Holden cuts a shift...

[Fordman1]

Originally Posted by vztrt

Bingo. Large car sales were moving over to SUV's.

The biggest growth sectors in the last 5 years have been Medium SUV's, C class cars (Corolla, Mazda 3, etc), and B class cars (Yaris, Mazda 2, Getz etc).

[Gobes32]

Originally Posted by Nikked

but yet there was 18000 unsold VE commodores around the world, and dealers trying to shift floor stock?

Good point, but you are talking about 6 months ago, I said 18.

[Gobes32]

The fact of the matter is, if all of Australia turned around and suggested they no longer want large cars and we demand you build small cars immediately, it would still be three years before anything rolled off a production line. Ford and Holden cannot retool overnight, they are trying to adapt to the new market as fast as possible, but up until 2 years ago large cars and SUV's were "THE" car to be selling in Oz. I agree the market has changed, and so do Aussie car manufacturers, but it will take time.

[OZQUAD44]

I like my 2 ton tank thanks very much. The only reason I will drive a small car "that everyone wants" is the fact I will be forced into one, that's the only reason.

Judging by a few of the posts on here I must be that last bloke left in Australia that likes driving a Falcon/Dunnydore to work. I wonder if I came to the right website?

[Unco]

Originally Posted by OZQUAD44

I like my 2 ton tank thanks very much. The only reason I will drive a small car "that everyone wants" is the fact I will be forced into one, that's the only reason.

Judging by a few of the posts on here I must be that last bloke left in Australia that likes driving a Falcon/Dunnydore to work. I wonder if I came to the right website?

we're a minority. but i only have to drive 14Km to work. i don't care if i have to take the LTD or the F truck. having said that, if i had to sit in traffic for more than 15min, i'd probably start looking at other options.

[GK]

Originally Posted by OZQUAD44

Judging by a few of the posts on here I must be that last bloke left in Australia that likes driving a Falcon/Dunnydore to work. I wonder if I came to the right website?

Nah mate. You're in the right forum. With you 100%

GK

[GK]

Originally Posted by prydey

exactly! a lot of people, mostly greenies, keep banging on about how the big 2 aussie car makers are making cars that no one wants and yet they still manage to sell more of them than most other type of car on the planet.

Very good point.

Originally Posted by prydey

both 6 cyl cars offer exceptional economy for a large car with the falcon getting another tweak to bring it inline with some 4cyl cars.

Falcon could get 5 Litres per 100 and most of the "intelligent and informed" public would still be clamouring for Corollas, Camrys and the like.

Public deception, ahem, perception is a very strong thing! LOL!

GK

[Watto_Cobra]

Originally Posted by OZQUAD44

I like my 2 ton tank thanks very much. The only reason I will drive a small car "that everyone wants" is the fact I will be forced into one, that's the only reason.

Judging by a few of the posts on here I must be that last bloke left in Australia that likes driving a Falcon/Dunnydore to work. I wonder if I came to the right website?

+1 here. I drive 75km round trip on the freeway for work. No way I'm downsizing to something that uses similar amount of fuel.

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by Torxteer

Commodore may be number 1 but Falcon sales arent good. Less than 2000 units last month.

But look at the figures from March last year compared to this year. Falcon is only down 1.2%, Commodore is something like 20%.

Holden stuffed up, they figured they could just keep pumping out Commodores and it would all be ok. The writing was on the wall when they had cars everywhere that were unsold, but they still didn't bother dropping production. It took until they were so overstocked they were running out of room to store the unsold cars before they decided to do something. Ford on the other hand had carefully been managing stock levels for over a year to make sure they weren't overstocked.

If Holden had bought in down days when we did and lowered production numbers they wouldn't be left with thousands and thousands of cars they carn't sell.

[Daymoe]

Originally Posted by sgt_doofey

But they do have a mass of batteries that need disposing of once they are of no use. What about the impact of that in the whole scheme of things?
Having said that, a hydrogen powered car would probably be the longer term solution, if the drought breaks that is.

No it wont, it'll shift the "global warming" problem from Carbon Dioxide to Water Vapor instead, water vapor is even worse as it holds in more heat.

Originally Posted by OZQUAD44

I'm not against electric cars but you forgot to mention:
1) The contents of electric car batteries, are as toxic as all the components you mentioned above. They need to be managed just like waste oil needs to be.
2) Where does electricity come from.... coal, dams, nuclear?, yeah just move that yuckkie pollution away from where everyone can see it, flood thousands of hectares of virgin forest, or build a radioactive time bomb to hang over our children's future, and electric cars make a good case.
3) How long does an electric car battery bank last, 5, 10, 15 years? How much are these batteries to replace. Far more than the value of the car in five years I bet.
4) Range and cost has already been mentioned.

I can see a case for electric cars, particularly if you could plug your car in whilst at work. But they don't come without their own environmental costs and they are not the golden bullet.

Alternative fuels are where car makers seem to be heading, ethanol, hydrogen, etc. I for one thing that E85 and bio fuels (renewable and home grown) are the way to go, but only time will tell.

See above point.

Electric cars won't be viable at all for Australia unless we ditch our brown coal power plants, simple. Take your choise, Nuclear or no power plants.

[SB076]

Originally Posted by barbarian

Sorry to hear about peoples pay cut but nonetheless..

this is good news for me.. the more Holden suffers the more satisfaction i get

you do realise that no Holden more than likely equals no Ford.... The component suppliers are already under pressure (industry week -recently stated that 70 component suppliers were under financial hardship)

[Bossxr8]

I spoke to my Union rep today. Turns out Holden were going to announce redundancies 4-5 weeks ago, and they went to GM to get the money only to be told they didn't have any money to give them, because one of the stipulations of the US Governments bailout funding was that none of the taxpayers money was to be given to foreign entities. So Holden have spent the last few weeks trying to figure out what they were going to do. They put so much spin on the decision to cut the afternoon shift that Warnie would have been proud.

[DougM]

People are forgetting some basic things........Sales may have dropped with our "out of date dinosaurs" but not becuase of their size.......The shift has been happening for quite some time to bigger "dinosaurs", that is 4WD's.................

We are a family of 5 and there is no chance in hell we would by a corolla, camry,civic etc....We NEED a large car.....I'm certain there's a lot more families in the same situation... Our 2 Falcons(sedan and wagon) serve us well with suitable room for a large family with reasonable economy and good safety levels.

When we upgrade then it will still be a large car with possibly lpg if petrol is an issue.

As far as small cars are concerned, I think a big factor with there popularity is that these days it more common for families to have 3 or 4 cars. Where in the past families shared 1 or 2 cars it is now more common to buy the kids' a small car once they start driving.....

[Fordman1]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

I spoke to my Union rep today. Turns out Holden were going to announce redundancies 4-5 weeks ago, and they went to GM to get the money only to be told they didn't have any money to give them, because one of the stipulations of the US Governments bailout funding was that none of the taxpayers money was to be given to foreign entities. So Holden have spent the last few weeks trying to figure out what they were going to do. They put so much spin on the decision to cut the afternoon shift that Warnie would have been proud.

I heard the same story !

They are in deep 'do-do'. They can't shed the labour, and they'll continue to carry the extra labour costs "ad infinitum". They can't afford redundancies, but they can't afford to carry the overheads either.

They really need a quick recovery in the market place, or for a lot of their people to leave on their own.

There is NO chance they will be building 600 cars a day again this time next year, even if they launch their small car in January, no chance !

[FPV8U]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

I spoke to my Union rep today. Turns out Holden were going to announce redundancies 4-5 weeks ago, and they went to GM to get the money only to be told they didn't have any money to give them, because one of the stipulations of the US Governments bailout funding was that none of the taxpayers money was to be given to foreign entities. So Holden have spent the last few weeks trying to figure out what they were going to do. They put so much spin on the decision to cut the afternoon shift that Warnie would have been proud.

As they said with the Monaro..

Holden - Game Over.

[Gobes32]

I think it is disgraceful what Holden are doing, they are forcing people to voluntarily leave by slashing their wages. If an employee at Holden has a young family and a mortgage, there is a very good chance that he / she will leave due to them needing a higher wage. And yet where is the uproar from the unions?

Not very Australian........

[Fordman1]

Originally Posted by Gobes32

I think it is disgraceful what Holden are doing, they are forcing people to voluntarily leave by slashing their wages. If an employee at Holden has a young family and a mortgage, there is a very good chance that he / she will leave due to them needing a higher wage. And yet where is the uproar from the unions?

Not very Australian........

I'm sure if they could afford to give 'packages' they would. No one will give them the money though.

HOWEVER........they should come clean and tell their people the truth. The rubbish about "keeping" their 'employees' so they won't have to train new ones when the economy recovers, is an absolute and blatant lie.

A lot of workers would happily take a VSP is they were offered !!

The funny thing is the fools in the media haven't figured it out though. "Holden are saving jobs".

[buggerlugs]

http://www.thecourier.com.au/news/lo...o/1481430.aspx
See it's not just the Holden workers that are suffering. All the little companies feel the pinch as well............