Future Models - Ford 2008 Falcon

FG Falcon: Ute gains side airbags, misses ESC

Sideways city: FPV utes will get ESC, but not Ford utes.

New Falcon Ute to arrive with a side airbag option, but no stability control

18 February 2008

By JAMES STANFORD

FORD's FG Ute will be available with side airbags, but electronic stability control will not be ready for its launch in May.

While Holden fitted ESC to across the VE Ute range released last August, a delayed development program means the potentially life-saving technology will not be available on any of Ford’s new utes.

The FPV Ute range will launch with ESC as standard, as Ford gave the high-performance models priority.

Ford Australia product development vice-president Trevor Worthington told GoAuto it would be “a matter of months” before ESC, which Ford calls DSC, would be ready for the Ute.

Mr Worthington said Bosch was simply unable to deliver the system in time, but was not blaming the technology supplier.

Top to bottom: Falcon Ute, R6 Cab Chassis and XR6 Cab Chassis.

“The DSC calibration for these cars and the work we put on Bosch was horrendous,” he said.

Mr Worthington said Ford Australia and Bosch had sent more than 30 vehicles, extra drivetrains and brake systems to Sweden as part of the extensive program.

“We have been air-freighting cars backwards and forwards between here and Sweden, we have filled jumbo jets with cars, but at the end of the day there were all types of constraints through that process,” he said.

Mr Worthington said Ford Australia had to make a decision to delay the ESC development of some models to get all the sedans done in time.

“We had to make the decision to slip some variants outside that (ESC program) to reduce the height of the (work) peaks.”

Mr Worthington said Ford Australia would have had ESC ready to go for its Ute range if it had been introduced after the FG sedan, but that was never considered.

“Holden did their sedan and bought their ute out 12 months later, whereas we thought it was really important to get all of the stuff out together,” he said.

No Ford or even FPV utes have been fitted with ESC, despite some current FPV utes generating a hefty 302kW. While Ford introduced ESC on Falcon sedans from 2005, FPV sedans have had to wait until the introduction of the FG model to be fitted with the feature.

While Holden made ESC standard across its entire VE Ute range, side airbags are not available, even as an option.

Ford has announced head-protecting side airbags will be available as an option for the ute, but not as standard equipment.

While Ford said ESC would be available for the FG Ute, it didn’t say it would be fitted as standard across the range.

Mr Worthington hinted that ESC may not be standard on the entry-level Falcon Ute.

“Ute customers are a very different animal than sedan customers,” he said. “Cost is critical to them.”

“We have said that there is a head-protecting side airbag if you want it, but it’s not standard. We may well take the same approach with the base Ute and DSC, that is all work that we still have to do.”

Mr Worthington said that decision would be made after some more sums were done.

“It comes down to the whole value equation, where the imported 4x2s are, what content they have got,” he said.

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