Monday, February 10, 2014 - 10:29 pm, by: Michael James(Wildwizard)
It will have a massive impact on the aftermarket Aus made parts supply as a lot of those companies leverage the volumes they have with the manufacturing plants to enable them to be viable.
No volume of production and you can't afford to maintain expensive production equipment to make the parts.
Monday, February 10, 2014 - 10:48 pm, by: Brett Cutts(Boof390)
This has been coming for years Nissan shutting up shop in the early 90's was the begining of the end. Unions getting great pay and conditions for over payed under qualified production line workers has finally paid off. Most of the aftermarket replacement parts are imported now so that should not change, all the 4 wheel drives are imported so aftermarket there wont change and from a mechanics stand point most of what I work on is imported anyway so no change. Even though I have always had Fords in reality the rubbish that ford and holden have been shoving down the throats of the motoring public since the late 80's early 90's compared to what the rest of the world makes they deserve to fall over. Its a shame to lose toyota as well but we will still be getting a similar product just built for a lot less. A lot of smaller companies will fold as due to labour costs they wont be able to compete unless they can shift into other production areas and cut costs. And the government will no longer have to prop up a doomed industry that was that top heavy with labour costs it could never survive. If only we could have the same thing happen to ex politicians and a lot of public servants we could save millions.
Monday, February 10, 2014 - 11:39 pm, by: Robert Day(Lexsmaz)
You can't not agree to the above comment, the trouble is the knock on effect to a lot of other industries in Australia is going to be Huge !! especially after all the car manufacturers are gone from here ..
Good old free trade & no tariff's & certainly wages as has been said
Joshua Rao Goo Roo WA TT (for sale $5.2k), 97 Blk UZZ31, 97 JZZ30 vvti turbo white manual, 96 vvti turbo manual, Legnum VR4, MR2 sw20, Alfa 156
Tuesday, February 11, 2014 - 01:07 am, by: Joshua Rao(Soaren1)
Brett wrapped it up nicely.
My only additions is Keynesian economics is not as popular as it was and hence the govt pushing for dropping trade barriers to enhance comparative advantages and economies of scale. However Aust doesn't have many niche exports anymore so we need to really specialise our other industries and not let the strong unions shoot industries in the foot like what I feel happened with the domestic manufacturing industries to some extent.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014 - 08:21 am, by: Matthew Salkeld(Munkymatt)
A few things happening here... ford/holden are both designing cars that are out of touch with the majority of markets (I'd only buy their cars for long distance driving... not so common). Toyota's car lineup seems pretty respectable but they can't cope with union rates AND the fact that Australian car industry is relatively unprotected.
I mean, maybe we could have saved the car industry not with a silver bullet but with a widespread approach... lower the wage costs slightly, improve incentives on the consumer side for buying australian vehicles, altering incoming car taxes etc... maybe even some direct subsidies (not a fan of this).
Anyway, this sucks big time... I think part of Australia's future is in high-tech industry but with automotive gone, it makes things much harder. It's also gonna be really hard for me to get a job (mechatronic engineer)
I have seen 100+ staff vanish in 2 years from where I work with the jobs moved overseas, what companies have not realised is that the people they employ are the ones that buy stuff from their customers, if they take the money from the local economy it only hurts business locally...
Peter Nitschke Junk Filterer South Australia UZZ30 UZZ31
Tuesday, February 11, 2014 - 03:14 pm, by: Ryan McDonough(Ryan)
Not to mention the lack of support from the Government for the industry as a whole. Giving millions and millions of tax payer dollars to the companys only enabled them to pay workers for a longer period of time, and allow the shut downs to drag, as opposed to happening quickly. Ford has been on a go slow with production for years. Why? Cause they are not able to sell the small amount of cars that they are making. No one wants them, and unless they can move them out of the parking lot at the plants, they have to stop production.
They simply couldn't move enough cars. The fact that the local, state and federal governments do NOT purchase Australian made vehicles first is a huge problem. Each different area can purchase any brand of vehicle they like. Australian made or not. If they were encouraged to purchase Australian made, it would have been money well spent, instead of just throwing it at them in lump sums.