Familiar Ford sign points to popularity in New Zealand and Australia

Press, 25 July 1985, Page 28

Familiar Ford sign points to popularity in New Zealand and Australia

No matter where bne travels in New Zealand and Australia, it is safe to Credict that the familiar lue and white oval Ford sign will catch the eye. In motoring terms, Ford is New Zealand and Australia and it would not be stretching the imagination too much to claim that this situation pertains in most of the western world, although, paradoxically, not in the United States, the home of the founder of the great multi-national, Henry Ford, son of a fanner. Ford is the best-selling car in Australia and New Zealand and it is probably fair to say that is not because it is a car much better than any other, but because the people who run the companies know more about marketing their products, how to service them and how to make repeat sales than most other people in the business even realise. That is not to say that Ford markets a poor product and gets rid of it by

using superbly trained super salesmen. The product is good, wellmade and with a human input from the people who make their living from the multi-national in one way or another to have the confidence to use it in international motoring competition in all its forms — and use it successfully — just as so many less adventurous people do. Fords originate in the Americas, the United Kindgom, France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Japan and Australia, as well as other countries, but it does not matter where the source may be, they are all Fords with that familiar blue and white oval at the front. Lower Hutt-based Ford New Zealand Ltd, assembles Japanese, Australian and European Fords, Laser, Telstar, Fairmont and Sierra. For longer than most others in the trade care to remember, the Laser, blood brother of the Japanese Mazda 323, has been New Zealand’s best-selling car.

Thus, it was not entirely surprising that when Ford cast around for a replacement for the Cortina in New Zealand and Australia, it should select the Mazda 626 which became the Telstar, another Ford staple. With the announcement of the Government’s motor industry plan last December, there came more favourable treatment for larger cars, so Ford introduced the highly specificed Australian XF Fairmont range, which should make inroads in the market previously the domain of imported European exotics. With that array of sucessful, value-for-money cars, it would be difficult to select a star to be the feature of the Ford display at Motor Show 85. For Ford and its Christchurch dealer, it has not been difficult. Last year the European-origin Sierra station waggon was launched in New Zealand and it was an instant success. Now, with the liberalisation of completely built-up

car imports, the Ford Sierra in saloon form is being introduced in limited numbers in New Zealand. A Sierra saloon will be the highlight on the Ford stand at Motor Show 85, and visitors will have an opportunity to examine at close quarters the type of car — and blue at that — that the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Sir Robert Muldoon, drives. The story goes that when Sir Robert’s old and British-as-British Triumph went the way of all cars, Maggie Thatcher’s friend decided that his country’s destiny could not possibly be torn from the Land of Hope and Glory. That was why, with the help of Ford New Zealand’s marketing expertise, he chose a Ford — a car that, let us face it, is as British as the United Nations. Maybe that is Ford’s open secret of success. In any case, for those who would prefer a Japanese or Australian Ford, the Lasers, Telstars and Fairmont will be at Motor Show 85.