Better than the Holden Monaro ?

If you include price as a major factor its definately better! But, money being no object, i'd rather have the monaro :)

This made me smile as well -

"The XR6 tag also hints at the new-comer's sporting prowess by recalling Fiesta XR2s, Escort XR3s..."

It just made me think of ratty tappets and s**te handling :)

gert big mondeo isnt it?

Of course, this isn't a fair comparison with the Monaro......

If you price up a similar spec (ie. V8) Falcon with a Monaro it's within a couple of grand (UK money) of the Monaro.

I'd pay the extra for the Monaro, though - given that it seems to be regarded as the better car.

I suppose the Ford Falcon XR6 is pretty good value - but an Australian car should have a big V8, not some weedy turbocharged inline-6.

Ditto. But I wouldn't say no to a Falcon either :) How come Oz gets all the best cars !

Why ? It's of zero importance - my current car has a turbocharged inline-4 and it's just fine. You don't gain anything from a V8, apart from increased cost and weight !

Could you not have 2 XR6's for the price of a Monaro? How much are they?

But when you're down the pub you can make up for a small penis and inability to drink by saying you have a V8 :) Apparantly.....

On the Australian price lists.....(roughly translated in to UK money)

Falcon XR6T - £14,500 Monaro V8 - £19,500.

So it's only a £5k difference.

When Top-Gear did the Monaro test, they quoted a UK list price including shipping, Import Tax and VAT.

You know what you really want is this, though:

Heh.

In all seriousness - what would you _really_ prefer: Inline 6 or V8.

Honest answer, now.......

Well, the one with the highest power output :) It thats a turbo inline 6, then so be it!

Pah! Power output isn't everything.

You'd miss out on the V8 rumble and the low-end stomp with the turbo-6.

Not forgetting the fact that the Falcon has a horrid old-school slushbox against the manual of the Monaro, plus the Monaro would run rings round a Falcon in a handling test.

That's why JC had a hugh grin. + It looks like you can put the Holden Monaro sidewwwways , keep it sideways, change the yaw angle without a fancy gizmo (unless the throttle is a fancy gizmo) and get it back on line on demand. Nissan 200SX, Toyota AE86 and the BMW M3 are also noted for ability to exceed the limit with a nice controllable response. A lot of other RWD cars just keep going round and round and round at the first sign of breakaway. The Ford review says twitchy I believe.

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Old news. Our local farm machinery place imports those buggers, and has been for 2 years.

Don't think they're £14K when they get here, and they're short of a couple of seats in the version they prefer to bring in - the Falcon ute

- but still the inline six turbo.

I think the Falcon has been facelifted since they started bringing them here, though.

Richard, who is amazed at how short the memory of some magazine editors is - Holden's Commodore HSV has been imported to the UK as an M5 rival for ages, and the XR6 is equally stationed.

Oh - and whoever it was who said XRs reminded them of rattly shit - XR is almost a global brand, and the Mercury Cougar XR7, the Ford Sierra XR8 and Cortina XR6 are far from rattly s**te ;). The Mercury Capri XR2, otoh, is merely amusing - a Mazda 323F (popup lights) 2 dr convertible.

Monaro Ute V8, YKIMS.

Surely it's the Falcon XR8 that's the M5 rival.....

I think the big thing at the moment is the return to form of the Monaro badge - the 70s Monaros were lovely motors. When the Commodore HSV was first introduced as a semi-official import a good few years back, the editors were just as enthusiastic about it.

My father-in-law came _very_ close to buying one, but ended up with an S-type instead :-(

Just shows what we're missing out on.... Ford seem to make some awesome motors for some markets (South Africa and Australia seem to be the main ones), but we get a pile of s**te in Europe :-(

the crewman SS is nice too.

LOL :)

Quite obviously the V8 is better - I don't dispute that. But it's not of any importance really, and certainly wouldn't sway my choice of car.

Er, it's a 30% difference. The Monaro is a third as much again !

I'm not sure how they do their currency conversions but £1 = $AUD2.35 so $43,000 = £18,200.

The Australian dollar is strong at the moment, but the US dollar is the weakest since 1992 (nearly 1.75 to the pound!)

Gareth

You never seen the V8 Brutes on Motors TV. My god, they are quick pickups.

SteveH ( snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk) wrote: : On the Australian price lists.....(roughly translated in to UK money) : Falcon XR6T - £14,500 : Monaro V8 - £19,500. : So it's only a £5k difference. : When Top-Gear did the Monaro test, they quoted a UK list price including : shipping, Import Tax and VAT.

I think TopGear said the Monaro was about #28k.

Blair.