NEWS
SPY PICS: Mondeo style for Falcon, Territory
Ford's last locally-built models will adopt bold new Euro-corporate lookThe final generation of Ford's locally-developed Falcon and Territory models will be facelifted with a new frontal treatment to bring the Aussie cars closer to the company's global Mondeo and Focus designs.
Both the sedan and the SUV were encountered over the weekend by an intrepid motoring.com.au staff member in the Victorian country township of Glenrowan, better known for Ned Kelly's last stand. Ford minders with the cars quickly fired up at our man once he began snapping away; if they had a blunderbuss to hand who's to say he wouldn't have been knee-capped just like Ned.
The three Falcons and single Territory – our source believes a second Territory made good its get-away before he whipped out the camera phone – were heavily disguised, but the pictures have proved fairly revealing.
In production-ready form the new Falcon will resemble the computer-generated image we published with our story from August last year. Close scrutiny of the photos indicates that the new model Falcon will feature a larger upper grille and smaller lower intake – in contrast with the current FG model's design.
Ford designers have presumably relocated the blue oval badge from the grille intake to the cowl ahead of the bonnet. There's no sign of it in the grille intake, where it's located in the current model, but there is a rectangular blank under the cladding on the upper section of the nose forward of the bonnet. Shut lines for the bonnet clearly betray the bluff nose that juts higher over the grille than the current model's. But outboard, the bonnet's leading edge sweeps back further than the FG's to accommodate the revised headlight clusters.
One question yet to be answered is whether the sporty XR6 and new XR8 models will retain the lower scalloped headlight design trait that has been a hallmark of XR6 and XR8 since the BA series. This characteristic is itself a stylised form of the quad-headlight design that was a signature of XR6 and XR8 models harking back to their inception with the ED series of 1993.
Two of the cars pictured here (registration 1BK 7NT and 1BK 7NW) do appear to be XR6 models. There's no bonnet bulge, which may or may not be a distinguishing feature of the new XR8. The headlights of these cars feature what appear to be angular bezels, to set them apart from the standard headlight cluster design of the one and only 'luxury' branch Falcon caught up close (reg. 1BK 7NN). This car appears to be a G Series equivalent in the new model range.
From the A pillars back to the boot, the Falcon remains largely as it is in FG form, but the wheels appear new. Tail lights seem to have been revised, with reversing lights relocated to the boot lid, rather than fully integrated with the tail light cluster as is the case with the FG model.
In contrast, the Territory's facelift looks likely to be much milder than the Falcon's. The major elements of the frontal styling are unchanged, but expect different details for the grille and lower intake, plus a new design of DRL or fog light in the lower front bumper cover section.
Both cars will officially go on sale from December 1 this year.
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Written byCarsales Staff
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Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
If the price does not contain the notation that it is "Drive Away", the price may not include additional costs, such as stamp duty and other government charges.
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