280kw Xr6 Turbo

[plonky]

Having read HSE2's posts on another Forum, I have a lot of faith in his opinion.

I too agree that the drivetrain shunt is pretty poor. The Mustang has a poor drivertrain when it comes to clunks and snatch, however if it means that it won't break I can put up with it. It is still not acceptable in a 'high end' price range car.

You don't get that sort of drivertrain roughness with a powerful Mercedes or BMW. These cars are expensive for Australia (exchange rate of the AUD against the Euro) bu are quite good value in Europe, so the 'price' argument is pretty lame.

HSE2 also has highlighted the BIGGEST problem Ford have, MARKETING their product simultaneously.

They just don't have the capacity or will to surround themselves with 'car' people. I don't believe that the majority of the Marketing people even aspire to own a Ford. That being the case, they don't believe in their product. Take Bill Bourke for example. As President of Ford Australia he didn't want to drive a Lincoln Continental or a BOSS Mustang. No, he believed in the XY Falcon that much he had a 428 Big block fitted to an XY GT to make his own personal statement on the model.

There is too much movement between manufacturers in their marketing department now, therefore there is no passion for the product.

A Fairlane G220 should be an aspirational car for a 30 something exec with a young family. Not a smaller BMW 318i 4cyl with no boot. Not a Honda Prelude or a Mazda 6.

Falcon won a number of Safety design awards.....No, I haven't heard Ford Marketing trumpet this achievement either.

Falcon has the most advanced Australian built 6 in the Twin Cam 182. It kills the Expensive Daewoo V6 at the moment. What have they done to capitalise upon this before the HFV6 is released by Expensive Daewoo in 2004. Nothing!!

I must disagree with HSE2 as far as Ford Australia's engineering prowess. Ford Australia has been getting more power out of the old Windsor before it was retured for the 5.4. The BOSS 260/290 is an amalgum of the 4.6 Cobra heads and the 5.4 Triton ottom end. This is a first within the Ford world. The Territory is a real effort at a crossover vehicle, though for the President to actually say "It drives just the same as an X5" just shows that he hasn;t been in an X5 for a while.

The drivertrain is usually sourced from whatever is in the Ford parts bin. The BTR diff was eventually replaced with a Spicer unit. The gearbox (manual) is a Ford production item that was available to suit the power/torque output. These decisions were made purely for economic reasons.

The V8 gearbox had to be developed so as to avoid recalls on 'boxes that failed once the BA went into production. There was a desire not to repeat the EA Falcon quality disaster.

There are some really good switched on people at Ford. Unfortunately, Ford let themselves down with the RJV principal. The company appointed Dealer Principals don;t have a vested interest in how the dealership performs as opposed to a Franchise owner.

If the RJV principal is not performing or gets a better offer he can leave. He has no loyalty to Ford as he still gets paid regardless of how the dealership goes. If the franchise owner is not performing he bears the brunt of not only losing all of his investment, having to lay off staff and relying on other franchises he may hold, he has the potential to go into liquidation.

Therefore the constructive criticism from franchise holders must be listened to and acted upon by Ford management in regards to

their product.

The BA Falcon is selling well but the short term advantage can be lost so easily if the next Late model camira with the new engine is a screaming success.

End of Rant!!

[Cobra]

I don't give a flying toss who you believe, but it is a well-known fact so I suggest you start searching other forums for the truth.

you have to be kidding me :o

[Uwish]

Well If you want to see the FPV Xr6T

go to the Melbourne Motorshow in

March as it will be there.

And I'm sure at a Tad over 50k + orc

it will be a bargin!

6Speed Box

Bigger Cooler

GT bodykit ( Bigger opening for the cooler)

Nicer interior ect ect.

I know I'll be there to see it,

and to place a deposit on one.

[HSE2]

I must disagree with HSE2 as far as Ford Australia's engineering prowess. 

Absolutely. That comment is in sole relationship to what has happened at SMS and the message that sends to the public. There is no question that is the truth, but SMS is saying we can't engineer more than one project at a time. That is the public perception. I know as do you that isn't correct but there is an understandable amount of frustration in the perfromance arena that this "special" SMS saw no further advancement, especially considering Ford are open in admitting that the driving force behind the sales resurgance is on the back of the performance sector. Ford have the opinion that they can't release anymore than one project at anyone time. The public could read that as Ford dont have the abilty to engineer multiple projects. The realtity is that engineering is non stop but right now Ford aren't projecting that appearance while our good friends over at Expensive Daewoo have no such problem. I would like to see a balance somewhere in the middle.

you have to be kidding me

Nah not really. The part about searching other forums is because a specific forum like this site won't cover much of the Boss car problems although having a look around you guys are certainly branching out more than I remember. As for not caring I have been posting on forums too long to care. Most think I am an idiot anyway but with this manual issue I see red. I do apologise if that comment was out of line. It wasn't meant to be arrogant and I certainly didn’t mean to belittle this site.

[plonky]

I would speculate that HSE2 has no intention of denigrating this site or coming across as being arrogant.

I think that the frustration felt with the way Ford go about/not go about taking the most of marketing opportunities makes a number of passionate posters (such as myself and HSE2) get very irate with Ford .

It is very easy to criticise. I try to focus on the positive, especially where Ford is concerned.

However, as much as I don't want to admit it, Ford Australia really do need a good kick in the butt to shake them from their malaise. It is too easy to blame one model of car (AU) for all of their ills, when in fact the AU was a well engineered (if somewhat curious looking) The AU wasn't the only product they were selling. The Ute did very well but they stuffed up the Mondeo, Explorer, Fairlane/LTD, vacillated with the Fiesta and Laser replacements.

I would have thought that with 5 years of running at a loss they could have got themselves to a position where they would no lomger have to rely on one car to give them sales success.

The BA is a damn good car. However, they don't even concentrate on selling the staple of their range - the XT.

The Focus is a brilliant car but it should come standard with the 2 litre.

The Explorer should be racing out the door, and so should the Escape. Mazda have capitalised on the Tribute and the Explorers competition (Prado, Pajero, Landrover etc) have been unaffected.

The F Series truck has a market segment to itself but that has not been capitalised.

HSE2 is right, there is no capacity to simultaneously push the WHOLE product range, instead relying upon one at a time. Whoever is the advertising agency contracted to Ford should be given a kick out the door and give ti to someone else!

[bloan]

They just don't have the capacity or will to surround themselves with 'car' people. I don't believe that the majority of the Marketing people even aspire to own a Ford. That being the case, they don't believe in their product.

Couldn't agree with you more!!!

"You've hit the nail on the head".

The continual influx of graduates will make sure this position never changes!

[ZMAN]

mmmm a GT in my driveway would be nice...only if the Minister for Finance could agree with me...nothing like a sweet sweet V8 burble...don't get me wrong the "T" is a wonderful car to drive and sure it has its imperfections however it is the series 1 version so I guess we shouldn't be too surprised that we are experiencing problems (my mate has taken his brand new 5 series bmw at least half a dozen times to the dealership with mechanical problems). Lets just hope FORD iron out these issues in the series 2.

[XR6Tbaybee]

g'day boys and girls,

im new to this so be easy on me... I would like to hear your opinions on modifying the GT and how would you go about it?

thanks,

chris

[KEN 24T]

XR6Tbaybee, :banghead:

Don't know much about modifying GT's but I do know that I am sooooo envious of anyone who owns one.

GT-P is my next car (hopefully), depending on the arrival of the GT-HO .... uuuummmmm (dribbles on front of T-Shirt) ...

Hope you enjoy the site.

[XR6Tbaybee]

thanks KEN 24T