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The face-lifted LV Focus XR5 Turbo, unlike its LT series South African siblings, is a completely German designed and manufactured five-door, five-seater boasting not only the sporty good looks deserved of wearing the XR badge, but a tremendous and dynamic engine and handling package sure to delight the driver in all of us.

From the supportive embrace of the Recaro bucket seats to the passive-aggressive attitude of the restyled (kinetic) front end, the XR5T offers a combination of looks, practicality, performance and price that has lured many an eight-cylinder purist in recent times. Not hard to see then how this little champion has earned an almost cult-like following.

Far from being a bare-bones boy racer though, XR5T includes such modern niceties as a sweet sounding Sony MP3 compatible premium six CD tuner with remote audio controls, a sassy leather bound tilt/telescopic adjustable steering wheel, multi-function trip computer, sports instrument cluster, power windows with one touch up front, power and heated wing mirrors, air-conditioning, remote control central locking with keyless starter button, Bluetooth mobile phone connectivity, and height adjustable halogen headlamps.

You also pick up some juicy external appendages with a set of salient 18” alloy wheels (space saver spare), unique twin exhaust outlets, front and rear fog lamps, moulded sill panel skirts, oversized rear spoiler, clear tail light lenses and larger diametre rear discs all adding to XR5T’s already athletic appeal.

But aesthetics aside, a hot hatch needs a pretty big heart to win any respect at all given the amount of competition out there (think VW GTi, Volvo C30-T5, Honda Civic Type R, Mazda MPS3, Subaru WRX, Holden Astra SRi), let alone keep fans coming back for more with every re-incarnation released. XR5T is one such car, and here’s why.

The 2.5-litre, in-line five-cylinder, turbocharged engine is the embodiment of all that’s right in forced induction. Strong, linear boost and flat, early torque delivery make the 166kW, 320Nm, at 6000rpm and 1600rpm respectively, offering a lithesome, overtly usable affair that has an uncanny habit of putting on more pace than you’d at first give heed to.

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Production for the American market is rumoured to be in Mexico, however we are still not sure where Australian delivered vehicles will be built. Perhaps in Europe or Ford’s plant in Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil?

We have already seen official pictures of the new Fiesta in 3-door guise and we definitely like what we see.

Our American photographer, however, can’t seem to get enough, taking advantage of flat tyre for some close up shots.

The two Ford staff couldn’t believe their eyes as our photographer subtly ran across the road to take some interior shots!

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“All-wheel-drives and front-wheel drives are pretty spectacular and they’re going to continue to get better”, Mulally told Drive.com.au. “We are aggressively transforming our product line to have more fuel-efficient small and medium sized cars and utilities. We’re doing that worldwide.

“The real focus to be successful long term is going to be that you have absolutely dynamite smaller vehicles to support worldwide [consumer demands].”

Mulally did offer hope that Ford Australia would be an engineering base for the global manufacturer, thereby allowing scope for input from Aussie designers. After all, he has been quoted as saying that the current Falcon is a “dynamite vehicle”, and that there is “going to be a significant market worldwide for the Falcon.”

Whether that is in rear-wheel-drive, or another platform is unclear at this stage.

“It will be driven by what the customer wants and values, and especially the fuel economy and the performance,” said Mulally.

What do you think? Is it time for the Falcon to switch drive layout?

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But as long in the tooth as it may well be, it’s still a decent and relevant car, and from an aesthetic perspective, is probably your last chance to grab a more traditionally styled soft roader from Ford before the funky new-age Kuga arrives late next year.

This fourth iteration of the Escape a Taiwanese built version of Mazda’s now retired Tribute, albeit with a re-modelled nose and tailgate. The idea being to move the appearance in-line with Ford’s kinetic design principles, as seen in (LV) Focus, (MA) Mondeo, and (FG) Falcon for a more instantly recognisable family image.

Inside things are much the same as they’ve always been, somewhat American, practical yet understated, and expectedly comfortable, though the change in backlighting colour (now blue) can make reading the smaller radio and climate buttons a little blurry and hard to distinguish at night.

Also, for no apparent reason, the auxiliary controls of the six stack CD tuner and climate control fascia don’t dim with the instrumentation panel lights giving the whole cabin a disconcerting blue hue on dark country roads.

Trivial issues aside though Escape has a pleasant cabin, simple in its function and very easy to live with, especially for those with kids and/or pets, without being overly agricultural and plastic as some soft-roaders tend to be. It’s also surprisingly quiet for an SUV which makes for a better experience on longer highway trips.

Under the bonnet the popular 2.3-litre, DOHC, in-line four-cylinder engine (Tribute, previous generation Mazda6, Mazda3 SP23, Focus, etc) makes an acceptable 109kW at a heady 6000rpm, though loses a little in the way of torque managing only 199Nm from 4000rpm. Whilst hardly a powerhouse the performance is reasonably tidy and with fuel consumption returns reflecting mid 10.0L/100km, it’s a worthy compromise.

Despite a solid engine, the four-speed transmission feels a little dead and has a habit of stumbling into gear. It’s also slow to react, especially on kick down. A good hard stab to the floor will eventually see the desired result but by then you may have missed a chance to pass, not a desirable trait on the open road. Still, around town it is bearable and with the overdrive switched off Escape can keep pace in fast flowing city traffic.

A part-time 4×4 system with electronic lockable centre differential provides enough traction for light off-road work or a weekend trip to the snow but will only work well within its limitations - meaning don’t expect too much (ground clearance is 208mm).

With a standard recipe strut front/multi-link rear-end suspension set up Escape is compliant, comfortable and easy to maneuver. A turning circle of 10.8 metres and good all round visibility makes it simple to park, as well as swift in responding to the rigors of being thrown around suburban streets and car parks.

Up back an adequate cargo area accessible from a split window and top hinged tail gate assembly provides more than enough room for a small family’s requirements and thanks to 60/40 split fold rear seats can be expanded to an impressive 1792 litres of space. There’s also a nifty net (not shown) included to stop any loose shopping ending up on your toes and a retractable cargo blind to keep you stuff away from prying eyes.

The middle seat belt being roof mounted (as are child seat anchorages) can be a hassle when only two of the seats are in use and packing items around it can be like a game of Tetris, but for the odd occasion it’s actually going to be of bother, is easily worked around.

Joining the feature list are power windows and mirrors, remote central locking, leather covered tilt adjustable steering wheel with remote audio and cruise control buttons, removable roof racks, 16-inch alloy wheels, front fog lamps and power antenna.

Perhaps indicative of Escape’s age though there is no auxiliary audio socket for your iPod, no Bluetooth connectivity, no self locking doors, no trip computer, no auto wipers and no dusk sensing headlamps meaning the rivals may have the edge when it comes to ticking boxes.

Escape manages a commendable four-star ANCAP rating and with anti-lock brakes (ABS), electronic brake assist (EBA), electronic brake force distribution (EBD), traction control system (TCS), dual front and side airbags is a good deal for the price - but for the glaring omission of electronic stability program(ESP).

While some buyers may baulk at the prospect of owning more basic, older designed car I think the feel of Escape’s drive and decent looks will retain a few fans for a while to come, and if only it had ESP and a better auto box could have managed a far better overall result. But as it stands the competition is tough out there and sadly Escape is a little behind the game.

CarAdvice Overall Rating:
How does it Drive:
How does it Look:
How does it Go:

Specifications:

• Engine: 2261cc DOHC four-cylinder (16 valve)
• Power: 109kW @ 6000rpm
• Torque: 199Nm @ 4000rpm
• Transmission: Four-speed auto with overdrive
• Brakes: Four-wheel disc with ABS, EBA & EBD
• Driven Wheels: Part Time 4×4 & Centre Diff Lock
• Fuel Type: 91RON Unleaded
• Fuel Tank Capacity: 61 litres
• Fuel Consumption: 10.5 litres/100km (Combined)
• ANCAP Rating: Four Stars
• Safety: Front & side airbags, ESP, TCS
• Service Interval: 6 month/10,000km
• Spare Wheel: Full size matching alloy
• Turning Circle: 10.8 metres
• Towing Capacity: 1000kg (Braked)
• Warranty: 3 years/100,000km
• Weight: 1,578kg (Tare)
• Wheels: 16 x 7.0” Alloy

Road Test the Rivals:

• Honda CR-V - $31,990 (RRP)
• Hyundai Tucson - $31,490 (RRP)
• KIA Sportage - $30,990 (RRP)
• Nissan X-Trail - $33,990 (RRP)
• Subaru Forester - $31,990 (RRP)
• Toyota RAV4 - $33,990 (RRP)
• Volkswagen Tiguan - $33,990 (RRP) 

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Osborne stated in a telephone press conference this afternoon that he would return to the US to take on a job outside the automotive industry.

Having worked in a variety of roles within Ford for the past 18 years, he has been at the helm of Ford Australia since February 2008, in that time overseeing the crucial launch of the new FG Falcon range.

He leaves in a similar fashion to former Ford Australia President Tom Gorman who relinquished the position he had held since 2004 also to take on a role outside the automotive industry.

Osborne insists the decision to resign was a personal choice, and is in no way related to Ford Australia’s current difficulties.

“I still believe Ford is destined for success,” Osborne said. “I remain a Ford stockholder and I retain the utmost confidence in the company.”

During his short stint, Osborne had been instrumental in developing a new business plan for Ford Australia, including the decision to produce the Focus locally from 2011, leaving the company on “a very sound footing for the next few years”.

His resignation will take effect come September, with Ford Australia to announce his successor in the coming weeks.

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Ford Australia believes the increasingly volatile price of petrol, plus economic factors such as interest rates have changed Australian’s desire for large cars.

The 350 jobs would result in a production slow down of about 20 to 25 per cent. Essentially this means instead of 52 Falcons and Territorys produced per hour, that number will be reduced to 40 units. The Blue Oval will now produce only 285 cars per day, as oppose to the current 365.

The Territory has seen a noticeable slow down with only 1028 of the SUVs sold last month, compared to 1555 in July 2007. Meanwhile Ford sold 3448 new FG Falcons last month, an increase of only 262 cars over the same month last year.

“We expect the total industry to soften for the second half of this year, It started in July and we anticipate that we’ll see more of these actions across the industry for the rest of this year.” McAlary said.

This is the second announcement of job losses by Ford, following the earlier announcement that 600 jobs would be lost when local six-cylinder engine production ends in 2010.

Ford’s announcement comes amid last week’s Government report into the Australian car manufacturing industry, which called for a reduction in import tariffs from 10 per cent to 5 per cent by 2010, as well as a move towards more environmentally friendly cars.

The report also suggested the federal government should bring forward its $500 million green car fund to start in 2009.

The good news however, is that Ford will hire at least an additional 300 staff when the company starts local production of the Ford Focus in 2011. Production is expected to increase by roughly 40,000/pa from 2011.

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The new technology will allow real-time traffic updates delivered through the navigation system, assisting the driver to avoid traffic congestion and delays.

“As the first car company in Australia to offer Suna Traffic Channel in an integrated vehicle solution, we are extremely pleased to be able to provide such relevant and useable technology to our customers from August production onwards.”

The new system gathers traffic information from a range of sources; including traffic control centres, traffic lights, road sensors and probe vehicles, and then transmitted via an FM broadcast.

It can display information such as how long the delay will be, the cause of the delay and the estimated new arrival time.

Currently, the Suna Traffic Channel coverage will only be available in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, with remaining metropolitan areas to be added over the next 24 months.

In addition to the new traffic system, all FG Falcon satellite navigation systems are now equipped with the latest Sensis Whereis Version 15 map data.

Satellite navigation with Suna Traffic Channel is available as an option on all FG Falcon sedans, as well as FG Falcon Ute XR6, XR6 Turbo, XR8 and FPV models, for the recommended retail price of $2,290.

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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.

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Either way, the year-to-date figures are still optimistic, being 2.6 per cent above last year’s record highs. Whether or not 2008 will top 2007’s all-time record is still to be seen.

“Higher fuel prices, interest rates and the wider economic uncertainty have resulted in a slowing of people heading to showrooms,” FCAI chief executive Andrew McKellar said.

The 2.7 per cent fall could partially be attributed to the proposed luxury car tax hike, which has led to a 33 per cent decrease in the sales of so-called ‘luxury’ in July compared to June.

“The proposed tax hike has had a devastating impact on new car sales, it is clear that the downturn has been exacerbated by the impact of this unfair tax hike, and the industry has significant concerns that orders will continue to be affected in coming months,” Mr McKellar said.

Mr McKellar emphasis that if the situation continues, the Federal government will fail to collect the additional revenue it had projected, plus there is a very possible risk that the tax hike will cost jobs.

“In these circumstances, one would have to question why the government would pursue this tax increase,” he said.

Segment by segment, most suffered a decrease in sales except for light cars (up 1.0%), SUV medium (up 8.1%), SUV large (up 7.4%). and Light Commercial vehicle (up 6.3 per cent) compared to the same month last year.

Once again Toyota set the benchmark for the month, coming in first with a massive 24.4 per cent of the market share, followed by GM Holden with 13.3 per cent and Ford with 11.3 per cent.

The figures shows the Big T has sold 147,961 new vehicles so far this year with Holden having found 78,271 buyers will Ford is coming in a comfortable third with 63,933 sales.

Toyota also made another landmark, being the first manufacturer to sell more than 20,000 vehicles in the month of July.

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The reports indicate that the FG Falcon scored the results in the latest round of ANCAP testing and CarAdvice understands that the Falcon G6E, which recently narrowly won our latest Four Car Comparison Test, was the vehicle to clinch the top safety rating.

It’s major local rivals the Holden VE Commodore and the Toyota Aurion/Camry both scored only four stars when they were tested soon after their release onto the market.

To achieve the full five-star rating a manufacturer must donate a vehicle to ANCAP to undergo the ‘pole test’ and to-date, Holden and Toyota have avoided taking this step.

 Ford indicated from the launch of the FG Falcon that it would donate a car for the test, an indication it was confident of getting the elusive five-star rating.

The pole test is the most difficult to pass and side-curtain airbags are a virtual prerequisite for any car to pass this demanding test.

In addition any car wanting to achieve the five-star rating must have Electronic Stability Control as standard and have seat belt warning lights for every occupant.

 Ford has side-curtain airbags available as an option on some lower spec models and CarAdvice would expect that these will have achieved a four-star rating, while the higher spec models with the extra airbags as standard will get the five star rating.

The five-star ANCAP rating is certain to give Ford a big boost over its rivals, with local consumers paying an increasing amount of attention to safety ratings in recent times.

Click through to read our  Four Car Comparison Test.

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But the XR6T isn’t all about ego stroking and big grins - ah, who am I kidding, of course it is! In fact if driving it doesn’t bring a grin to your face then you’re either unwashed, hugging trees and singing Kumbayah around the commune campfire or about to have the paddles placed on your chest, just before they shout “clear”. Yes, it’s that good. In fact, it’s better than good, it’s bloody brilliant. Easily the best value for money performance sedan on the market.

Just $45,000 will see you behind the wheel of an entry model manual XR6T and when all things are considered, you’re really getting a lot of car for the coin. Not only does the new FG series have to be one of the best looking Falcons yet, it’s also the most refined in terms of power delivery and handling that I’m yet to drive, not a bad feat for a locally built sub $50K car.

Now at first a lot of people shrugged off the FG as not different enough, a quick touch up or just plain boring, but to them I say look harder. The lines are so much cleaner, it’s more aggressive, but it’s not over the top with plastic rubbish hung all over. Simply put it has a muscular appeal that makes grown men drool or grunt like Neanderthals, and how many cars can do that these days?

Inside things are basic, but handsome and well laid out and there’s certainly enough technology to make your mates at the footy club green with envy. It’s comfortable, very generous in proportion and has enough adjustment in the driving position, steering column and pedals that even someone as vertically challenged as myself can feel secure and well supported behind the wheel.

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