After reading so much about the BA in the past few days, and Russellw's post about the FPV wait and parts, testing and so on. I am getting the impression that Ford released the BA six months too early! I think Ford should have kept working and working at getting everything right so they could unvail all models at about the same time in April 2003. This however would have given Holden an advantage over the AU III, although the AU may have gained some points over the VY as the power figures of the AU are still ahead of the VY six cylinder varients.
I think if Ford had done this, it would have given them the opportunity to get everything right, the first time, and also more time to clear AUIII stocks (my dealer still has a dozen left atleast).
This way Holden could have got everyone excited earlier, then Ford could have absolutely blown Holden out of the water, with a model which was a bit newer and alot more advanced (even tho the BA is advanced, if it had not been released the same time as the Holden it could have gained some extra edge).
Im sure that most people who have purchased their new BA would be particularly happy, but even the smallest percentage of unhappy customers doesnt help Fords reputation.
I agree , they teased us with the XR6,XR6t & XR8 but what they failed to tell everyone is that unless u are willing to buy a stock model from the floor (if u r lucky) that u may have to wait a few weeks or in my case i ordered an XR8 auto Leather, 18's & premuim sound on the 7th of FEBUARY & i'm still not sure when it will be ready !
Yeah well if you want anything that is NON XR/FPV based you can pretty much get it straight away. I think Ford should down the Futura/Fairmont build amount and increase the XR6 N/A build, because im still yet to see an XR6 N/A avaiable at my dealership. There are 8 Turbo's in stock aswell as a 3 XR8's, but NO N/A's.
i'm with xr8pete....having only seen one xr8 on the road, and having bought one with similar options.... my wait is around six weeks. Not bad in my opinion...last car I waited 9 months for them to build!!!!!
Six weeks is a dream.
However to answer the question, I think they did the right thing, and have kept the market keen for quite some time.
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I dont think it was a matter of waiting a bit longer to release,I tend to think that they(FORD) didn't anticipate that there would be such a demand for thier product.(poor market research??)Especially the XR & GT range.Must have been a hellof alota frustrated buyers in the market.They're the people that i'm sorry for.After a long wait for a decent Ford product,they're still waiting.
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Originally posted by AUIIIXR6VCT although the AU may have gained some points over the VY as the power figures of the AU are still ahead of the VY six cylinder varients.
The AU was such a sales disaster it almost broke Ford Aust, they couldnt get the BA into the streets fast enough.
As for the AU earning points over the VY because its got a power advantage . Yeah that would work well, has worked great since 1994, NOT!!
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Car's I have owned. First car purchased in July 1994, in order of ownership.
VC Valiant 245Hemi, 280zx Nissan 5 speed, 88 EA 3.9CFI,94 ED Gli X Chaser, 79 FC LTD, 351, FMX, 91 EA2 Fairmont Ghia, 1999 AU S pack, 2000 AU Forte, 1992 EB2 XR8, 2001 AU2 SR, 2002 VX2 Acclaim, 2002 VX2 Manual S pack,2003 BA XR6 manual, 2001 VX2 Berlina.
Originally posted by AUIIIXR6VCT Yeah well if you ask me, the AUIII's looked much better then the new VY.
Your XR AU3 perhaps but the Forte / Fairmont style cars are just plain ugly in my opinion, I always look at them and think, if only that was a little lower or that a little less round it might look better, the fact remains people hated the AU, not Ford in general, this is obvious due to the number of people now buying the BA.
The big difference now is the family man is now willing to hand over cash for a used BA, this has led to large fleet sales and so on and so forth.
I will remember the AU as a car designed by a mob of fools, mechanically very sound but ugly as sin.
The T3 and AU utes are excluded from my above comments as they are ok, its those Forte (what a stupid name) that Im really aiming at.
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Car's I have owned. First car purchased in July 1994, in order of ownership.
VC Valiant 245Hemi, 280zx Nissan 5 speed, 88 EA 3.9CFI,94 ED Gli X Chaser, 79 FC LTD, 351, FMX, 91 EA2 Fairmont Ghia, 1999 AU S pack, 2000 AU Forte, 1992 EB2 XR8, 2001 AU2 SR, 2002 VX2 Acclaim, 2002 VX2 Manual S pack,2003 BA XR6 manual, 2001 VX2 Berlina.
Originally posted by AUIIIXR6VCT Yeah well if you want anything that is NON XR/FPV based you can pretty much get it straight away. I think Ford should down the Futura/Fairmont build amount and increase the XR6 N/A build, because im still yet to see an XR6 N/A avaiable at my dealership. There are 8 Turbo's in stock aswell as a 3 XR8's, but NO N/A's.
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. Yeah that would work well, has worked great since 1994, NOT!!
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