Barra has Ford buyers on the line...

FORD wants us to hook a Barra. One of the most significant current motoring events to watch over the next few months is the campaign by Ford to tease our interest in the new Ford Falcon AV, code-named Barra and scheduled for sale from September. It would be hard to underestimate the importance of the Barra. The current AU series Falcon has been a lame duck since the day it was launched. Frankly, it's a good car and its fate is undeserved, but the grim fact is that the Holden Commodore often out-sells it two-to-one and Ford badly needs to get back into the game. Holden makes money, Ford loses money and that can't last. The Barra must succeed or the descendants of ol' Henry will come down from Dearborn and shut the factory. So Ford has developed a strategy to drip-feed information about the Barra in order to build expectations to what it hopes will be an explosion of demand at launch time. The first teaser information is about seat design, interior colors and paint colors. How exciting. The last thing we can expect details of is the actual appearance. This has been the AU's major weakness and Ford promises the new car, built on the same basic structure, will be dramatically improved. It will be an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars and already Ford's competitors are setting out to spoil it. A few weeks after the Barra, Holden will answer with the VY Commodore and I can already tell you the launch date for the all-new Toyota Camry - September 3. I've got my invitation. Stand by for Car Wars. Chris

© Copyright 2002. All rights reserved. Sponsored by OurIndooroopilly Contact John Designed by Templates for you