2004 Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo review from Australia and New Zealand

OK a few minor issues covered by warranty.

Center console rear aircon vent fell off and continued to fall off every time console was opened. Ford fixed this, but only after trying to patch it up cheaply the first time.

Rear subwoofer on the premium sound has a rattle (no its not distortion) will sort it out before warranty expires.

Paint flaking a little on bodykit - not ideal. the colour, a very nice deep green, has since been discontinued.

Oil cap cracked and was leaking oil - news to us, but ford picked it up during a service.

The brakes are starting to shudder from (I think) uneven wear, but only at very high speeds at the moment. You have to concentrate to notice at 140 but it makes for white knuckle driving at 180.

What a fantastic engine! so much grunt, as long as this engine is available I don't think I'll ever consider a V8 falcon again. It slams you into the headrest at full throttle, but most of the time it just lolls around at 2-3000rpm like a big lazy diesel - the only difference being that your passing everyone instead of holding them up.

The 4 speed auto is unfortunate. I think because of the torque it is even worse in this than it was in my EL fairmont. Clunks noticeably going into reverse and from 1st to second. Have test driven the new 6 speed and it runs rings around it. Its worth your while getting a 6 speed even though the BFs are still young enough to hunk you with a fat depreciation. Apart from this issue the best time to buy a falcon is still when it comes out of the 3 year lease. This was an impulse purchase and I've had the depreciation - but I bought it a few months old in brand new condition at a twenty grand discount, so can't complain too much.

This one has the luxury pack - Premium sound, nav screen, and really nice leather seats. Worth getting for sure.

Air con doesn't actually switch off, and is adequate at best. Would be utterly useless in Australia. You'd think that climate air would be part of the luxury pack.

Trip computer could have an additional display on the barely-used colour screen.

Don't buy a car that whips almost everything else on the road then complain about the fuel economy. On average it does 14.4 l/100. But my driving doesn't help.

Aussie cars still have niggles. It runs rings around the Japanese for quality of materials - but manufacture quality is not so good, as usual.

Service is not great. How does the 45000km service, which is a standard service apart from new brake fluid, come to $780? Do they employ a $300 an hour valet team? Or am I actually paying for the "warranty" repairs? Henry Ford built an empire on service, take that away and you have modern day ford, which seems to be in continually worse trouble financially.

The handling is a bit twitchy at speed - it could use a better power steer system which stiffens the feel up at speed. However the ride is very good for a car that goes around corners at twice the speed on the signposts.

My Ford Taurus, which is 10 years old and worth about four grand, has a lot of features this car doesn't:

*better stereo

*auto lights

*variable power steering

*electric seats that go forward as well as up and down

*no daft wheel type recliners that give you rsi just by putting the seat back a bit.

A little recognition of the extra dough forked out for the turbo model would be nice, the "turbo" badge is barely visible. Call me naff if you will, some unique bodykit features would be good. I'm considering bigger wheels as the arches seem to big for 17"s.

It'd be near on impossible to get me to spend $40k on anything else when I can have this. You can get an early one now for less than a new Fiesta, so good as the Fiesta might be you'd have to be daft to choose it over this, regardless of fuel economy etc. Even though the figures' more like fifty grand after all the tickets and court costs and maintainence has cost me. And this must be one of the safest cars out considering the amount of metal surrounding you, the active features, and the way it can deftly get you out of a sticky situation.

Ford should definitely export this car to America, it would be a massive hit over there with its straight line grunt and (to them an exotic luxury) excellent cornering.