Thread: Favourite Aussie-made vehicle?

I hadn't thought of the Perentie, but it would certainly qualify as Aussie-built.

In that vogue, I read that Saudia Arabia has just awarded a $10 billion contract to General Dynamics Canada to build troop vehicles for it over a number of years. That's the sort of contract our manufacturers here should have been chasing.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/02...n_4790626.html

Originally Posted by 101 Ron

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Diffs local BorgWarner
Brakes local Bendix
Body is all local.

The total electrical system was Australian Lucas ( that's right lucas on a American designed vehicle including distributor)

The gear box is BorgWarner and a improvement on the American version.
Springs are Aussie

In those days we had import tariffs, it was before the Sutton plan of the late 1970s.
It is a shame we cannot now even produce a Holden without chinese parts in it.

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Ever since the Sutton plan I knew it was a backwards move to very low import tariffs as we will never complete with assembly lines where people work in thongs and weld stuff together using green glass bottle bottoms as safety googles and work six days a week for 15 dollars a week.

The stuff we made from semis to small cars etc was breath taking in the late 1960s.
We mangaged to do it with a small market and reasonable standards of living.
I fear what will happen if Australia ever gets cut off again from the rest of the world like what almost happen in world war 2.
The tariffs of the late 1960s encouraged a lot less tax for the car makers if the vehicles had a high percentage of locally produced parts and that made the local vehicle industry very strong.
Ron

Talking about Bendix they used to manufacture the Stromberg carburetor used in Holdens. I worked there for a very short time.

Regarding Button, I remember that the Ford plant in Lidcombe was closed because Ford Capri was unable to compete with the little Mazda 5.
Back then, I remember correctly, the Mazda workers had wages more than 3 times bigger that the workers in Lidcombe.
It was another misleading excuse to drive a nail in the Australian manufacturing coffin.
Sounds familiar?

SMV Driftrunner.

Originally Posted by 101 Ron

........
We mangaged to do it with a small market and reasonable standards of living.
I fear what will happen if Australia ever gets cut off again from the rest of the world like what almost happen in world war 2.
The tariffs of the late 1960s encouraged a lot less tax for the car makers if the vehicles had a high percentage of locally produced parts and that made the local vehicle industry very strong.
Ron

We managed to do it by having massive tariffs on imported cars and components, which were not charged to local manufacturers importing parts, provided they kept upping the local content.

The problem with this was that it resulted in cars that were far more expensive than most places in the world, and hence impossible to export. They were also generally falling behind in design in many cases, with low production numbers from a dozen or so manufacturers producing. And the would -be exporters to Australia (mostly Japan) were threatening to or actually imposing restrictions on the exports that Australia depended on (wool, wheat, coal, iron ore). The writing was on the wall when the UK joined the EEC - this meant the loss of exports there of meat, wool, butter etc as well as having to compete elsewhere against subsidised EEC and USA primary produce.

Australia did not have any significant manufacturing industry until WW2, and then it was established under wartime conditions, and could only be maintained after the war by continuing the subsidies and controls that enforced these conditions.

Yes, the local car industry was very strong in the late sixties - but at the expense of the whole community, not just in the price of cars (similar support applied to other manufacturing) - everyone who did not get their income from manufacturing was disadvantaged. But as the world changed it became unsustainable, and had to change. The Labor government of the seventies and the conservative one following at least had the sense to see it could not continue.

John

Originally Posted by Jeff

Do you mean the Button Plan?

Jeff

Yes I did.

Originally Posted by MuzzyDelta90

Read the article and they are still bagging out the Leyland P76! It was a far superior car to the "Big 3" at the time - ie Holden, Ford and Valiant, and of course, that was it's biggest problem. It was seen as a threat and the motoring journalists of the day gave it a bad rap. The engine was a variant of the famous Rover/Buick alloy 3500. To be fair it was made by Leyland and suffered the usual Leyland quality problems such as bits of trim falling off etc.

Really? It was badly made, poorly styled, (just trying to be nice.it was plain UGLY) overpriced even with leyland taking a hit on every one sold and the public walked away from it in droves. It failed because it was the wrong car at the wrong time. The big three breathed a massive sigh of relief when that hit the show room floors.

Of course, this is just my opinion. Oh, and the rest of the Australian car buying public

Nino.

XB Falcon GT, I drove a good one in the early eighties, it was refined and an excellent example of the Australian ideal car that you could do 800 km in at 100 mph and arrive refreshed
Torana A9X - the ultimate expression of what the "big three" could get up to to win Bathurst
EB Falcon XR8 Sprint - the poor man's GT, still a car worth collecting
And I must admit even though I am a Ford man the sound of a 253 WB ute with open pipes at 130 KM/H still stirs me. Probably the ultimate example of the "Ute" I reckon.

Regards,
Tote

Originally Posted by landy

Really? It was badly made, poorly styled, (just trying to be nice.it was plain UGLY) overpriced even with leyland taking a hit on every one sold and the public walked away from it in droves. It failed because it was the wrong car at the wrong time. The big three breathed a massive sigh of relief when that hit the show room floors.

Of course, this is just my opinion. Oh, and the rest of the Australian car buying public

Nino.

Doubt it would win best aussie car but it wins MOST aussie built car