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Fascinating Ford Falcon facts

The Ford Falcon is the automotive version of the parrot in a famous Monty Python sketch: at the end of this month, it is no more. It will cease to be. Bereft of life, it will rest in peace. It will shuffle off this mortal coil, run down the curtain and join the bleedin’ choir invisible. It will be an ex-Ford. Here are five obscure Ford Falcon Facts you may not know. Or even care about. Mercury or Falcon?

Edsel Ford first came up with the name ‘Falcon’ for a more luxurious car he designed in 1935. However, he eventually felt that the design didn’t fit in with the rest of Ford’s lineup, so that car became the first Mercury, launching the ‘entry level premium’ brand that would sit between Ford and Lincoln until Ford axed it in 2011. According to legend, General Motors had already decided to use the Falcon name on one of its cars, but Ford got there first by registering the name 20 minutes earlier. Quite by coincidence... at least according to legend.

Sold by Snoopy

American advertising for the first Falcon in 1960 was the first time Charles Shultz’s beloved Peanuts characters appeared in animated form. That’s right, Shultz had Snoopy and Charlie Brown shill the Falcon. Not just in animated form either, as he did many print ads using the characters. The first animated ads appeared before the start of the Ford-sponsored

The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show, but the advertising for Falcon began in earnest in 1961 and lasted right through until 1965. The contract with Ford ended then and Snoopy would no longer need to sell himself to line Shultz’s wallet. Until a deal with MetLife insurance in 1985, that is.

Killer Mustang

You know how Ford has introduced the Mustang locally to help ease the pain of the Falcon’s demise? Well, Mustang was also responsible for the Falcon’s death in America back in 1970. Yep, that’s right, sales of the Falcon-derived Mustang so crippled Falcon sales that by 1969 it was withering on the vine and not able to meet forthcoming new safety standards. Ford did try to squeeze the last drops of life out of the name by offering a rebadged Fairlane as a Falcon in 1970, but it was too late and the Falcon was left to Australia for the next 46 years or so.

The XD’s twin

When the boxy XD Falcon appeared in 1979, you could have been forgiven for thinking it was pretty much the European Ford Granada MkII that had appeared two years earlier. Such were the visual similarities between the two. In fact, they looked so much alike that we’re betting you didn’t even realise that was a Granada in the photo above, not a Falcon. While the two looked remarkably similar, they were, in fact, each unique models; the Falcon was actually a bigger car. So they were totally different... except for their headlights. The Granada and the Falcon used the same headlights and that’s all!

Cool Fairmont

Back in 1979 the XD Falcon Fairmont Ghia offered something that no New Zealand-assembled car had ever before: air conditioning as an option. Winding down the windows or having a feeble fan blow warm air at you was the best a locally-assembled car could manage prior to the Fairmont Ghia. But having chilled air surrounding you came at a cost: specifically $1050, which in today’s money works out at more like $4200. While Ferrari can still get away with charging horrendous money for things other manufacturers throw in as standard, we doubt even it could get away with air-con as an extra these days.