Australian car industry in ‘good’ position
January 20, 2009 by Matt Brogan
Despite the bleak outlook globally for vehicle production this year, the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) believes manufacturers here are in a good position to weather the storm.
Spokesperson for the AMWU Ian Jones said yesterday Ford, Holden and Toyota had already taken steps last year to cut production (Holden cut 500 jobs and Ford 350), which has helped ease the burden on these manufacturers moving forward. He went on to say that he doesn’t believe any further production or job cuts are likely in the short term.
Meanwhile at Toyota’s Altona plant, president Max Yasuda put on a brave face yesterday in his twice-yearly pep talk to the company’s 3500 employees saying Toyota was facing a tough year with exports remaining of critical importance to the plant’s survival (almost 60 percent of the cars produced at Altona are shipped to the Middle East).
Analysts say both Holden and Toyota’s export business could worsen, putting further pressure on jobs.
Print it: 
hope their right!!!
maybe the next thing is they’ll do the chalk’y thing and go on strike when their due back,to which the manufactorer’s will probably say “take as long as you like.”..lol
In ‘good’ position… for now…
So Holden and Ford are all set to start building small FWD cars here again. But what of the large RWD cars which all true aussies love and adore? They’ve fallen out of favour and are rapidly becoming niche models; it’s been said that an Aussie manufacturer needs to build and sell 40,000 cars minimum to keep afloat, and the Falcon fell short of that last year (about 35k, I think). So long as Territory keeps selling they might be okay, but it’s a worry all the same…
What Holden and Ford should do is put Falcodore on a crash diet – more aluminium in the suspension and panels, more high-strength boron steels etc in the structure, and shave 100kg minimum from each model. But that’s hellishly expensive for a car that starts at $35k and struggles to sell 35k a year – can’t see it happening.
The answer? It’s been said before – bring back Torana, bring back Cortina! Cut-and-shut the existing Falcodore platforms, build a Mazda6-sized mid-large RWD car and sell it alongside the large cars or replace them altogether. That’ll win back some market share – especially if we can have 6.2L of V8 or 270kW of blown six in a ~1500kg four-door four-seat home-grown sedan. Am I wrong?
(Can you tell I’m auditioning for that job with caradvice? ;-)
Okay MarkB, seeing as you are “Auditioning” I’ll take the opportunity to see how you handle slight corrections ;-)
Firstly, in going from BF2 to FG Ford shaved 11 kilo’s per side from the front suspension going to alloy, but with the side pressings going to Borron Alloy steel the cars actually gained weight. So the diet needs to be in some other form.
As for the production levels, when Ford Au gets Focus online that will help the factory turn enough numbers as it will replace the SA Focus for the SE Asia region. Building a Torana or Cortina, I believe will not work as that market is not a growth market. Accord, 6, Liberty all dropped in volume and Mondeo remained constantly low volume. With the price disparity between petrol & diesel, that is also taking away one of the main attractions of that mid size non luxury Euro’s as well.
The best opportunity I see is (I’ll talk mostly of Ford at the moment as their parent Co is the most progressive of the 3 in Aust at present IMHO) for a platform like the Focus to supplement / become the main line in Australia. Flexible product lines allowing Australia to build Focus, Kuga, C-Max & Transit connect off the C platform and Falcon & Territory of the Orion Platform (or Euro CD platform if needed) will allow the company to deal with low model volume whilst retaining output.
There is a lot of comparative truths in this article. If you look at Honda’s Swindon operation shutting down till June, and Toyota’s troubles in Japan, (as reported in Reuters “Toyota shock hits Japan’s auto region” Mon Jan 12, 2009 7:38am EST) the Australian industry looks quite comfortable.
It’s the Aussie way, “She’ll be right”. Well I can tell you this the auto industry is going to be shell shock and you the consumer will not be happy!
Thanks Frontman for your interesting reply.
Glad to learn of your point on FG’s boron steel side pressings. I hadn’t realised boron steel was used to such an extent in new FG – I’m glad of it though, imagine how much heavier the pressings would be to provide equivalent performance with low-qual steel! But how many other components in Falcodore are of top-notch steel? The more boron-steel they can use, the more they can shave off the member sections/profiles for equivalent strength performance, and the more weight they can save. I’m sure we’re in agreement here.
And I’ll concede your point that the Focus-class small cars are currently the growth sector in the market, and that the medium-sized class is lately on the wane after a steady rise in the last few years. I guess I was just secretly pushing my own agenda – I’d love to buy a 3/C/A4-sized car built locally, with big grunt pushing through the rear wheels, at ~60% the cost of the imported euros. But that’s just me.
And who knows – perhaps a Cortina-type RWD mid-large platform will have better export potential in the Ford empire than the too-large Falcon…? Wishful thinking, perhaps. Ah well.
MarkB’s idea has some merit. As long as a Ford is built in Oz I will buy it, it doesnt have to be as big as a Falcon, reduce its size by 5-10% and Id still buy it.
btw Mark, Falcon and commodore are not niche vehicles, they occupy the top 4 slots almost all the time. Hardly niche. But in a way all cars fill a niche, thats the point of vehicle manufacture – meet every viable market segment.
Turbodewd,
I agree,
how can the top selling vehicle in OZ (comodore) be labelled a niche product???
I think you are dreaming Mark.
a mid sized vehicle wont be 60% of the falcon or commodores price……, or any other competing vehicle for that matter.
On Topic,
what we will see happen is people/companies will go back to their roots.
the first things to die off will be those that saw the most growth.
exports grew during the boom, so exports will be heavily affected.
toyota grew massively through the boom, so they will prob be hit harder.
ford and holden will probably keep it together better than toyota in OZ because they have a mould set around australias market, and have been solid through the bad times previously.
its reported that the 4 main areas in our economy that will be affected will be, Construction, New Cars, Mining and Banking.
anyone care to list the 4 biggest booming sectors over the last few years??
everything is just coming back down to earth. Those that got heavier, will hit the ground harder
Also Mark, (from your first post)
ill trust your figures………..
say they need to pump out 40K cars to survive, and the falcon sells 35K,
the territory figures alone would easily see it over the line, and then the falcon ute sales would secure it.
and just incase the sales of either of the current trio fall massively, they have put an egg in another basket in the Focus to ensure things can afford to stay on aussie soil
It’s all propaganda…
Last year all those lay-offs at Ford.
Australian Ford v6 contract ends.
GM lost alot of OS deals to USA with utes etc.
No investment or know-how of newer fuel saving technologies.
Various parts manufactures close down due to parts now being made in China.
Ford finance shedding hundreds of jobs.
Yes the Australian car industry is in excellnt condition…
Ill take two please….
Australian tastes are becoming for sophisticated, these cars don’t fit that bill.
People drink Asahi and Becks these days… XXXX just doesn’t cut it nomore,
Andrew M,
It is Ford and Holden making losses in Australia, No Toyota!! If Toyota falls down in Australia, Ford and holden will be gone for years!
Aah yes Car Advice Reader but because the Camry/Aurion is essentially nothing more than an replica of the Camry/Aurion which is made overseas with a few slight modifications to make it more suitable to Australian Conditions., Toyota could decide that it could save money [it needs to fund its F1 team] to cease production of the Camry/Aurion in Oz and simply import it,
Whereas whilst the Falcon and Commodore may be exclusively and uniquely Australian – Ford and Holden have had significant input into future overseas projects etc as they have considerable experience and expertise in designing engineering and building RWD cars which their parent companies have started to take advantage of
If Toyo-Oz was so important to Toyo-kyo then why weren’t Toyo0Oz able to [let alone brave enough] to put forward a proposal to Toyo-kyo to design and build a RWD car or something which would have been more of a direct rival to the Commodore or Falcon ; a V8 supercar competitor as well as become a the basis for other Toyotas overseas etc?
Elitist you should do some market research – u have no idea.
I drink Becks and Asahi, I have a degree and Im an IT contractor with a 6-figure income. The Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo is sophisticated, bang for buck it WALLOPS any euro car you care to mention. The latest FG Falcon turbo beats the M3 for fuel economy too!
Ill pass on any over-priced Audi any day…
Elitist,
I dont need to tell you you dont know whats going on because the things you said speak for itself.
CarAdvice Reader,
the thing is, if toyota go bad downunder, they will pull the pin.
toyota wont let a worthless business plot play out for years.
toyota is purely business focused
Who [apart from some Queenslanders] drinks that XXXX?
I mean Queenslands XXXX is owned by Lion Nathan [from NZ]as is Tooheys [in NSW] as is West End [in SA]… and most of the people I know in SA hate West End they prefer Coopers..
Same ggoes in NSW – not many of my mates over there drink Tooheys either; they mostly prefer a Case O’ Carlton…. Me I prefer Beez Neez;
I don’t know anyone who dirnks Fosters – though most people form overseas seem to think we do
Beez Neez. I will drink to that Wheelnut.
wheelnut,
what do you mean “some” queenslanders drink XXXX?????
its XXXX or go home up here
you are right on tooheys though.
everywhere through europe that i travelled had Fosters advertised as Australias beer, i hardly ever even see it on tapo or at the bottle-o let alone know anyone who drinks it
During the International Brewers Convention in Melbournethe GMs of 4 major breweries are having drinks at a Pub.
The GM of the Budweiser brewery in the USA says “I’ll have a budweiser because it is the King of Beers”
The GM of the Carlsberg brewery from Europe says “I’ll have a Carlsber becauseit is the original beer”
The GM of the Carling Brewery from England says “I’ll have a Carling lager because it reminds me of Home”
Then finally the GM of the Carltion Brewery says “I’ll have a drink of water.”
The GMs from the other brewerises turn around with a shocked look on their faces…
The GM from Carlton United then says “…well if you’re not going to have a beer neither am I!”
Turbodewd Says:
January 21st, 2009 at 6:01 pm
“I drink Becks and Asahi, I have a degree and Im an IT contractor with a 6-figure income.”
And that’s something to be proud of? A Pilbara Iron train driver with no tertiary qualifications earns over $200K, and works half the hours you work.
“The Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo is sophisticated”
So how come you can’t get passenger’s side electric seating… even a Calais V has those…