justins

Ford did a few years back (for a few years until 2007) when they sold Brazilian (I think) spec F250s and F350s here. Then they stopped. Lord knows why.

I think we're seeing the beginnings of a 3 or 4 tiered Ford. Euro / ROW, US / Canada, Developing nations, and China. I for one don't mind the idea of Ford Oz getting the Euro models - they tend to handle, ride, drive more to Oz tastes than the US vehicles. If anything, they've always been a little underpowered though. Edge (Endura) is a waste of space here. Wrong engine and wrong seating capacity. A 7 seat Escape will sell much better if priced correctly with the right engine.

This. But with Endura only being available with 2l diesel and 5 seats in Oz, (neither of which are where the market is) and other small / medium SUVs now being available with 7 seats (CRV, Tiguan etc), I'm thinking we'll see a short life for Endura, this 7 seat Kuga become available, and I still think we'll see Explorer as alternative to Kluger / Acadia eventually. Endura makes little to no sense whatsoever in Oz as it stands. A cynic would say they're simply trying to offload excess volume once destined for UK.

https://www.afr.com/street-talk/uk-strategic-testdrives-options-for-gms-holden-20190206-h1awoy

https://www.whichcar.com.au/car-news/holden-owner-general-motors-to-leave-australia I'm trying to find the "media article" mentioned in the article.

It's almost Toyota-like these days...

Does this then mean we could be looking at an additional vehicle in the F Series lineup? An F-EV, as it may be called?

The benefit here, for Ford, will be amortization of development costs. How large that benefit is will have to be seen. It's not new for VW to use other makers for their vans - the previous gen Crafter vans were built by Mercedes Benz.

Do we not think Lincoln will get the platform from the Mach E?

Damn they be some big ass wheel arches! Tell me they're putting 19s as standard, with 20 or 21s optional...

Autoline made a good point that GM haven't said they're CLOSING the plants per se, merely shuttering them. Autoline made mention of the fact that GM have UAW negotiations looming, and could be using the free plants as bargaining tools to wrangle concessions from UAW in return for new vehicles being produced in these plants.

Am I the only one that thinks the grille could be a little bigger?

Looks like massive shifts are occurring throughout the entire market and manufacturers are catching on. Unlike pre-bankruptcy, automakers have picked up on trends earlier and are making tough choices, rather than continuing to churn out hundreds of thousands of vehicles no-one wants, and then have to discount them.

Ford have just trademarked Adrenaline in Canada... https://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2018/09/ford-adrenaline-name-trademarked-crossover.html

I agree with this. The Mazda 2 / Fiesta, 3 / Focus, Mondeo / Fusion / 6, and their respective CUV offspring all had synergies that could (and did while Ford held them) amortize development costs.

The problem Ford has is that other makers now have multiple tiered brands to amortise development costs across - Skoda, VW, Audi Nissan, Daimler, Renault, Mitsu Hyundai / Kia Chrysler, Fiat, Alfa, Dodge Ford has... Ford. They're on their own, and the reality is that makes them vulnerable.

Here in Oz, anything with 4 wheels is a car. A sedan is a car, an SUV is a car, a truck is a ute is a car. A "truck" is more like your Freightliner / Mack / Kenworth tractor. Don't get hung up on it ?

You need to look harder... Not too much harder, but harder :-)

The Astra hatch is the Verano, but the Astra sedan is the Cruze (Just to make things even more confusing).

The traditionalist in me says Lincoln needs a big-a**ed, suicide doored sedan in its lineup. The 61-65 Contys are such an instantly recognisable car. To me, the current conty is the closest thing to that in the current lineup, but even that doesn't *scream* Lincoln.

And I think if FoA can overcome the bad image Focus has thanks to DCT debacle, it may be seen as a Golf competitor rather than a Corolla / Astra competitor. We've already seen Holden announce the spark is gone, with sales expected to come from base Astra, while FoA have said there won't be a bargain basement, price leader Focus. Problems for FoA are Escape and Ecosport - both booming segments and FoA going nowhere quickly. Escape isn't bad, but Ecosport is outclassed by basically everything.

What is it with Ford and those MASSIVE front overhangs and looooong windscreens!? It makes their cars look like the wheels are smack bang in the middle of the car and tiny, like I used to draw when I was 3. Current EcoSport and Escape both suffer from the same affliction.

Word is that Penske basically told them he'd go to Holden if they didn't OK it, which would have left Tickford as the sole Ford team, which would have been untenable given development costs etc. Agree with what you're saying re it being a bit of a joke. If you're going to give us FP, give us the FP versions of everything we can get our hands on. All they've really done is re-launch vehicles that are already here, but in a sub-brand.

Ford Performance launched in Australia https://www.motoring.com.au/ford-performance-launched-in-australia-112153/ Why Ford is Back in Supercars Racing - https://www.motoring.com.au/official-ford-mustang-for-australian-supercars-112139/

They just had the media event streamed live on FB. BIG news is Mustang entering Virgin Australia Supercars with official factory backing. Ford "officially" pulled factory support for racing in Oz back in 2014, but with this they're dipping their toes back in - more in an engineering support capacity than an outright factory funding capacity, but it's a start. Ranger Raptor will also be official track recovery vehicle. Also announced was the launch of the Ford Performance sub-brand in Oz, to sell ST / RS vehicles and the Ranger Raptor. (Hopefully this will also mean we get to see more FP Mustang variants in the future). Also (quietly) confirmed was that Fiesta will be dumped from Oz lineup, with the Fiesta ST being the only model sold, through FP. No articles online to link to as yet, but will as they go up. This is pretty big news for FoA. They're on a roll with Ranger being 2nd highest selling vehicle in the country, Mustang being highest selling sports car by a mile (though admittedly none of their other vehicles trouble the scorers much at the moment), and arch rival Holden struggling to get traction.