WHAT is Australia's best family car? If you ask the nation's motoring clubs, it's Ford's new BA Falcon Futura. And we tend to agree. Offering improvements in some key areas over the entry level XT, Futura aims to appeal more to the private buyer than fleets. As such, it offers Falcon's excellent new automatic transmission with manual shift mode as standard, along with alloy wheels, a fully colour-coded exterior, different interior trim, cruise control, four power windows and other conveniences for rear-seat passengers. But it still misses out on the traction control offered as standard by its direct rival, Holden's updated VY Commodore Acclaim, and faces further competition in the shape of Toyota's new Camry Ateva V6. While the smaller and much cheaper front-drive Camry makes its most convincing argument ever for a share of the large sedan market, the Acclaim simply cannot match the refinement and driver involvement afforded by Ford's brilliant new $500 million Falcon.

Ford Falcon Futura
Released: September 98
Ended: August 2002
Family Tree: FalconTHE Futura nameplate has been part of the Falcon line-up since the ED series appeared in August 1993, but the BA Futura's direct predecessor is the AU Falcon Futura, circa September 1998. A revised AUII Futura was released in April 2000, while AUIII update lobbed in November 2001 before being discontinued in August 2002 - prior to the BA Futura's September 2002 launch.
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