Ford won't drop Falcon

Despite the worst showroom performance in the car's history during 2011. Sales of the family-sized Ford fell to just 18,741 cars last year, less than a quarter of its all-time high of 81,000 in 1985.

The poor performance comes after three years when Falcon sales hovered around 30,000 cars, and is a 36.5 per cent fall over the result for 2010 despite the late arrival of a facelifted FG model towards the end of last year and plans for a four-cylinder model this year.

"There is no impact. In fact, we just launched the new FG Series II," the sales and marketing director of Ford Australia, Brad Brownell, told News Limited.

"We're putting our money where our mouth is, and investing in the future of this product. I see that the glass is half full. I'm positive."

Brownell's comments come despite bad news from India, where Ford's global product chief Derrick Kuzak has cast doubt on the future of the Falcon and Territory beyond the current model cycle at the opening of the Dehli motor show.

The Falcon's result came at the announcement of the official VFacts sales figures for 2011, which saw an overall total of 1,008,437 deliveries for the year. The result was a 2.4 per cent drop over 2010 but still only the fourth one-million year on record, with a similar total forecast for 2010.

Toyota was confirmed as overall number one for the nighth straight year and the biggest change was the end of the Holden Commodore's 15- year run as Australia's favourite car. It was unseated by the Mazda3, by just 812 sales, as Australians continued to desert big cars in favour of more fuel-efficicient compacts.

"While Australians keep buying more cars, the cars they buy are getting smaller. The demand for sport utility vehicles was up again - an increase of 3.8 per cent - which is a phenomenal result suggesting that Australians are embracing SUVs as the new family car," said Ian Chalmers, chief executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.