Talk:Ford LTD (Australia)

Redirect Undone

I have undone the redirect of Ford LTD (Australia) to Ford Fairlane (Australia) for the following reasons:

The LTD models are not adequately covered on the Fairlane page
The 1973 to 1979 LTDs were much more than just rebadged Fairlanes.
The Landau, which is covered on the LTD page, is not mentioned on the Fairlane page

GTHO (talk) 03:36, 3 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wagon wheelbase ??

You mention in the 'Third Generation' section:- " All D Series LTDs were built on the Falcon/Fairmont station wagon platform and this heritage is most notable in the rear doors which are disproportionately narrow station wagon doors in what is meant to be a limousine and in a sedan that otherwise caters well for rear seat passengers with ample rear seat leg room. " Why is the Third Generation singled out here ?

To do quick synopsis of Falcon, Fairlane & LTD wheelbases, Fairlanes since inception (ZA) have always been built on a wheelbase around 4 to 5 inches longer than the equivalent Falcon sedan but used the same rear doors. The extra length can be seen between the rear door & wheel arch. Wagons from XA to current also used this same method of extending their wheelbase. (XR to XY wagons were the same as equivalent model sedans). When the first LTDs were released (P5 & P6) they extended the rear door (& floor & turret) to gain the extra long wheelbase that these models had. When the FC LTD was released the 'extra long' wheelbase was deleted & all LTDs from FC to current use the Fairlane (& wagon) wheelbase. GTHO's 2nd point in his list above, is very valid, in that the P5 & P6 LTDs were much more than just re-badged Fairlanes. But sadly from FC onwards that is all they are. One of the reasons for the demise of the Ford Fairlane/LTD from EA/NA/DA onwards was their similarity to the Falcon. As a matter of fact from AU onwards Ford themselves didn't think them important enough to even grant them their own model series code, they were all included as being AU or BA etc. (Terrybebb (talk) 22:25, 14 April 2010 (UTC))[reply]

No idea why the platform issue is specifically highlighted under the Third Gen model. Why not correct it? GTHO (talk) 04:00, 15 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have classified this on the Fairlane page (and have also merged the LTD contents over as well). It was pointless having two pages for essentially the same car (especially for the 1979 onwards models). OSX (talk • contributions) 12:20, 15 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What a shame to see the LTD history hidden away on the Fairlane page given that the P5 & P6 LTDs were very different cars and that they were a unique breed in Australian motoring history. It also a shame that there was no discussion before this was done. My vote is (or rather would have been) for the retention of an LTD page. GTHO (talk) 00:21, 17 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hi GTHO, the merge was done as your above reasons were mostly satisfied:

The LTD models are not adequately covered on the Fairlane page: done, all the LTD-specific information has been merged over.
The 1973 to 1979 LTDs were much more than just rebadged Fairlanes: the fact that the P5/P6 LTDs had a longer wheelbase has been mentioned, as has the revised frontal styling, et cetera.
The Landau, which is covered on the LTD page, is not mentioned on the Fairlane page: the Landau now has it's own article.

WP:Merge gives reasons to merge a page. One of these is: "Overlap – There are two or more pages on related subjects that have a large overlap. Wikipedia is not a dictionary; there does not need to be a separate entry for every concept in the universe."

It is senseless to have separate pages for very similar cars. If the LTD page was a expanded to become "proper" article with full development histories it would be a carbon copy of the Fairlane page for the most part with the Fairlane-specific trim information replaced with the LTD information. Other than the differences to the P5 and P6 which can be articulated perfectly adequately in the Fairlane article if you ask me, then why have separate articles for "rebadged clones"? I personally find it more useful having just the one article so I don't have to go back and forth between articles to see the NC/DC changes over the NA/DA, et cetera.

There is a reason why we have the page Mercedes-Benz S-Class page W221 (short-wheelbase), but not a V221 (long-wheelbase) page. The Maybach 57 and 62 are probably better examples, the 62 has a distinctively different rear door design and unique rear three-quarter panels. They are just different body styles, similar in vein to the absence of dedicated pages for the Ford and Holden wagons. That information is also "hidden away" under their own sections, see Holden VE Commodore#Sportwagon. OSX (talk • contributions) 04:23, 17 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]