Top 8 Aussie Motoring Wins/Fails

[FalconXV]

Thoughts?

http://performancedrive.com.au/top-8...ing-wins-1623/

http://performancedrive.com.au/top-8...ng-fails-0116/

[Stefan]

I opened the win thread and saw a Territory...quickly checked I did not accidentally open the fail thread.

I guess failing suspension by 40K on ODO is not a fail, but a win.

Mhe...no point reading the dribble I guess.

[AussieCJ7]

Originally Posted by Stefan

I opened the win thread and saw a Territory...quickly checked I did not accidentally open the fail thread.

I guess failing suspension by 40K on ODO is not a fail, but a win.

Mhe...no point reading the dribble I guess.

The Territory is still a very hard vehicle to replace, not sure if you have scaned the affordable 7 seat SUV market but the choices are pretty ordinary, in its day the Territory disrupted the market in a pretty positive way

[b0son]

In its day, there wasn't much of a market. Sadly, the only thing going for it now is its price.

[2011G6E]

Few interesting ones.
But hey, I'll not hear a word said against the magnificence of the Commodore Four!!! I owned one for about four years and it was a great car...roomy, full sized, balanced handling, good steering with less weight over the front end...just not that quick. Mind you, they scoff at "58kw", but forget that at the time, 60 or so kw give or take was normal for any four cylinder 2 liter engine from any maker. At the time a six cylinder Holden or Falcon was only wheezing out 80 to possibly near 100, and V8's weren't all that much better...we've been spoiled by grannys Corolla of today putting out over 100kw and sportier four cylinders putting out power levels to shame the last of the legendary V8's of days gone by (yes, the last 351 was putting out only 140-odd kw), to say nothing of the stratospheric power figures of turbo'd 6 cylinder Falcons and the host of V8's these days putting out power figures people 20 or 30 years ago could only dream of.

The Mitsubishi 380? Could have been so, so much more. Wrong car at the wrong time...I drove several as rentals at work...it handled well, was roomy, quiet, comfy, went like stink, but just didn't take off for some reason.

They scoff at the Joss supercar as being "an eleven year old design"...looks as good as any of the current crop of Italian supercars...could have been designed yesterday.

And oh, the fun days of badge engineering...the laughs we had with some of the stuff back then. A friend is a manager at an Autobarn store, and I was present when a customer trundled in to buy a rear window louvre (remember them) for his new Toyota Lexcen. Mate got down one and handed it to him, and he said "No, this says it's for a VN/VP Commodore...I want one for a Toyota Lexcen". Tried to say it was the same thing...he wasn't having a bar of it..."No, it's not a Holden, it's a Toyota. Mate said he'd check out the back.
Went out the back, told me he peeled off the sticker for it, and brought the same one back and said "You're in luck, just got a shipment of new ones in". Happy customer paid and off he went...

Another article I remember reading was in Wheels magazine of someone who knew a tradie who bought a "Nissan Ute". His freinds laughed at him saying "Don't you know it's a Falcon you idiot??". He smiled and replied "Yes...but if I buy it from Ford I get a one year/20,000km warrantee...buy the exact same thing with Nissan badges and I get Nissans 2 year 40,000 warrantee..."
Same the other way around...the Patrol as a Nissan had the 2yr/40,000, but buy the exact same thing badged as a Ford Maverick and you only got half that...

Funny, weird days...

[Bossxr8]

I'd say they were both accurate lists. The Territory was a brilliant thing, even though it did have a few quality issues. The fact that it still drives better than just about any SUV on sale today proves how brilliant the original design was.

[mik]

I would have said the the xr6 turbo was a major win.

[2011G6E]

Originally Posted by mik

I would have said the the xr6 turbo was a major win.

I'd say so too...more so the newer versions. I vividly remember walking past an F6 sitting in a car yard, brand new, and glancing at the striping on the side. It said "F6 310". I did a classic comical double take...310? Three hundred and ten kilowatts??? Quick bit of mental calculation...Jesus H Christ on a unicycle...that's over 400 horsepower!!!...out of a six cylinder!! And more importantly because of the wizardry of modern tech it would be a smooth, reliable, toddle-off-to-the-shops 415hp as well...not some rip snorting lumpy unmanageable beast like in days of yore. Hell, you could loan it to granny to go do the shopping.

Those of us "of a certain age" will remember this as a figure that things like Lamborghini's and Ferraris were straining to reach back in the 70's and 80's...

[new2ford]

It's not a bad pair of lists, but perhaps with an over-emphasis on the big cars. More than half the post-war market was always smaller cars and this sector has since swept the field. This fact is usually overlooked in Australian motoring history and the glorification of the Holden.

There was an ongoing battle for market lead in the smaller sector, generally with overseas models, although with pretty extensive local assembly/manufacture. Apart from the Lightburn Zeta, there were other efforts to develop local models derived from overseas platforms. The most distinctive harbinger of the future was an Australian development, the Morris Nomad of 1969 which was pretty much the first modern FWD transverse-engined hatchback in the world - now a type that dominates the market:



Within a few years, as we all know, the Golf, Honda and the Japanese generally came along and ran off with the market. All of these were and are imported and their growing popularity and market share was imho the biggest factor that undermined local manufacturing which never adapted from producing big cars, that ultimately nobody wanted.

There was however one successful local production of small cars with almost 100% local content (albeit a modified overseas design), the BMC Mini and Moke that ran from 1961 to about 1980.

Ford Australia was certainly on to a good thing when it got aboard the booming SUV sector with the Territory, another Australian achievement that was and still is the best-designed SUV in the world at a popular price level. It has been pretty cruel to see the clampdown on funding of its development so soon after its release and then the final sacrifice on the "One Ford" altar that will see its replacement by mediocrity.

There were certainly shining high points in automotive history in Australia and hopefully the engineering talent will continue to be appreciated on the global scene.

[XR Martin]

Avalon deserved to be in the Fail list.

Toyota was convinced it was the car that was going to beat Falcon and Commodore.
Dont mind the fact it was a generation old American model.
And there was Dame Edna being the face of its advertising campaign :

[2011G6E]

The Nomad was actually a very well packaged car...not too big, not too small, fit Australian adults into it easily, drove well (for the time...when looking back from the heights of the 21st century at older cars we must always keep things like power and acceleration relative to the time the car was made and not be tempted to laugh at them because they aren't as powerful and refined as we have come to expect today).

Unfortunately like many Leyland-group products of the time it was let down by sometimes-shoddy build quality and dodgy electrics...but there are still a fair amount of them getting around.

An example of this is easily seen with a quick flick through a Wheels I happen to have here (ask my missus about how many old car magazines I have lying about...) from June 1979.
The cover car is the Holden Piazza...a "sports car". However underneath it was just a Gemini.
There is a full test of the revolutionary new XD Falcon...the engine was the 4.1 six, putting out 94kw (let me know if you want it scanned in and posted here).
Looking at the listing of new cars in the back, most four cylinders were making between 50 and 70kw at most. Holden sixes churned out about 88kw, their 4.2 and 5.0 V8's making 120 and 161kw respectively. Fords 302 and 351's were putting out 179 and 216kw.

HOWEVER...there is a fudge in these figures...look at magazines only a couple of years later and the power figures for bigger engines in particular are a lot lower. So what changed?
The way they tested...that's what changed.
They started requiring engines to be tested as fitted to the street cars...alternator, water pump, air cleaner, all anti-pollution, full exhaust system...which made things much more realistic.

I notice that the most powerful car listed that year is the Maserati Khamain...239kw...a shattering supercar of the era.

Now look at what I said about the F6 Falcon and you will understand why those of us who were car nuts back in the seventies stand stunned by some of the cars available today that people take for granted.
As I said...it's all relative.

[snowcone]

The report said that the Charger had triple Holley carbs, but I seem to recall them have triple Webers unless my memory is failing worse than I thought.

[2011G6E]

Originally Posted by snowcone

The report said that the Charger had triple Holley carbs, but I seem to recall them have triple Webers unless my memory is failing worse than I thought.

Exactly...triple Webers. Apparently run with no gaskets, just some sealer, after problems with tuning the three during testing. They ran better with no gaskets between manifold and carby. For some reason. Hey, they're Italian...

But car nuts for decades have been searching for this rather special old Valiant ute...the test mule. Short Charger wheelbase, E38 triple Weber running gear, and if tales are true was the one shipped off to Italy to be set up properly by the Weber factory. It was apparently sold off to an employee and no one knows where it went after that.

[FalconXV]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

Few interesting ones.
But hey, I'll not hear a word said against the magnificence of the Commodore Four!!! I owned one for about four years and it was a great car...roomy, full sized, balanced handling, good steering with less weight over the front end...just not that quick. Mind you, they scoff at "58kw", but forget that at the time, 60 or so kw give or take was normal for any four cylinder 2 liter engine from any maker. At the time a six cylinder Holden or Falcon was only wheezing out 80 to possibly near 100, and V8's weren't all that much better...we've been spoiled by grannys Corolla of today putting out over 100kw and sportier four cylinders putting out power levels to shame the last of the legendary V8's of days gone by (yes, the last 351 was putting out only 140-odd kw), to say nothing of the stratospheric power figures of turbo'd 6 cylinder Falcons and the host of V8's these days putting out power figures people 20 or 30 years ago could only dream of.

I have always been fascinated and intrigued by the Starfire Commodore, and I'd probably buy one if I saw it for sale. I had some fwit mates buy one and destroy it . Knobs.

So was it a smooth engine? or was it raucous and unbalanced as you'd expect from a four derived from a six?

I think the issue most people had was the fact Holden read the market wrong, and the four cylinder had a stigma. Maybe that still exists with Ecoboost Falcon (or at least the way they marketed it).
Also, most competitors at the time were switching to OHC.

[2011G6E]

Originally Posted by FalconXV

I have always been fascinated and intrigued by the Starfire Commodore, and I'd probably buy one if I saw it for sale. I had some fwit mates buy one and destroy it . Knobs.

So was it a smooth engine? or was it raucous and unbalanced as you'd expect from a four derived from a six?

I think the issue most people had was the fact Holden read the market wrong, and the four cylinder had a stigma. Maybe that still exists with Ecoboost Falcon (or at least the way they marketed it).
Also, most competitors at the time were switching to OHC.

OK, I'll reply with what I honestly remember about it.

The car: Well, it was a Commodore...exactly the same as all the other Commodores, no smaller. It was hard to find one with air conditioning fitted as an option, but then again that was pretty standard with all cars of all sorts back then...it wasn't standard on many models of all sorts. Comfortable, quiet on the highway. Ours was fitted with the Trimatic. It shifted OK, engine was a little harsh, but not intrusively so.

The drive: it steered and handled like a VC Commodore...which is to say, pretty nicely compared to a lot of what was around. You could notice (on comparing to a couple of mates six cylinder versions) that it steered better...less mass over the front end. The giveaway that it was a four cylinder was the unique 13" wheels...they had the smaller Torana five bolt pattern, and "normal" Commodore wheels wouldn't fit. You wanted mags, you had to find an old Torana set or order new ones to suit.

The engine: It looked like, well, a "short red motor"...the oil pump hanging off the side, the same valve cover design, everything...just missing two cylinders. I remember that some bits and pieces would fit from the six...I put on an oil pump from a black motor (the last of the Holden sixes) a friend had sitting around and it fit fine and increased oil pressure well. A chrome finned cover picked up at a second hand shop also fit the oil pump. The water pump was also, I think, the same as the red and blue motor. It was painted blue.
The carby was a Varijet two barrel...I soon binned it and fitted a Weber with an adaptor plate and a sports air cleaner. That picked it up a bit. It was a pretty smooth motor...no worse and no better than any other two liter of the time. Certainly not as good as the excellent Ford SOHC two liter of course, but not bad by the standards of the day.
Performance: Fuel economy was about normal for a decent sized four cylinder car...no worse than the two liter fours in Cortinas some friends of mine had or Sigmas I owned by some people I knew, and power? Well yes it was slower...but it was an automatic. But again, about standard for a four cylinder of the times.

Interestingly, a few years later we bought a 1979 UC SUnbird, fitted with the same Starfire Four but backed by a four speed manual. It went very well, had plenty of go and got good economy. Was a little harsher than the same engine in the Commodore had been, but then it was a smaller car with less mass to absorb NVH. Handling was very very good in the UC...it really needed more power, but as a family car it was superb.

"Stigma"? Again, "time and place".
Back then it was very common for people to own four cylinder cars...an awful lot of people had two liter Cortina sedans and wagons, Toranas, Sigmas, and Toyota Coronas and Mazdas as family cars. It's a bit of a myth made misty and vague by the passage of time that "everyone" must have owned a Falcon/Kingswood/Valiant/Commodore and only little old ladies owned four cylinder cars. Not true. For instance I can still remember the cars in our street...one neighbour had a Kingswood Vacationer wagon, my parents had a 929 Mazda wagon, another neighbour had an XB Falcon, and others were a mix of Japanese four cylinder sedans and wagons and the odd Torana or Cortina or Sigma or Galant. Pretty typical. Not an endless parade of large Australian sedans, that's for sure.
Somehow, somewhere along the way, we seem to have decided we need bigger and bigger and heavier cars as a "suitable family car" when if we were honest we wouldn't need one near as big. Back then yes, plenty of people bought Kingswoods, Falcons, and Valiants, but just as many bought the cars I mentioned above and no one seemed to place a "stigma" on them for it.

There is also the fact that Project Blackwood...the car that was to be the XD...was always designed with the SOHC two liter in mind as well as the six and eight. They decided that there was already a plethora of medium and bordering-on-large four cylinders, so left it to a six and eight choice for the XD. I however have always wondered what it would have been like.

So what did the Commodore Four need? Not much...
A more powerful engine with a bit more development behind it...local makers only had a couple of proven engines at the time...the British Ford SOHC two liter, and the Astron in the Sigma. Holden was caught on the back foot and had to catch up quick.
A standard five speed manual would have been a big plus. It was, as with everything else, an option.


Basically it was a car whose time had not quite come, which could have been so much more with a little extra thought put into the engine. To sum up...it wasn't as bad as motoring journalists make out...

And I have always wondered how a light VC Commodore four would go fitted with some more modern two liter four, maybe a turbo unit out of something completely different like an SR20...

[zilo]

I disagree with the Mitsubishi 380 comments.
Always the same comments,
(they hate the look of it, but noone can fault it mecahnically or the build quality.)
what killed Mitsubishi?

The journos that are now trying to kill Ford....incessantly.

[2011G6E]

Originally Posted by zilo

I disagree with the Mitsubishi 380 comments.
Always the same comments,
(they hate the look of it, but noone can fault it mecahnically or the build quality.)
what killed Mitsubishi?

The journos that are now trying to kill Ford....incessantly.

Exactly. It was a good car...possibly being a six cylinder only might have made it sell less. Bit like Holden shooting themselves in the foot with that first model of the Adventra Commodore wagon which was V8 only. Talk about limiting your market.
If you are brutally honest with yourself, all the local big cars recently...Falcon, Commodore, and yes, even 380...were and are great cars. They're all let down somewhat by the odd little niggles, but overall we're lucky to have had such well built well featured cars allowed to be made here for such a tiny audience by world standards.

[Davehoos]

I owned a starfire VH. 4 speed with air conditioning.The dealer ship couldn't get enough to sell till owners found out the 2850 5 speed was cheep to own. I had it converted to LPG- fitted HK wheels to reduce the hyway RPM. 3rd gear overtaking the engine vibrated so much but it was mostly the radiator fan-I got a visco hub and she run all day.

The European version had small 4 cyl engines. I couldn't understand why they didn't bother to sell the VN with the export engine on gas or the small block buick for fleet work. magazines claim was they cost the same to produce and took sales from smaller cars.

plenty of customers chasing this size car as used cars. The dealer I worked for sold lots of pintara and 4cyl magna wagons as large family city vehicles-today people buy people movers.

380 is a job interview resume car-like falcon and commodore.

[SSD-85]

I usually expect lists like these to have some form of polarising diatribe. Such as including the AU Falcon on the fail list. Thankfully that was not the case.

However, I think the numerous attempts GMH made to introduce foreign models is a failure in itself. Think Piazza, Camira, Cruze (the FIRST one), Epica, Malibu, Volt, HSV Jackaroo, the list goes on.
Glass-half-full people would say at least they tried, but there is a fine line with that.

[2011G6E]

The Piazza was a spectacularly styled car...let down by having RWD Gemini underpinnings which were hardly state of the art for a car that looked like it did. There was also the problem of being overpriced.

There's a HSV Jackaroo...red I think...in Rocky. I've seen it once or twice. Despite being a bit of a laugh, they would be rare these days.

[Windsor220]

I was too young to know but was the EA really as bad as history says? I owned one as my first car and never had an issue with it.

[Dr Terry]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

OK, I'll reply with what I honestly remember about it.

The car: Well, it was a Commodore...exactly the same as all the other Commodores, no smaller. It was hard to find one with air conditioning fitted as an option, but then again that was pretty standard with all cars of all sorts back then...it wasn't standard on many models of all sorts. Comfortable, quiet on the highway. Ours was fitted with the Trimatic. It shifted OK, engine was a little harsh, but not intrusively so.

The drive: it steered and handled like a VC Commodore...which is to say, pretty nicely compared to a lot of what was around. You could notice (on comparing to a couple of mates six cylinder versions) that it steered better...less mass over the front end. The giveaway that it was a four cylinder was the unique 13" wheels...they had the smaller Torana five bolt pattern, and "normal" Commodore wheels wouldn't fit. You wanted mags, you had to find an old Torana set or order new ones to suit.

The engine: It looked like, well, a "short red motor"...the oil pump hanging off the side, the same valve cover design, everything...just missing two cylinders. I remember that some bits and pieces would fit from the six...I put on an oil pump from a black motor (the last of the Holden sixes) a friend had sitting around and it fit fine and increased oil pressure well. A chrome finned cover picked up at a second hand shop also fit the oil pump. The water pump was also, I think, the same as the red and blue motor. It was painted blue.
The carby was a Varijet two barrel...I soon binned it and fitted a Weber with an adaptor plate and a sports air cleaner. That picked it up a bit. It was a pretty smooth motor...no worse and no better than any other two liter of the time. Certainly not as good as the excellent Ford SOHC two liter of course, but not bad by the standards of the day.
Performance: Fuel economy was about normal for a decent sized four cylinder car...no worse than the two liter fours in Cortinas some friends of mine had or Sigmas I owned by some people I knew, and power? Well yes it was slower...but it was an automatic. But again, about standard for a four cylinder of the times.

Interestingly, a few years later we bought a 1979 UC SUnbird, fitted with the same Starfire Four but backed by a four speed manual. It went very well, had plenty of go and got good economy. Was a little harsher than the same engine in the Commodore had been, but then it was a smaller car with less mass to absorb NVH. Handling was very very good in the UC...it really needed more power, but as a family car it was superb.

"Stigma"? Again, "time and place".
Back then it was very common for people to own four cylinder cars...an awful lot of people had two liter Cortina sedans and wagons, Toranas, Sigmas, and Toyota Coronas and Mazdas as family cars. It's a bit of a myth made misty and vague by the passage of time that "everyone" must have owned a Falcon/Kingswood/Valiant/Commodore and only little old ladies owned four cylinder cars. Not true. For instance I can still remember the cars in our street...one neighbour had a Kingswood Vacationer wagon, my parents had a 929 Mazda wagon, another neighbour had an XB Falcon, and others were a mix of Japanese four cylinder sedans and wagons and the odd Torana or Cortina or Sigma or Galant. Pretty typical. Not an endless parade of large Australian sedans, that's for sure.
Somehow, somewhere along the way, we seem to have decided we need bigger and bigger and heavier cars as a "suitable family car" when if we were honest we wouldn't need one near as big. Back then yes, plenty of people bought Kingswoods, Falcons, and Valiants, but just as many bought the cars I mentioned above and no one seemed to place a "stigma" on them for it.

There is also the fact that Project Blackwood...the car that was to be the XD...was always designed with the SOHC two liter in mind as well as the six and eight. They decided that there was already a plethora of medium and bordering-on-large four cylinders, so left it to a six and eight choice for the XD. I however have always wondered what it would have been like.

So what did the Commodore Four need? Not much...
A more powerful engine with a bit more development behind it...local makers only had a couple of proven engines at the time...the British Ford SOHC two liter, and the Astron in the Sigma. Holden was caught on the back foot and had to catch up quick.
A standard five speed manual would have been a big plus. It was, as with everything else, an option.


Basically it was a car whose time had not quite come, which could have been so much more with a little extra thought put into the engine. To sum up...it wasn't as bad as motoring journalists make out...

And I have always wondered how a light VC Commodore four would go fitted with some more modern two liter four, maybe a turbo unit out of something completely different like an SR20...

A well thought-out response & it sounds like you are the same vintage as me, but I have a few comments to add.

Firstly, The Commodore 4 engine wasn't just a Starfire 4. The Starfire tag was only used for the UC Torana version which was painted silver. The Commodore 4 had several significant upgrades improving its balance & harshness. They called the Commodore 4 engine Phase II. Also it wasn't a "Red motor" "just missing two cylinders". The 4 cylinder's main new 'thing' was that it was the first use of the new head design, which was the basis of the Blue motor 6's 12 port item.

The oil pump was the same for ALL Red, Blue & Black motors & that used on the 4-cyl, so improving the oil pressure by changing the pump, only proved that the old oil pump was faulty.

Yes, the 2-litre Ford SOHC (Pinto) motor & the Sigma 4-cyls had more power, were smoother & more efficient/powerful, however if you ever worked on the these things in the 70s, the Ford's Achilles heel was consistently chewing out cam lobes, due the the oil lube tube nozzles getting blocked up, while the Sigma kept the head gasket & heads shops in business. Apart from leaking oil, the Holden 4-cyl just kept on going.

I think the myth about us ALL driving 6-cyl cars not 4-cyls, came from the 50s & 60s, not the 70s. In the 50s one car, the Holden FC held 51% of the total car market. In the mid-60s, Holden, Falcon & Valiant between them commanded over 70% of the total market. The top selling 4-cyls, the VW & the Mini were a distance 4th & 5th on the list. By the mid-70s, small Fords, Toyotas, Datsuns, Mazdas, Mitsubishis & even Holden's own Gemini had replaced the VW & Mini had eaten heavily into the big 3's market share. By 1980, 4-cylinders held a significant proportion of the market.

Your comment:- "A standard five speed manual would have been a big plus. It was, as with everything else, an option. " needs some qualification. The VC Commodore did not ever have a 5-speed available, in either the 4 or 6 cyl version, as an option or otherwise. It did however become available for the VH, where it was standard on the SL/X & optional on the SL.

Holden did fill a market niche with the 4-cyl, but needed a better engine. They got away with it because the original Opel Rekord in German was only built as a 4-cyl. However, I shudder to think what an XD 4-cyl would have been like, given its heavy (read stronger) underpinnings. I think Ford Aust. made the correct decision.

Dr Terry

[Dr Terry]

Originally Posted by Windsor220

I was too young to know but was the EA really as bad as history says? I owned one as my first car and never had an issue with it.

The very early EAs were rubbish, especially the 3.2 litre.

They did improve quickly however, by the time you get to EBII, they were a very good car.

Dr Terry

[new2ford]

Originally Posted by Dr Terry

I think the myth about us ALL driving 6-cyl cars not 4-cyls, came from the 50s & 60s, not the 70s. In the 50s one car, the Holden FC held 51% of the total car market. In the mid-60s, Holden, Falcon & Valiant between them commanded over 70% of the total market. The top selling 4-cyls, the VW & the Mini were a distance 4th & 5th on the list. By the mid-70s, small Fords, Toyotas, Datsuns, Mazdas, Mitsubishis & even Holden's own Gemini had replaced the VW & Mini had eaten heavily into the big 3's market share. By 1980, 4-cylinders held a significant proportion of the market.

It wasn't until the late 50s/60 that Holden hit the 50% mark. In 1965 the Holden/Falcon/Valiant share was 59%. Smaller cars retained a significant, if sometimes minority, volume right throughout, but the brands started changing significantly under the notorious Plan A/Plan B scheme of the mid 60s under which overseas manufacturers - notably the Japanese - could obtain tariff entitlements (and lower local content) by assembling small volumes in Australia.

The better-equipped Japanese cars quickly knocked off the ancient design of the VW, but the Mini and its siblings held on strongly because of its advanced FWD design until everybody else started copying it from the 1970s. By then it was really all over bar the shouting and a painfully drawn-out (40 year!) death for the Australian motor industry.

So you're right, the peak dominance of the big cars was really only in the 1960s. Everybody under-estimates the significance of smaller cars right throughout the postwar period.

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by Dr Terry

The very early EAs were rubbish, especially the 3.2 litre.

They did improve quickly however, by the time you get to EBII, they were a very good car.

Dr Terry

My EBII was a very solid, well made car.

[LeadFoot81]

Originally Posted by Windsor220

I was too young to know but was the EA really as bad as history says? I owned one as my first car and never had an issue with it.

Probably because the previous owner/s replaced all the bits that broke!!

My first car was an EA and it was fantastic (after I replaced all the bits that died)

Still love them though. Must've looked like something from the distant future when it landed amongst the XD-Fs and VB-Ls of the time.

[Stefan]

Originally Posted by LeadFoot81

Probably because the previous owner/s replaced all the bits that broke!!

My first car was an EA and it was fantastic (after I replaced all the bits that died)

Still love them though. Must've looked like something from the distant future when it landed amongst the XD-Fs and VB-Ls of the time.

It was, like it was yesterday I still remember walking home from school and seeing a brand new EA in a driveway of a mates street, I loved the look instantly.

Peter Warren Ford use to do "Peter Warren Specials" (usually just aftermarket lowered, mags, tint). They had a white Farimont, black windows, with colour coded V5 Simmons....I loved that car... Nearly bought a secon hand one in 1992 exactly like that, it was $22K. Around the same thime EB GT was released and that was just the ducks guts for me, $80K on the road...I had no chance of owning one. A mate's neighbour had one and let me sit in it...I remember feeling faint.

Space permitting one day one will buy an EB GT, it has a special place in my car enthusiast formative years.

[Brazen]

Originally Posted by b0son

In its day, there wasn't much of a market. Sadly, the only thing going for it now is its price.

Only thing going for is its price? Are you joking?

It is one of the best riding and best handling SUVs under 100k! It has an incredibly useful and interior with lots of cargo spots. Very refined and quiet diesel motor, It has the widest rear seats out the soft roaders and can tow more than a Prado.

[Brazen]

Also glad to see AU not on the fail list.

It got a bad rap but it went up against the hugely popular VT Commodore, and at the same time Ford decided to reduce fleet incentives on the Falcon to focus more on private buyers so it did struggle sales wise for a bit.

But for private buyers they did sell well, out here in cattle country QLD, they were everywhere literally months after release.

[xm289]

We bought a 2008 territory Ghia 6 months ago and it's the best car we ever had.

Definitely world class and dream highway and towing vehicle.