Thread: Death Of The Australian Motoring Industry

Originally Posted by UncleHo

Way back at the start of this thread there was mention of one Senator John Button and his grand plans, one was to reduce the then 4 vehicle manufacturers to 3, Goodbye Leyland! and with it the only truly Australian designed and built vehicle,the Leyland P76, yeah! the P38,only half the car they thought it would be what let it down was the over-management and the lack of quality control and the unskilled Ethnic labour force, Leyland UK was having issues with funds and Union bastardry, so that signalled the death knell for the UK company, which John Button took advantage of.

The Leyland P76 seems to get a bad rap,but a article i read showed that the ones that were built properly(i know not many) were quite a good car and had many firsts for a Australian car.Does anyone here have a bit of ownership knowledge?

Yes, when put together properly they were a nice vehicle,the 6's were lack lustre, but the V8 (Rangie 3.5 bored/stroked to 4.4) was brilliant,but there were Monday and Friday cars (thrown together) the Wednesday vehicles were the pick I regret not buying one when they were closing the line.
Both were a very nice vehicle to drive.

My comments were made to stir the pot and it worked.

It seems it is ok to subsidise some industries and not others.

By the logic implied here on should not have to pay diesel excise when I am on a tollway as the government does not pay to maintain them.

BTW - I did 7 years of working away from home in remote locations but it was before FIFO, tax subsidies & the conditions enjoyed now.

I live near the Ford Factory & my wife teaches the kids whose parents work there, they are not looking at a great future at the moment.

Do not forget it was not the employees fault that these factories are shutting down.

It was basically the change in Government will that delivered the final blow just as the mining industry was going to go broke if the previous government applied the mining tax.

Originally Posted by UncleHo

Yes, when put together properly they were a nice vehicle,the 6's were lack lustre, but the V8 (Rangie 3.5 bored/stroked to 4.4) was brilliant,but there were Monday and Friday cars (thrown together) the Wednesday vehicles were the pick I regret not buying one when they were closing the line.
Both were a very nice vehicle to drive.

I could be wrong but i think the P76 was the only car at that time that could be optioned with 3 engines 4,6,8, cylinder. Targa Flario models have gone for decent many lately.

And the article in a round about way was saying that the Government did not want the P76 or Leyland?

Originally Posted by UncleHo

Yes, when put together properly they were a nice vehicle,the 6's were lack lustre, but the V8 (Rangie 3.5 bored/stroked to 4.4) was brilliant,but there were Monday and Friday cars (thrown together) the Wednesday vehicles were the pick I regret not buying one when they were closing the line.
Both were a very nice vehicle to drive.

We had them as company cars at Leyland Truck and Bus. The only model that was worth a knob of goat**** was the V8 with 4 speed manual trans. The six was a dog. The V8 was a mismatch to the auto trans it was blighted with. The big boot was an advertising feature. The publicity stunt of putting a 44 gallon in there was ridiculous. Who carries empty 44's around in their boot? If the drum was full, the bum would have dragged on the ground. We got the rejects that were too badly finished to sell to a dealer. Gaps in the body panels you could stick your fingers through. Don't **** in my pocket about the old legend of Monday and Friday cars. It took several days to pass a vehicle through the build process.

Disco Man, there was not a four cylinder in the line-up.

Originally Posted by TerryO

Actually Frantic I don't read Murdoch papers and I actually said 'if its true' then that would add dramatically to build costs of local cars.

I was actually told this by a gentleman who runs a business in Adelaide that provides a number of services to GMH and has done for a long time, so from what your telling me he also must have no idea either, which is possible I guess.

I'm providing the link. not telling you anything.
The 80k cleaner line was a headline from a Murdoch paper. The GMH oz manager after that went on both TV and paper to state average pay was 55k.
The issue is Abbot only told the first line of the equation 3-400 million subsidies.
He neglected to mention all the other losses from letting gm and toymota leave. Which are around 6 billion extra imports and another 2 billion lost in income, taxes and paid out in welfare.
Make you feel good to watch it unfold doesn't it?

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

We had them as company cars at Leyland Truck and Bus. The only model that was worth a knob of goat**** was the V8 with 4 speed manual trans. The six was a dog. The V8 was a mismatch to the auto trans it was blighted with. The big boot was an advertising feature. The publicity stunt of putting a 44 gallon in there was ridiculous. Who carries empty 44's around in their boot? If the drum was full, the bum would have dragged on the ground. We got the rejects that were too badly finished to sell to a dealer. Gaps in the body panels you could stick your fingers through. Don't **** in my pocket about the old legend of Monday and Friday cars. It took several days to pass a vehicle through the build process.

Disco Man, there was not a four cylinder in the line-up.

Sorry about the 4cyl, I read that article a few years ago thanks for pointing that out.

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

ummm Pat....sorry to tell you this but I just spent two weeks in the SA remote areas in company with 2 LC200s and those barges coped better with the roads...which I brought up in a previous thread....than my disco.

I'm not ashamed to admit it.....in fact I was very impressed with the LC200s.

I think the only time I bettered them was in real hard rutted creek climb outs and definitely on fuel consumption.

There's a whole industry just in replacing genuine Toyota suspension,there isn't one for Land Rover,wonder why?. Pat