Ford Futura
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The Ford Futura is a large car made by Ford Australia. Although the car that bears this name may be more accurately known as the Ford Falcon Futura, the 'Falcon' name has not appeared on the badging for several years.
In the United States, Ford Futura may be considered an automobile model name that was never quite born. Scheduled to denote a new sedan entry for the North American market in 2005, the car it was destined for was renamed Ford Fusion while still under development, due to a trademark dispute. Futura proved to be owned by the Pep Boys auto parts chain, due to a tire line marketed by them under that brand. Ford's claim failed because the company had not used the name for more than three years.
The company did use the name sporadically for several decades. In the 1950s, the Lincoln Futura show car provided the basis for the Batmobile later used in the Batman television series. In the early 1960s, the Ford Falcon had a specialty coupe submodel called Futura, and the same was true of the Ford Fairmont in the late 1970s. Ford Australia used the Futura name as a variant of its Falcon range from the early 1990s. In the 2000s, Ford in the Netherlands has Futura special editions of many of its mainstream models.