Ford Australia Rumored To Replace Falcon's Iconic I6 With A New V6 By 2010

[JoeT]

V6 For Falcon

Marton pettendy
11 July 2007
www.goauto.com.au

Venerable I6 set to retire as Ford looks to an overseas V6 for the next-gen Falcon.

Ford Australia will retire its trademark inline six-cylinder engine and replace it with a smaller-capacity imported V6 within three years – after half a century of Falcon service – according to GoAuto sources.

The shock plan is believed to be the frontrunner in a range of options now being considered by Ford to meet strict new Euro IV exhaust emissions laws that come into effect for all new vehicles built after July 1, 2010 – little more than two years into the all-new 2008 Orion Falcon’s model life.

It would mark the end of an era for the Ford Motor Company, whose 1906 Model K straight six started a tradition that continues today at Ford Australia – the world’s last Ford subsidiary, and the last of three Australian car-makers, to persist with the I6.

It would also come as a surprise, not least to the 600 workers at Ford’s Geelong engine plant (which opened in 1926), following the Federal Government’s $28 million Automotive Competitiveness and Investment Scheme (ACIS) grant in 2005, which was believed to have shored up the locally-built engine’s future beyond 2010.

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Future Of Geelong Ford Workers At Stake

Neil McDonald
12 July 2007
www.carsguide.com.au

Speculation is that Ford may axe engine production and move on to the idea of importing V6 engines for the Falcons.

The future of 600 workers at Ford's Geelong engine plant will be high on the agenda today (July 12) in a meeting between Ford management and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union.

The plant builds six-cylinder engines for the Ford Falcon.

But speculation Ford may axe engine production there and move to an imported V6 engine for the Falcon beyond 2010 has the company on the back foot.

The AMWU's vehicle division representative, Ian Jones, said any move to kill off engine production at Geelong would have a significant impact on the workers, the city and the region.

Mr Jones had heard the speculation "for some time," he said.

"Normally, before they make these decisions they have discussions with us."

In a bid to stem the fallout, Ford has moved to reassure its Geelong engine workers that their jobs are safe.

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Howard Must Help Save Ford Jobs: Union

AAP
13 July 2007
www.drive.com.au

The big left wing manufacturing workers' union has urged Prime Minister John Howard to intervene to save the jobs of 600 Ford workers.

The plea follows a report that Ford is considering ending its manufacture of V6 Falcon engines at the Geelong plant in Victoria with the possible loss of 600 jobs.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) said on Friday that some 100,000 jobs had already been lost in manufacturing during the past 12 to 18 months and a productivity commission inquiry should be brought forward to investigate why.

AMWU national secretary Dave Oliver said on Friday Ford should be upfront and transparent about its plans and provide information about what it is contemplating.

"But more importantly the workers want to hear from the federal government they're going to intervene and roll their sleeves up and do what it takes to sustain and protect their jobs in regional Australia," Mr Oliver told reporters.

He said unions would be meeting with Ford next week to discuss the predicted closure of the Geelong plant.

"The federal government has a productivity commission inquiry set down for some time next year but we've been calling to bring that inquiry forward," he said.

"The auto industry in this country is in crisis, we've seen so many jobs lost and there's been a knock-on affect in the auto component sector."

Mr Oliver said the key issues surrounding job loss in manufacturing industries required the government to revisit the decision to reduce tariffs by five per cent in 2010, as well as free-trade agreements with Thailand and free-trade talks with China.

Research and development is required from both industry and government in new green technologies so infrastructure can provide new jobs rather than losses.

2008 GMI's 2008 Ford Falcon News & Spy Pictures Thread
Ford Australia Planning A Third Car For Production

End of an era: The I6 engine has been a Falcon staple since the XK model was launched in September 1960

[Zomsky]

Another sad day for Australian Manufacturing.........

Where does that leave the 600 Geelong workers???

If you read the attatched Go Auto reports, with the details of the new US 3.5V6 and co-developed 6 speed auto (which i believe is a joint venture between GM and Ford), it makes one wonder if Falcons post-Orion (assuming the Falcon survives that long) will even be RWD. The drivetrain mentioned is purely of FWD design......

It all adds to my theory that Ford's third vehicle line will be a larger FWD sedan, or FWD based crossover; upon which post Orion Falcons will be based, moving Ford Aus to FWD.

This is assuming Ford Aus is still alive post 2010.
Mitsubishi closed their engine facilities when the Magna died. A very very sad day in Adelaide, which cost Mitsubushi dearly in terms of bad publicity. With Ford Aus the most vulnerable outpost of Ford worldwide, I don't think Ford can handle any bad publicity.

It is widely doccumented the Orion program is destined to cease around 2010. With less than 3 years to go, and the upcoming US CAFE legislation, I honestly believe Ford worldwide does not have a current RWD program, nor has any intentions of developing one. It has left it's run too late.

Come 2010, Crown Victoria, Grand Marquis, Lincoln Town Car, and indeed Falcon RWD will all be fond memories of a time when burning dead dinosour didn't matter......

[Road Kill]

If you want to know where all of the good manufacturing jobs are going just look in your neighbors driveway. Oddly enough some of the people where I live who are complaining the most about job loses are driving imports. They just don't seem to get it, even after you explain it to them.

[Aych Es Vee]

this would EXTREMELY suck.

Plus, what would happen to the XR6T model? A V6 turbo would be nowhere near as cool.
Ford Aus would seriously lose a helluva lot of street cred.

IF ANYTHING, Ford Australia should be exporting the I6s to the other Ford companies around the world to use.
A Mustang inline 6 model would be far better than Mustang V6.
How about a Mustang F6 Typhoon? Different. But imo, awesome idea. Maybe then 6 cylinder Mustangs wouldnt get bagged out so much.
4L inline sixes in American Ford sedans? even better.

Seriously, Ford international doesnt seem to notice that we have what is probably the best 6 cylinder engine in a affordable sedan, in the world. And mostl likely the biggest capacity aswell.



But seriously, the Barra240T is probably the best engine that Ford, ... ALL of Ford, has.
SO much potential in modifying. And its made fans out of a heck of a lot of the old Nissan RB and Toyota 1J/2J enthusiasts.

[Zomsky]

It's just not clean enough to soldier on past 2010. If they wanted to continue with an inline 6, the cost of modifying it would be phenomenal, as much as designing a new clean-sheet engine.

Ford should perhaps be looking to europe for Diesel technology......

[Stéphane Dumas]

I wouldn't be surprised, since Holden switched from the 3.8L Buick to the Ayllotec aka High-feature 3.6L engine, it was a matter of time before Ford Australia goes with a more modern 6-cyl.

I guess the Twin-Force will pay a visit Down Under more sooner as we think.

[igor]

OK you all are panicing too much ..

1) Falcon will continue to be RWD - the D35 V6 engine is FWD, AWD, RWD engine as is the co-developped 6speed (6F) transmission ... (after all this transmission is in the Expedition, and the Engine was used in the MKR concept, and will be in the Mustang and F150 next year)

2) Ford already has replacement for Orion underway - under the codename Huntsmen, Ford is planning a ground up redesign of the Flacon platform - rumors are flying, this will be Ford's Zeta program. The launch date for that program was rumored between 2010 and 2012 ... it will be RWD AWD platform with LHD and RHD capability, and I Will drop dead shocked if it does not come over to US under the Mustang and a couple of sedans.

I know loss of jobs is unfortunate, but in a world where the whole FoMoCo is struggling to survive, having several separate 6 cylinder engines does not make sense .. and Ford like GM know that and are moving to rectify that.

Igor

[spaz]

its a shame that outside of australia, no other fords benefited from that excellent I6. I can't believe we have to put up with the coogne 4L V-6 that runs like a tractor engine instead of the silky smooth inline 6. Could have been the base mustang/ explorer/ f-150/ crownvic base engine, and top choice in the ranger. I hope Ford Australia does what holden did and tools up locally to build the new v6 engine.

[AusCalais]

A successful Mondeo will be the end for Falcon...maybe not the current model about to be released in Aus, but the model after that around 2011 which will inevitibly be larger and more powerful... side by side in the Ford showroom, Falcon will be hard pressed to fight against ongoing higher fuel prices and Mondeo's fresh look and greater technology bankrolled by Ford Europe.

[Aych Es Vee]

Originally Posted by AusCalais

A successful Mondeo will be the end for Falcon...maybe not the current model about to be released in Aus, but the model after that around 2011 which will inevitibly be larger and more powerful... side by side in the Ford showroom, Falcon will be hard pressed to fight against ongoing higher fuel prices and Mondeo's fresh look and greater technology bankrolled by Ford Europe.

The Mondeo will never outsell the Falcon, in the same way an Epica or Vectra will never outsell the Commodore.

This is Australia, unless fuel prices double, people are still going to be buying large cars.
Even still, most people know that a slightly smaller 6 in a slightly smaller Mondeo isnt going to be much of a save in fuel over a Falcon anyway.

[Cortazzo]

They are just going to ship new 3.5L kits down to AUS to assemble. This not only keeps production humming in the US, it also takes advantage of the dollars weakness vs the australian dollar (and the rest of the worlds currencies). Remember the twin force, or whatever ford is calling it's twin turbo setup for the new 3.5, i'm sure that will make MORE than an adequate replacement for the XR6 models of the falcon. This is a good sign for Ford that they are finally consolidating engine designs and production. Honda and Toyota don't throw out dozens of engines that compete with themselves...

[nadepalma]

Originally Posted by igor

OK you all are panicing too much ..

1) Falcon will continue to be RWD - the D35 V6 engine is FWD, AWD, RWD engine as is the co-developped 6speed (6F) transmission ... (after all this transmission is in the Expedition, and the Engine was used in the MKR concept, and will be in the Mustang and F150 next year)

2) Ford already has replacement for Orion underway - under the codename Huntsmen, Ford is planning a ground up redesign of the Flacon platform - rumors are flying, this will be Ford's Zeta program. The launch date for that program was rumored between 2010 and 2012 ... it will be RWD AWD platform with LHD and RHD capability, and I Will drop dead shocked if it does not come over to US under the Mustang and a couple of sedans.

I know loss of jobs is unfortunate, but in a world where the whole FoMoCo is struggling to survive, having several separate 6 cylinder engines does not make sense .. and Ford like GM know that and are moving to rectify that.

Igor

All good stuff and all true. I know it must be a blow to those workers, but maybe one day they can assemble the D35 in Australia to save a few bucks on importing them. In the meantime, I'd love to see Ford's "Zeta" up and running sooner rather than later.

And you're right that having a small number of engine programs means a great deal more in the overall scheme of things than keeping so many engine programs around for no reason. I hope that GM pares everything down to just one V6 engine program (will the "new" pushrod engines like the 3.9 and 3.5 be around for alot longer? Or will they be phased out eventually and just use an expanded "high feature" family line spread out across more models?) and Ford should do the same. The D35's architecture is vastly superior to the D30's and perhaps we'll see smaller variants make it into products like the Escape/Mariner at some point....just as the 3.7L version will work excusively for Lincoln for a few years.

Regardless, this is the way things are going -- even Chrysler is planning on eliminating what's left of their OHV V6 engine architecture and replacing almost all of their OHC engines with a single "Phoenix" V6 family across the board --- makes a great deal of sense rather than running so many enginelines. In a few years, you could conceivably see only the GEMA I4 family, Phoenix V6 family and two V8 engine lines at Chrysler (the OHV HEMI and OHC "Magnum" engines) in an effort to pair things down and create better economies of scale --- incredibly important.

And Ford could do worse than follow suite (or GM for that matter) if they paired it down to one architecture for their V6s (with the exception of Volvo who should continue with I6/I5 engines).

[gregorypeter]

This definetly is sad to see that the jobs will be lost in Australia manufacturing this continent-exclusive engine, but this is just part of Ford finally executing some sort of global streamlining. I would rather have Ford slim down and lose some jobs than close down completely because they were trying to be too much to too many different people.

[MaxLegroom]

It will be a shame to see this engine go, and the closest I've come to knowing what it will do is Gran Turismo 4, where the XR6 Turbo remains a favorite. As an asides, with the problems discussed in making a V6 refined, I wonder why a new inline 6 could not be done. It might be easier to engineer a new one than to engineer a V6, the engine would be smoother, and besides, if you want a nice hood to cowl ratio, planning for a inline 6 usually does wonders for that. V6 engines, on the other hand, tend to lead to short nosed RWD cars, provided that the resulting vehicle doesn't look (somewhat) like it is FWD. The 4th gen F-Body was a example of the latter. I simply find that V6 engines allow designers to debase some very good ideas.

[MonaroSS]

Originally Posted by MaxLegroom

It will be a shame to see this engine go, and the closest I've come to knowing what it will do is Gran Turismo 4, where the XR6 Turbo remains a favorite. As an asides, with the problems discussed in making a V6 refined, I wonder why a new inline 6 could not be done. It might be easier to engineer a new one than to engineer a V6, the engine would be smoother, and besides, if you want a nice hood to cowl ratio, planning for a inline 6 usually does wonders for that. V6 engines, on the other hand, tend to lead to short nosed RWD cars, provided that the resulting vehicle doesn't look (somewhat) like it is FWD. The 4th gen F-Body was a example of the latter. I simply find that V6 engines allow designers to debase some very good ideas.

They like the V6 because they can also fit in a FWD car. What is needed is a new I6 engine design that can have both rear and centre power take-off. Then you can place the engine right across the front of a FWD and drive directly from a centre gear between pistons 3 and 4 to a differential.