C O V E R     S T O R Y

There's something strange about Australian wildlife.  Take the impossibly cute koala bear, or the bizarre duck-billed platypus.  Exit the zoo, hit the streets, and you'll find that this characteristic has also boiled down to the continent's cars, from the sedan-front/pickup-rear creatures called utes to the discreetly superpowered four-door sedans.  We couldn't visit the land down under without sampling a genuine Aussie vehicle, and we were able to rein in one of the latest of home-grown cars, the new Ford Falcon.

The Ford Falcon is something of a hybrid itself: its mother must have been a staid family sedan and its father a well-tuned muscle car.  The basic Falcon begins with the understated looks of a four-door; its 4916-mm length and 1864-mm width puts it half a size above our common references here in Asia such as the Accord.  Looks do matter in today's competitive sedan market, but the all-new Falcon still carries a conventional silhouette.  For the XR sport versions, Ford had something else in mind.  Add quad headlamps scalloped into the front bumper, mesh grille, fog lamps, side and rear skirts, and a high-arched rear spoiler, and the Falcon begins to swagger menacingly.

Details count for a lot and the Falcon's can hold its own with a luxury car. Tight panel gaps, backlight-integrated antenna, and washer nozzles hidden behind the hood attest that the car received a lot of attention from the designers.

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