The Australian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) expects to test Ford's FG Falcon in the next few weeks.
Ford had been in discussion with the crash-testing body ahead of the original release of the new Falcon, but subsequently requested ANCAP delay the Falcon's date with destiny -- and a 120-tonne concrete block -- while the manufacturer ironed out some production wrinkles.
"Basically, we asked them to wait until we were in full production, just to ensure minimisation of variability, so that's what occurred there," said Sinead McAlary, Ford's Manager Public Affairs.
"FEUs [Field Evaluation Units -- pre-production cars built on the line] are obviously production-representative, but they might not necessarily have complete parts. They waited until they were full on-stream production.
"There was no product change to specification or anything like that at all [from FEU to production examples]. It was just production validation and that sort of thing."
Ford's official line agrees with the word from ANCAP but the delay has effectively hindered Ford's safety message for the Falcon – presuming, of course, the Falcon does score five stars in the independent body's crash safety testing.
"Obviously we wanted to test it as soon as it was launched, but Ford advised us there were some subtle production changes that were worth waiting for, so it's just been delayed a few weeks," said Michael Paine, Technical Manager for ANCAP.
"Hopefully we'll get a result out towards the end of August."
The operative words there are "as soon as it was launched", which indicates the pre-production cars (the FEUs), which were the only registered, road-going Falcons available prior to the media drive program, were not deemed appropriate for crash testing. This dovetails with the information published by the Carsales Network at the time (more here).
Ford's 'Job One' (the first production car to roll off the line), wasn't built until the same week as the media launch, leaving no time for ANCAP to obtain a production vehicle, test it and promulgate the results for Ford's use.
There's a lot hinging on a positive outcome from this upcoming test. If the car performs to expectation, the Falcon would be the first locally manufactured car to score a five-star rating for safety. For Ford, that would be some fillip, when Falcon's principal competitors are both four-star cars.
And if the Falcon doesn't score the full complement, at least there's a chance that its overall score might be higher than Commodore's and Aurion's. The problem with that is a points score out of 37 means less to the general public than a simple five-point scale.
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