Carr to Detroit to rescue Aus Car Industry

[Blue Blooded]

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news...y/2411612.aspx



Carr off to Detroit to rescue our car industry

BY JOSHUA DOWLING

06 Jan, 2012 01:00 AM


A Federal Government minister has been despatched to Detroit in a desperate bid to rescue the Australian car industry.

Kim Carr's mission to the US has become all the more pressing since sales figures confirmed the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon had taken their biggest hit in more than half a century.


The Industry Minister is expected to meet the top executives from General Motors and Ford next Monday, on the eve of the Detroit Motor Show.


While General Motors-Holden has mapped out its plans - building its Cruze small car alongside the Commodore, as well as trying to revive export deals to the US - its counterpart Ford has remained tight-lipped.


Ford Australia was scheduled to build a small car from this year but those plans were scrapped in 2009 after the company said it could not profitably manufacture such a vehicle at its Broadmeadows factory.


Ford Australia is in a particular bind because factories in Thailand have, with local government support, won contracts to build Ford's Focus small car, a new small sports utility vehicle, and the Ranger four-wheel drive utility.


A new Ford hatch unveiled this week will probably be made in India, even though it was designed and engineered in Australia.


With the Ford vehicles being built in Thailand representing the three largest categories in Australia, Broadmeadows has been forced to find a business case to produce a medium or large car - sales of which are declining worldwide.


''I am confident that we can, despite the challenges - and they are profound - work our way through these issues,'' Mr Carr said.


He was going to Detroit to ''restate the Australian Government's commitment to the automotive industry. We want to attract new investment... and ensure we keep our position in the global industry.''

[Gobes32]

If anyone can do it Senator Carr can, the best man for the job it would seem.

[Blue Blooded]

At least it seems the Government is doing something.

I just hope it isn't a case of too little too late.

[Joe5619]

Good news... Hopefully they can get Ford (& Holden) to stay here.

I thought Carr was dropped from the portfolio??

[BroadyFord]

Wow. This is a very desperate situation by the looks of things.

What happens if there's a change of government next year though?

[bungarra]

Just follow the Koreans way of doing things. Put a "health tax" on imported goods, prevents the issue with tarriff restrictions.

[Uncle Niceguy]

if they want the manufacturing industry to stay as a whole they need the aussie dollar to fall back to between 65-80 cents which unfortunately i don't see happening any time soon.

[blownv8au]

What on earth is he going to achive by going over that a phone call or video link couldn't do. another bloody tax payer funded holiday. might aswell go to the motor show to eh.

[cs123]

Originally Posted by blownv8au

What on earth is he going to achive by going over that a phone call or video link couldn't do. another bloody tax payer funded holiday. might aswell go to the motor show to eh.

You accomplish a lot more meeting someone in person than over a phone line.

$20K well spent IMO

[blownv8au]

Originally Posted by cs123

You accomplish a lot more meeting someone in person than over a phone line.

$20K well spent IMO

Yeah, and what is that everyone thinks he can accomplish?. I would hazard a guess that the money that gm and ford could save building cars overseas would be more than the aussie gov could offer them to keep building here. if not in the short term definetly over the long term imo. each to their own, i think its a waste of money. we are floging a dead horse with australian manufactoring.

[bobthebilda]

Probably a bit danagerous to send over a guy who with all the resources at his fingertips, is still under some fanciful illusion that the australian car industry supports 60,000 people to make 220,000 cars a year. I reckon with his ability to decipher the facts, we will learn in a few days time that he has landed in Dhaka instead of Detroit.

As a nation, we would probably be better off if he was trying to convince the heads of Mazda or Hyundai to do something over here.

[Gobes32]

Originally Posted by Joe5619

I thought Carr was dropped from the portfolio??

He was, it would appear he still cares enough to keep going with the job he was doing previously. Or he wants a tax payer holiday, we will never know.

[Road_Warrior]

He is still Industry Minister, the Science & Innovation and I think Resources portfolio was removed from his care.

[350125GO]

Originally Posted by blownv8au

Yeah, and what is that everyone thinks he can accomplish?. I would hazard a guess that the money that gm and ford could save building cars overseas would be more than the aussie gov could offer them to keep building here. if not in the short term definetly over the long term imo. each to their own, i think its a waste of money. we are floging a dead horse with australian manufactoring.

Yeah, lets just dig **** out of the ground and send it overseas. When that runs out, what are we left with, a service based economy

[aussie muscle]

so his plan is to convince GM And Ford to invest in their own companies?

[blownv8au]

Originally Posted by 350125GO

Yeah, lets just dig **** out of the ground and send it overseas. When that runs out, what are we left with, a service based economy

What can't read the writing on the wall. i don't agree with it but thats where its headed till the cheaper countrys catch up. businesses are out to make money and the more they make the happier the shareholders are thats fact. and if they can make a product somewhere else cheaper and get the same for it they will, pretty simple stuff really. no one has offered up an opinion on what they think it is that carr can offer gm and ford hey? like said tax payer funded holiday.

[Fordman1]

Originally Posted by 350125GO

Yeah, lets just dig **** out of the ground and send it overseas. When that runs out, what are we left with, a service based economy

Then we can be just like Greece

[Gobes32]

Originally Posted by blownv8au

no one has offered up an opinion on what they think it is that carr can offer gm and ford hey?

Tax breaks?

[Fordman1]

Originally Posted by 350125GO

Yeah, lets just dig **** out of the ground and send it overseas. When that runs out, what are we left with, a service based economy

Then we can be just like Greece

[79FordEsky]

Make a ban on Asian cars coming to Australia then in you want to save the industry and improve funding to the industry to help them convice australians to buy cars that are "Made in Australia".

[bobthebilda]

=350125GO]Yeah, lets just dig **** out of the ground and send it overseas. When that runs out, what are we left with, a service based economy

In the last 1/2 year, I have lived around places that make things (cars), and am currently living in a place that digs #$%^ out of the ground. The guys currently making things would be drooling to be earning what the guys who dig things out ground are earning. And I am pretty confident that once australia runs out of coal and iron ore etc, not many countries will be building cars anyhow.

And for the record, places like Japan, USA, Italy and spain build alot more cars than Australia, but no one really wants their economies or budgetary problems.

[Pepscobra]

I love the Falcon (and even Commodore... to a lesser (much lesser) extent) and dont want to see them disappear, but what good is 'rescuing' something that may no longer be viable??

Its a global market people. Australia chose this road long ago. The government (using tax payers money mind you) cant just keep coming to the rescue everytime a large company looks like getting in trouble. Its called competition. No point to keep making something that people dont want.

The automakers just need to come up with products that the market wants.

[350125GO]

Originally Posted by bobthebilda

In the last 1/2 year, I have lived around places that make things (cars), and am currently living in a place that digs #$%^ out of the ground. The guys currently making things would be drooling to be earning what the guys who dig things out ground are earning. And I am pretty confident that once australia runs out of coal and iron ore etc, not many countries will be building cars anyhow.

And for the record, places like Japan, USA, Italy and spain build alot more cars than Australia, but no one really wants their economies or budgetary problems.

What happens if (when) China goes belly up?

edit: or the Americans...

[white lightning]

why can't Ford Aus base the Falcon on the latest Jag?? just not quite as decadent

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by white lightning

why can't Ford Aus base the Falcon on the latest Jag?? just not quite as decadent

What, like DEW98?

[Wretched]

Originally Posted by white lightning

why can't Ford Aus base the Falcon on the latest Jag?? just not quite as decadent

Why?
Ford don't own Jaguar anymore.

[dogfish]

For a start Remove the GST off of Fuel so we don't have to pay more TAX for every cent it climbs.
Then Remove all the other Taxes off of Fuel as well and Australians May want to BUY big cars again.
Greedy Bloody Government.

[mik]

Originally Posted by BroadyFord

Wow. This is a very desperate situation by the looks of things.

What happens if there's a change of government next year though?

many will celebrate

[Nikked]

Originally Posted by Gobes32

Tax breaks?

Yes! Incentives to keep local production.

[Blue Blooded]

Originally Posted by mik

many will celebrate

Me being one of them