After owning a 1997 Ford Mondeo for five years I finally sold it and bought another car. Time for a change finally. Got A$5,800 for the Mondeo, so I had to make a decision whether to spend a few hundred and get another car I own or borrow $10-15K and buy the Mazda6 or Falcon BA that I really wanted. Decided I'm better off not borrowing money, so went looking for another car around the $6K mark.
And found a 1998 Ford Falcon EL Futura with Tickford enhanced suspension and Tickford 16 inch alloy wheels (the same ones fitted to the Falcon XR6 at that time), for exactly $6K. Its done 152,000km whereas the Mondeo had on 70,000km on the clock, but in other respects its much better value for money. Other than the aforementioned suspension and alloys, the luxury items its got that the Mondeo didn't have include cruise, electric front windows, 6-speaker stereo, towbar (useful for moving things), a remote for the central locking and ABS. Also has power steering, drivers airbag and air conditioning, all of which the Mondeo had anyway. And the Falcon has a 4-speed automatic (great for city driving, not so for twisty corners) whereas the Mondeo had a 5-speed manual transmission.
The Falcon features a 4.0 litre SOHC straight six engine producing power of 157kW@4,900rpm and a torque figure of 357Nm@3,000rpm. Weighs 1,536kg though, so its not exactly a fireball off the line - according to a Motor road test times for the 0-100km are around the 9.2 sec mark and the 0-400m times are around 16.7sec.
Now, this one major disadvantage of this car over the Mondeo is that it will use lots more petrol, but since it represents much better value for the dollar and I do less than 10,000kms a year I don't think it matters that much.
So far, I've only done about 60kms since I picked it up and I'm impressed with the comfort and smoothness of the car, and the Tickford enhancements are obvious from the firmish suspension and half-decent steering feel. It doesn't have the taut, tight body control of the Mondeo - in fact Falcons of all vintages are renowned for body roll - nor does the steering have quite as much feedback, but the ultimate handling/ride balance should prove better, albiet with lots more body roll.
Also, next time I go to a V8 Supercar race, it will be pretty obvious which of the two marques that race I tend to support.