Saw a mention on the another thread about car buying habits down under, and it reminded me of a question I had.
So with the news of late of the last automotive manufacturing pulling out of the country, what is the general attitude about that down there. Has there been much discussion about this?
Saw a mention on the another thread about car buying habits down under, and it reminded me of a question I had.
So with the news of late of the last automotive manufacturing pulling out of the country, what is the general attitude about that down there. Has there been much discussion about this?
there has been much discussion about this, especially as the car industry has had very high levels of government $upport over the years and this still continues. each locally made car has almost $3,000 of subsidy. Also Aussie car workers are quite well paid for the type of work they do. At the high end of the manufacturing worker pay scale. So we certainly can’t compete with the Asian cost structure.
most are sad to see local manufacture go, but then again, most are purchasing imported vehicles from Japan, Korea, Thailand and the Euros, which are made everywhere.
20 years ago or so, our car manufacturers were protected by tariffs etc, and we had many manufacturers, Chrysler ( bought by Mitsubishi), Holden a GM company, Toyota, Leyland, VW were an assembler of knock downs and some others who were quite small like Peugeot & Renault.
So not many models to chose from so the sales per model was high. The top selling Holden then had sales of about 12,000 per month.
Fast forward to today, no protection, no tariffs, over 50 brands in the market, free trade agreements with many countries and Holden now has 2 models in the top 5, Commodore with 3,500 & Cruze 3,100 per month. Even the top selling Mazda 3 only has 3,700 per month, so the make up of the market has totally changed.
Both Ford & GM-Holden are committed to withdrawing from local manufacture by 2016-17 and will become 100% importers
Toyota as the last manufacturer will no longer have the critical mass that the parts suppliers need to be competitive and really, the writing is on the wall for Toyota as well, even though they export 70% of their stock, mainly to the Middle East.
I have a Suzuki, which was made in Hungary and use a work Mitsubishi light truck that was made in Thailand, my wife’s Renault was made in France and neither of us have had a locally manufactured car for over 25 years.
but hey, we have the choice…
Yeah, lots of discussion and the manufacturers simply shot themselves in their collective foot.
None of them were actually building cars people were buying and were simply relying on government support to continue to keep the lights on.
I actually havent bought a locally manufactured car ever (Im 42) and the last time my parents bought a local car was 1982
By all accounts the latest versions of the local big cars are actually very good. Its just too little too late.
Like the others have said, I think most Australians are sad to see them go.
The issue has been the determination to hang on to the traditional Aussie model of a large family car with a six cylinder engine driving the rear wheels. It’s just not what Australians have actually been buying for the last 10 years with the Mazda 3 and Toyota Corolla consistently out selling the traditional models.
The other problem, I believe, is our home grown motor sport formula. While the V8 Supercars are good to watch, they’ve perpetuated the whole Commodore vs Falcon mentality and I think Ford and Holden fell victim to the rabid fanboyz that were yelling for the Red or the Blue on the weekend but either hopping into their new Toyota Camry or still driving around in their 20 year old V8 dinosaur.
It will hurt jobs in the short to medium term but hopefully a new era of quality and specialised manufacturing can grow out of the automotive industry’s ashes.