US Ford and Global RWD

[Ohio XB]

This questions was asked in a closed thread....

One interesting thing I noticed it said was that they were going to use the Falcon platform for RWD Fords. Since when did they decide to use the Aussie platform? I thought Ford America were going to make their own and make us use theirs.

Fact - Ford has at least one, probably several, Aussie Falcons in Dearborn.

One could speculate it was for engineers to drive what they see in CAD drawings from Australia to be able to experience the end result. With the quality reputation of the Falcon and the Falcon having been shipped to Dearborn it would seem to be clear that the global RWD program was Falcon based. However, as someone mentioned, the world changed.

Right now two of the biggest concerns at Ford are fuel mileage and reduced emissions. Lighter, front wheel drive cars and smaller engines are the quickest way to achieve these results. It is only reasonable that the global RWD idea be shelved for now.

As others have mentioned, replacing the Falcon with a Taurus involves some facets that do not immediately come to mind. One of them is the Mustang syndrome. The Mustang customers would not accept the front wheel drive replacement Ford had slated for it so the Mustang remained a RWD. The Falcon shares the same kind of enthusiasm. This, among other logistics, would be the reasons that the Taurus to replace the Falcon would have to be an absolute slam-dunk obvious jump to make, and from more than one or 5 angles.



The Taurus is not a Mondeo. It is derived from a Volvo chassis originally but has gone through a couple re-engineering stages. The next gen US Fusion and Mondeo will be built on the same platform, so no, the Taurus is not basically a Mondeo.

There will be an AWD Taurus. There will be a Taurus SHO. There will be a Turbo V6 (EcoBoost) engine in the Taurus. This is rated about 350 HP.



Steve