Ford Australia recently announced the discontinuation of the current generation of slow selling Escape after only three years on the market.
It’s part of Europe’s Fords exodus from the local lineup – while leopard lion are sticking around, the ST festival And focus ST died last year, and the latest generation of non-ST Focus models only lasted a few years.
As a result, Ford has left behind a trail of rather low-volume, short-lived models, but these are not the first models in the Blue Oval’s local history. Next from The last partthis is another year.
This article was originally published in 2020. We are republishing popular content.
Ford Laser Lynx 1994-96
In 1994, Ford introduced its first complete line of imported Lasers to Australia. Still based on the Mazda 323, the KJ lineup primarily consists of four-door sedans and five-door Liata hatchbacks. At the top of the range is a new three-door flagship, the Lynx.
It uses the same bodywork as the Familia Neo for the Japanese market, albeit with a new polarized face with four round headlights.
Previous imported top-of-the-line Lasers have integrated turbocharging and four-wheel drive, but the Laser Lynx, despite its wild styling, is much lighter.
The only engine is a naturally aspirated 1.8-liter 4-cylinder, producing 92 horsepower and 160 Nm of torque, combined with a 5-speed manual transmission.
That’s a 25kW and 46Nm drop on the range-limited 1993 TX3 Turbo 4WD, and it’s the same engine used in the Laser Ghia, which costs about $2000 less in a five-door manual guise.
It justifies the cost with its quirky styling and some extras, such as a remote central locking, but Ford overestimated the demand for a high-spec three-door hatchback that No sports features.
The Lynx Laser may have worked well, but so did all the other KJ Lasers. When it came time to launch the KJ Series II upgrade in 1996, Lynx quietly appeared at the door.
Ford Cougar Eibach 2000
The Ford Probe was unable to topple the leaders in the sales race despite its powerful styling and superb mechanics based on the Mazda MX-6. Perhaps that’s partly because of its name, which conjures up images of silly-looking (or worse) spaceships.
Although the coupe market was in decline, Ford opted to replace the Probe with its new Cougar in 1999. In the US it was named Mercury but unlike its rear-wheel drive and primarily powered predecessors. V8 engine, this is not a personal idea. luxury coupe. Instead, it is a MondeoThe platform’s front-wheel drive (FWD) coupe will also be sold in Europe.
With a mandatory 2.5-liter V6 here and one of the best uses of Ford’s often controversial New Edge design language, not to mention a great FWD platform, Cougar has a recipe for success. . Unfortunately, it was met with buyer indifference.
In its second year on the market, Ford introduced the Cougar Eibach, named after the suspension tuners who worked with Ford and Tickford to create this special edition.
For an extra $5200, you get 20mm lower ride height, stiffer tires, and re-tuned springs and shocks. The Cougar is also dressed in a bunker body kit with a prominent bonnet. Only 100 were built.
While many special editions have been offered in the US market, the Eibach will be the only one to be offered locally. After production ended, Cougar continued to operate for a few more years and received an attractive upgrade in 2001.
It is clear that Cougar was not a huge success in any of its main markets – Britons who used to love the Capri coupe largely ignored it and it was dropped there in 2001, in when 2002 was its last year in Australia, Europe and America. Only 1276 cougars are sold here.
Ford Kuga TE 2012-2013
The TE Kuga was introduced in February 2012 and was replaced by a next-generation model just 14 months later, making it one of the shortest lifespan models on this list.
Offered in two variants, the Kuga serves as a placeholder after Ford ceases production date Escape in 2011. Both variants are powered by a turbocharged 2.5-liter five-cylinder engine borrowed from Volvo and are also available on the front-wheel drive Focus XR5 and Mondeo XR5.
In Kuga, it makes 147kW of power and 320Nm of torque. All-wheel drive is standard, as is a five-speed automatic transmission.
The Kuga has been introduced since 2008 in Europe, which means it has arrived here at the end of its life. The mandatory five-year 2.5-liter engine also means there’s no price-leading model, resulting in a base price of $38,990 — $10,000 more than the 2011 Escape, not to mention its rivals. base model.
Please note that the Kuga is many miles ahead of the old Taiwanese Escape which has avoided significant updates for North American models.
The launch of the TE model also helped introduce Australian buyers to the Kuga nameplate, in the same way that Holden introduced the TR Astra towards the end of its life to make the TS introduction much more popular.
In 2012, Ford sold 1107 Kugas, about half of what it sold the Escape the previous year. That means it has outsold everything from the Great Wall X200/X240 to Jeep Cherokee, Renault Koleos and Suzuki Grand Vitara.
The following Kuga offers a wider range of engines and trim levels, although it doesn’t top the sales charts. That’s why, by mid-cycle improvement time, Ford renamed it the Escape.
Ford Mondeo ST24 2000
While the five-cylinder Mondeo XR5 Turbo was a modest success for Ford and lasted a few years, there was a previous sporty Mondeo that sank without a trace.
Ford undertook a gentle reboot of its Mondeo lineup for 2000, replacing the LX and GLX sedans, hatches and wagons with a new base Verona sedan, mid-range Ghia hatch and a new performance flagship. ST24.
Under the ST24’s bonnet is the same naturally-aspirated 2.5-liter V6 used in the mechanically-associated Cougar coupe, making 125 kW of power and 220 Nm of torque.
To further promote the fact this is a sports sedan, the only transmission is a 5-speed manual. Mondeo’s US cousin has received an even more enticing version, with the SVT powering a 2.5-litre engine to generate 149kW in the SVT Contour.
However, writing was already on the wall for Mondeo at this point. Falling sales and the volatility of the mid-size car segment – between increasingly large, comfortable small cars and more familiar full-size cars – have prompted Nissan and Mitsubishi to pull back to focus on their small and large products.
And so, despite only having just “relaunched” the Mondeo lineup, Ford discontinued it in 2000, leaving the hot ST24 more than a year old wonder. Only 266 examples were sold.
2007-09 Ford Focus Coupé Cabriolet
Nearly every car company seemed to have a folding metal hardtop in the 2000s, and Ford was no exception. It introduced the Focus Coupe Cabriolet in 2007, the same year Holden’s softtop Astra Convertible was replaced by a hardtop Astra TwinTop.
This concept looks great on paper. You seem to get the best of both worlds with these convertibles – you get a convertible, but with all the safety and insulation of a coupe when you put the roof on. In Focus, that action takes less than 30 seconds.
However, this body style has its downsides, mainly the added weight and complexity. To help mitigate the latter problem, Ford designed its first and only Focus convertible to date to have a two-piece roof instead of rivals like the Volkswagen Eos, which has a five-segment roof.
Unfortunately for the Focus, such a roof requires an even larger storage space to store it. Convertible coupes are often known to look a bit awkward with both top and bottom windows, although some – like the Volvo C70 with which the Focus shares some parts – have avoided this fate.
Not so with the Focus, which suffers from one of the most ungainly rear end of any convertible coupe. It may have worn the Pininfarina badge but, hey, even the best has days off. The shabby Focus was pitted against the funnier Astra convertible, which also had the advantage that Holden had competed in the segment for a few years, but with only modest success.
Like the Astra TwinTop, the Focus Coupe Cabriolet comes in a single, clearly designated model. In fact, the Focus is priced on par with its arch-rival – $45,490 for the 5-speed manual, $47,490 for the 4-speed automatic.
Both have naturally aspirated four-cylinder engines but the 2.0-litre Focus’ produces 107kW of power and 185Nm of torque compared to the Astra’s 110kW and 210Nm of torque.
The Astra is more nimble, though it weighs 150kg more than the Focus’s 1454kg, itself about 150kg heavier than the Focus sedan. Speaking of the sedan, the Focus Coupe Cabriolet has shared its wheelbase and the space for the rear seats is nothing special.
During its last full year of sale, 2008, Ford sold 487 Focus convertibles to 858 Astra TwinTops; The Volkswagen Eos outsold both, with a surprising 1852 units.
TwinTop disappeared after 2009 when Holden switched from Astra to Cruze for its small car line but Focus couldn’t take advantage of the vacuum, Ford Australia pulled the plug in 2009. In total, Ford sold 984 units.
The Focus Coupe Cabriolet continued to appear in other markets until the arrival of the third-generation Focus, which clearly didn’t have a convertible.
Ford’s history in Australia is marked by cars that were really as good as the competition but were never commercially successful – see Cougar, Mondeo, Concentrate, festivalExploration, Escape, Kuga et al.
Is it a result of Ford’s prioritization of marketing its best-selling models (formerly Falcon, forest ranger now) or for some other reason, that leaves a long history of Ford models being clearly less popular on our roads than rival Japanese and Korean models. .
It also means that there are a lot of Fords that may have disappeared from your memory bank.
Don’t forget to check out the other articles in this series:
What other brands would you like to see us feature in this series? And have you ever owned any Fords? Discuss in the comments!
