Ford Mustang finally hits Australia

[Ducman]

Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
I still wish Ford would have brought the Falcon over here.



Sadly, I don't think your missing much.
The falcon drives beautifully but it has some quality and reliability issues.
I think that's the reason why it doesn't sell as well here as the Commodore.

As far as being able to get it in LHD. Ford couldn't be bothered to design it accordingly for the export market. Unlike Holden did with the Commodore.

2 things come to mind without too much consideration.
The rear diff centre is cheap even though the rest of the rear end is good, except for the bushes wearing out prematurely and have been doing so since the design was implemented, and they still haven't been able to rectify it.
Holden used to use the same diff centre, but moved away from the troublesome Ozzie made unit, and gone with a more reliable ZF unit.
On the classic 6 cylinder models, the power steering pressure line can start to leak at the fitting out of the pump, and the oil drops straight down onto the Alternator which if left unchecked will eventually lead to premature failure of the Alternator.


Both issues could be rectified by Ford Australia without too much trouble, but no action has been taken for a number of years and spanning a considerable number of models.
It's almost as though they've allowed the Falcon to wither on the vine despite spending an awful lot of money updating the model.

Don't get me wrong. I have always been a Ford fan and love the Falcon as a car as a stand alone, but I've had to go over to Holden in recent years.

 

[Ducman]

I see on the news this morning, the government is going to reinstate the car industry funding they had withdrawn.

I can't work out what's going on.

Everybody on the conservative side of politics keeps trotting out statistics that support the premise that out labour cost is too high, and the guys on the production line get paid exorbitant wages.
Also they claim that our plants are inefficient, and a similar plant in any other part of the world can produce 2 x more units per day.

The finger keeps getting pointed at the unions as being the cause all the time.

That all can't be true and correct.

Toyota appear to be very disappointed that the government is withdrawing funding and give the impression that they consider there's value in building cars here.

 

[antiqueshell]

At this point it doesn't matter which manufacturer is building the cars in Australia, or the USA for that matter, manufacturing jobs are generally stable decent paying jobs that can allow a community
to thrive economically (ripple effect on other businesses) and it makes sense to promote manufacturing. I don't understand why
Australia can't increase efficiency and create a reasonable internal and export business. The Unions are NOT at fault it is the
adversarial nature of manglement.

 

[Ducman]

What I don't get, is that the manufacturers don't seem to be saying the unions are contributing to the problem.
The manufacturers are just not able to keep going without government assistance.

I's the conservative government and every body else that's got an axe to grind against the unions that are pointing the finger.

It seems as though all car manufacturers, all over the world are having the government subside their industries. It's just a matter of how much $.

Should the price for a new car be higher?
That way Governments aren't involved with subsidies at all.
That's got to be a good thing.

The other problem I see is that people are busting their a**es to get behind the wheel of a foreign car to good-sort themselves.
While ever the government is giving them the ability to lease these types of vehicles(which they wouldn't be able to pony up for in their own right) and use the lease as a way to dodge taxes.
Then that amounts to a subsidy of the foreign car makers based in Europe with plants all over the world, including China.

They might as well be done with it, and just farm out all manufacturing to China.
The problem is, then we are undermining our own labour market(to take that argument to it's ultimate conclusion).
Oh well, when we are all working for a bowl of rice a day. Then we will all have all the work we could ever imagine.
Then the powers that p*ss will be reducing our daily rice rations in order to improve their profitability. And the politicians will have their noses stuck further in the trough while they tell everybody it's raining, but they're just p***ing in everybody's pockets and slapping each other on the back, saying what a great job we've done.

It seems like a race to the bottom from where I stand.

 

[antiqueshell]

Originally Posted By: Ducman
.

It seems like a race to the bottom from where I stand.


That's exactly what it is, and the corporate controlled
governments and the corps themselves are behind the entire thing.

The puzzling thing is whom is going to buy these expensive products when we are all making slave wages?

 

[CrawfishTails]

I can barely understand what these Australians are typing in here, what with the thick accent and all.

Interesting market observations though. Amazing how Hyundai, Kia, and Japanese car makers manufacture cars in the U.S. all the time, building huge plants. BMW too, out in Carolina. High labor costs, right??? Maybe the market in Australia is not big-volume enough to tilt the supply-demand equation.

 

[hpb]

Cars are expensive in Australia when compared to the US, that's just a fact of life. Our market though, is tiny, at just over 1 million new car sales per year.

And to put the $55k price tag of the Mustang into perspective, that's what you pay here for a top of the range Toyota HiLux or Ford Ranger. When new, my CX9 was just under 60 grand! It's about what the car it'll ultimately replace, the Falcon XR8, retails for. So even though it seems ridiculously overpriced to our American friends, it's actually somewhat of a bargain Down Under. I predict they'll be very popular here!

 

[bdcardinal]

Dumb question for the Aussie BITOGrs. What differential does Ford use in the Falcon? It looks like a IRS, but is it a Australian specific assembly, or is it like a Sterling 8.8" that we use in the Mustang?

 

[hpb]

Yeah it's IRS, (in the sedan, not the ute, which is still live axle with leaf springs) but I don't know the brand of the diff. There's two models, the M80 and the M86, depending on if it's a poverty pack 6, a turbo, or a V8. Obviously there's LSD or open too, again depending on application.

 

[OVERKILL]

The Aussie diffs are made by Dana.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
The Aussie diffs are made by Dana.


Lucky them, although the 8.8 is pretty much all sorted out here.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
The Aussie diffs are made by Dana.


Lucky them, although the 8.8 is pretty much all sorted out here.


Yeah, I'm a big fan of the 8.8. We even swapped a 31-spline one with T-Lok from an Explorer into my buddy's dad's S-10 toy (350 swap, H/C/I) as it kept nuking the GM diffs. The 8.8 is bomb-proof under there and has outlasted two transmissions.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
The Aussie diffs are made by Dana.


Lucky them, although the 8.8 is pretty much all sorted out here.


Yeah, I'm a big fan of the 8.8. We even swapped a 31-spline one with T-Lok from an Explorer into my buddy's dad's S-10 toy (350 swap, H/C/I) as it kept nuking the GM diffs. The 8.8 is bomb-proof under there and has outlasted two transmissions.


Mine has outlasted 2 transmissions also

 

[OVERKILL]

LOL!!!!

 

[Spazdog]

Is that in Australian dollars or US dollars?

It's still too high, but the Aussie dollar is usually around .75cents US.

 

[hpb]

Australian dollars. Yep, it sounds expensive to US residents, but that's just the way it is here. You have to remember, our market is tiny compared to yours. Even when our dollar was worth more than yours, we were still paying more. It's annoying that Australian cars are exported to the US, and you guys pay less for them than we do! But, it is what it is.

Another comparison - brand new, but 2014 build plate, base model Camry's are currently being advertised at $26,490 driveaway. In the US they'd be??

 

[Shannow]

Even when we were in the 90c range, it impacted on our vehicle/fuel costs to the tune of nothing.