Prodrive chief assures dealers over FPV's future

[adrenaline]

Prodrive chief assures dealers over FPV's future

By NEIL McDONALD 7 February 2007


Big blower: What FPV's Territory could look like. Digital image: Chris Harris.

THE new overseer of Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV) has moved to reassure dealers that "steps have been taken" to meet their demands for more performance derivatives from the Blue Oval brand’s stable.

The managing director of Prodrive Asia-Pacific "automotive technology" division Brian Mears told GoAuto last week that he understood that FPV dealers were unhappy with a lack of new model derivatives, and conceded it was a long wait – more than year – until the next-generation Falcon.

"No, they’re not happy with it and why would they be? I wouldn’t be," he admitted.

"(Dealers are saying), ‘I want different product. I want something done about range. I want something done about the power. I want a performance derivative off the parent product that I can proudly drive around and say I’m there and competitive.’

"What I can say to the dealers in response is that we’ve taken steps to ensure that all of those things are going to happen.

"It’s not a complex thing unless you want to make it complex. The dealers want sales support, they want all of the support they can get to help them sell the vehicles and we’re going to provide that. That is ramping up. We’ve got a plan."

Mr Mears also said that "Blind Freddy" could see there was a product gap. While he would not confirm that a Territory-based performance car would be shown at the forthcoming Melbourne International Motor Show, he has dangled the carrot.

"We can do one of two things: ignore it and hope it will go away and the dealers get more and more vocal, as they should, or do something about it," he said. "We’ve set in place a series of changes that will get us more product.

"Let’s see what comes out and what we roll out in the next little while and I think in some aspects, certainly in the next two years, we’re going to exceed their expectations."

Mr Mears would not be pinned down on naming that likely product, only saying that there were "a couple of things that were very exciting".

"I’ll be at the Melbourne motor show," he said. "I think we need a bit of a talking point at the Melbourne motor show and we’ll just have to see whether there’s one there."

So a year is too long to wait for a new Falcon. All I can think of is an F6 variant of the Territory, with the top mounted intercooler.