chris955

Doesnt happen often but I totally agree.

paulry

+1

I'm sure he did.

Yep.

----

Holden is a bit like that old much loved car but which has long ago become just an expensive keepsake, and which if the truth be accepted will only ever be that. Australia might as well cut it's losses and move on. A bit sad for those who have always known it and even more so for those whose livelihoods depend on it. Reminds me of the many old icons in the UK whose time has passed. Nothing is forever.

BASHO

It'll clear the decks , and not before time , lets hope Toyboata hops it as well.

There's close on of a million cars sold each year , counting 'demonstrators' , in Australia , it's just not a huge market .

I don't give a flying fart how fragmented the market is , let the damn manufacturers fight it out , it may occur to them that perhaps producing 10 variants of the same model every year isn't common sense ??

There's a 4 year wind down time which should surely give everyone time to get set , it'd be about the longest notice time I've ever heard of.

These are just a few random thoughts which I thought I'd throw in the ring--as you do---

chris955

Hard to say as far as Toyota goes, they say they are fine but then say they need to slash $3600 from the cost of manufacturing a car. They say they are in for the long haul but Holden said they planned to continue past 2022. As someone else on here said, time will tell.

Ballys

Chris, which model Holden was this? It was my understanding that Ford did the rebadgeing deal with Mazda: Laser/323; Telstar/626 etc

berserk

It does go under water!

aries

Ah, only when it rained, otherwise the ferry to Tassie was a good choice

berserk

Well, now that the carmakers are gone, we can move forward...

It's sad to see people lose jobs, but I agree it's a painful part of economic restructuring we need.


"Doomsday forecasts tend to make a couple of regular mistakes that are certainly in evidence today"
http://www.smh.com.au/business/comme...211-32fcm.html


"it's plain that a car manufacturing industry is not necessary for a prosperous modern economy"
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/both-p...527-2n7ge.html

Amazulu

Hopefully the government will now drop the luxury car tax

Swerv-o

I was thinking the same thing. And the ridiculous restrictions on personal car imports. With no industry to protect, there's really no need for protectionist policies.


S

Amazulu

2 good articles

We can favourable compare ourselves to Norway - they also don't make cars. What they do make is really good weapons systems - we should start doing the same

There may be a recession sometime in the future (in fact it's inevitable. Chris will have an even bigger grin the day it's announced) but our economy will continue to grow and we as a nation will get wealthier. Our GDP, per capita GDP and HDI will still be very high, and apart from GDP will always be ahead of the UK

Amazulu

Yep

chris955

The second statement is like someone losing their job and saying 'oh well it wasnt a very good job anyway, who needs it ?' I dont recall anyone saying you cant be prosperous without a car manufacturing industry but to have one and totally lose it within a couple of years is not good.
The point is that the Unions are destroying manufacturing. When Toyota negotiated with the Unions to try and change things for the better the Unions said no and that basically the car maker was just trying to call their bluff. Well we all know how that worked out.
The day after Australia Day apparently more than 20% of the Toyota workforce were 'sick'. This was supposed to have been the straw that broke the camels back.

old.sparkles

I heard a news report that talked about that Australia day incident. They said that it had occurred on a Thursday so that wasn't this year. The only reference seems to be from 2012 - http://www.afr.com/p/national/an_ext...2RpjUoyftBhnMM and overall, Australian workers absenteeism at that time was lower than some countries (although that data seems to come from a 2005 report)

GarryP

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-1...turing/5254334

So it's no good repeating coalition talking points - they've been pointed up as liars on the matter several times now.

The key issue appears to be the exchange rate - who would have thought that a 40% worsening in exchange rate would have mattered so much .....