Where does my car come from?
June 2, 2006 by Alborz Fallah
CarsGuide has put up a good article regarding where cars in Australia come from. Although I don’t tend to point many links to CarsGuide due to their “vested interest” in car companies, this one is worth a read. An extract from the article:
Australians are buying cars from more than 20 countries. Ford, apart from producing its Falcon, Territory and Fairlane range locally, sources cars from South Africa, Germany, Thailand, Japan, Brazil, England and Turkey. Holden builds its Commodore and Statesman range locally, but imports cars from Thailand, France, Belgium, Portugal, Japan and South Korea. Nationality has been a core part of the appeal of some brands for many years. Mercedes-Benz cars are from Germany, as are BMWs and Porsches, Volvos come from Sweden and Chryslers come from the US – right?
CarsGuide
It is good to know that even carsguide is willing to list some of Australian Car Industries secret shames, marketing cheap Asian cars as Aussie cars. Sure they never say Australian Made or Australian Owned, but the way Holden markets their cars, can fool anyone that isn’t familiar with the car industry, thinking they are supporting Australian families and workers.
If you are really keen on this subject, Drive.com.au did a better article sometime back in regards to the same matter. Here is an extract from their article:
Holden, for example, imports vehicles from six countries – Thailand (Zafira, Rodeo), Poland (Astra Classic), Belgium (AH Astra), Spain (Combo, Barina), Germany (Vectra) and Japan (Cruze). It will almost certainly begin importing a range of cars from the GM-Daewoo operation in South Korea later this year.
Ford imports cars from eight countries – South Africa (Courier V6), Brazil (F-Series ute), Turkey (Transit), Thailand (Courier), Spain (Focus ST), Germany (three-door Focus, Fiesta), Japan (Escape, Econovan) and the United States (Explorer).
I would encourage you to read them both and make sure you know what you are buying, just because its a Holden or BMW doesn’t mean its Aussie or German, and with VolksWagon now making cars in China, soon we are going to see those Made in China badges all over cars.
Print it: 
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Looking at nationality is just plain silly. Just because it’s Audi doesn’t mean it’s German because the car could be assembled in, say, America. But just because the car is assembled in America it doesn’t mean the components are sourced from America. E.g. the engine may come from Japan and the tires may come from China. But then again just beause the engine comes from Japan, the spark plugs to make that engine may come from Germany and the pistons from China, the camshaft from Korea, the valves from Australia, and on and on and on!