page_title: Ford Falcon (Australia)
section_title: AU
hierarchical_section_title: Ford Falcon (Australia) / Sixth generation (1998–2010) / AU
caption_attribution_description: English: 1998–2000 Ford Falcon (AU) Forté station wagon. Photographed in Audley, New South Wales, Australia.
context_page_description: The Ford Falcon is a full-sized car that was manufactured by Ford Australia from 1960 to 2016. From the XA series of 1972 onward, each Falcon and range of derivates have been designed, developed, and built in Australia, following the phasing out of the American-influenced Falcon of 1960 to 1971, which had been re-engineered locally as the XK to XY series for the harsher Australian conditions. The luxury-oriented Ford Fairmont model joined the range from 1965. Luxury long-wheelbase derivative versions called the Ford Fairlane and LTD arrived in 1967 and 1973, respectively.
  The Ford Falcon and its derivates have been Australian-made best-sellers, with over 3,000,000 sales in seven generations to 2003, almost exclusively in Australia and New Zealand, but also South Africa. Along with its closest Australian-made rival, the Holden Commodore, the Falcon has dominated the ranks of taxis in Australia and New Zealand, as well as police car and company fleets.
  In its last incarnation as the FG X series, the body style of the Falcon range consisted of sedan and utility body styles.
context_section_description: The new-generation AU Falcon was released in 1998 with its range comprising the following models: Forté (previously GLi), S, Futura, Fairmont, Fairmont Ghia, XR6, XR6 VCT and XR8. External model differentiation was achieved via the use of different grilles and bonnets (low bonnet and vertical "waterfall" grille on Forté, horizontal single bar on Futura, integrated quad-lamp bumper bar and grille on the XR sports range; high bonnet and large grille on Fairmont range) and more basic fittings such as different alloy wheel design, rear light clusters (clear turn signals on Fairmont), body colour-coordination and chrome fittings.
  Initially, the company considered a revamped 5th-generation Falcon and even studied the possibility of fully imported replacements such as the American front-wheel-drive Ford Taurus or rear-wheel-drive Ford Crown Victoria, the European rear-wheel-drive Scorpio and, reportedly, even the Japanese rear-wheel drive Mazda 929 (then part of the Ford conglomerate).
  Developed under the code name "EA169", the AU series adopted Ford's New Edge worldwide styling, which was meant to differentiate it from the "conformist" styling prevalent in the 1990s. The gamble, which had worked with the Ford Focus, did not particularly endear the AU Falcon to its buyers.
  Ford attempted to address the AUs issues with its Series II (April 2000) and Series III (November 2001) updates, which brought styling and interior improvements such as a raised bonnet across the non-XR range (from the Fairmont range), scrapping of the unpopular "waterfall" grill on the base model Forté, revised bigger profile bumper bars, bigger wheels and improved interior trims.
  In addition, this series also received mechanical and structural improvements including an upgraded braking system, a laminated firewall engineered to reduce NVH, and incremental power upgrades for the V8 engine. Nevertheless, despite these improvements and ownership incentives (such as free air conditioning and automatic transmission on the biggest volume-seller Forté, plus complimentary scheduled servicing for three years or 60,000 km across the range), Falcon's sales never recovered to meet expectations, being outsold by its chief rival, the Holden VT and its successor, the VX Commodores.
  This Falcon's Australian-production firsts included the 6-cylinder's Variable Cam Timing (VCT) and automatic transmissions on the high-performance T-series with an adaptive mode that included steering wheel gear shift buttons.
caption: AU Falcon Forté station wagon
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