And so it begins.....Ford stripping everything out.

[XR6_power]

Originally Posted by OzriderXR8

Ultimately our market is still too small, even if we doubled the price of imports we still couldn't sustain manufacturing in the OZ car market. We are an expensive country for manufacturing.

If we went the US path of making the big manufacturers set up factories in Oz they would probably walk away or as we've seen in the past, demand huge government subsidies.

How much would you be prepared to pay for a car just so it was Australian made?

In Australia workers have more rights than in most countries. Our wages are higher yes, because our factory workers enjoy some semblance of a comfortable life here, and that has been the case for a long time now. And I don't think we should change all that now and kick our working class into the gutter.

The imported cars were always going to be cheaper because the workers that bolt these cars together are paid much less. In fact if you do the research, you'll find that the countries where most of the new car plants operate employ workers that live well below what we would call "the poverty line". The car industry here was always small, but survived for a long time because-

1- The cars we built here suited Australian conditions and people's needs.
2- import tariffs on Imported cars were once 40%, this offered protection for our industry with its higher costs. This tariff is now 5%.
3- governments had policy where government and government department fleets had to consist of Australian built cars.
4-our car industry workers, were highly skilled. They designed, engineered and built cars they were proud of. This was evident in any media coverage I saw of the Ford closure.
5- the car market is now very fragmented, as in there are more brands and choices.
6- the buying public wants when buying a car have changed. Now, many buy
for fuel efficiency and not for things like- longevity, reliability, comfort, ease of servicing, flexibility and practicality. All These things were hallmarks of the Ford Falcon.

Just a quick last word on car industry government funding. We weren't the only country to tax payer fund the industry. If you research it, you'll find that countries like the US and Germany assist their car industry by up to 5 times more than Australia assists its car industry.