Thread: Death Of The Australian Motoring Industry

And for fishing boats, which certainly never go on the road.

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

The fact is that protection works, that's why all the big car-making countries protect their industries. This is a unpopular political and economic theory in Australia, but taken for granted in most of the world.


Obama nationalized GM and Chrysler to save them, and then sold them off, while Japan and Germany offer huge hidden subsidies to their vehicle industries. Thailand has built the biggest vehicle manufacturing industry in the region by imposing massive tariffs on imports. The countries that tried to reduce protection have seen their vehicle industries shut down or be sold overseas.


Of course, to succeed you need a lot more than protection. You need world competitive cars made at acceptable costs which meet the actual needs of consumers. Our industry mostly either made the wrong cars, failed to adjust to changing buyer preferences and failed to develop export markets. Part of the reason for that is that multinational companies are always going to shift the bulk of their manufacturing costs to low-cost countries and be reluctant to invest in high-cost factories.


So, sadly, I think our industry has been doomed for about 20 years. That doom was hastened when the current government pulled the plug on about $300 million or so in assistance. Apparently, it would prefer to pay the dole to many of those workers than to support them to have real jobs. Strange thinking...

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I don't really think that the actions of the current guvmint on their own had much if any impact on the demise of the industry at all.

After all, Ford announced that they were shutting up shop before there was even an election to elect this guvmint, let alone any announcement regarding whether assistance was to be removed or not. Holden have also stated on the record that the ongoing presence, or lack of, any further guvmint assistance, had no impact on their decision to close up shop.

The current guvmint has announced the end of assistance to the industry AFTER members of the industry started advising that they were going to pack up and leave. Makes sense to me - why would you keep pouring taxpayer money into an industry that has already told you that they were going to pack up and go home.

They were both going to shut up shop and leave in any case, regardless of who was in guvmint - their decisions were taken well before there was an election. I don't imagine that Toyota would be any different. The mainstay of their Australian production line (Camry) is soon to be replaced - and the hybrid version of it that was supposed to be the "salvation" of Toyota in Australia has proven to be a sales flop.

While I'm not a fan of much of what the present guvmint is doing, I have to have a little chuckle at those who swallow the line that "it's all the current guvmint's fault".

Hello All,

Back in 1969 Australian designers at Holden produced this vehicle Accessed April 30, 2016 from, 1969 Holden Hurricane Concept Restored

If a new Australian car manufacturer had government support it could assisted to start designing an Australian car. It would need to be a vehicle that had international appeal at the luxury or high value performance end of the market. This could only work if they were not beholden to a foreign owner who would get precious about not having their "own" people design and produce the vehicle. If these factors fell into line we could have a car industry again.

A kick start, despite it involving foreign ownership/licence, could be getting the rights to build a Defender basic shape. From that starting point we could then let innovative Australian minds overhaul the design and trick it up to be even a better vehicle. That way the Adelaide Plant might not revert back to being an empty paddock.

Another article about the Holden Hurricane - accessed April 30, 2016 from, http://www.motoring.com.au/inside-th...rricane-27555/ we could have taken on the likes of Aston Martins, E-Types, Corvettes and Ferraris back in the late 1960s. There was also a prototype for a Torana that never made it into production that could have stepped up to a similar market- accessed April 30, 2016 from http://www.gregwapling.com/hotrod/pr...r-x/index.html Are we too incapable to do it now?
My two cents worth anyway

Kind Regards
Lionel

Originally Posted by BMKal

I don't really think that the actions of the current guvmint on their own had much if any impact on the demise of the industry at all.

After all, Ford announced that they were shutting up shop before there was even an election to elect this guvmint, let alone any announcement regarding whether assistance was to be removed or not. Holden have also stated on the record that the ongoing presence, or lack of, any further guvmint assistance, had no impact on their decision to close up shop.

The current guvmint has announced the end of assistance to the industry AFTER members of the industry started advising that they were going to pack up and leave. Makes sense to me - why would you keep pouring taxpayer money into an industry that has already told you that they were going to pack up and go home.

They were both going to shut up shop and leave in any case, regardless of who was in guvmint - their decisions were taken well before there was an election. I don't imagine that Toyota would be any different. The mainstay of their Australian production line (Camry) is soon to be replaced - and the hybrid version of it that was supposed to be the "salvation" of Toyota in Australia has proven to be a sales flop.

While I'm not a fan of much of what the present guvmint is doing, I have to have a little chuckle at those who swallow the line that "it's all the current guvmint's fault".

The Territory and the Cruze, both sales successes, happened because the previous government gave some innovation grants to support the business case for building them. This government axed that support. The companies then announced they would not continue building them or introduce new models.
Of course there are other factors at play, but sometimes it is lineball and a little nudge can keep something going or, if it's withdrawn, cause it to be cancelled.