The success in this country of the VT Holden Commodore is now the stuff of legends. At a time where company execs were making decisions about the next major model series in each of Australia's two largest domestic car companies, Holden came up with the VT - and Ford the AU. The two cars are similar is size, power, capacity, economy and handling - but quite dissimilar in styling.
And, unfortunately for Ford, the Australian public loved the VT Commodore.... and hated the AU Falcon.
In fact, sales have been so bad in relative terms that the complete re-skinning of the AU shape will happen shortly, well before such a revamp was planned. And such a major styling change is needed - the AUII mid-term grille, bumper and wheel diameter changes didn't cause the public to re-think their perceptions...
So now the situation exists where you can pick up a used version of a large and generally well-equipped family car with a substantial 157kW for what can only be regarded as a bargain price. In fact, looking at the dollars, you could be forgiven for assuming that the AU Falcon has proved to be a dog of a car - rather than simply that people don't like how they look.
And what's the car like? Recently we spent a few days driving the base model AUII Forte version of the car that has brought such tears of grief to Ford familial faces. And if the styling doesn't concern you, well, this car has the benefits that Falcons have always have: it's simple, rugged, comfortable, adequate in performance, easy to drive, and capacious. And it's also safe and refined in cruise.
However, it's also all a bit crude. The controls are large and chunky - you can operate all of them (even the clock setting buttons!) with sausage fingers, the engine sounds as stressed as the Holden V6 at what it thinks are high revs, and the light switch avoids the almost world-standard practice of placing the mechanism on the right-hand stalk - even though there's plenty of room for it there. (The same odd approach is also taken in the Commodore.)
But the first impressions are of comfort and room. The seats are large and well-padded, with the driver's seat adjustable front and rear for height and having variable lumbar support. As with the Holden, not only is the Falcon a large car, but its space utilisation is also very good. There are door pockets, the centre console bin is roomy, and there's even a sunglasses holder built into the roof lining. Step into the rear and - despite egress being made more difficult by the plunging roofline that limits headspace - again you'll find plenty of acreage. And it doesn't stop there - the boot is well-sized and the rear seat split-folds forward to give even more luggage capacity. Getting stuff in and out of the boot is also made easier by the twin gas-strut bootlid that opens very wide indeed. However - on our test car at least - there was no pressed particleboard floor. Instead, the carpet just sat over the metalwork and spare tyre, giving an uneven surface.
Families buy cars like the Falcon for the space and comfort - and both are in abundant supply.
The car is also surprisingly quiet on the road, its new-for-this-model laminated steel firewall suppressing the noise of the engine that with the very tall gearing (a massive 60 km/h per 1000 rpm in fourth), is generally only just ticking over. And for NVH comfort, the engine needs to be turning slowly too - venture anywhere near the 5500 rpm redline and the noise and vibration are both unacceptably high.
But despite not being as torquey off the line as (say) the Holden V6, the 4-litre SOHC six-cylinder still develops plenty of low-down grunt - with a peak of 357Nm at 3000 rpm and its sophisticated variable inlet manifold, more than enough to pull its tall gearing. The auto trans doesn't have a dashboard display of the gear lever position but in other respects works well. One aspect of the trans that we loved was that it allows the selection of D-3-2 without the need to press a lock-out. For the enthusiastic driver, being able to engine brake and seamlessly up- and down-change across the three gears gives great control. However, at times various whines could be heard coming from the BTR auto.
Straight-line performance of the Falcon is quite acceptable, with 0-100 coming up in around 9 seconds. However, while the AS2877 government fuel economy figures show 11.5 and an incredible 6.8 litres/100 km respectively for the city and highway cycles, our fuel consumption figure for a mix of heavy city traffic, open suburban and country cruising was in the high twelves.
At centre, the steering is quite slow, making the car a little difficult to place on straight roads. However, the handling of the ancient live axle suspension system is benign - understeer on turn-in and a very progressive transition to power oversteer on exits. But unlike the Commodore, it isn't responsive and nimble. And while it is predictable, the handling is also soggy and uninspiring - it feels like the tyres are a bit flat all of the time. Contradictorily - and unfortunately - the ride feels like the tyres are over-pressurised! Over large bumps the car performs very well - but when subjected to smaller, sharp bumps it can become quite jiggly. The brake pedal is light and progressive and even this base model is equipped with ABS.
In fact, the equipment level of the Forte reflects the constant upgrade of 'basic spec' cars over the years - two airbags, a speed alert, remote locking, adjustable maplights, front electric windows, height- and reach-adjustable steering, low fuel warning and door-open and lights-on warning chimes, and a very effective air conditioning system.
While the external build quality of the test car looked good (for example, the doors are sometimes hard to shut but drop a window a little and they close beautifully), the same cannot be said for the interior cabin plastics and design quality. Without looking too hard, we found that sharp, unfinished edges exist on the underside of the gearlever lock-out button and around the fuse panel cover; the sun-visors hit the roof panel when being adjusted for side use; the ashtray falls open with a loud ratchet noise; the sunglasses holder has an exposed and cheap-looking hinge mechanism; and the dashboard light dimmer has only two positions and is adjusted by an awkward-to-use switch. Another quality downer is that the single CD radio (complete with steering wheel controls) works with probably the worst factory speaker system we have ever heard - budget import Korean cars included!
But the Falc is cheap, large, comfortable, cheap, crude, effective, cheap - and did we say it was cheap? At the time of writing, a car exactly like the one we drove -an AUII Forte with low kilometres - could be bought for around $23,000. Go for a slightly older car and you're down in the mid-high teens....
And for those sorta dollar figures, if you're after safe, comfortable and effective late-model family car, we can't think of much better.
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