Expert believes Australian car industry won’t survive
April 13, 2009 by George Skentzos
With their US parents on the verge of collapse, an automotive industry expert has claimed that Australia’s car assembly industry will simply not survive the economic recession.
Clive Matthew-Wilson, editor of the car buyers’ Dog & Lemon Guide, has suggested that while a US government bailout plan for General Motors will rescue Holden’s parent company in order to protect American jobs, this will come at the cost of our own local industry.
Holden has already halved production at its South Australian plant and Mr Matthew-Wilson believes that this slowdown is the beginning of the end.
“Australia’s car factories are losing money on every vehicle they make. No amount of incentives from the State and Federal governments can solve this basic problem. It’s not a matter of whether they close down, but when they close down.”
Mr Matthew-Wilson believes this will be the fate of not only Holden, but Ford and Toyota in Australia as well, as their parent companies seek to trim unprofitable divisions in order to ride out the recession.
“People falsely believe that Ford is doing okay. That’s not true. American Ford’s sales are down 43 per cent in the first quarter of this year. Ford is losing billions just like GM; it’s just that Ford arranged private sector finance before the recession, so it’s not quite so obvious how serious things are.”
“Australia’s only other manufacturer, Toyota, is globally facing its first annual net loss in 59 years. How long do you think Toyota is going to put up with losing money by assembling cars in Australia?”
His perspective is that the Australian automotive industry is simply not competitive on a global scale, with a glut of new cars at bargain prices emerging from Asia while locally produced models become less relevant to international markets with a push toward smaller, more sustainable vehicles.
“The Australian government can throw $6 billion or $600 billion at these car plants, but they still won’t be economically feasible. The Australian car industry can re-focus on small cars, green cars, blue cars or red cars. None of this will make the slightest difference.”
It is his opinion that the $6 billion Australian car industry bailout plan will simply be paying the bills for a few multinational corporations, while doing nothing to solve the underlying problems and would be better spent by giving it to the affected car workers.
Finally, Mr Matthew-Wilson suggests that to be a successful car manufacturing nation requires a very large local market, a profitable export market or extremely low costs – none of which Australia has.
Print it: 
if only Mr.Cilve said”holden and ford will be survived”then these blindness people will be surrouding him and cheering him up for sure instead of attacking him.these bogans will not accept anything unless it suit them.but the good news is there will be less that crap poor quality cars on our roads and less bogans on this website.can’t come soon enough.do not just put face into the sand….just face the facts.at least holden can still inporting daewoo craps like they doing it now.
Um BJ this thread is all about a “so called Experts beliefs”
BJ for months the media has been beating this drum and all its doing is making things worse for the manufacturers,if they go,they go but stop adding more negativity to it and especially from so called experts.
Whos going to buy a car from any of them if the media keeps informing the public the car companies are going bust………how many more times are we going to discuss the demise of Ford and Holden and now is seems Toyota in Australia!
Hey Salesman good times for Hyundai and Kia coming soon, all those Gov Departments,Rental Companies ect……..based on what THESE EXPERTS are saying Id be sending out the letters of offer for your stuff now babe!
Now what are we going to do with our V8 Supercar Sport…….got anything rear wheel drive they can offer us ;)
Max the type of people that are agreeing with your views would have loved to see the demise of Ford & Holden in the 70s too…….. they have hatred for them nothing to do with economics reliability or build quality. Young and silly some of them ,what can I say! ;)
BM, I would hate to see the demise of Holden/Toyota/Ford
as OZ producers, they offer this country a lot.
Just my interpretation of what will happen.
Buck, the Guide is not for enthusiasts, just vanilla drivers, which just happens to cover probably 80% of the worlds drivers, get there, get home and low maintenance please :) Sound like an appliance?
Um The Fact, he is also saying your beloved white goods manufacturer is closing too in Australia……just so you ricers dont miss out ;)
Looks like we will be all driving around in German & Korean cars …………good hey.Whats your pick when you get your license :)
So Max your expert opinion Id like to know what you think we will all be driving when the 3 pull the pin and what we expect to be paying for them seeing the local competition will be inilated.
Quote “BM, I would hate to see the demise of Holden/Toyota/Ford
as OZ producers, they offer this country a lot.”
Good to hear Max pity your follows dont have the same view …
Will we be driving Mazda’s, Toyota’s, Honda’s Subies, Ford, GM, Nissan, Korean, german, italian, and so on.
Jetta FSI petrol turbo for weekdays BM, 2001 MX5 for funtimes(live in the hills!)
The Fact,Your a Goose
Max theres Ford in those rides……….where are they coming from ?
Sorry Max I was asking “THE FACT ” what he will be driving when he gets his license ;)
Your choices no problem though ,we too have a Jap and German in the garage up in the Hills also :)
Bavarian Missile (.)(.) Says:
April 13th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
WHO THE HELL IS THIS GUY WHEN HES NOT AT HOME ???????????
quote “It is his opinion ” Nuff said!
well, we will have to wait and see for ourselves don’t we?
If the UK cannot keep an car industry going with a population of 68 million then there realistically is little chance of an Australian one going on its own with out the support of a multinational consortium. I reckon the Holden name will disappear as a manufacturer and become a re-badged brand name. It’s sad to see it go along with thousands of jobs and folk suffering.
Sounds like,the fact and some of the others want to drive Tara Nano’s,each to his own I suppose.
Well Zero dont hold your breath……….
Just heard news regarding Mr Wilsons opinions……..Holdens response to him ” they are irresponsible and baseless comments “…..
Realist says: If high wages produced high productivity that’s fine – but when high wages produces the lowest productivity in the OECD it’s a problem.
That would have to be the most insightful comment you have ever made on this site Realist not to mention that it actually relates to the Topic for once
However; I would have to agree with you – The American Auto Workers are overpaid considering the poor quality cars they build and the low output that each plant produces – as GM and Ford have a number of “dedicated’ plants operatiing at less than 75% building identical cars.
Which is why I believe it would be much more viable for GM to close some of their US plants [if nt pull out all together] and move production to facilities that are more modern more flexible and more productive…. such as Opel and Holden
As if the spin doctors at Holden would say anything else!
wondering who is irresponsible?Mr Clive or holden importaning 10 year old crap daewoos and rebagded as a holden.not really matter holden can built 50,000 commodores or 200,000 commodores a year,the only problem is the people are not buying it.
its all came down to mismanagement of holden.we can talk about the product activity when we can built high quality world class cars and can export them to the world.now…not….what you can do with these poor quality fleet cars sitting in the yard??holden have a chance to lift the game but they ignored the reality.interestingly they tried with that 4 cylinder vectra once and failed that one too even in the boom economic time.now they are saying Korean designed 4 cylinder car to be built here….sorry…that not going to happened.its all too late.
Oh that’s right, the US Government is going pump billions into keeping GM afloat so that it an shift manufacturing to places like Australia and Europe. That’ll go go down gangbusters with US taxpayers footing the bill.
You people believe your own B******t.
They just had a brief report on Channel 10 news about Mr Clive Matthew Wilsons opinion about the future of the Australian Auto Industry etc.. He even appeared on camera to TRY and elaborate as to why he thinks like that
Yet all I can say is that I would find it farily hard to believe a sceptic/pessimist who [looks like Graham Gardener from the Goodies] is completely bald exept for a pair of sculptured sideburns.
That is I would gind it hard to take him seriously
Yeah BJ and you believe Mr Wilson that Holden Ford and Toyota are gone in Australia……..if that’s your Bed Time story for the night then sweet dreams ;)
The Fact you need to change your name please…….and is it possible you can use Capital letters every now and then…..this isn’t MSN you know !
I don’t know whether he is right; anymore than you know that he is wrong. I am open-minded to see he makes a reasonable argument.
You, on the other hand are blinded by your own prejudice ..
BJ back in the mid 80s the Australian Gummint gave Kodak billions of dollars to try and keep them in Australia and create more jobs as part of the money ewas to help build a new film processing plant.
However; when Kodak got the money they pulled out of Australia and used the money to build a new factory in Europe.. and there are a number of similar examples
You got to remember the Bailout money is to intended help GM survive to do some restructuring etc.. and because they have a number of plants in the US operating at less than 75% they could say the closure of these plants is to help us survive
I doubt they will pull out of the USA completely but they should close at least 1/3 of them so that in stead of having 15 plants operating at 50-75% they have 10 plants operating at 75%-100%
Hey dreamers its not an aussie industry , get that through your thick scones , its all owned by the yanks and the japs , profits out the door .
Numbers dont add up so they close it , its the suppliers owned by aussies that will loose out , and the most jobs .
Cupid is right UK lost its ford and GM factories years ago with 68 million pop , what hope , maybe ford , not the others
Come on BJ…………. at no point have I said it wont happen I just dont believe we should be burying them on some guys opinion who seems to perceived as an Expert on this thread…….nice attempt at back peddling though mate ;)
Spade going by your logic then; if I happened to own a Holiday house in either Monaco; the French Riviera or the Carribean for example it would still be my Australian Holiday House…? yeah right!
Well Zero dont hold your breath……….
Just heard news regarding Mr Wilsons opinions……..Holdens response to him ” they are irresponsible and baseless comments “…..
well, as i said..we will have to see whether they are “irresponsible and baseless comments”
Yep Zero , but how long are all the local car manufacturer haters going to give them ……..3 months 6…..12 10 years 20 years,Im betting us local followers wont be holding OUR breath for an apology from you all let alone the EXPERT when it doesnt happen……..
we do not have much suppliers here as local contents for falcons and commodores are less than 30%.they even import the windscreens from china.2 dinosaurs are here for making money not concerned for local suppliers .what we make here?screws?batteries?
WHEELNUT , PULL YOUR HEAD IN AND STOP TRYING TO SPEAK FOR BM? Two wrongs dont make a right??
We don’t have many local suppliers?
Try saying that to Dana, Continental, Sumitomo, Autoliv, Venture, Futuris, Plexicor, Bosch, PBR, Sckefenacher to name a few – building everything from IRS modules to stamping tools, Airbags, brakes, interior and exterior mouldings and trim…
Eveready,
All foreign owned!!
WELL….try to say that to these 2 dinosaurs then..why local contents still less than 30% if we have so much local suppliers here and the commodore is the least local contents of any cars made here.how many times we heard on news that car factories have to shut down because of there a strike in bolts or nuts suppliers?
Luvalambi ………….turn the caps lock off . When have I ever needed anyone to speak for me ?
I dont remember even having a conversation with you anyway on this subject, so take your own advice perhaps ;)
What two wrongs are you referring too ?
The Fact; your statement that the Local content of both the Falcon and Commodore is just 30% is purely a guesstimation that you have made to try and support your arguement
because there used to be a Federal Government Policy whereby the locally made cars had to be made up of at least 80% locally made parts/components as well as list the names of their suppliers – but that policy no longer exists
Therefore; Holden don’t release what % of their cars is made up of Locally produced parts/components nor do they list the suppliers names.. and as far as I am aware neither do Ford or Toyota they are quite coy about it.
i am not saying 30%.i am saying less than 30%.i am not guessing just ask the commodore magazine(wheels magazine)or find other reviews of that dinosaur a few year back.do not just put your face in the sand.just face the reality.is it so hard to accept the true?
The Fact – here is an exerpt form an article about the VE from Goauto.com.au – its from an interview with former Holden CEo after the launce of the VE….. pay particular attention to the 2nd paragraph
GM HOLDEN maintains the VE Commodore is the most Australian car it has ever built after developing the vehicle architecture and designing and engineering the car from a “clean sheet”.
Acknowledging that about A THIRD [that's 33%] of the car’s components, including big-ticket and big-budget items such as engines and transmissions, ARE SOURCED FROM OVERSEAS. GM Holden Managing Director Denny Mooney said: “This car was 100 per cent designed here.
Did you get that 1/3 of the cars components comes from overseas.. which means approximately two thirds [or 66%] of the cars components come from local suppliers; some of which may be foreign owned but have factories in Australia making various parts for the local car companies.. Not just Holden
well..this is from drive.With previous Commodores, Holden boasted about the local content of its cars. Now it refuses to divulge details. Taillights from Korea, fuel injectors from China, wheels made in Thailand, body-moulding tools made in Japan. And that’s just a taste.
“We don’t discuss that level of detail,” is the stern response from Holden’s spokesman Jason Laird. “We don’t discuss local content”.Every model Commodore – from the VB launched in 1978 to the VT of 1997 – started life as a European Opel sedan that was heavily reworked to become an Australian Commodore.wondering how you could you spent 1 billion for so called a new VE.(wasn’t that all new)..with carried over nosiy imported engine,transmission.of course…we won’t know how much tax payers in it.
Sure the bulk of the supplier base are foreign owned – it doesn’t detract from the fact they employ thousands and thousands of engineers, logistics, administration and process workers, let alone the amount of expenditure they do on R&D. Vehicle manufacturing is one of the last major value add industries left in Australia…
Most industries are dominated by foreign owned companies anyway, be it IT or financial services – it doesnt mean they are any less important to the health of Australia’s economy.
btw – the BA/BF faclon was reported to contain around 80% local content – although the FG is not that high – it is nowhere near as low as 30%… I think you will find 50-60% is a more accurate figure.
Theres too many Multi’s on this site.