Death Of The Australian Motoring Industry

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Originally Posted by TerryO

How many people who complain about the Australian car industry closing down actually own a recently built Australian car that they purchased new?

The answer is very few, this is a Land Rover forum, most of us have chosen a foreign built vehicle to be our vehicle of choice. Why? Neither Ford nor Holden build the type of vehicle we want and we like Land Rovers. So we buy foreign as does most everyone else, if Australians aren't going to buy local built cars then how can they complain when the businesses become unviable? As far as I can see everyday Australians decided well before the government to stop supporting the local industry, so end of story.

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How is a car maker supposed to compete with Indonesia and South Korea's cheap labor rates.People can't support the local guys when the Government opens the flood gates to these cheap cars made in countries were the workers get paid ****all.

I understand struggling families would always take the $10,000 option over the local built $20,000 plus car.Is a great wall wagon a better car than the Territory? hell no but it's cheaper,that doesn't make it the best option.

Can't have it both ways, extremely high local wages and just about the highest standing of living in the world and then also low cost locally made product.

Several years ago on here there was a very hostile long thread about how expensive locally sold products were including LR parts and ARB stuff and how local business was ripping us all off and how everyone should buy on the Internet and stuff the locals. I argued that our wages were high and the population base was to small for local business to sell things at the same rate as in the USA, yet I was shouted down. I also argued that if more and more people brought OS via the Internet then eventually a lot of people and or their family members whinging about getting ripped off by local sellers would end up losing their jobs as local businesses closed down.

Anyway more and more have brought overseas via the Internet and that has had a big impact on many local businesses. I wonder how many if those whinging about being ripped off by local sellers and advising everyone to buy stuff overseas via the internet have now lost their jobs because the business they are in is no longer viable because of online competition from overseas?

As the old saying goes be careful of what you wish for.

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Originally Posted by TerryO

Why blame Toyota? It's not there fault the local car industry is stuffed.

It's not just car plants closing down, so are many of Australia's longest standing icon industry's going the way of the dodo. Why Australians are buying imported goods not locally built product and to be frank that is their decision to make.

How many of you own a Electrolux fridge which was Westinghouse previously and have been made in Orange in country NSW for over 50 plus years? Not many I would say otherwise they to wouldn't be closing down either.

As for not buying a Land Rover if it meant keeping Australians in work and a local industry going, well then I and many others would have to drastically change our lifestyles because that would mean we could not tow a large caravan around because there is no vehicle that is made in Australia that can tow up to a 3.5 ton van.

Holden Colorado's don't count they are built in Thailand. Anyway Discoman this whole car industry meltdown has been obvious in where it was going for at least a decade so you and everyone else more than had a chance in that time To buy a locally built car. It's to late talking about it after the door has closed.

By the way I have brought four brand new Australian built Holden's over the last ten years, the most recent 18 months ago which I still own, so I more than did my bit to support the local industry before anyone asks the question.

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Hey before you start saying i didn't do my bit for the industry i have a 2007 GT-P falcon i bought brand new also before i started mining i was a roof plumber and had bought new 2x BA falcon utes and BA fairlane plus a BA falcon wagon.All as part of the growth of work.

The reason i have a go at Toyota is because as the biggest car maker in the world i think they could have done more to ensure the safety of Australian jobs.Why turn your back on the country that gave them so much profit.

Toyota don't owe Australians anything. If they didn't build vehicles that people want at a price they can afford then they wouldn't be number one in the world. They would end up like Holden and Ford Australia.

Why should Toyota have to stay building cars here when everyone else pulls up stumps and leaves? If they did then they would lose a fortune on every car sold, they are a business not a charity.

I didn't accuse you of anything, I said no locally built vehicle can tow a 3.5 ton van so I for one would have to change my lifestyle if I only could buy locally built. The thing is whether you or I brought locally built or not means little, millions of others didn't so end of story.

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Originally Posted by TerryO

Can't have it both ways, extremely high local wages and just about the highest standing of living in the world and then also low cost locally made product.

Several years ago on here there was a very hostile long thread about how expensive locally sold products were including LR parts and ARB stuff and how local business was ripping us all off and how everyone should buy on the Internet and stuff the locals. I argued that our wages were high and the population base was to small for local business to sell things at the same rate as in the USA, yet I was shouted down. I also argued that if more and more people brought OS via the Internet then eventually a lot of people and or their family members whinging about getting ripped off by local sellers would end up losing their jobs as local businesses closed down.

Anyway more and more have brought overseas via the Internet and that has had a big impact on many local businesses. I wonder how many if those whinging about being ripped off by local sellers and advising everyone to buy stuff overseas via the internet have now lost their jobs because the business they are in is no longer viable because of online competition from overseas?

As the old saying goes be careful of what you wish for.

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Well said mate,i believe in buying local even if it costs me a bit more.As for internet shopping i like to go into a shop and feel the product and talk to the people in the shop. I recently bought a brand new drum kit from my local music store for about $340 more than if i bought online,but i don't mind as i know it's a local company employing locals.

I think it's very important to shop local,i am not trying to pick a fight with you over this thread i am just annoyed at the loss of yet another industry.

This is a good discussion with opinions being given from different view points and that is the way it should be, no angst here on my behalf either.

So all is good.

personally i think most have glossed over or simply deny what should have been the biggest focus of the discussion and drivel that proceeded the effectively booting out of the last 3 major players in the auto industry..

what else has been put in place to look after your australians who were dependent on those industries to survive?

no planning put into alternative employment prior

no planning put into how to sustain high level engineering in australia

the subsidy furphy has been shown to be the biggest load of drivel since the trickle down theory...

when combined with the closure of the high level engineering jobs and training infrastructure associated with qantas

the australian people have been well and truly sold a pup... pardon the pun.

and now the ideology behind it is out to punish the victims of poor planning, poor government regulation and all round poor performance of those put in place to manage the long term welfare of the nation.

in my poor uneducated opinion!

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Originally Posted by incisor

personally i think most have glossed over or simply deny what should have been the biggest focus of the discussion and drivel that proceeded the effectively booting out of the last 3 major players in the auto industry..

what else has been put in place to look after your australians who were dependent on those industries to survive?

no planning put into alternative employment prior

no planning put into how to sustain high level engineering in australia

the subsidy furphy has been shown to be the biggest load of drivel since the trickle down theory...

when combined with the closure of the high level engineering jobs and training infrastructure associated with qantas

the australian people have been well and truly sold a pup... pardon the pun.

and now the ideology behind it is out to punish the victims of poor planning, poor government regulation and all round poor performance of those put in place to manage the long term welfare of the nation.

in my poor uneducated opinion!

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Very well put mate,said better than what i can do.Besides the loss of jobs the loss of skills is a major failure of the system.

In general there is seldom just one reason for a industry failing, there is always a myriad of things that over time cause it.

But if its true that unskilled cleaners gets a union negotiated 80k salary per annum at Holden and the wage rates go much farther north as you get onto the production line, which at best is a semi skilled job, then that to adds to the downfall of the local industry. Why should a cleaner at Holden get 80k when cleaners elsewhere only get about 40k?

As I said chances are there is no one reason on its own for the failure of the industry but if Australians don't want to buy locally built cars then no matter how low the wages are or how high government support is or how high import tariffs are then the industry is stuffed.

The solution was quite simple and should have been applied 20+ years ago. Reduce importers quotas of CBU & SUP vehicles by 10% every year until they build an assembly plant, but do not restrict CKD vehicles for assembly here. If overseas based manufacturers and distributors want to sell here then have to at least assemble here, employ some Australians, and leave some money behind here. Mazda are an example, selling over 100,000 vehicles a year in Australia and only employ 200 Australian staff. When I worked at GM-H the payroll was 26,000. There were 3,000 at Pagewood at its peak assembling 300-320 vehicles a day. Only manufacturing can provide the low level unskilled and semi-skilled jobs to absorb the unemployed and those disability pensioners with a capacity to work.