and I have mixed feelings on some aspects of it.

it's a heavy car and it feels it, but it also feels a lot more solid.

it doesn't feel much faster than my AU although it's got 25kw more.

the ride is really plush, and I love the sequential shift gearbox! it's awesome!

the steering wheel is a tad too small for my liking, but fly-by-wire accelerator has a great feel to it! much better than AU.

all in all, I am impressed and I can definitely see myself buying one of these things some time down the track, but not just yet. I'll let ford sort out the little issues and then buy a brand new or second hand BA2 XR6T or XR8.

Never know, the XR6 Turbo might get a power rise with the BAII.

Dont say that!!!! Ive already paid for my XR6T!

But when you replace your BAI witha BAIII or whatever the next designation is, it will have probably have even more power than the BAII!

On the other hand, they might not raise the power in BAII and wait until the model after that before they raise the power again.

I'd rather put my money on ford making BA2 lighter because right now falcons are heavy, heavy mothers!

if my falc had the Barra 182 engine it would fly!

The Falcon weight probably isn't that much heavier than Commodore. The Late model camira doesn't come with Air-Con so the weight of that isn't included, whereas with the Falcon it is. Everybody gets air con anyway. Drove an SS Late model camira and the steering was so heavy it was hard work to drive! In comparison, the Falcon is wayyyyy better. I don't think it feels any heavier.

I've been having a bit more a this weight thing and I'm not entirely convinced they could shave off many kg without the introduction of all alloy components in the IRS which is where I believe most of the weight gain is, as well as in the body structure itself. This would have a fairly significant impact on the price of the car so it's probably out of the question at this point in time or any time soon. I'm happy to trade a bit of extra weight for better handling, extra crash protection, and NVH - a BMW M5 weighs 1800KG so I'm not going to quibble over a family sedan that weighs 1700kg.

The Falcon's steering I believe is designed to feel light to make the car not feel like a large car - actually, I'm pretty sure that goes along with the entire feel of the car. It had something to do with the perception of Sydney buyers not comfortable with the feeling of the AU's large size on the road. I believe (and Ford's PRman can correct me if I'm wrong here) Ford deliberately aimed to give the car a lighter and smaller feel to make it less intimitdating to drive.

Sounds like they succeeded.

Hello all,

I drove a Futura last month and honestly it didn't feel as "heavy" as I thought it would. It sure had some grunt too considering the weight.

Anyway great forum guys! I can see it become more popular very quickly.

Dean