It is a scene that anyone who loves cars and knows anything about automotive history has seen before. Two auto workers fitting a sign onto the final production unit of a long running model. It happened with the Model T, and hundreds of other models over the years but in Australia this week the production run of the iconic Ford Falcon is ending and it is not just the end of the Falcon that people are lamenting but effectively the end of an industry.
Automotive manufacturing in the country is going to systematically end over the next year or two as Ford, Holden, and Toyota all downsize and close plants as they have either moved operations off shore or they have decided to ship in models to replace parts of existing lineups. Ford for example began selling right hand drive Mustangs this year in an effort to minimize the blow to performance enthusiasts but frankly that’s like substituting your grandmother’s award winning meatloaf with some junk in a microwave dinner. Nothing agains the Mustang because it is an awesome car bt it is not an Australian car. It is not their car as the Falcon was and forever will be.
While we often cite the similarities between Aussie car culture and our own, those guys had more limited options as to what they were able to buy and the party lines about loyalty and preferences were even more hardcore than here in the USA. It sucked when the Camaro went out of production for years but it didn’t really have a measurable effect on the car culture here. Other models were there and Chevy cranked out some interesting if not weird stuff (SSR, anyone?), the Corvette was still pounding the ground, and while the Mustang guys had a field day with it, things carried on.
This is not the same scenario in Australia. This is a much more bleak deal and we’re really sad for the performance enthusiasts down there. We could go into a whole history on the Falcon but we won’t. Instead we’ll give you a couple of links to check out and we HIGHLY recommend reading the second one.
That story tells the tale of the Falcon over the last 20-30 years where multiple attempts were made by Australian Ford executives to get the cars exported. Firstly they wanted to bring the actual model to the USA and then in later years when the handwriting began to show upon the walls, they wanted to sell the car as a cop car after the Crown Vic was going to be discontinued. Obviously those things did not happen.
So here we are. It’s the end of an automotive era in Australia and no one really knows what’s next.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE STORY ABOUT THE END OF THE AUSSIE FORD FALCON
CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW THE FALCON NEARLY BECAME AN AMERICAN COP CAR…TWICE
Unless Holden pulls the plug total domination by the bastard son of Chevrolet is next……
That car should have been imported here. It would have done well considering the lame sedans from Ford currently.
That’s why I saw Falcons at receiving V in Dearborn 2008-2009.
Looking like a rear wheel drive taurus.
An export to the north america would have made so much sense. But between Dearborn not wanting to sell Falcon anywhere that their fwd buckets of crap were sold, and the limits that UAW pot on importing cars to the US, a viable solution wasn’t found.
We will soon be one of those crappy countries that doesn’t make their own cars. And that makes me sad for so many reasons.