End of the line for Ford’s Aussie car production

Ford Motor Co ended 91 years of car manufacturing in Australia, with the last two Australian car makers due to close their doors next year.

Ford Australia said it built the world’s last six-cylinder, rear-wheel drive Falcon XR6 at its Broadmeadows plant in Melbourne and 600 employees lost their jobs, the company said.

About 3.5 million Falcons, once Australians’ most popular, have been built since 1960, although few have been exported.

Perhaps the most famous was a black 1973 XB GT Ford Falcon Coupe that became the Interceptor driven by Mel Gibson’s character in the 1981 movie The Road Warrior.

The last Falcon will be exhibited in the Ford Australia museum, the Australian subsidiary’s chief executive officer Graeme Whickman told reporters outside the plant.

Ford, General Motors Co and Toyota Motor Corp announced in 2013 that they were quitting Australia and shedding 6,600 jobs because of high production costs, distance from potential export markets and increasing competition.