Ford BA and BF Falcon: Australia’s best sedans, insufficiently stylish and badly sold
The late Geoff Polites was not a car designer but as far as the BA Falcon was concerned he may as well have been. Invited by Ford's global boss, Jac Nasser (the first non-Ford family member ever to head the blue oval empire), in 1999 to take the wheel at Ford Australia, Polites was determined to remedy the sales doldrums in which the Australian outpost found itself following the October 1998 launch of the AU Falcon.
Paradoxically, the AU wasn't as bad as Polites and many of his colleagues – especially those on the sales and marketing side – believed. I was personally involved in the process quite soon after Polites' appointment. At the time I was associate editor of MOTOR magazine and I actually owned not one but two AUs (and subsequently two more). I was invited to address a group of executives called the Skunk Team (because the AU was supposed to stink) about the merits and failings of the car, which was failing in the market for two main reasons: the cut price feel of the interiors of the lower line Forte and Futura models (and even the XRs) and the 'droopy' look of the rear of the car along with its high ride height. Even at this stage, perhaps eight months into the AU's life, under Polites' direction, there was a program called Grizzly in place to improve the car as much as possible.
Grizzly was the project name for the AUII which could not be readied for market before 2000. But already Geoff Polites was planning the AU's true successor, codenamed Barra. This, of course, would be marketed as the BA and was scheduled to make its debut in September 2002. The BA won the Wheels Car Of The Year award (and more) but sadly for Polites and the team it would not go on to outsell the Commodore: it was to have been the car to reverse Ford Australia’s plummeting market share. (Not long after talking to the Skunk Team, I was recruited as a consultant to the marketing department and I saw up close and personal the deep corporate despair that wracked the company. Ford Australia's market share had dropped to 14 per cent by late 1999, rare indeed was the month when Falcon outsold Commodore and, on top of that the AU was proving almost as unsuccessful in V8 Supercar racing as it was in the showrooms.)
If the AU was not as bad as people thought, and the AUII (and AUIII) were much improved, the BA was a revelation. In my view it was a very much better car than its VY Commodore rival. But by the time it arrived, the sales momentum had been lost – it now turns out to have been forever – and the quality of the vehicle got lost among all the noise. (Interestingly, too, design experts generally agreed that the basic AU design was more advanced, more cutting edge – arguably in advance of its time – than the BA’s! As for the FG, it was simply too much like the BA, much too late; the loss of Falcon demand made the FG’s task difficult, while the bland styling rotated the dial to impossible.)
One thing Geoff Polites had noted very early on was that Ford Australia should have skewed the model mix much more towards the XRs; he did so. Interestingly, the AU XR6 and XR8 sedans sold well, helped not only by strong performance and excellent dynamics but also by their well-differentiated styling. But the model lineup was confusing with the standard XR6 (Watts Link non-independent rear end), the XR6 VCT (for variable control camshaft timing yielding a negligible increase in power, and highly advanced independent rear suspension). The public could not possibly have understood these distinctions, for all their clever subtlety. As for that magnificent rear suspension, the marketing dudes never bothered to spruik it.
The BA was a much more straightforward affair. There was the entry level XT replacing the unloved Forte, then the Futura, Fairmont and Fairmont Ghia, XR6, XR8 and the new kid on the block, the phenomenal XR6T, and no mistaking that T stood for Turbo. This was just the sedans. There were wagons, Utes, Fairlane Ghia and LTDs as well.
The product mix was skewed much more towards XR but the new double overhead camshaft edition of Ford Australia's stalwart in-line six-cylinder engine was so good that no modifications to it were needed for the XR6; it was the first time the sporty sixpack offered no performance increase over the entry level car. With 182kW it was generously endowed and much smoother and more refined than any previous XR6.
It is best to think of the XR6T as the first generally affordable sedan since the Subaru Impreza WRX in 1994 to set a new performance benchmark. With 240kW it outpowered the new 5.4-litre V8 – still four months from launch – with 220. In five-speed manual form, the XR6T sprinted to 100 km/h in six seconds on the way to a 14.4 quarter. These times were only a little quicker than the cult Subey's but at European velocities – and Wheels' Peter Robinson did take one to Europe (getting great reviews) – it was significantly swifter, the 450Nm of torque making the difference.
Under Polites' guidance Falcon interiors had improved considerably but the BA took this process further and the XT offered an ambience far superior to the AU Futura's. New front seats, located closer to the centre line of the car, were a huge improvement. The smaller, more elegant steering wheel contributed to the generally sportier ambience.
Beneath the skin though, not every mechanical change constituted real improvement. Independent rear suspension – which those marketing suits liked to call 'Control Blade', per the Focus – was now standard across the sedan range. But this was a less expensive, lighter and possibly less robust design than the system engineering vice-president, Ian Vaughan, and his team had developed for upper echelon AUs. I doubt many punters noticed.
As for the Utes and wagons, they got what is called the Hotchkiss system, the world's fanciest euphemism for semi-elliptic (‘cart’, as in Jane Austen carriage days) springs. There is an engineering argument that semi-elliptical on the rear are better for towing but it's not an argument Mercedes-Benz has felt the need to prosecute.
Among the sedans, the XR6T was the biggest news. This leads me to an important point about the way Ford Australia – and its performance joint-venturer, Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV), constantly offered buyers the choice of high-powered sixes or V8s, while by contrast Holden and HSV retained a focus on V8s. There is even a case to be made that the hot Falcon sixes with their superior balance were to be preferred.
On the V8 front, the aged Windsor V8 (which was always subject to crankshaft torsional vibration at high rpm), seemed totally outdated compared with the high-tech quad-cam 5.4, and for the first time since the time of the Gen III 5.7-litre Chevrolet V8 engine's arrival beneath the bonnet of the SS Commodore the XR8 had its rival's measure. This engine in 3-valve form was built by Ford and was offered in non-XR and FPV models.
Really though, the XR8 appealed to the more traditional Falcon loyalist, while the XR6T cast its net wider as would the turbocharged six-cylinder FPV cars to follow.
FPV deserves great credit for its work on the BA and BF Falcons (and their successors). After the disappointments of the EB GT (which failed to deliver its promised 200kW) and the near-caricature of the in-your-face EL GT (which offered only 200kW five years later!), Geoff Polites and FPV boss, David Flint, agreed that the GT should not be returned to the range until it could live up to the legendary name.
The timing was March 2003 and maximum power was 290, a huge 30kW more than the XR8. There was, too, a general feeling that the Tickford performance variants masterminded by the late Howard Marsden were too understated and 'European' in flavour to appeal to traditionalist Falcon loyalists.
Mark Behr, FPV product planning and brand marketing manager, explains that once the FPV GT was properly re-imagined with the right engine, styling and colour range rather than being little more than a caricature, it was then possible to offer the turbocharged sixpack FPV cars with a more European appeal. Just as the XR6 and XR8 had always tended to appeal to different demographics, so, too would the FPV sixes and V8s. But the turbo FPVs would not come on stream until the introduction of the BA Mark II range in October 2004.
Essentially, FPV was doubling its prospective market; impressively in calendar year 2006, FPV outsold HSV. Product clinics revealed that the majority of cars traded on the F6s were Holden Commodore SSs or, tellingly, WRXs, many of which were owned by men in their thirties in search of a more family-friendly vehicle.
The BA FPV Falcon GT was the real deal with its 4-valve edition of the 5.4-litre Boss 290 cubic inch V8 hand-assembled by FPV. There was even a GT-P version with the Brembo brake package (a $5950 option on the GT, seven-spoke alloys, instead of five-spokes) for buyers inclined to indulge in the occasional track day or even, perchance, to race. Here was the fastest ever GT through the 400m at 14.2 seconds and the first since the XY GTHO Phase III of 1971 to break the 15-second barrier; it showed up the EB and EL for the performance pretenders they really were – the EL taking a whisker under seven seconds from zero to 100 km/h to the BA's six flat.
The FPV Pursuit Ute, marketed as ‘The Ultimate Power Tool’, delivered the same engine but cost just $54,850 to the GT’s $61K even and the GT-P’s $69,850.
Despite all the attention paid to the short-wheelbase cars, Ford Australia wasted a marketing opportunity (although Behr conceived a Galaxie 540 concept variant for FPV) with the long-wheelbase Fairlane Ghia, Fairlane G220 and LTD. While they gained all the improved mechanicals, these big Fords seemed to have outlasted their use-by date and were discontinued at the end of 2007 before the BF range was replaced by the FG.
The Fairlane that had been so grandly conceived for 1967 just never received the attention it should have from product planners. As for the LTD – the local edition of which was first seen in 1973 with a double stretch on the Falcon wheelbase – Falcon to Fairlane, Fairlane to LTD, what had been a brilliant alternative to imported European offerings at way more than double the price just faded into insignificance. Long before the arrival of the BA Falcon (and the rot started in 1984 when the V8 engine and leather upholstery vanished), it had become a forgotten machine that sold in almost invisible numbers. But the Ford LTD should have been a charismatic flagship, a point I tried in vain to make during my stint as a consultant in 1999-2000.
As if to prove how little they cared about the long-wheelbase sedans, the product planners did not even bother to offer the turbocharged six. And there were no FPV editions. Wasn’t anyone embarrassed?
The BA Mark II came just 25 months after the BA and the big news was the introduction of a six-speed manual (at last; the SS Commodore had one in 1999!).
FPV introduced its brilliantly conceived F6 Typhoon sedan and F6 Tornado Ute along with the other Mark II Falcons. Ford Australia’s Gordon Barfield was the engineer who drove the decision to offer a turbocharged six-cylinder engine in the BA XR6. Barfield collaborated with FPV’s Mark Behr (formerly a planner at Holden and HSV sales and marketing manager) to develop more upmarket versions. Behr liked the sound of F6 (Forced Induction 6-cylinder) and suggested F1 (which could not be used) and liked the alliteration of Typhoon and Tornado (Ute) in their evocation of extreme weather (adding a new meaning to ‘blown’) as well as T for Turbo. (Whether Behr had heard of the 1946 Armstrong Siddeley Typhoon is not on record.)
The biggest problem for these outstanding new cars was that they were available only with the new six-speed manual gearbox. There were some embarrassing clutch failures early on and a new twin-plate AP Racing clutch was quickly sourced to replace the single-plate item.
Curious product planning was evident in places. The XR6T got stability control, so did the Typhoon, but the Tornado missed out due to Bosch calibration costs that were deemed unjustified for the expected volumes.
In October 2005 the BF drove into town, providing a chance for greater visual differentiation for FPV models in particular. Vice-president of engineering, Trevor Worthington, who had replaced father of the AU, Ian Vaughan, in 2000, claimed the BF was as big a step over the BA as that model had been over the AUIII. The biggest single item was the six-speed ZF automatic transmission to replace the four-speed BT-R unit first bolted into the EA Series II just in time for Christmas 1999. This world-renowned gearbox (also fitted to Jaguars, among others) was standard on up-spec variants such as the XR6T, Fairmont Ghia and Fairlane Ghia/LTD. but perhaps the greatest beneficiaries were FPV's turbocharged sixes.
The ZF gearbox, rated for 600Nm of torque added $1250 to the price of the FPV F6 cars, but they still offered great value, especially compared with the GT Four-piston front Brembo brakes were standardised across the FPV range (with the original two-piston rear brakes remaining but now painted red to match). The GT-P picked up six-piston front and four-piston rear Brembo brakes. Even so, the price of the Typhoon rose just $860 and the Tornado Ute’s tag jumped $760.
FPV introduced its Super Pursuit Ute which had been a late addition to the BA Mark II range, was now part of the BF line-up and was essentially a Pursuit with the GT-P extras.
Revisions to the Falcon’s standard 4.0-litre six-cylinder engine centred on a much more powerful control module, revised camshaft and higher compression ratio. Peak power was up from 182 to 190kW.
Ford Australia was, like so many companies, possibly too enamoured by product clinics and market research, probably reflecting a lack of confidence after the AU debacle. According to Worthington, what prospective customers said they wanted were improved refinement, more power and better economy rather than a changed appearance. But this did not help Falcon sales either during the BA - BF years or throughout the short, sad life of its FG/FG successor; from 2004 to October 2005 Falcon sales fell nearly 20 per cent. In contrast to this background, FPV sales continued to grow until 2007, reflecting a more pragmatic approach to the market. Basically, experienced car people who backed their decisions and were backed by FPV managing director, David Flint. The results showed. Across the road at Ford though there must have seemed to be no justice, and no reward from all those attendees of clinics asking for more of this and less of that. Like so many people lamenting the demise of the Australian automotive manufacturing industry, not enough of them put their money where their advice was. Thanks for not very much, guys! As Bob Lutz famously said, market research is all rear-view mirror stuff.
The last real hurrah for Polites' reconceived Falcon came in October 2006 with the BF Mark II. (There was a Mark III in April 2008 with the six-speed automatic standard whenever two-pedal motoring was specified.) The Fairmont Ghia gained most in a hapless bid to expand the car's appeal to a younger demographic; in practice it amounted to yet another reconfiguration of the deck chairs.
In March 2007 FPV introduced luxury variants to compete with HSV Senator models – the Force 6 with the Typhoon engine, milder styling details and Fairmont Ghia trim. But with a near-$10K premium over the Typhoon its main role in the market proved to be underscore the value offered by that car. Then came the Force 8, which was the same proposition but with the GT’s V8 engine.
Hindsight dictates that the beginning of the Falcon’s end came with the launch of the AU. This was a generally good car with fundamental flaws in the packaging, detailing and marketing. A car styled to look smaller so it would appeal more to women, but only served to distance its core male audience. The XR variants continued to sell well. Then came the Ute in 1999 and there was no stopping its momentum. But what worked for tradies and sports-minded buyers who preferred the utility as the new Australian sports car did not work for the sedans (XRs aside). The BA and BF were more refined and faster. But just as the AU was too out-there, these successors were too restrained in styling and, frankly, by the time the BF Mark III slipped off the market, the design looked like last century’s which it was. Added to this was the fact that many of Ford’s buyers were already lost to Holden and other makes and were never coming back.
My view is that Ford management spent too much time second-guessing itself. With Polites promoted to run Land Rover and Jaguar, a revolving door of foreign-born successors could not sustain the pace and did not know how to. Focus groups may have worked for the specialist company FPV – in determining, for example, that Holden SS and Subaru WRX owners were attracted to the turbocharged six-cylinder models – but they didn’t point Ford Australia’s planning manager, Don Pearce, and his colleagues in the right direction.
I am still not convinced that the VE Commodore launched in the winter of 2006 was as good a car as the BF Falcon. But try telling that to the man on the Camberwell or Carlingford omnibus! Sometimes even the reasonable man refuses to see reason, especially if it is advertised and marketed ineffectively.
