FORD in the USA are discontinuing the Crown Victoria which has been used as Taxis and Police cars for many many years...
??
The Holden Statesman Police Cars were delivered to 3 US Police forces this month.. Many More are ordered...
Ford Australia has been losing sales with their Territory for years as they haven't had a Diesel engine until Next Month...
The NEW Diesel engine [as advertised on TV] is actually the OLD diesel engine from the Land Rover Discovery...
they had to wait until they got a new engine...
they should have had a diesel Territory 5 years ago... IMHO..
and 4 cylinder Falcons are coming... ??
Lee
- Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY---
Lee, you are right.
Ford's marketing arm (or planning) are a completely clueless bunch.
It is a shame, because they are slightly less crap motor vehicle than Holdens.
If the economy keeps going like it is,Ford,Holden and Toyota will stop making cars here and just import them.
Thats already prodicted to happen in 5 years.
A real shame,in the long run not good for the ecomomy.
Ford have definitely lost the plot, but c'mon Marcus... in what universe is any Ford less crap than a Holden ???
😉
Toymota and Ford are both in trouble here, but Holden is in slightly better shape as they're now the design house for GM globally. The locally designed VE Commodore chassis (amongst other things) is used in a lot of other cars... the Chevy Camaro for example.
But yes... ax'ing the second best selling Ford makes zero sense...next they'll be dropping the Ranger F100/150 !!!
😂
VWDCQ vice pres & web dude - vwdcqinc.org.au
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'70 Hillclimb Bug 'Jezebel' w/- Haltech EFI -
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'60 KG Coupe - resto kinda started
01 New Beetle - gf's car, but I turn the spanners
I wish they'd sell the F-trucks here !
It s#
@ts me when you see the price in the US and what we have to pay here for an imported one !
I've just come back from the states and a friend got a F350 fully loaded for the 40G mark. Shame you'd have to add at least a 1 in front of the price locally.
Da Time For The Aircooled Revolution Is Upon US.
Brothers & Sisters Lets Hit The Streets, Roll As One. And Feel The Power Of The Aircooled Storm.
Dave, I think your EFi playing up is due in part to the fact that it is parked in the vicinity of a Commodore and has caught an incurable disease.
😵💫😵💫😵💫
vassy66T1 wrote:Dave, I think your EFi playing up is due in part to the fact that it is parked in the vicinity of a Commodore and has caught an incurable disease.
😵💫😵💫😵💫
Heh, nah - I'm sure it's the Ford injectors that I'm using !!!
They're a Bosch part, but have little Ford logo's cast into the plastic... I just _knew_ I should've filed them off...
🤓
VWDCQ vice pres & web dude - vwdcqinc.org.au
Join a car club - get car peeps
My toys
'70 Hillclimb Bug 'Jezebel' w/- Haltech EFI -
http://bit.ly/VwTNtQ
'60 KG Coupe - resto kinda started
01 New Beetle - gf's car, but I turn the spanners
68AutoBug wrote:FORD in the USA are discontinuing the Crown Victoria which has been used as Taxis and Police cars for many many years...
??
The Holden Statesman Police Cars were delivered to 3 US Police forces this month.. Many More are ordered...
Lee
Hi Lee,
I took this photo nearly 2 years ago at Bathurst races, the Holdens has been planned for a long time to become cop cars in the US of A.
Kev
I thought rebuilding a VW would be cheap - Shit I was wrong, just don't let the wife know !!!!
Click here for my (slowy) modded 1961 Beetle build.
OK, after Volksy's I'm Holden guy and happily admit it... but that just looks cr@p !!!
Cop car's need to look mean IMHO...

VWDCQ vice pres & web dude - vwdcqinc.org.au
Join a car club - get car peeps
My toys
'70 Hillclimb Bug 'Jezebel' w/- Haltech EFI -
http://bit.ly/VwTNtQ
'60 KG Coupe - resto kinda started
01 New Beetle - gf's car, but I turn the spanners
bugboymatt wrote:I wish they'd sell the F-trucks here !
It s#
@ts me when you see the price in the US and what we have to pay here for an imported one !
I've just come back from the states and a friend got a F350 fully loaded for the 40G mark. Shame you'd have to add at least a 1 in front of the price locally.
The F350 will not meet the new ADR rules for emissons here,
plus they would fail ANCAP crash testing.
😂
The Crown Victoria platform is an ancient relic which had to be discontinued. Right up until the end it was still built on a ladder chassis with a live rear axle. Even for US police forces, this is now a bit too old fashioned. The new Ford competitor for the Police market is a version of the Taurus, which is available with all-wheel-drive and an EcoBoost turbo V6. I'm willing to bet that it's far cheaper to produce than the Crown Vic, which is a crucially important factor.
The 4 cylinder turbo Falcon is actually a good idea I think, because it will help the Falcon improve in fuel economy, which is one of the car's biggest weaknesses compared to competitors in the market.
The real problem which Ford Australia has is a chronic lack of volume due to the fact that they have no major export markets. Holden is exporting police cars to the US, plus other models to the Middle East and South Africa. The fact that all of the Commodore variants can be easily built in LHD is a huge benefit, which the Falcon does not have.
Without LHD there is no obvious export market for large cars. The large car market in Australia is far too small to really support local manufacturers. Holden has roughly a 60% market share of large car sales here, but even so this is not enough volume to make the plant viable in the long term, which is why local manufacturing of the Cruze is so important. Ford Australia did possibly have the option a couple of years ago to manufacture the Focus in Australia but they chose to produce the Territory instead.
Tragically, the real problem is that Australians simply don't buy large cars anymore. The large car segment only makes up 8% of total vehicle sales. Small cars have a 25% share of the market, and so do SUVs. This is why Holden have moved towards the small car market with the Cruze and Ford have decided to chase the SUV market with Territory.
Apart from the engine department? Good job keeping that old donk up to the task for so many years.
I was a slow learner. I bought 2 falcons. An EF and a BA. Both heaps of junk. Never ever again. I have a friend equally as stupid who bought 2 Territories. (one work one family car) both heaps of crap. If it is made of plastic it has fallen off at least once. Ford will most certainly die. And about time. Quality crap exports nil (that I know of) I reckon to see which large car is best you have to look at the taxi market. People who live in their cars and put millions of dollars of kms on them. Holden ruled with Kingswood until Commodore came along. XD, XE, XF falcons ruled. Since then falcon has been losing market share hand over fist. Very few falcons around now. Probably more tarago cabs around here than POS falcons.
I thought holden had killed off statesman, or was that just the caprice? Why the hell would you want one for a cop car? To give the crims some more rear leg room? That pic is just a commodore yes?
The long wheelbase WM is still in production but the Statesman name has been discontinued, so now they are all called Caprice. The US Police cars, including the black and white one in that photo are based on the Caprice because the police market over there requires larger cars. They need the space to enable the front seats to slide all the way back and still have room for a barrier/partition behind them, and then room to be able to easily get suspects in and out of the back. The US Police models are highly specialised for their intended market, with lots of changes including a different shifter and centre console and a foot operated parking brake to make room for their police computers and equipment between the front seats. They also get vinyl floors and a vinyl rear seat. Also note in the photo the 18x8" steel rims with centre caps.
BUT! Is the suspension set up with absolutely no rear grip so the movie cars oversteer everywhere 🤪
Not sure, I've only driven them up to about 30km/h! They run 235/50R18s all around though so they should grip pretty well.
The New York Yellow Taxis [crown victoria] are being phased out by ford...
and Nissan has won with their odd looking v0400
modified panel van with sliding doors...
4 can sit in the rear
2 litre 4 cylinder engine..
Lee
- Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY---
Lee, my XR6 I would get 340ks out of a tank of fuel city running heaps of stop start , in out of the car.
my new vw passat wagon I do the same run 997 out of a tank
two of my clients just canceled there orders of 7 fords after showing them my new VW and showing them my fuel dockets.
+ the VW is a safer car IMO
Looking for that special lady : PM me for coffee & cake
ford started losing the plot since the mid 80s I recon, now they have full blown dementia.
71 notchback,
Past owner of, 70 NB, 73 SB and 72 FB TLE
Ford...... it has been known as a crapy cheap family car, my mum owned a BA Falcon and it is a very poorly built vehicle. they have no power, sloppy handling and extremely perthetic fuel consumption.I wouldn't really care if they stuff up. There product is rubbish.
crown victoria = cheap, heavy, slow, nasty and old. had to go.... REALLY had to go.
Why do you think team Vodaphone jumped ship? No support from ford even though they were the best ford team. There are so many acronyms for the word "ford" it could have it's own forum lol.
Not a ford man - never have been and never will be. Working in the auto industry they simply feel cheap and even the fpv models feel cheapish.....
ACCEPT THAT SOME DAYS YOU ARE THE PIDGEON AND SOME DAYS YOU ARE THE STATUE
Alder Outlaws VW Racing - check it out on fb!!
What really cracks me up is that some of you guys think Holden make a decent car. 😂😂😂
I have only VW in the stable at my place now.
There will be a special ward on the nursing homes for Holden lovers as they have shown obvious signs of early dementia.
mate holden and ford are both the same sh#t. Im a toyota and volkswagen man
Awww c'mon. My 1963 EH Holden is a cool car.
I prefer the Beetle as a daily driver though.
Call me cynic but I reckon that within a year Holden will declare that they sell more Commodores/Statesmans in the USA and will move the production line there.
vassy66T1 wrote:What really cracks me up is that some of you guys think Holden make a decent car. 😂😂😂
I have only VW in the stable at my place now.
There will be a special ward on the nursing homes for Holden lovers as they have shown obvious signs of early dementia.
Holden haven't been Holden for a very long time. They just buy design rights and source parts from other manufactures.
They had good and they had bad. They could of been a much better car (aimed at 90- onward) if their plastic and rubber they used wasn't so crap. Basically you can't drive them in the sun or it will all crumble on you
😂
71 notchback,
Past owner of, 70 NB, 73 SB and 72 FB TLE
vlad01 wrote:Holden haven't been Holden for a very long time. They just buy design rights and source parts from other manufactures.
I hope you're joking, right? GM Holden actually design many more cars than they manufacture! The Fisherman's Bend engineering headquarters designed and engineered the VE/WM's Zeta platform, then they modified their platform to create the current generation Camaro. Fisherman's Bend also designed the hatch version of the current Cruze, which is now being built in several plants around the world and is being launched here at the end of the year. As well as this, they have significant input into a whole bunch of global GM cars. Holden do far more engineering and design work in Australia than pretty much anyone else.
In any case, even if Fisherman's Bend didn't design anything, they certainly wouldn't have to 'buy' designs from anyone else. If required GM could produce any of their global car designs here to suit the local market, from a Barina Spark or an Astra to a Chevy Silverado. You talk about Holden as if it's some kind of independent Australian company, when in fact they've been owned by GM since the 1930s, well before the first Holden-badged car was manufactured. Back in those days they used to assemble and build bodies for Chevrolets and Buicks.
bus914 wrote:Call me cynic but I reckon that within a year Holden will declare that they sell more Commodores/Statesmans in the USA and will move the production line there.
I believe GMH have put too much into designing the Police cars for the USA , and this wouldn't have happened if they were to be made in the USA...
remembering USA Auto makers were in BIG BIG trouble financially not long ago....
On the other hand... Ford USA should have been designing a NEW car for the POLICE and TAXIS in USA... ??????
Have they been asleep the past 10 years..???
Oddly enough, Years ago I went thru the Adelaide factory of Mitsubishi when they were building great Magnas there...
RHD & LHD cars being build one after another and truck loads of them going to the Docks...
There was nothing wrong with them... just the stupid talk about closing down all the time???
LEE
- Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY---
I did read recently that FORD Australia designed the Ford Ranger 4WD Utes etc..
and then had them made overseas...????
Thailand??
LEE
PS: Many people don't know where the car they are driving was made these days...
My Brother in Law bought a new Captiva diesel recently...
I 'll bet He has no idea it wasn't made by Holden in Australia...
- Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY---
waveman1500 wrote:vlad01 wrote:Holden haven't been Holden for a very long time. They just buy design rights and source parts from other manufactures.
I hope you're joking, right? GM Holden actually design many more cars than they manufacture! The Fisherman's Bend engineering headquarters designed and engineered the VE/WM's Zeta platform, then they modified their platform to create the current generation Camaro. Fisherman's Bend also designed the hatch version of the current Cruze, which is now being built in several plants around the world and is being launched here at the end of the year. As well as this, they have significant input into a whole bunch of global GM cars. Holden do far more engineering and design work in Australia than pretty much anyone else.
In any case, even if Fisherman's Bend didn't design anything, they certainly wouldn't have to 'buy' designs from anyone else. If required GM could produce any of their global car designs here to suit the local market, from a Barina Spark or an Astra to a Chevy Silverado. You talk about Holden as if it's some kind of independent Australian company, when in fact they've been owned by GM since the 1930s, well before the first Holden-badged car was manufactured. Back in those days they used to assemble and build bodies for Chevrolets and Buicks.
I wasn't talking about the VE. Yes I know they sell them as the Camaro.
I was referring to the VB- VN ish? turana, gemini, astra, omega, vectra etc.. they were based of the Open body and chassis.
Had a good chat about to a vehicle manufacture warranty consultant when I was in Swiss. Yep
🙂 my speculation were right. The omega "commodore" is pretty new here. Over there its like a 1986-2003. Holden camera what ever its called is based of the omega too.
just looked up omega. I lol'd. Is that a VT I see in there?
😂
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Omega
71 notchback,
Past owner of, 70 NB, 73 SB and 72 FB TLE