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No more Australian cars

RC99

Diamond
Joined
Mar 26, 2005
Location
near Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia
As of this afternoon now the ability to manufacture cars in Australia has ceased to exist.

Despite over a million new cars sold here every year it is impossible to build them here.

I read this is classed as the lucky country as it is inhabited by a mob of idiots why luckily have huge natural resources that require nothing more then digging up and loading onto a ship. I think whoever said that might be right.
 
As of this afternoon now the ability to manufacture cars in Australia has ceased to exist.

Despite over a million new cars sold here every year it is impossible to build them here.

I read this is classed as the lucky country as it is inhabited by a mob of idiots why luckily have huge natural resources that require nothing more then digging up and loading onto a ship. I think whoever said that might be right.

It can't be impossible so there has to be a reason for stopping. Simply not profitable enough would be my guess.

What "Built in Australia" cars were there? Not trying to be insulting but has there ever been a 100% Australian car?

Top 1 most popular vehicles in Australia – January 217

Re "Despite over a million new cars sold here every year it is impossible to build them here." then if everybody wanted exactly the same model there would be no problem in any country. The "problem" is not the quantity as much as it is the variety.
 
Don't be surprised if the Chinese take over an existing plant and start production of a vehicle series. China's being very agressive in auto technology, the only thing I wouldn't expect are pure battery powered cars. But hybrid, and perhaps solar augmented make a lot of sense for Oz.
 
As of this afternoon now the ability to manufacture cars in Australia has ceased to exist.

Despite over a million new cars sold here every year it is impossible to build them here.

I read this is classed as the lucky country as it is inhabited by a mob of idiots why luckily have huge natural resources that require nothing more then digging up and loading onto a ship. I think whoever said that might be right.

Don't worry about it. Australia's huge natural resource of uranium is your main export. North Korea is mighty pleased about that. :nutter:
 
Don't be surprised if the Chinese take over an existing plant and start production of a vehicle series. China's being very agressive in auto technology, the only thing I wouldn't expect are pure battery powered cars. But hybrid, and perhaps solar augmented make a lot of sense for Oz.

I wouldn't be surprised either. Trump, and certainly not intentionally, seems to be helping countries like China to gain footholds in countries. A Chinese car manufacturing company in Australia would be a feather in their cap and the PR worth the investment.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/news/frankfurt-motor-show-2017-chinese-coming/

List of automobile manufacturers of China - Wikipedia

In Hong Kong they even drive on the left-hand side of the road as opposed to the right-hand side in the rest of China.

Driving in Hong Kong, China - YouTube

List of left- & right-driving countries - World Standards
 
its got to do with money or currency exchange rates. if a country lets its currency be over valued it people can buy stuff from other countries cheaper.
.
if government takes steps to devalue money they might get more manufacturing in country but buying foreign stuff is more expensive. exchange rates acts like a tariff. but what government considers more important is different in different countries. jobs or buying foreign goods cheaper
.
Chinese prefer jobs over buying stuff from other countries cheaper. they understand economics for their people very good. they just prefer jobs as best for the people
.
rich people and people on welfare (and retired people) agree on one thing. they want their money worth more. often they dont have a job or even want a job.
.
a problem with true communism and true democracy is when majority wants to vote everybody with more money thats worth more and more benefits and then the money runs out. and when there is no reward for working harder and smarter people stop trying. when the Chinese "allowed" farmers who grow extra to keep any profits food production went up 400%, amazing how that works.
 
Given the relatively small market, the demise of Australian auto making was expected (in auto circles) decades ago. Canada likely wouldn't be a maker either, expect for the North American market.

Could be some innovative Australian start up will make something like an electric SUV? Sunk costs are lower.
 
As of this afternoon now the ability to manufacture cars in Australia has ceased to exist.

Despite over a million new cars sold here every year it is impossible to build them here.

I read this is classed as the lucky country as it is inhabited by a mob of idiots why luckily have huge natural resources that require nothing more then digging up and loading onto a ship. I think whoever said that might be right.

No loss. I can't remember the last Australian made car I'd actually want to buy anyway. The companies were just here to milk the tax dollars and tariffs. When those went away, so did the car companies.

PDW
 
Just got back from auction last night for gearbox manufacturing firm that recently closed. 80 plus machining centres with similar number of CNC lathes and a huge number of gear cutting/grinding machines, furnaces, metrology lab etc Had 1200 employees at its peak. The scrap guys had a field day!!
Also Holden's first machinery sale finished yesterday with a lot more to come. It will be the suppliers to Holden, Ford any Toyota where most of the pain will be felt. I just feel this whole situation has been rushed and not given the full consideration that such a major policy change required. The consequences are going to be felt for years to come
 
Toyota workers out of jobs as car manufacturer closes Altona plant - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

what I want to know is- who will make those wacky little aluminum flat beds that go on every Ute?
"Trays"?
I have never seen em anywhere except Australia, but there, it seems like every truck has one.


Will the Australian company keep making em, and the japanese will just ship cab and chassis trucks to Australia?

for those who havent seen em, they look like this- Aluminium Ute Trays | Alloy Trays | Tray Bodies | Norweld | 13 32 899

theoretically, you can buy em in the USA, but I have never seen one on a truck.

(I just found a US distributor for Norweld- and for my full size ford, a Ute Tray would cost me a cool $14,000 USD- no wonder nobody buys em here)
 
The Holden/gm crossover cars started weak with the gto but really gained serious clout with the g8 (gt/gxp)and the Chevy ss...I still kick myself for getting a Tahoe over a ss...except when it snows or I need to go off road. I would have loved to see a version of the Holden Ute here, very interesting.

I remember when they announced the end a few years ago, I held out hope that it would be reversed...shitty really.
 
what I want to know is- who will make those wacky little aluminum flat beds that go on every Ute?
"Trays"?
I have never seen em anywhere except Australia, but there, it seems like every truck has one.


Will the Australian company keep making em, and the japanese will just ship cab and chassis trucks to Australia?

The local car manufacturers generally only made passenger cars. They did also make ute versions of their sedans, most of them had well back designs although they did make some one tonners which had the aluminium flat top tray.

All the commercial 2wd and 4wd vehicles are all imports. The trays for them are mostly locally built by anyone with a welder and angle grinder.

No loss. I can't remember the last Australian made car I'd actually want to buy anyway. The companies were just here to milk the tax dollars and tariffs. When those went away, so did the car companies.

PDW

The issue might be it will cost us more in unemployment payments in the long run. When you look at all the industries that exist only because of government, it makes the car industry hand outs not look so bad. You would be hard pressed to find a single country in the world that does not subsidise their car manufacturing industry eg: https://www.motoring.com.au/secret-german-auto-subsidies-exposed-107275/

It will not be long in the future and Holden, Ford and Toyota will shut down the engineering and design jobs they currently say they are keeping in the country. With diploma disease running rampant through the country I wonder what the end result will be.
 
The issue might be it will cost us more in unemployment payments in the long run. When you look at all the industries that exist only because of government, it makes the car industry hand outs not look so bad. You would be hard pressed to find a single country in the world that does not subsidise their car manufacturing industry eg: https://www.motoring.com.au/secret-german-auto-subsidies-exposed-107275/

I don't care. The 'local' companies were wholly owned subsidiaries of their big parents and only set up here to get around then existing import quotas and tariff barriers. When those things were wound down and eventually removed, the car companies closed the doors. They could have gone for export markets but other countries' import barriers, plus cannibalising your own local plant's sales, obviously didn't fit the model.

They were making cars less and less people wanted to buy anyway. Following your logic we should have reimposed import quotas and jacked the price on imports up to force people to buy the cars they didn't want.

So they're closing down, so sad too bad. Perhaps something else profitable will take their place. If that doesn't happen, we deserve it. As far as I'm concerned manufacturing anything in this country is a waste of time anyway. We have a hard time making steel profitably despite literally digging the iron ore, coal and limestone out of the sides of hills in vast quantities.

PDW
 








 
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