Manufacturing costs, margins etc are closely guarded...
The competitive advantage of other countries in manufacturing cars is largely their lower wage costs, higher production rates and foreign currency exchange rate. It's basic economics. 
According to a former Ford engineer who was interviewed on Bris. ABC radio a couple of months back, the cost of producing cars in Australia is several thousand dollars per unit higher than in the UK due to wages and lack of economies of scale... wages not only of the assembly workers but also of people employed by local component suppliers etc
An organisation I used to work for, bought cars outright then sold them off after 5 yrs or so. Then salary packaging came in and "everybody" got a car. Company policy was local produced cars only. The nearby dealers we had always dealt with started to supply the salary sacrifice lease cars. Instead of a margin of $2-3k per vehicle, the margin slipped to less than $250 on the same vehicle bought via a lease, such was the pricing dictated by the manufacturers and their leasing arms. Damned if I know how they make any money other than through servicing and after market add ons. One dealer confided that he relied on used car sales to maintain liquidity.
I suspect the margins on "prestige cars" are significantly higher... but a lot of that goes into maintaining the infrastructure needed to support a particular make... minimum supply of spare parts /special tools/ training etc.
We've priced ourselves out of the competition. The sad thing is that the skills it takes to build cars.. such as lean manufacturing, just in time inventories, supply chains, systems engineering, design etc etc provide capability far beyond the auto industry and the whole of industry benefits... As a nation is will be a sad day if we just become an import destination based on money we get from exporting iron ore, food and coal... end of rant!
BTW, the cost of building a new 110 from a spare parts catalogue is about 3.5-5 times the current showroom floor price!
				
			 
			
		 
			
				
			
			
				MY99 RR P38 HSE 4.6 (Thor) gone  (to Tasmania)
2020 Subaru Impreza S ('SWMBO's  Express'  )
2023 Ineos Grenadier Trialmaster (diesel)
			
			
		 
	
Bookmarks