The countdown to the launch of the 2008 Ford Falcon has begun with Ford stating that they will reveal engineering details of the new Falcon in February of next year, ahead of the May launch of the new model, codenamed the Orion.

The complete line-up of new Falcons, including the ute, wagon and high performance versions will be available before the end of June 2008.

Just how ‘new’ will this Falcon be? The current model has been around since 2002 and that model shares some underpinnings with the AU Falcon which was launched in 1998.

Ford insiders say that the new Falcon will remain fundamentally unchanged under the sheetmetal, except for new front suspension which has been revised with input from Ford’s just-retired handling expert, Richard Parry Jones.

On the driveline side, Ford is unlikely to make any drastic changes to the current 4.0 six cylinder engine as a replacement V6 is due in 2010. The 4.0 straight six is already more powerful and fuel efficient than the V6 Commodore. There will however be minor improvements to both power and fuel efficiency for the new Falcon.

There will also be a new five-speed automatic transmission replacing the four-speed unit found on the cheaper Falcons. The top-of-the-line Falcon will keep the well-regarded six-speed unit.

The 2008 FPV Falcon – phat!!

The big news is that the focus for the new Falcon has been on safety. Electronic Stability Control was made standard on all petrol Falcons recently and side and curtain airbags are expected to be made standard on the new range.

Ford is rumoured to be working towards making the Falcon the first locally-built car to recieve the maximum five star crash rating from independent safety auditor NCAP.

The look of the new Falcon – already been seen through leaked photos – indicated some drastic changes to the look of the Falcon and showed�that the new car will bear similarities to the recently released Mondeo.

Sales of the Falcon have dropped considerably as most Australian buyers have moved towards four-wheel-drives and small cars and Ford is said to be counting on the new Falcon to boost it’s sales in the local large car market. Falcon sales in 2007 are roughly half of what they were in 2004 and the car has slipped to fourth behind the VE Commodore, Toyota Corolla and the Mazda 3. Source: Drive.com.au

I don’t know about you but I think 2010 will signal the end of an era with�a V6 replacing the trusty 4.0 straight six in the Falcon. Similar to Holdens move to the ‘Global V6′, perhaps Fords thinking�is on the production costs of the current engine?