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According to the Ford website, the feature is only used when you have (1) linked your mobile to the car's bluetooth, AND (2) have turned the Emergency Assistance on. It calls the standard emergency telephone number of your country (e.g. 911 in US, 112 in UK, 000 in Australia, etc).

For example, from the Australian entry on the site: "In the event of an accident severe enough to either trigger airbag deployment or shut off the fuel pump, Emergency Assistance uses your mobile phone, which must be within mobile reception range, to dial triple zero (000). Once connected, Emergency Assistance then transmits a message stating that your vehicle has been in an accident and provides the emergency services operator your precise GPS coordinates. The phone line remains open so that anyone in the vehicle may speak to the operator using the vehicle’s receiver."

Then there's .com.au, which I see a lot of around here for Australian sites, such as Ford's http://www.ford.com.au/.

not to be a jerk but ford never really STOPPED making the fairlane 500. You can go to Australia and plunk down your $50k(aus) and drive away your brand new 5.4 liter 430hp V8 Fairlane.

joking aside

But no one has mentioned Ford's Australian division that produces (reputedly) good-quality rear-wheel drive midsize sedans
They are actually quite good. I personally drive a 98 model EL Falcon which is nice to drive. Good handling and a reasonable amount of power. The newer model, the BA Falcon, is a beautiful car to look at, and has improved mileage, power and handling.

Add the fact that they are very affordable cars. The Falcon starts at around AU$35,000. http://www.ford.com.au/

And don't think I haven't paid my share of taxes.

But who said anything about "the US auto industry?" Others might, so perhaps you're responding to them - I simply mentioned the auto industry. And in what world are Chevvy and Ford "US Auto companies?" Ford may have its headquarters in Dearborn and its earliest roots in Detroit, but it's an international corporation every bit as much as Wal-Mart, Nike, NEC and Nissan: there are ford and chevvy plants all over the world, and have been for decades. You haven't been able to buy a Falcon in the US since the 60's, but new ones are running all over Australia. Where are those Falcons made? They damn sure aren't made in the US.

There are auto plants in Mississippi and Alabama and Tennessee and Ohio and more locales are looking to bring them in. No, they're not all "US names" - so what? They're good paying jobs. Ford closed a plant in Flat Rock, Mi (just around the corner from my home town) when I was a kid and by the time I was old enough to work there was a shiny new Mazda (er, Ford/Mazda) plant there.

And BTW, those aren't Japanese cars I was talking about with the 400hp, either. 400hp is the oft touted number for the new Ford Mustang... that is, unless you get the Cobra. Buzz is that one will come with a 24 valve, 500HP, supercharged SOHC V8. (Yeesh, what a sickly american car!)

So, is that car American or Australian? Or is it British? Or German? Oh, wait, they're being assembled by 1,400 UAW workers in Flat Rock, Michigan... so I guess it must be a Japanese car after all.

Yeah, dat's da ticket.

GM still hasnt remembered how to send power to the rear wheels so it looks like Ford is the only one carrying the performance torch for a while, at least in regards to having a V8 and RWD

Not in Australia... high-performance V8 versions of our standard RWD family sedans from both Ford and GM-owned Holden are more popular than ever these days. The rest of the world is starting to notice too - the Holden Monaro (a 2-door version of the standard Commodore family sedan) is being exported to the US and sold as the new Pontiac GTO.

Check out Holden Special Vehicles, Ford Performance Vehicles, and the V8 Supercars race series. Can't say I personally find them particularly entertaining, but you can't deny their popularity...

For whatever reason, no, they don't. I see a lot of stuff about US State cops kitting themselves out with proceeds from crime, etc, etc. That doesn't happen here - proceeds from crime go straight back into gummint coffers.

At various times they have dabbled with whatever was the latest/greatest/fastest. 10-15 years ago, when the Mitsubishi Cordia Turbo was the dogs nuts of fast small cars, the police in my state (NSW) got a few of them and let the Highway Patrol group use them. Apparently the Cordia went fast in a straight line, but couldn't go around corners particularly well. They quietly and quickly dissapeared.

More recently, the aforementioned Subaru Impreza WRX made an appearance. I saw a couple of those painted up in police colours in active use just a few years ago. Again, they have quietly dissapeared from the scene, dunno why.

Somehow, I always picture them having souped-up V8's with 'INTERCEPTOR' printed on the back...

Well, you're close-ish to the truth. NSW police have pretty much always had the Holden Commodore and/or the Ford Falcon (sorry, lots of evil javascript and flash there, couldn't find an alternative) de jour. They're low quality, fuel guzzling Australian built hunks-o-junk, but the manufacturers have probably backed the government into a support-local-industry corner, and they're probably only paying three-fiddy apiece for them (that's all they're worth!!!).

Both of those cars have a V8 in the model range, and I think the Highway Patrol at least get V8s. Most of the common-or-garden police cars I see around at the moment seem to be Holden Commodores, but Ford have an 'SV6' and 'SV8' model, gofasta ones that they're using in some police applications. No "Intruders" tho!

Here, I googled, and found a few pictures...

This is a pretty standard NSW Police card right now. (a holden commondoor)

This is an example of a Subaru Impreza WRX in NSW Police colours...

An old Mitsubishi Cordia Turbo

They just keep going back to Commodores and Falcons though...