Good read mate.There will always be a market for the V8.Pity Ford V8,s are donkeys

Fuel prices and V8s...Well going thru the alphabet soup of the V8 engine codes...

The L76 (the 5.7 litre engine) had the cylinder deactivation technology enabled in versions in the US - unfortunately, that engine series wasn't Euro III emissions compliant so it couldn't be sold here as of the beginning of the year. Which is why the engines changed for barely six months of VZ.

The L98 (the new 6.0 litre engine) is Euro III compliant so could be essentially dropped in to replace the L76. Unfortunately, it's not enabled for cylinder deactivation so that will have to wait until someone at GM Powertrain systems programmes this as feature in the ECU.

I'm kinda wondering what the fuel consumption would have been if they'd be able to stick with L76 and enable the cylinder deactivation features with the 6LE80 six speed... maybe it would have been better than the L98.

Anyway, the Global V6 is made in other versions... there's a 3.2 litre and I think it's a 2.8 litre version. Take those versions, use a very lean mix and up the final drive and you could reduce the fuel consumption a lot (but the little wheezers would be running to trip over themselves)... unless you add some forced induction like the SAAB versions of the engine. Realistically, you could take a 2.8 litre motor add about 2-3 pounds of boost with a little turbo running off one bank, running to the current 5 speeder and it would be relatively economical compared to the Omega...

When you push hard with a modded turbo engine then it's the old equation that you can only get a certain amount of energy from a litre of fuel... but the thing with a turbo engine is that when it's not running on full duty then it's going to be a lot more economical eg loping along in a cruise at 109km/h along the Nullabor (or standing in traffic)....

Is fuel consumption really that big an issue when buying a sports sedan, The 6l jobbie from Expensive Daewoo is no slouch.

However Ford should invest in a diesel powerplant for the orion, maybe the twin turbo out of the VW "developing 310hp and a mind-boggling 554 lb-ft of torque @ 2,000 rpm"

mmmmmmm v10

I think a diesel engine is a possibility for Orion but probably more for Territory in I dunno the next 12 months with the prices of fuel. Can't imagine that a V10 diesel would work in the Territory or the Falcon... for a start it would like buying a Passat W8 - the $45,000 car with the $40,000 engine/drivetrain option... why would you? Especially if you went for a diesel to save fuel... you'd be doing taxi mileage from here to the moon and back to get the costs back...

The suspension towers on the Territory aren't wide apart enough to fit the V10 engine... apparently that's why there's no V8 in it (though I can only imagine the fuel consumption with one in there...) and the current Boss 260/290 engines don't actually have enough clearance to the body in a Falcon if you used Ford's own standards...

I appreciate the comments about the fuel consumption and V8s/sports oriented cars... but on the other hand, if you look at the current second hand lot values of V8s and big 4WDs in the past three or four months... I don't think the decline is reflected in Red Book values just yet but as one of colleagues would say..."... a market correction is on the way and someone is going to get hurt..."

In lots of ways, a sports oriented sedan is a bit of a compromise or even an indulgence - practical sure but when you are looking at the wrong end of twenty five bucks to do a hundred clicks or about a hundred and twenty five for five hundred clicks and the resale has the arse fall out if it... then it's going to get awfully expensive to have a new one for the first three years without some deep discounting from Holden/Ford... of course, if Johnny at Kirribilli is right and fuel costs drop back to a buck twenty then it's okay...

... but at the moment there may be a stampede to look at the new VE but folks are voting with their cheque books and personal loans to Corollas...

I saw my first VE SS-V tonight. It was red and looked ok in the flesh.

It seems that they do not come with indicators, as none were visable when he made several turns.

Thanks for this info. Makes me wonder how much of the VE is "Australian" when so much engineering has been done in Germany...

Interiors...

Spent some time looking thru a few VE's over the past couple of weeks and here's some observations... more to come on some of the exterior once I download some of the pics.

The Good

Nicely integrated dash treatment and also differentiation between the basic (omega/berlina/sv), sports (ss v) and luxury (calais). There is enough difference particularly between the calais v and the omega to think you aren't driving a fleet special. Materials are well chosen and match well... I like the steering wheels but the spokes on some models are so wide they are intrusive.

The display on the dash still leads the Falcon - even the VZ one was better than the equivalent display on the Fords.

I'm not sure about the handbrake either - it looks gimmicky and american but will no doubt save dollars on the LHD models. Same goes for the electric window controls - still on the centre console I prefer them on the doors as I would with the mirror control but again a nod to the LHD/RHD drive considerations.

The Bad

Every single one of the cars (apart from a calais which has a bootlid lining) had bubbles in the paint on the inside of the bootlid that looked like froth. Okay, this is minor but with paint runs and overspray in the engine bay, this is not Audi-sque quality.

I also not sure about the width of the A pillars for visibility nor was I completely in love with the plastic inserts for the variants without side curtain airbags. Reminds me of driving a basic Euro car with lots of plastic squares where the buttons used to be.

The Ugly

The fake plastic wood strip across the dashboard of the Berlina makes me want to power vomit - it's truly awful!

Space saver tyre - enough said. Although the use of reinforced plastic for the spare wheel well is a first for an Australian built car.

The VE's battery is now located in the left rear of the car and accessed via a port in the boot. The port has a nasty piece of plastic bonded to carpet which is cheap and not going to last - fit was poor in all the cars I looked at. The one in the Omega that I looked at - didn't fit very well and I can imagine with luggage (including golf clubs) there's a chance that stuff is going to end up in this area. If it's metallic objects that end up in the compartment I can see some expensive electrical system repairs...