» Get the best price on a new Ford FG Falcon Ford Australia has dubbed the new FG Falcon range the safest car it has ever developed, but has stopped short of predicting it will score a vaunted five-star rating in independent crash testing. The company has also defended its decision to stick with a four-airbag set-up as part of its safety suite, in the face of its main competitors specifying six airbags including full side curtain bags.
The claims regarding the FG range's crashworthiness and Ford's occupant protection strategy came at last night's commencement of Ford's introductory two-day media drive program for the new large car.
Ford engineering bosses and execs including new President and CEO, Bill Osborne, faced lengthy questioning regarding the company's reluctance to confirm the new vehicle's expected performance in ANCAP (Australian New Car Assessment Program) crash testing, as well as Ford's decision to make curtain airbags optional in all but upper-range FG models.
Ford has specified front driver and passenger airbags plus "head protecting" head-thorax side airbags in its volume-focussed FG models. A six-airbag configuration including side curtain bags is offered as a $300 option. Only the G6E and G6E Turbo models get the six-bag set-up standard.
Key large car competitors, Holden and Toyota, now specify six air bags -- front driver and passenger, side thorax and full length curtain airbags -- as standard across their full Commodore and Aurion passenger car ranges. Holden announced its move to six bags to coincide with the release of initial details of the FG range.
Osborne rejected claims that Ford was short-changing FG buyers by not moving to six airbags across the FG range.
"What you see here is a vehicle designed for real world performance. Not for features or marketing," Ford boss Osborne told the local media.
The new FG range features a number of safety firsts for an Australian built and designed vehicle -- among them an eight-sensor crash sensing infrastructure that includes door pressure sensors that 'hear' a side impact and alerts the central crash computer in less than one millisecond. Such sensors are used on safety stalwarts like the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and new Jaguar XF prestige sedan.
Osborne contends, therefore, the argument is more complex than the airbag count.
"Simply comparing four bags to six is not enlightened," he said.
"I'm not saying it's [the number of airbags] irrelevant, but I'm saying it's not enlightened... To reduce it [the safety discussion] to four versus six [airbags] is not an enlightened view in terms of what this car can do... All those conclusions [that the FG is not as safe as it could be] come from the assumption that you can determine the safety performance of a vehicle by counting the airbags," he opined.
"I think that the base car is extremely safe and I would be comfortable in a side impact in the base car. I'm completely comfortable with that choice... I'd be no more comfortable with the optioned airbags," Osborne said.
Ford Australia used crash facilities at its head office in Dearborn and Volvo Car's Gothenburg Safety Centre in designing and testing the FG and its crash infrastructure. The new sedan's program of more than 5000 virtual crashes, 90 actual full vehicle crash tests and over 900 'sled' and sub-system tests, is claimed to be the most intensive ever undertaken by a local company.
That said, officially the engineering team remains tightlipped on expectations regarding the FG's ANCAP crash rating. Were it to achieve a five-star rating it would be the first locally designed and built vehicle to do so -- both Commodore and Aurion are four-star cars. There would be significant marketing capital attached to a five star label.
"We understand very well all of the modes we need to design for to deliver real world crash safety but how the car will perform in some particular ways, I guess we'll just have to wait and see," says Ford Australia Vice President Engineering, Trevor Worthington.
"We would say that the robustness of our engineering and our design is significantly more robust than we have ever done before, but you do one particular crash [such as the ANCAP test] you'll get a different result every single time.
"We can say it is the safest Falcon ever -- we know that's the case... But we'll have to wait and see what the [ANCAP] result will be," Worthington hedged.
ANCAP typically purchases production line cars from dealers to test in its program. To achieve a five-star rating, passenger cars must also be subjected to an additional side impact 'pole test'. Under ANCAP's current procedures, the crash test body approaches the manufacturer to supply the additional car for this test.
Testing typically takes place after the car is released to the public, although recently Subaru supplied models for testing prelaunch and debuted both its Impreza and Forester ranges with ANCAP's five-star imprimatur. Ford engineering boss, Trevor Worthington told the Carsales Network, the company had not considered the same 'preemptive' strategy.
Ford Australia did, however, confirm last night that it will be recommending its Global Safety Council supply ANCAP with a car for pole testing.
An engineer himself, boss Osborne seems unperturbed on the eventual ANCAP result, however.
"What's relevant is people want to walk away from a crash… What we've designed here is not designed for a [crash test] rating -- we have designed a car that people walk away from in a crash."
He concedes a five-star rating would be a marketing fillip for the car, but contends the safety story of the FG is more holistic.
"We have to tell our story around the real world performance -- around the elements of [the FG's] engineering. Whether or not we get five stars, this is still one of the safest large sedans on the market.
"Five stars is not the point of the design of this vehicle," Osborne said.
Look out for the Carsales Network's drive impressions of the FG Falcon sedan range soon. Read more on the technical aspects of the new FG, its engines, powertrains, design and development here.
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