is the Australian
subsidiary of Ford Motor Company
and was founded in Geelong
, Victoria in 1925 as an outpost of Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited
. At that time, Ford Canada was a separate company from Ford USA. Henry Ford
had granted the manufacturing rights to Ford in British Empire (later Commonwealth
) countries (excepting the UK) to Canadian investors.
Its first products were Model Ts assembled from Complete Knock Down kits
provided by Ford of Canada. Nevertheless, it is best known in more recent times for producing the Falcon
, originally a U.S.
model introduced in Australia in 1960, but adapted to Australian requirements and road conditions. Since the release of the XA model in 1972, Falcons have been fully Australian designed. It also produces a four wheel drive
model called the Territory
Ford Australia is the only Australian car manufacturer which designs and manufactures its own unique high-volume engines.
On March 31, 1925, Ford announced that Geelong
, was to be the Australian headquarters. The first Australian-built Ford was a Model T
that came off an improvised production line in a disused Geelong woolstore
in June 1925, while work started on a factory in the nearby suburb of Norlane. In 1928 the factory switched to the Model A
and was followed by the Ford V8 in 1932.
In 1934 the company released the world's first coupe utility
. The inventor was Ford engineer Lewis Bandt
.<ref... Read More