Adventra launch delayed

[SHAKER]

wel if it any consolition the au did win the family car award by the "raa" when the commodore failed to even make the top 10.that was in 99 i think....but thats only a south australian award.

[fpv_gtho]

it won a couple awards actually, i think one of them was the 2001 safety award or something, for the AU2 having standard dual airbags with twin stage inflation.

[SHAKER]

i must admit i was very dissapointed when i saw the first pictures of an au(it was the xr8 front end which was the first pic of an au id seen).i knew then and there ford were in big trouble, without even knowing engine/suspension or safety feature details.Pitty the ford beancounters and designers didnt realise that at the time, but they sure found out in a hurry!

[fpv_gtho]

they knew by early 1999 that they were heading towards a make or brake model in 2002 and started trying to fix the problem as best they could, possibly the reason why the AU2 didnt come as the AV and why the territory has come so late

[SHAKER]

well The Ford Motor company in aust are definatly survivors, so they must be doing something right, Holden nearly suffered the same fate in 84 when they were left with an outdated transmission and a 6 cylinder engine. Thanks to GM americas cash injection they survived and recovered quite well to where they are today, 2nd to toyota in overall market sales.

[fpv_gtho]

i think they (ford) as a whole are just ones that when pushed up against a wall come up with some fine product. Ford global's been losing money for the last couple of years pretty bad, so what do they do? come out with a retro mustang, GT and show a concept shelby mustang. Ford asutralia went through the same thing, and now we have the BA

[SHAKER]

yeah well that firestone fiasco cost them a tonne of cash...i dont see why ford were to blame when it was the tyres that caused the accidents though...

[fpv_gtho]

they didnt set the explorers suspension up to compe with all of the tires characteristics. it ended up costing for over $US 5 billion, and theyve been losing on average $US1 billion a year since that

[SHAKER]

so if they keep loosing that much a year(theoritically) when would the go broke?

[fpv_gtho]

well as it stands, fords financial arm (ford credit) is making more profit than ford cars is losing so they wont exactly go broke but theyre still not happy about losing money on car sales, so theyre planning a massive turnaround with the 500, futura, mustang, gt and cobra

[SHAKER]

yeah ford credit and gm finance(or whatever they call themselves) are the biggest credit lenders 2nd to the banks i think.

[fpv_gtho]

GM finance and Ford Credit are the only things holding them together. If Ford dont start making money again soon, theyre going to have to sub divide themselves and sell each bit off to other manufacturers

[SHAKER]

well they atleats own 6 or 7 other manufacturers dont they

[fpv_gtho]

they own landrover, aston martin, jaguar, volvo and part of mazda. they badge engineer cars under the mercury and lincoln names as well, but lincoln was originally a seperate company and got bought in the early 20th century. mazda theyve just gone through improving the range, theyre about to with landrover and aston martin (vanquish, AMV8, DB9) and are trying to with jaguar and volvo, but as it stands mazda would be the only one with any sort of a chance at surviving without ford funding.

[SHAKER]

speaking of mazda how good would there rx8 be with twin turbs on it, it already does 0-100 in 6 secs normally aspirated......maybe mazda can make a rx8r a limited edition twin turb model.would prob sell for under 100000 dollars to.