10 Facts you may not have known about the XD
ZJ Fairlane and XD Falcon trim codes
The XD Falcon, introduced in March 1979 as the result of a $100 million plus investment by Ford Australia. It was a drastically different car than the one before it.
The XD was developed in response to the fuel crisis of the mid 1970’s. It’s main point of emphasis from the engineers at Ford was the fuel efficiency of the car. Ford needed a more fuel efficient family car, they could not afford to develop new engines and yet they wanted to stay in the large car market so they decided to create a new car and make it lighter than the previous model by using a number of plastic components to replace the metal ones, the most notable being the bumper bars. This did lead to a reduction in weight and a subsequent improvement in fuel economy, despite the fact that the same mechanicals from the XC were carried over.
In the second half of the XD production run, Alloy heads replaced the cast iron heads, further reducing the weight of the car and improving fuel efficiency.
The XD sold well. During the 1970’s there were 3 main competitors in the family car market, Holden, Chrysler and Ford. At the end of the decade, the 3 all took different approaches to counter the fuel crisis of the late 1970’s. Holden downsized with the smaller Commodore. Chrysler went under in Australia, later bought out by Mitsubishi. Ford stayed with a large car, while integrating lighter components to save weight and subsequently, fuel consumption.
10 Facts you may not have known about the XD
ZJ Fairlane and XD Falcon trim codes