Thread: The end of the Australian Ford

^^^
That's true, but if the playing field was level, then it would purely be down to the success or otherwise of the products that the local companies produce. If no-one likes what they make, they don't sell any, they only have themselves to blame.
At the moment, to quote Sean Connery, they are "bringing a knife to a gunfight"

Originally Posted by Dougal

Tariffs won't make people buy cars they don't want.

You can put as many % as you want on the import of other cars into Aussie. But I still won't buy a falcon because it's completely unsuited to my needs.

It's the cars that need to change.

Otherwise it's welcome to the USSR, please join the waiting list for your Lada Comrade. There are no choices, no options, you will like the car you are given.

what crock of crap.

no one is trying to deny market forces or force you into buying anything, just getting the forces in a straight line so that other countries industry subsidies and currency valuations are taken into account so australian producers are not disadvantaged in the overall scheme of things.

Originally Posted by incisor

what crock of crap.

no one is trying to deny market forces or force you into buying anything, just getting the forces in a straight line so that other countries industry subsidies and currency valuations are taken into account so australian producers are not disadvantaged in the overall scheme of things.

From what I have read, the biggest factors are labour costs and freight costs - both of which tarrifs won't change.

Australia is about the most expensive place in the world to manufacture cars. Add to that the fact that most of the world don't want the cars we are making.

EDIT: and I am not saying that falcodores aren't good cars with good economy for their power output. However history is littered with great products that didn't sell.

Originally Posted by incisor

what crock of crap.

no one is trying to deny market forces or force you into buying anything, just getting the forces in a straight line so that other countries industry subsidies and currency valuations are taken into account so australian producers are not disadvantaged in the overall scheme of things.

Nope.
Price/tax/tariff aside, the falcon is not even on car buyers lists. That's why it's dying. You can tax/tariff the hell out of the competition and it will only give you another year or two at massive cost to the public.

Given the choice between a mondeo and a falcon, even if the mondeo gets $5k dearer (i.e. not level playing field) I would still take the mondeo.

You cannot tax your way to prosperity. Falcons have not changed as buyers needs and perceptions have changed and that ultimately is the problem. The cost of manufacturing is a distant second to a product that doesn't move with the times and doesn't sell because of that.

Originally Posted by Dougal

SNIP
It seems to me that someone in FORD global HQ simply gave FORD Au enough rope to hang themselves. They are selling essentially the same cars they have sold for 20 years. More evolved, but fundamentally the same.

Sound a bit like the Defender's story.....

It is a shame really, we have a focus. I don't know if it's a re-baged ? sold on by ford, but it goes well with virtually no warranty issues. Far from my Land Rover with it's 2.4 euro 4 compliant motor producing worse economy than a falcon.

The "big six" all Aussie car used to be the towing vehicle of choice for nearly every family man for decades. The fact that its job has been taken over by a huge range of AWD/4WD small, medium and large vehicles has completely escaped the makers of large sedans. Some will mourn their passing but most will buy other more capable vehicles instead.

Perhaps with the evolution of 3D printers/robots new cars can be made anywhere in the world to anyone's specs, just like how guns are being printed. Welcome to the myriad possibilities of the future.

Sorry to hear of your dilemma Mick,, good luck with finding work mate, and I feel just as miserable for all the guys at Ford,,

I remember walking into work some 20 odd years ago, and a sign in the tunnel before you went upstairs and entered the factory said, that "all Australian made vehicles must have 80% Aust made content",, This has been changing for quite some time, and now I doubt they "have" to have any % Aus made.
As Dan pointed out earlier, the subsidies are massive in other countries,, it would be interesting to see what would happen to those companies if the OS Govt's stopped the handouts. All of our Govts are just too weak to even try and do anything about it.
That factory where I worked is now all but defunct I think, its tiny compared to when I was there, as now I believe most of its product is made OS, and all because its cheaper to build, (and this was a major plan years ago), not to mention with the loss of the Ford contract, and God knows Holden will never buy an Aussie built gearbox, (because then the Americans will be out of work in their gearbox factory) all they're product is sold OS. So they save on all the freight "in coming" and well now there is basically no "out going", so they save there big time.

And the old saying "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday", with so many Holden's in the races now compared to Fords,, it hasn't looked good for a long time

4 factors: population, land size, distance and cost. We don't have a large enough population for critical mass to achieve economies of scale demanded by global markets.

Places like China and Thailand don't have our resources to compete on the material side, but their economic advantage is cheap labour...

It costs megabucks by comparison to bring component parts here, assemble them into vehicles with high cost labour then sometimes export to the rest of the world... looking at it from Europe or Nth America...why would you bother??

Basically we have a total population equal to some major cities in other parts of the world, thinly spread...

Further we don't have massive differences in wealth distribution evident in SE Asia Europe, USA, China and India etc. Rightly, we look after the marginalised and dispossessed far better than most other places in the world. We have an average weekly earnings about double the USA now... but it all adds to cost of production...

Not wanting to get political... it's basic economics.. we can't expect to compete with countries where the daily wage is 1/10th of what's expected here..

So what do we do...

The issue with the car industry is that it's very strategic in maintaining manufacturing skills generally which can be applied to other industries...it's not just about making cars... there's all sorts of spin off effects... the whole automotive manufacturing supply chain will creak and groan because of the greater weight put on it by the absence of support of a major player... the economies of scale will diminish and the costs will rise for GM and Toyota, eventually forcing them from the market as well..

We only have ourselves to blame