The end of the Australian Ford

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Originally Posted by robbotd5

Why can't we as a nation produce a range of cars that that are desirable and exportable.

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The Commodore is exported to the UK, America. SE Asia and the middle east.
Plans are to move the manufacturing of the Commodore to America.

Really does suck that so many people will lose their jobs, but couldn't care less that the Falcon/Territory won't be being built any more.

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Originally Posted by incisor

someone with the balls to bring back the "level" playing field...

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and when one show up the majority of people will said that he/she is mad :(

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Originally Posted by Dougal

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.

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your looking little picture, i was commenting big picture...

i don't want to buy a falcon either but a formula that works to keep manufacturing alive in au needs to be worked out... so many other smaller sectors depend on it.

why is it so wrong for us to do what everybody else is doing and supporting our own?

there are not too many big ticket sectors of the economy left to carry the place when you lose manufacturing, retail / small business and primary industry...

we cant all wipe tourists butts....

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Originally Posted by isuzurover

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.

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Out of curiosity, do you know how much earn a worker in AUDI, MB, BMW and VW in Germany?

Back in 2010 an article in Forbes by Frederick E. Allen said, quote:
the average auto worker in Germany made $67.14 per hour in salary in benefits; the average one in the U.S. made $33.77 per hour. Yet Germany’s big three car companies—BMW, Daimler (Mercedes-Benz), and Volkswagen—are very profitable.

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Originally Posted by incisor

your looking little picture, i was commenting big picture...

i don't want to buy a falcon either but a formula that works to keep manufacturing alive in au needs to be worked out... so many other smaller sectors depend on it.

why is it so wrong for us to do what everybody else is doing and supporting our own?

there are not too many big ticket sectors of the economy left to carry the place when you lose manufacturing, retail / small business and primary industry...

we cant all wipe tourists butts....

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When you have a product that sells and is profitable, manufacturing is successful.
When your product doesn't sell, it doesn't matter how good the manufacturing is. It's doomed.

This is the big picture.

Tariffs/subsidies never work as intended. All they do is hide problems and let them grow. It's like giving the fat kid a 40m head-start in a 100m sprint.

Sad days indeed.
I have owned lots of Falcoons and had them as company drives too.
They finally got it right with the BA.My boys XR6 BA(non turbo) is a loverley car to steer,plenty of grunt and it feels like a strong car,its very good economy wise,easy and cheap to service.Hop into a dunnydoore,they are a poor option.
Ford should have put that D3 mojo into the Falcoon too,not just the Territory.I have driven a diesel Territory,NICE!!!!
Anyhow,the writing is on the wall,3 years to save up for one of the last ever Falcoon GTs,I WANT ONE,a brand new one :cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool:
Andrew

Ford look at the bottom line , as do all multi nationals . There are no winners here in aus. The workforce loose there jobs , not only at Ford , but in the suply chain as well .Whole comunitys will have to adjust . Our reserve bank kept interest rates some of the highest in the world, pulling in hugh amounts of forain capital . pushing the ausies $ up and up , making our manufacturing uncompetetive , and reducing the cost of imports .The only winners were the banks , how much have they made collectively over the last few years ..

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Originally Posted by Dougal

When you have a product that sells and is profitable, manufacturing is successful.
When your product doesn't sell, it doesn't matter how good the manufacturing is. It's doomed.

This is the big picture.

Tariffs/subsidies never work as intended. All they do is hide problems and let them grow. It's like giving the fat kid a 40m head-start in a 100m sprint.

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The Falcon does sell, just not in the numbers it used to. As does the Commodore.
They are still a car suited to Australian conditions.
One of the problems is we are flooded with imports that are much cheaper for various reasons. Some of those reasons are anticompetitive.
Let me explain what I mean by giving an example.

On a project I worked on there was a requirement for some skid mounted equipment. This is equipment that is built in a factory and shipped to a remote site on a skid for connection into an installation. We wanted it to have Australian content and had a price in mind, but, when the BHP steel locally purchased was priced up it was expensive. We priced up the same Australian steel shipped from New Zealand and it was much cheaper. But the real killer was we could buy the equipment from India fully assembled, ready for production, shipped to Australia and using the same Australian steel for about the same cost as buying the steel in Australia.

There is something very wrong somewhere.

Lets see what happens to the parts suppliers now.
They once had 4 customers,now Ford and Mitsi are gone can they still survive???? I doubt it.
Andrew