AU best thought out model range?

[V8 EF Fairmont]

The T-Series were the best looking cars Ford have ever built, and the XRs aren't too far behind.

[ltd]

That's why I love Fords and especially my G6E-T, because they haven't designed their cars on maximum sales and therefore no soul, they have designed them on keeping their already loyal customer base whilst taking a few more. At my fathers factory, you wouldn't believe the amount of camry driving chinese people who love the look of the ford, nor the amount of them who are starting to bag how crappy their camry's are - in perfect broken english. Even one of his employees recently traded in his sportivo camry for a demo G6E-T, and he couldn't be happier. It sort of works on a multicultural bonding level, as this guy now acts like we're brothers in arms. Honestly, it's brilliant, and I think the looks of the FG are scoring big hits.

[Walt Kowalski]

[QUOTE=ltd]......... At my fathers factory, you wouldn't believe the amount of camry driving chinese people who love the look of the ford, ...one recently traded in his sportivo camry for a demo G6E-T, and he couldn't be happier. /QUOTE]

Have you ever noticed how Sportivo drivers seem to think they are real boy racers. Seem to have a real chip on their shoulders.

Now imagine a camry sportivo driving Chinese in a I6 TURBO on public roiads.

Now thats a scary thought.

[ltd]

^^^^^^^^^^

Mate, this bloke has learnt his lesson, he's already lost 6 points in his first three months of ownership. I've seen him drive and he's very sedate now.

[prydey]

this thread is not about the looks of the AU. some have missed the point. there is also some comments about the FG. these suffer from the same problem as the b series. i can sit in an XT and then hop in the top of the line G6ET and apart from some different trim materials and colours, the basic design is identical accross the whole range.

in the AU range if you hop from a forte to a ghia, you know you've just stepped into an upspec model.

i know it costs money but designing a whole new dash/interior for the luxury models would help sales and resale, plus the owners know they are the next level up.

[TZENU]

When i was looking for a daily driver a year and a half ago (after selling the XR), i began initially looking at an EL XR8 and stumbled across a two-owner AU V8 ghia and at first i was reluctant to even look at it, but eventually convinced myself to at least take it for a test drive....... I was so impressed that 3 hours later i was back there with cash!...

And now that i have sold the AU i kind of miss it a little, yet 3 years ago i would have never considered one.!

[LeadFoot81]

There were a myriad of changes on the journey from VT to VE: body inserts, lights, bumpers, wheel trims, different sheetmetal VX to VY, and even VY to VZ for the funky guard vents. Holden enthusiasts are pretty spoilt when it comes to interchangeable parts!

The Commodore has been evolved very carefully and slowly (and its paid off) if you look at a VX2 there are still VN styling cues there! The plastic insert on the C-Pillar, Door frames and rubbers, and the crease/indent on the guards.

Even though the VY update was far too sharp and clashed with the bubble shaped cabin in basic details it still flowed on from the VX, and you're right- compare a VZ exec to a VE one and its the same front end-on steroids.

If only we'd had a similar flow on effect in styling, imagine what a BA Ghia might've looked like if it'd been half way between an AU TS50 and an FG 6GE Turbo! :evil3:

Originally Posted by uranium_death

Holden have been the masters of this.

VT was a VS on steroids.
VX had a change of lights (please correct me, as I am sure there were more changes than this, but I wouldn't know them...)
VY had a change in the rear and lights.
VZ got the Alloytec

VE is a VZ on steroids.

Holden have not really changed all that much over time either. The queues from the VZ are massive IMO.

[Wretched]

Originally Posted by uranium_death

Holden have been the masters of this.

VT was a VS on steroids.
VX had a change of lights (please correct me, as I am sure there were more changes than this, but I wouldn't know them...)
VY had a change in the rear and lights.
VZ got the Alloytec

VE is a VZ on steroids.

Holden have not really changed all that much over time either. The queues from the VZ are massive IMO.

VS & VT had no chassis/body components in common.
The VT, VX, VY and VZ all shared the same platform albeit some mods here and there over time.
VE is a whole new ball game.

[ltd]

Originally Posted by prydey

this thread is not about the looks of the AU. some have missed the point. there is also some comments about the FG. these suffer from the same problem as the b series. i can sit in an XT and then hop in the top of the line G6ET and apart from some different trim materials and colours, the basic design is identical accross the whole range.

in the AU range if you hop from a forte to a ghia, you know you've just stepped into an upspec model.

i know it costs money but designing a whole new dash/interior for the luxury models would help sales and resale, plus the owners know they are the next level up.

Sorry but I disagree. The AU forte and Ghia had everything in common exterior wise, except for a grille. The base FG XT and G6E-T look completely dissimilar especially considering they have different front bars, different colour grille with chrome surround, mirrors, foglamps, lower front grille with chrome, body kit, rear and front colour coding, lights, spoiler etc etc. The interior of the XT to G6ET is much more varied than the AU ever was. You can take an FG XT and see where the design cues come from the BA, the G6E-T has looks vastly different from the BA.

As for the AU, i've owned a few in my time and I can tell you that the AU1 LWB was useless. Mine spent around 50 days in at Ford sevice for the front suspension noises, and the fit and finish on this car was the worst Ford has ever done. The rear door creases were over 10mm out and cost over 2K for ford to fix them at a panel beater. Interior wise the leather seats would gather dakron into a bundle which created a lump. Then there was the dash creak, the suede look alike substance sprayed over the rivers of grey plastic that would wear off, the big circles that polarised everyones opinions and the CD stacker that regularly ate discs and required over 4 exchanges per car.

The AU2 LWB was a comprimise in suspension stakes and was useless if you carried anything more than a golf bag in the boot with the rear end regularly visiting the bump stops. The reward for this suspension upgrade was that your front tyres would knock your front guards to crap at the crease, requiring a panel beater to roll the edges of the guards.

The stereo still suffered as per AU1 and the GPS would imitate Microsoft windows 98 by just stopping altogether. The same thing happened with the rear seat dakron and the sprayed suede. The roof lining always came down near the high stop lamp and required several gluing attempts, and the 5 litre 185kw weezer motor used to make a sound not dissimilar to piston slap despite assurances that all was normal (especially when encountering many of the same vehicles that did the same thing). Despite this, I did love the AU2 I had but got over selling it two weeks later. The AU1 I celebrated it being sold. The LWB was different from the SWB simply because the SWB was panned by the critics. Further, the LWB was later described as being too American, and was still outsold by a much prettier yet mechanically crap statesman. Whilst being different was a good idea, having a car as much loved and well received as "The Homer" and putting a different grille on it does not a classic make.

[prydey]

Originally Posted by ltd

Sorry but I disagree. The AU forte and Ghia had everything in common exterior wise, except for a grille. The base FG XT and G6E-T look completely dissimilar especially considering they have different front bars, different colour grille with chrome surround, mirrors, foglamps, lower front grille with chrome, body kit, rear and front colour coding, lights, spoiler etc etc. The interior of the XT to G6ET is much more varied than the AU ever was. You can take an FG XT and see where the design cues come from the BA, the G6E-T has looks vastly different from the BA.

As for the AU, i've owned a few in my time and I can tell you that the AU1 LWB was useless. Mine spent around 50 days in at Ford sevice for the front suspension noises, and the fit and finish on this car was the worst Ford has ever done. The rear door creases were over 10mm out and cost over 2K for ford to fix them at a panel beater. Interior wise the leather seats would gather dakron into a bundle which created a lump. Then there was the dash creak, the suede look alike substance sprayed over the rivers of grey plastic that would wear off, the big circles that polarised everyones opinions and the CD stacker that regularly ate discs and required over 4 exchanges per car.

The AU2 LWB was a comprimise in suspension stakes and was useless if you carried anything more than a golf bag in the boot with the rear end regularly visiting the bump stops. The reward for this suspension upgrade was that your front tyres would knock your front guards to crap at the crease, requiring a panel beater to roll the edges of the guards.

The stereo still suffered as per AU1 and the GPS would imitate Microsoft windows 98 by just stopping altogether. The same thing happened with the rear seat dakron and the sprayed suede. The roof lining always came down near the high stop lamp and required several gluing attempts, and the 5 litre 185kw weezer motor used to make a sound not dissimilar to piston slap despite assurances that all was normal (especially when encountering many of the same vehicles that did the same thing). Despite this, I did love the AU2 I had but got over selling it two weeks later. The AU1 I celebrated it being sold. The LWB was different from the SWB simply because the SWB was panned by the critics. Further, the LWB was later described as being too American, and was still outsold by a much prettier yet mechanically crap statesman. Whilst being different was a good idea, having a car as much loved and well received as "The Homer" and putting a different grille on it does not a classic make.

you are missing the point. whilst both makes run an identical bodyshell accross the range (except series 1 au), only the fg has the same dash design accross the range whereas the au got 2 distinct designs. no matter how much chrome, carbon, woodgrain, gloss etc you put around the place you will never get a forte to look like a ghia short of putting a ghia dash in there. fg on the other hand is the same design.

i'm talking 'designs' here, not specific models. i'm talking differentiation between the models that goes beyond different fabrics and colours. this is not a 'au's are good, fg's are bad' thread.

[ltd]

Originally Posted by prydey

you are missing the point. whilst both makes run an identical bodyshell accross the range (except series 1 au), only the fg has the same dash design accross the range whereas the au got 2 distinct designs. no matter how much chrome, carbon, woodgrain, gloss etc you put around the place you will never get a forte to look like a ghia short of putting a ghia dash in there. fg on the other hand is the same design.

i'm talking 'designs' here, not specific models. i'm talking differentiation between the models that goes beyond different fabrics and colours. this is not a 'au's are good, fg's are bad' thread.

You're talking about the interior being the point of differentiation, but on the FG the exterior has the differentiation and the interiors whilst following the same basic architecture are vastly different.
Further, considering the sales flop that was the AU ask prospective customers what was the most discernable differences within the model range, most will tell you nothing, let alone any comments on the dashboard. Even ford fanboys went to the darkside over the AU as they all looked basically the same save for the LWB.

You say that the AU had the greatest model differentiation, I say it didn't. You denounce my reference to various levels of trim given to the presentation of the vehicle as to its differentiation of which you say is invalid, I say that there is no other distinguishing differences without it. The AU ghia received very little tarting up over its forte donor save for grille and wheels, the only "design" difference was the dashboard.
Whats worse is when the AU2 came out, the forte and Ghia looked exactly the same, even with the same size wheels. You can't possibly say the same is true of the FG, especially since ride height, wheel size, suspension spec etc are all different.

[prydey]

Originally Posted by ltd

You're talking about the interior being the point of differentiation, but on the FG the exterior has the differentiation and the interiors whilst following the same basic architecture are vastly different.
Further, considering the sales flop that was the AU ask prospective customers what was the most discernable differences within the model range, most will tell you nothing, let alone any comments on the dashboard. Even ford fanboys went to the darkside over the AU as they all looked basically the same save for the LWB.

You say that the AU had the greatest model differentiation, I say it didn't. You denounce my reference to various levels of trim given to the presentation of the vehicle as to its differentiation of which you say is invalid, I say that there is no other distinguishing differences without it. The AU ghia received very little tarting up over its forte donor save for grille and wheels, the only "design" difference was the dashboard.
Whats worse is when the AU2 came out, the forte and Ghia looked exactly the same, even with the same size wheels. You can't possibly say the same is true of the FG, especially since ride height, wheel size, suspension spec etc are all different.

by the end of the au, the exteriors were the same, yes, but when the au hit the market, you could instantly tell the difference between a forte/futura and fairmont/ghia and xr6/8 and LWB. i don't care how successful the sales were or weren't. that is not my point. my point is that from a design and build point of view more thought seems to have gone into the au. i brought it up earlier also, the au was by far the biggest spend ford have undertaken. the exteriors were changed due to bad reception with the public but at least with the release of the au you didn't have to be a ford enthusiast or trainspotter to see the difference between the models.

go and get your average woman off the street and show them inside a xt and g6et. apart from the difference in colours, i doubt they'd notice a whole lot different.

i do agree though that with the fg ford have tried to separate the xt from the g series externally.

[ltd]

Originally Posted by prydey

by the end of the au, the exteriors were the same, yes, but when the au hit the market, you could instantly tell the difference between a forte/futura and fairmont/ghia and xr6/8 and LWB. i don't care how successful the sales were or weren't. that is not my point. my point is that from a design and build point of view more thought seems to have gone into the au. i brought it up earlier also, the au was by far the biggest spend ford have undertaken. the exteriors were changed due to bad reception with the public but at least with the release of the au you didn't have to be a ford enthusiast or trainspotter to see the difference between the models.

go and get your average woman off the street and show them inside a xt and g6et. apart from the difference in colours, i doubt they'd notice a whole lot different.

i do agree though that with the fg ford have tried to separate the xt from the g series externally.

Hold on, you denounced my reference to the differentiation between the FG XT and G6E-T including the bumper as irrelevant due to it being cosmetic and not so much a design, but for the AU it's OK? Tell me, what was the difference between the forte and futura? Or even the forte and fairmont? Besides a badge the fairmont was exactly the same as the ghia externally and I am talking series 1 here? From 20 metres away you couldn't tell the difference, from behind you could never really tell the difference until you were 5 metres away across the range. Buy an XR8 now and it has a huge lump on the bonnet.

LWB were different yes but there is nothing to compare them to now.
As for the G6E interior, it's funny you should mentioned a woman, considering ford used a target group of women to help design the aforementioned interior. They considered that the partner, spouse of an enthusiast would need to like something about the car to push the purchase fords way as opposed to a Calais V or something.
I'm not having a go at you nor the fact that you have an AU and love it, but I just simply cannot see the differentiation you speak of and I think ford couldn't possibly give a rats about the AU now, considering they are selling FG's. Right now, anyone at ford will tell you the same thing they tell everyone; they think the FG is the best car they've ever built and do you know what? They're right.

[T3man]

The latest model from any manufacturer should be his best model ever - stands to reason. BUT, will the FG still look contemporary in 10 years time? The AU certainly does and on that basis it stands alone in the Ford stable as probably the longest running "model style" ever designed. Geez, even Mercedes have copied it so it can't be that bad! LOL.

[Bucknaked]

Originally Posted by mrbaxr6t

really pretty paint job (shockwave)

Isn't shockwave a BA2 Colour?

[Huntsman]

Model differentiation in AU was very good, and it's also something of a fallacy to call it a failure. Granted it didn't replicate XF numbers, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that AUs I thru III were the second best selling Ford model of all time in Oz. And they were up against a pretty good beast in the VT/VX/VY Commies.
T3s were an absolute smile inducing hairy chested beast to drive, and could be worth a bob or two in a few years' time given they represent the last iteration of the old Windsor V8s.
Motor journo Dave Morley summed it up best I reckon, when he penned that the Series III AU would become the new S-Type Valiant. Unloved at launch, but destined to become a styling icon.

[LeadFoot81]

LTD;

Lets talk AU Forte/Futura, Ghia and XR:

The Forte, Futura and XR had the 'XY style' bonnet;
The Forte and Futura had unique (albeit much unloved) grilles
The XR had the quad headlight nose cone
The Ghia had an EF/EL style bonnet and grille, as well as different tail lights

The Forte and Futura had light grey interiors and the 'baboon butt' centre stack;
The XRs had black interiors with a light grey 'baboon butt' centre stack;
3/4 of the Ghias dash was completely different to the Forte and XR's and the Ghia had a different centre stack altogether!

Mechanically speaking you also got IRS and VCT engines in the Ghias and XR6 VCTs, it took until FG to get some mechanical differentiation back into the Ghia/G6ET.

Despite all these differences the styling alone turned buyers away, and while the differentiation meant nothing once people had been put off the differences ARE there.

Ford fanboys were turned off the AU by the odd looks and the LS1, not because of lack of differentiation!

As much as I like the FG range (and you seem to love it) there is not nearly as much differentiation as there was with the AU!

No nose cone for the XRs (just XT headlights with tear drops), or unique bodykit save for the front bar! My god what happened to the mighty XR? Its just an S-pak now!
The FG XT may have different front and rear bumpers but it still fails the 40m test unfortunately.

And while the FG interior is excellent, since BA (and many B Series owners have and will agree with this) the interiors are all the same with extra buttons and bling added the further you go up the tree. This carried over to the FG unfortunately. Compare an FG XT interior to an FG GT, then have a look at an AU Forte interior and compare to an AU TE50 one...

No contest, AU range FTW. Too bad they went overboard with new edge.

Originally Posted by ltd

You're talking about the interior being the point of differentiation, but on the FG the exterior has the differentiation and the interiors whilst following the same basic architecture are vastly different.
Further, considering the sales flop that was the AU ask prospective customers what was the most discernable differences within the model range, most will tell you nothing, let alone any comments on the dashboard. Even ford fanboys went to the darkside over the AU as they all looked basically the same save for the LWB.

You say that the AU had the greatest model differentiation, I say it didn't. You denounce my reference to various levels of trim given to the presentation of the vehicle as to its differentiation of which you say is invalid, I say that there is no other distinguishing differences without it. The AU ghia received very little tarting up over its forte donor save for grille and wheels, the only "design" difference was the dashboard.
Whats worse is when the AU2 came out, the forte and Ghia looked exactly the same, even with the same size wheels. You can't possibly say the same is true of the FG, especially since ride height, wheel size, suspension spec etc are all different.

[ltd]

Originally Posted by LeadFoot81

LTD;

Lets talk AU Forte/Futura, Ghia and XR:

The Forte, Futura and XR had the 'XY style' bonnet;
The Forte and Futura had unique (albeit much unloved) grilles
The XR had the quad headlight nose cone
The Ghia had an EF/EL style bonnet and grille, as well as different tail lights

The Forte and Futura had light grey interiors and the 'baboon butt' centre stack;
The XRs had black interiors with a light grey 'baboon butt' centre stack;
3/4 of the Ghias dash was completely different to the Forte and XR's and the Ghia had a different centre stack altogether!

Despite all these differences the styling alone turned buyers away, and while the differentiation meant nothing once people had been put off the differences ARE there.

Ford fanboys were turned off the AU by the odd looks and the LS1, not because of lack of differentiation!

As much as I like the FG range (and you seem to love it) there is not nearly as much differentiation as there was with the AU!

No nose cone for the XRs (just XT headlights with tear drops), or unique bodykit save for the front bar! My god what happened to the mighty XR? Its just an S-pak now!
The FG XT may have different front and rear bumpers but it still fails the 40m test unfortunately.

And while the FG interior is excellent, since BA (and many B Series owners have and will agree with this) the interiors are all the same with extra buttons and bling added the further you go up the tree. This carried over to the FG unfortunately. Compare an FG XT interior to an FG GT, then have a look at an AU Forte interior and compare to an AU TE50 one...

No contest, AU range FTW. Too bad they went overboard with new edge.

Still don't see it, and most of the Au's you see these days are so unloved (parked outside, never washed) that it don't mean diddly squat. The stand the test of time thing is a bit over the top, for the record I don't think that mercedes benz would copy a low volume australian car that they probably never even knew about. Once everything went AU2 the XY bonnet you speak of was gone as the car was seen as horrid (Didn't the forte and futura have the XR bonnet with the ford badge at the lower middle edge?). The XR's did look really nice, but the rear end let them down dramatically. AU3 finally had a nice rear end on the XR's, and the iterations of the 5l at that stage were well done too.
I agree that the BA interiors were too much like a toyota/mitsubishi orgy and they were easily testament to where the development dollars ran out. AU interiors only difference was in the dashboard, and only 2 styles were offered like in the BA and FG, low end and high end. In AU2 it changed ever so slightly but still only 2 options were available.

[Bud Bud]

Originally Posted by LeadFoot81

The Forte, Futura and XR had the 'XY style' bonnet;

LeadFoot81, not wanting to hijack your immediate discussion with LTD but can you explain the XY bonnet thing on the AU Forte please. I think the XY bonnet design is way more cohesive and is in tune with the cars overall styling. The Forte Bonnet just added to the AU1's woes IMO.

http://fitzroymusclecarclub.com/content/bensute.jpg
https://rsp-secure.com/shop/e-cat/im...lcon-99-01.jpg

[LeadFoot81]

Ahh but LTD youre talking about the unloved AU that history has forgotten, not the shiny new AU that was released in 1999, that what the rest of us are on about.

I dont think Merc copied the AU design either, its just a coincidence. When asked, the Merc designer had never seen a pic of the AU but commented it was an excellent design and ahead of its time (or words to that effect)

The AU 1 Forte, Futra and XR shared the 'XY bonnet' and only the XRs kept it for AU2 and 3.

The AUs rear was too droopy for a mass produces, macho, 'Aussie icon' and though I hated it when I was younger I quite like it now. However would I have approved of that droopy backside if I were Fomoco Oz chief? No way.

Over the Forte, the AU Ghia had grab handles on the doors, leather and wood inserts on the doors as well as chrome doorhandles. I dont understand why you dont rate two different dash's as a big deal though?! Throught the VT platforums life it only ever had two dash's (the VT one and the VY one) With the AU you got two dash's from the get go!

I think you've confused the AU being a misjudged product stylistically, with the AU not being a well thought out and differentiated range. I wish we could see Ford and Holden producing a thick, full, lush range with a myriad of different bits and pieces to make every model unique, but the ways things are these were lucky to have what we have.

Originally Posted by ltd

Still don't see it, and most of the Au's you see these days are so unloved (parked outside, never washed) that it don't mean diddly squat. The stand the test of time thing is a bit over the top, for the record I don't think that mercedes benz would copy a low volume australian car that they probably never even knew about. Once everything went AU2 the XY bonnet you speak of was gone as the car was seen as horrid (Didn't the forte and futura have the XR bonnet with the ford badge at the lower middle edge?). The XR's did look really nice, but the rear end let them down dramatically. AU3 finally had a nice rear end on the XR's, and the iterations of the 5l at that stage were well done too.
I agree that the BA interiors were too much like a toyota/mitsubishi orgy and they were easily testament to where the development dollars ran out. AU interiors only difference was in the dashboard, and only 2 styles were offered like in the BA and FG, low end and high end. In AU2 it changed ever so slightly but still only 2 options were available.

[malazn mafia]

I've always thought the AU bore a passing resemblance to the XE falcon and XD falcon.

XE:

AU Futura:

Both have the ford badge above the grille, as well as the headlights that slope down into the front guards.

XD:

AU Fairmont:

Borth have the ford badge in middle of grille, with headlights that slope down into front guards.


I think Ford really emphasized on their 'thorough redesign' of the falcon from the curvy XA/XB/XC days back in 1979 when the XD was released, going into a more modern box-car shape that dominated the 80's.

In 1998, ford also emphasized a styling direction which moved away from the Audi-ish 90's look of the falcon range. So maybe the AU drew some inspiration from XD in that sense, hence the similar front ends if you squint hard enough

[LeadFoot81]

They 'XY bonnet' as I call it was the one used on Forte through to XR. If you compare pics you can see the ridges on either side, and the crease on the middle mirror the XYs bonnet (Ford did this intentionally)

Originally Posted by Bud Bud

LeadFoot81, not wanting to hijack your immediate discussion with LTD but can you explain the XY bonnet thing on the AU Forte please. I think the XY bonnet design is way more cohesive and is in tune with the cars overall styling. The Forte Bonnet just added to the AU1's woes IMO.

http://fitzroymusclecarclub.com/content/bensute.jpg
https://rsp-secure.com/shop/e-cat/im...lcon-99-01.jpg

If anyone wants to read up on the 'Ford DNA' that was imprinted onto the AU's design, theres a small article on aufalcon.com

http://www.aufalcon.com/cgi-bin/inde...f=articles/DNA

It barely scratches the surface on how much 'Falcon' there really is in the AU.

Theres plenty of EA-ED, a dash of XD-E, and a whole lot of XY-XA

[malazn mafia]

Originally Posted by LeadFoot81

They 'XY bonnet' as I call it was the one used on Forte through to XR. If you compare pics you can see the ridges on either side, and the crease on the middle mirror the XYs bonnet (Ford did this intentionally)



If anyone wants to read up on the 'Ford DNA' that was imprinted onto the AU's design, theres a small article on aufalcon.com

http://www.aufalcon.com/cgi-bin/inde...f=articles/DNA

It barely scratches the surface on how much 'Falcon' there really is in the AU.

Theres plenty of EA-ED, a dash of XD-E, and a whole lot of XY-XA

Didnt know the AU dash had anything to do with XD/XE, unless they had different dashes between higher/lower models?

[LeadFoot81]

Nah 'a dash' as in: 'a little bit of' There was a little bit of XD styling, especially with the AU2 Forte grille, the horizontal slats were very XD.

Originally Posted by malazn mafia

Didnt know the AU dash had anything to do with XD/XE, unless they had different dashes between higher/lower models?

[Mr Hardware]

It seems i have completely misread the title. I read 'Best AU model through out range' for some reason.
In answer to the real question, yes. However the AUI Forte is too far away from the AUI Fairmont.
They got it all right AUII onwards.

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by Huntsman

Model differentiation in AU was very good, and it's also something of a fallacy to call it a failure. Granted it didn't replicate XF numbers, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that AUs I thru III were the second best selling Ford model of all time in Oz. And they were up against a pretty good beast in the VT/VX/VY Commies.

What? The AU was a total failure, the sales numbers were terrible, and it was the first time I believe the factory had to run down days due to the cars not selling. There were thousands of unsold ones sitting on the grass at Broady because they couldn't move them.

[ltd]

Originally Posted by LeadFoot81

Ahh but LTD youre talking about the unloved AU that history has forgotten, not the shiny new AU that was released in 1999, that what the rest of us are on about.

I dont think Merc copied the AU design either, its just a coincidence. When asked, the Merc designer had never seen a pic of the AU but commented it was an excellent design and ahead of its time (or words to that effect)

The AU 1 Forte, Futra and XR shared the 'XY bonnet' and only the XRs kept it for AU2 and 3.

The AUs rear was too droopy for a mass produces, macho, 'Aussie icon' and though I hated it when I was younger I quite like it now. However would I have approved of that droopy backside if I were Fomoco Oz chief? No way.

Over the Forte, the AU Ghia had grab handles on the doors, leather and wood inserts on the doors as well as chrome doorhandles. I dont understand why you dont rate two different dash's as a big deal though?! Throught the VT platforums life it only ever had two dash's (the VT one and the VY one) With the AU you got two dash's from the get go!

I think you've confused the AU being a misjudged product stylistically, with the AU not being a well thought out and differentiated range. I wish we could see Ford and Holden producing a thick, full, lush range with a myriad of different bits and pieces to make every model unique, but the ways things are these were lucky to have what we have.

Mate, I do rate the different interiors and levels of trim but I was told by the OP that trim/colours etc don't count.
He was more after a design perspective than anything else, of which only metal really counted and even bumpers meant jack.

[prydey]

Originally Posted by ltd

Mate, I do rate the different interiors and levels of trim but I was told by the OP that trim/colours etc don't count.
He was more after a design perspective than anything else, of which only metal really counted and even bumpers meant jack.

now now, lets not get nasty ltd. i maintain that although the centre console is finished in satin chrome or gloss black in the up spec fg's, it is still the same basic design dash as the xt. the au on the other hand has two distinct dash styles. on its release the bonnets were clearly different also, although i do agree the front bar on the fg's does a good job of distiguishing the xt from the g series.

also in reply to an earlier comment, i don't own an au. never have and probably never will. i have a modified ebv8 and bfmk2 just so you know.

[LeadFoot81]

Come on now ltd youre scraping the bottom of the barrel now! Once you start discussing the discussion, instead of the topic at hand its time to call it quits.

Originally Posted by ltd

Mate, I do rate the different interiors and levels of trim but I was told by the OP that trim/colours etc don't count.
He was more after a design perspective than anything else, of which only metal really counted and even bumpers meant jack.

[RG]

This argument has gone too far for my liking.

Either it quits now and we get back to the topic at hand or I shall close the thread and there will be no discussion at all.