If I ever find myself in the possession of a Ford Fairmont AU I'll be sure to be taking it to Europes most renowned Fairmont AU specialist.

Must get that handbrake adjusted. Especially now you've worn the ratchet out!

Ones personality is exposed on these streams, About 6 months ago I met a fellow Hub nutter and all we wanted to talk about was Ian`s mental condition because he comes across as a really genuine guy and vulnerable which in turn as far as we were concerned produces loyalty. Richard as a follower of both channels I want to express our/my gratitude to your effort and first class content. Thanks once again.

Your the British expert on repair of these great machines 🤓👍😎👍

I know what you mean, as I was drinking coffee from a “Power Less Is More” mug…. Perhaps there’s some help we can get?

Haha coming from Australia the falcon is so ubiquitous that we just consider it normal. it’s not something I consider to be big at all. Also 27c is a lovely spring day in Melbourne Australia.

Lol, i love how it's so mundane that even though it's a Ford model that's only available 12,000 miles away, no one gives it a second look. "Is it a Mondeo, is it a Scorpio, is it a Sierra...meh who cares". Perfect for Hub Nut 😆

Thanks for the content, not just this but the rest too. Love it if you did a POV of TWC. 😉🤣

Ye… you’re right… I am jealous… and I do have a bloody hubnut t shirt..

Ayy, very interesting to hear what you have to say about this car. Seeing as you have done so much work on it.

I may be a bit weird, but I'll never forget the first time I saw an AU in person. It was 1998 and I was at a scout camp. A parent drove up in a brand new AU Forte while we were walking along a road somewhere. The swoopy door handles, the headlights, the curve to the rear headrests... it looked so fresh, so modern. I thought it looked amazing. Later we'd always drive past an AU Fairmont Ghia with a factory bodykit and V8 on a school run outside a different school on the way home. It had the same dash as Hub Nut's Au except with a red accent instead of woodgrain. It looked awesome. I still think the lowered XR and Tickford AUs have a nicer exterior than the BA.

Love the POV drives. 🙂

I'm so glad someone has finaly addressed the handbrake rachet question everyone has been wanting to ask for many many years. It's been the elephant in the room longer than anyone can remember.......... I have no idea where I'm going with this.........?.

At last someone who agrees with me on the subject of the handbrake button. I well remember my first driving lesson with my instructor (Mrs Lee of Portland Dorset ) Boy!! Did I get a telling off for NOT holding in the button, are you going to replace my hand brake rachet! She would say..😂🤣. Lovely lady with so much patience. Mind you, that was fifty years ago nearly😱

Falcons and their kin are designed for Australian roads, that are long, straight, flat, and not always sealed. They are also designed for Australian fuel prices. So, not exactly practical for Britain. But another consideration, which you only get to understand if you live in the country, is that the simple, or crude, technology means that they can be serviced anywhere. A Citroen SM, to take an example at random (do you know the SM?) would give you a much smoother ride and more engaging drive, but if you break down in Uralla or Coonabarabran, you will not get a quick turnaround on the repairs. I had an XA in Auckland in the '80s, which looked like a shed, and caused people to get out of my way, but with comfortable seats fitted and the engine overhauled was quite good in the country. But no power steering, a dodgy column change, and the parking spaces in the city getting smaller meant I had to get rid of my only hoon car. It really scared people. I gave a retiring colleague (retiring in both senses, actually) a lift home from dinner one night. After a couple of minutes he said, "It's quite comfortable actually, isn't it?" Which, being interpreted meaneth that he realised he was not going to die, necessarily.

Yes I am a little jealous! Not because it's Ian's car but because she's a big engined car! I like the big Australian cars, and the South African ones as well. Nice review,

Great vid, as I own a Grand Cherokee and have driven a 1970 Dodge Charger, I recon I know what it feels like to drive!

Love your commentary. Honest and straight up from the heart. And kudos to your appraisal to Ian / #hubnut which he does deserve. Cheers mate. 👍🏻 happy to be channel member.

Richard you have come on leaps and bounds since your earlier videos 👍. I first became aware of you when you helped Jack with his BX . Since then you have become alot more confident and very amusing as well as a hive of knowledge. I've always liked Citroën's and years ago worked opposite a petrol station in Henley-on-Thames just up the road from a TVR dealer. All day long there was the burble of a V8. Keep doing what you're doing 👌. Damn my tongue is brown pmsl

I love the Ford Falcon and have owned quite a few over the years. The last one was a AU and it was really great. The latter BARRA engine is excellent and you can get some good power from it.

Fantastic mate. From Bill.

the advantage of having one press to only open the drivers door is for your security if alone , to stop other people entering the vehicle while the other doors are unlocked

Thanks for the content, not just this but the rest too. Love it if you did a POV of TWC. 😉🤣 Watching this with the “Power less is more mug”, I feel dirty….

It's was nice to hear your view on Betty. An AU I had a few years ago had the spoiler damaged by a car wash, so you where lucky. Talking of luck, I was lucky enough to help out HubNut while he was in NZ and got to touch Betty Lol.

You really hit the nail on the head about why Ian loves this car so much

Yay, POV drive! The black marker solution made me guffaw out loud

How very Top Gear ... A handbrake rachet test! Love it!!

As a former owner of falcons my favourite feature was the reliability.. . One recieved no maintenance for Years apart from tyres and brakes.. Sold for the same price as I paid.

I think Betty is one of these cars that just very endearing!

another great video has always Ian and miss hubnut and hublets and hubmutts 👍

Parkingness... will make it my Word of the Day tomorrow...🤔

Great review. All the memories of owning Falcon came flooding back. That lazy old 6 cylinder eating the kms.

There is a way of making the remote unlock all doors rather than just the driver… With car locked press and hold both lock & unlock together till indicators flash Then unpick will be fkr all doors… to go back to just driver repeat the process

Nice t-shirt. "The Music" if memory serves.

It doesn't matter that the suspension is jittery on tar. Ford AU designed it to handle hour after hour of corugated dirt roads. The kind that make Belgian Pave look like silk. It's also why there aren't many rattles. The independant Control Blade suspension was better, but again nothing works well on corrugated pea gravel. It just has to be indistructible.

IRS on AUs was double wishbones. The next model (BA) had "control blade" rear suspension, similar to Focus and X-Type. Oh and they also had a Barra! My son has a BA. Years ago, I had an XW (1970) Falcon, 3 on the tree. A great mile muncher.

Good video 🚗🚙🚘⭐️⭐️⭐️👍👍👍

Try as I might, I could not take my eyes off that headlining. Powered string steering might not catch on. How I miss right hand indicator stalks. Handbrake buttons are what separates us from the primates, the different Betty view was very enjoyable. Thank you.

Can’t believe the SM handbrake score doesn’t go all the way up to 11. Great video, as always 👍

The delay button does indeed set an amount of time for the headlights to stay on..... according to the internet. I had a look 😃

at near two quid a litre I'd imagine it is very stoppable - hence Bella's appearance on the HubNut fleet lol

Great video of Betty Rich another super fan here... I remember the first Hubnut social at the Motorist in 2021 I went there and seen Betty in the metal while proudly wearing my Betty T shirt. Mind you my #becausefrench t shirt is a jinx I wore that yesterday and the Cactus decided to split a driveshaft boot!!! Excellent video as always, now watching the POV drive of Betty I can see it is quite similar to the Scorpio interior wise the steering wheel is quite similar.

I love this car so much, I've never even seen it in person but I feel like I have a personal connection with it haha I really want to import my own AU to the UK now, mainly from hubnut introducing me to them

Had a Tickford Fairmont Ghia with the vct engine and independent rear, was lovely for a Falcon, steering wheel was in your lap as it always was . . . My Commodore VY SS was a big step up though.

The light control tumbler just allows you to leave the car with the lights on and they will turn off after a time which you adjust with the dial. The switch to the left controls the brightness of the instruments and it is the switch for the interior courtesy light.

Not sure what setup the AU independant rear is, but the replacement, the BA, used the "control blade" setup from the Focus and Mondeo, seem to remember it was the first rwd application of it.

This looks like an adult version of the 1997 Ford Escort I drove in the mid 2000s.

Like that Ian has kept the last NZ WOF sticker on the windscreen - I guess it's like people who drive around with the last tax disc. The handbrake on my '98 Maxima has to be pulled up 9-11 clicks on the ratchet to be within spec, which is the only time I don't depress the button - it also has rear discs, which the handbrake operates, so I think this is why there's quite a long travel.

The way you describe the handling, that sounds similar to the Ford Sierra sedan MK2 1.8L I've had.

BTR autos were always keen to shift up and just roll around on the converter. They will already be in 3rd by 30kmh. And yup, a little lazy on the kickdown. Got to mat the thing for it to drop a cog.

Seats 5 is why the Falcon was the number 1 with the taxi industry in Australia, try were licence to carry 5 passengers

I have a pic of Hubnut on my 25 yard target 🎯 20mm grouping on the forehead 😉

Cruise is easy. Its the right hand wand on the steering wheel and then use the buttons to set. and adjust.

Buy a later Barra turbo car while you can, these can be a bit fast. I'd also suggest a few dozen bushes and ball joints to see you through of course.

Nice t-shirt!

It’s a mondeo with it’s dress on

The AU wasn't a success in Australia ..particularly the styling ..and although Ford was determined to build a car that _didn't_ look like a Commodore , it's always a good idea to build an attractive design , even if it does look like the opposition. Ford changed it as soon as they could, and the BA model was a lot more successful , indeed having an Audi-esque look.

I like Betty my self and own a ford focus from around the same time and I know of 2 more AU one is a ure and the other is an estate and thick here is at lest one more saloon as well

You may be pleased to know that the headliner durability on later models was slightly improved, lol.

Ironic that the car has an "OKR" reg number, though most Aussie ockers would have probably bought the more basic Falcon to haul a bootful of beer to Bathurst....

This was a highly anticipated review and did not disappoint. However, it did not make me want to get one. Unless I have to or want to start towing things. I had a real shock when I moved here 17 years ago and hired a Falcon... we had e36 Bmw and xantia in engerland and a Falcon was so much worse. Still better than holden commodore of the same era though.

0-60mph would have been around 8 seconds when new.

Those seat covers on the front are covering the lumbar adjustment. Are they also covering the seat height adjustment?

I miss listening to the the first gear whine in an AU.

Drift king

Phew. Good vid but got seasick at 29.15 because you were swinging your head from side to side in the back of the car! I like your straightforward, no nonsense approach and piss take of Ian's rambling, somewhat nonsensical approach ("he does things with wipers"). Ok, I think I feel well enough to continue now.

It’s not a Fairmont AU, it’s an AU Fairmont… It’s a little thing perhaps, but we’re Australian so we get to say what the right order is :)

It's just such a masculine feeling and sounding car. Did you know the next final generation had a limited run of four cylinder ecoboost models. It was almost as quick as the six and transformed its handling character, being compared to a Honda Accord Euro by one reviewer. Only 1200 or so were built and I've heard one take off. Very weird to my ears.

Betty around Goodwood???🤔

Your comment on the brakes surprises me as it has ABS. maybe the sensors have been removed.

That is a later keyfob. The original AU key fob opened all doors.

Well if I read the dash right it's doing 18.9 L/100km or about 14.2mpg

As Ian has found out with that crap rear suspension, it’s deadly in the wet. Love Betty, had the the XR6 version here in NZ and way better drivers car.

But I like the racheting sound of my handbrake?

The clock is pretty simular to my mk3 mondeo. LOL

Give Betty a brake her transmission is weak now with all them miles on yet it reminds me of a mondeo on steroids yet big old engine like that if it was a manual and not owned by hubnut it could possibly go round the clock twice like my mums old siera 2l

In Australia the AU Ford Falcon the were used as Taxis with LPG because per litre is half the price of unleaded petrol and the three trim with the Ford AUs is Falcon Fairmont and Fairlane this has the independent rear suspension the motor is a very reliable engine these were built to be robust strong and handle long distances reasonably comfortably and also the rear seat is desinged to carry three adults becsuse of the Taxi conection

Hubnut fan here……I don’t like Betty. There. I’ve said it

you need sandals to test this car properly 🤡

Flip, hammering out the content at the moment, it’s a marathon though not a sprint!👍. Also I inadvertently spoiled some future content on the fleet by looking for a car for sale 🫢

You didn't make it up, Ian was mentioned on Wikipedia under the Falcon AU, but the section was removed. en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ford_Falcon_(AU)&diff=prev&oldid=1066064171