ll see the LWB fairlane make a big comeback in 2011.
Is there any news on the Hurricane V8, I suspect it’ll be a feature in the new platform as well.
(Report)
July 21st, 2007 at 6:22 pm
benjie,
i think what glen was getting at was the fact that the plant closure in geelong absolutely screamed in the headlines as carelessly putting people out of jobs when it was far from the truth.
it just shows people love to focus on the negatives
(Report)
July 22nd, 2007 at 11:09 am
That is exactly right Andrew, When the 1st reports came out about the geelong plant closure that was only speculation as well, but Ford had to act on that because of course employees were starting to ask questions. But the media just seems to want to bring down the local Auto makers for some reason.
Also Ford have announced the closure well in advanced. Its not like they have told everyone that the plant is going to close next week good luck finding a job. They said it would close in 2010 and they would see if they could get them other jobs, and as I said if this RWD platform goes ahead they may have to hire extra staff to cope with the load.
The media should of ran headlines when Holden’s Zeta platform was going to be announced as GM’s world RWD platform, instead it got a mere mention in the buisness section. But at the mere mention that GM may have cancelled that idea it was front page news
(Report)
July 22nd, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Glen, the speculation turned out to be true, so the media hype was necessary.
If the article hadn’t been produced, Ford would have remained tight lipped for who knows how long.
The media doesn’t want to bring down the auto industry, that’s just absurd. They are simply reporting on things that affect people - such as so many direct and indirect job losses. I wouldn’t expect them to do any otherwise.
(Report)
July 22nd, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Blue Blood: the Hurricane V8 is now known as the “Boss” in the US, so I’m guessing our Boss V8 will probably be replaced with either 5.8L or 6.2L variant of their Boss some time in the future. Apparently the new Boss’ go into production in 2008, so I don’t think we will see any of them in the Orion Falcons…. but you never know eh. Supposedly they renamed it from Hurricane to Boss because of Hurrican Katrina.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Boss_engine
(Report)
July 22nd, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Benji, but it was still speculation. All I’m saying is that the mainstream media only seem to concentrate on the negative things thathappen in our industry not the positives.
Ford have hired extra engineers for the new global light truck platform, no mention on seven news.
But anyway by the sounds of it Ford were going to make announcement about the plant soon anyway but those 600 jobs may be gone in 3 years time, better than being in 2 weeks time. But in that 3 years if this story is true about the platform those 600 may have another job within Ford and maybe 200-300 more hired on top of that. Who cares if its speculation, its good news and something to hope for. Report on it thats all I’m saying rather than report that some doped up american tart who went to jail for drink driving and may have suffered.
(Report)
July 22nd, 2007 at 3:21 pm
we all know the media in Oz like to highlight the negative aspects of news stories. Ford hung on to the I6 for a long time after people thought it would be gone….goood on them I say. Times change and the business landscape has changed dramatically. Holden sacked 600 people in adelaide not long ago but that didnt make many headlines. Ford bashing is alive and well.
(Report)
July 22nd, 2007 at 4:25 pm
rick, I live in Adelaide and as far as I remember there was quite a bit of media coverage of the Holden sackings here, especially the stories about pressure on the local government to help them like they did with Mitsubishi (even though they had already bailed Holden out of trouble previously). But yeah, it didn’t really get a lot of negative publicity, simply because they asked for 600 voluntary redundancies and got them all fairly easily without too much of a backlash from workers or trade unions.
(Report)
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:18 am
600 jobs lost 300 extra made!:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/.....89026.html
(Report)