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Forty years ago, in October, 1984, the bestselling Ford Falcon in the nameplate’s 56-year history in Australia was launched.
The XF series held the top spot every year until production ceased in February, 1988, ahead of the handsome but flawed EA’s debut.
This success was nothing short of astonishing.
The XF was actually the second facelift of the third-generation Falcon – the XD of 1979 – and that itself was essentially a reskinned 1972 XA, using a platform dating back to the 1960 XK original. It was hardly the latest thing by the mid-Eighties.
Modern-looking when new, the XD launched amid global fuel shortages that saw buyers abandoning big cars. It struggling through 1980 while Holden sat in the hot seat with the first, smaller, Opel-derived Commodore. At that moment, the Falcon wasn’t even expected to make it past the middle of the decade.
But make it the Falcon did, after a series of fortunate events unfolding for Ford, which ultimately helped the XF shape the Australian operations into a global entity. But it also serves as a cautionary tale for this country’s bestselling vehicle today, the Ranger ute.
Leading up to the XF’s 1984 release, petrol prices eased, meaning big cars were in again. Falcon found itself as Australia’s only six-seater-capable family car by late 1981 because Holden and Chrysler terminated their HZ and Valiant models respectively, meaning fleets and taxi owners flocked to Ford. And as did small-car buyers, after the Mazda-based Laser rocketed up the sales charts. The Blue Oval was hot.
Just as importantly, the competition was nowhere at that point in history.
Holden was making some wrong decisions and spiralling: closing factories and further alienating government fleet buyers, a breathless four-cylinder in the VC Commodore was a branding disaster, buyers dismissed the VH facelift of 1981 as not changing nearly enough — especially against the hugely improved XE Falcon released the following year; the decrepit Gemini embarrassed itself against Laser — and the vital Camira midsizer’s initial stellar sales start was completely botched after catastrophic quality issues. By 1982’s finish, Ford ended Holden’s 29-year reign as number one.
Meanwhile, this was the era of Toyota’s pre-front-wheel drive Seventies-leftover whitegoods dross — witness the tired old Corona. Similarly, Mitsubishi’s once-swinging Sigma was ageing, while the Bluebird lacked sparkle.
Ford, on the other hand, was on a roll. XE sales steamrolled along that a cocky Ford exec told journalists at the XF’s launch that had they known of the Falcon’s sales resurrection, management would have extended the old car’s life by at least another six months. That’s the thing about the car industry. Decisions are often made years in advance.
By the end of 1985, combined XF volume soared past 80,000 sales, despite strong competition from a (somewhat) revitalised VK Commodore that had surfaced earlier in the year before. Laser was in the number three spot, the also-Japanese Telstar midsized sedan was number five overall (amazing!) and the Falcon-based Fairlane was Australia’s most popular luxury car.
And, don’t forget, crossovers and SUVs did not exist and 4WDs were largely rudimentary off-roaders. Cars not built in Australia were subject to high tariffs. Only Falcon offered a ute and panel van by then, as Holden did not yet bother with a Commodore ute back then after abandoning its ‘70s-era WB Kingswood commercial vehicles. And puny one-tonners from Japan like the Toyota HiLux were just mostly dynamically diabolical.
Australia was a very different place back then and Ford was playing the best game in town.
Yet the XF became a symbol of Ford’s hubris and, some might say, contempt for consumers. In some respects, it was amongst the worst of the Falcons.
Efficiency was not a high point, with appalling aerodynamics and excessive weight not helping.
At launch, the XF’s in-line six-cylinder (I6) pushrod engines (90kW/240Nm 3.3-litre carburettor, 103kW/316Nm 4.1L carburettor and 120kW/333Nm 4.1L fuel-injection) were slow (0-100km/h in 9.3s was the best figure published at the time) and thirsty (about 11L/100km on average). Far-more modern overhead cam I6s wouldn’t come until EA.
During the XF’s run, rivals adopted four-speed automatic transmissions but a three-speed unit persisted in the Falcon. So did antiquated leaf-sprung rear suspension in the popular wagon (that lasted until the final BF III wagon in 2012), even though the XE sedan finally lost them for a Watts Link arrangement; while the steering used a recirculating ball set-up instead of the established rack-and-pinion arrangement still prevalent today. That also changed with EA.
Speaking of power, the Falcon lost its V8s during the XE’s run in late 1982 and resurfaced with the 1991 EB, meaning that the XF and EA are the only models not to offer them at all. Unlike the Commodore. And the now-iconic ESP (European Sports Pack) grade also disappeared with the XF.
Still, the XF was ultimately a masterstroke of marketing. And it looked different, with the sleeker, rounded nose cone and distinct straked tail-light treatment. The completely overhauled interior compared to the XE seemed fresh and futuristic, since it adopted colour-keyed trim, available digital instrumentation and fingertip satellite pod switchgear, with help from partner Mazda. Ford also improved the ergonomics, quelled noise paths, added a large ski port into the boot for longer objects and went to the trouble of offering a high-series dash layout.
And then, in April, 1985, about six months after the XF’s debut, Mitsubishi Australia released the TM Magna, a front-drive Sigma with a wider body than the first-gen Commodore and more space due to more-efficient packaging, to catapult the family car into the next decade. The Falcon seemed like a steam-era locomotive compared to this Japanese bullet train.
Holden, meanwhile, turned to Nissan when it needed to junk its 1963 EH-era Commodore powertrain in the 1986 VL for a modern unit out of the Skyline (that also joined the war against Ford), dramatically improving performance and efficiency. And Toyota, too, abandoned the old ways when the advanced Camry of 1987 usurped the hopeless Corona on the Port Melbourne production line.
Private and fleet buyers alike finally had better options than the now-tired XF Falcon, but it remained this country’s bestselling vehicle right up to the end. The sedan and wagon stepped aside first in March, 1988, but as there were no EA equivalents, the ute and panel van soldiered on with the XG facelift in 1993.
All up, 278,101 XF Falcons of all styles were built, including the 1988-92 XFN Nissan Ute derivative that was part of a failed, federal government-mandated model-sharing plan of the time that saw Nissan GQ Patrols rebadged as the Ford Maverick.
From EA right up to the final FGX of October, 2016, no subsequent Falcon enjoyed the run of the market like the XF did. The EA may have easily outclassed the VL, but Holden’s VN from August, 1988, completely addressed its predecessors’ size, packaging and styling shortfalls. Commodore was back on top, though the Falcon gave it a constant hard time, until both started haemorrhaging sales to SUVs.
And then Australian full-line vehicle manufacturing ceased in October 2017 and that was that.
So, what does all this particular series of Falcon history have to do with Ranger today?
Well, the XF’s success led to the EA as a completely Australian-designed and developed car. It wrote many of its predecessors’ wrongs – new steering and suspension, whilst many regarded this Falcon as the best-looking sedan in the world for a time.
Like the Camira, the EA suffered from widely-publicised quality issues (in concert with the Capri convertible that was meant to be a new era of export opportunity for Ford Australia until the unexpected Mazda MX-5 obliterated its potential), but Ford did at least overcome most of the problems in a timely manner.
Subsequent Falcon series through the ‘90s became even better, even by global standards, and though the AU was a sales disaster against a resurgent Holden’s VT Commodore, the BA of 2002 remedied that, while the related Territory (destined to be Australia’s only-ever SUV) was simply one of the best of its ilk anywhere on the planet. Period. Including against the BMW X5.
Ultimately, such exceptional results won Ford Australia the contract to develop the T6 Ranger out of Melbourne for the world – a massive win and acknowledgement of the local team’s incredible talent, that of course culminates in today’s PY Ranger: this country’s bestselling vehicle last year and likely in 2024, and also widely accepted as the world’s best dual-cab ute today.
However, it’s worth noting that, while far from being “nowhere” like so many of the Falcon’s rivals such as the Corona, Bluebird and Sigma were in the first half of the 1980s, many of the Ranger’s traditional competitors are either ageing or near the end of their model cycles, so no-longer as competitive.
These include Australia’s previous number one seller, the HiLux, as well as the Nissan Navara and to a lesser extent the Isuzu D-Max/Mazda BT-50 twins. The first two will be redesigned and reengineered inside the next two years. Kia, of course, is preparing the Tasman. And Hyundai is planning a spate of utes for the near future.
But China is coming along in leaps and bounds, from both the bottom end of the market with (still all-too-slow to improve) cheapies from LDV T60, GWM Cannon and more, as well as compellingly positioned electrified alternatives, like the GWM Cannon Alpha hybrid and new BYD Shark 6 plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV).
Of course, the latter will have a foe in the Ranger PHEV later next year, but why didn’t Ford read the room with electrification earlier?
Which begs the question: like the XF some 40 years ago, how long will Ford Australia’s incredible run of luck last with Ranger?
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