Aussie carmakers “missed” move to small cars – Ford boss
April 21, 2009 by David Twomey
Ford Australia boss, Marin Burela, has said Australian car companies completely missed the boat in making the decision to build smaller cars in this country.
Mr Burela told a briefing of automotive journalists in Melbourne that the Australian companies, including Ford, should be building small cars now, not in a year or two when they plan to commence building them.
The Ford Australia President and CEO, who led the project to develop the latest Ford Fiesta before returning to Australia to take over the top job at Ford, said that had Australia car companies been on the ball they would already be making small or medium sized cars to supplement their large car production.
In a very self-effacing moment Mr Burela described the failure to make the decision as a “travesty” for the local industry.
“I think that one of the biggest travesties and issues that the Australian industry has faced is that in Australia we were not looking far enough into the future, to understand where the consumer and where the market would be heading,” he said.
“All of us should have been producing a small or medium car in Australia today. Yet all of us are only producing large cars in this country.
“It is not a case of fault. I think it is a case of, you make the decisions that you make at the time based on the best source of input and data and intelligence that you can gather,” he added.
Both Ford and GM Holden will move into small car production in the next 18 months, Holden producing an as yet unnamed small car, based on a global Delta platform, at its plant at Elizabeth in South Australia, along side the Holden Commodore large car.
Ford has been planning for almost two years to move production of the next Ford Focus small-car to Australia from South Africa and will build the car at its Geelong and Broadmeadows plants.
Toyota currently makes the essentially medium-size Camry and Aurion in Australia, although in the past it has sought to portray both as large cars.
The Ford boss said that small and medium cars had been a huge success in Europe and he expected to see a major shift in Australian buying patterns over the next five or six years.
At the same time he defended the large car market in Australia, saying that Ford forecasting showed the market in Australia would remain at around 10 per cent through until at least 2020.
“I think you will see an ongoing large-car segment that is around the 100,000 units, and our forecasting right out through to the end of the decade, by that I mean 2020, is that it will continue to be around that 90,000 to 110,000 figure,” he said.
Mr Burela was also very bullish about the future of the Australian car industry saying; “We’re actually forecasting that the industry around the end of the decade will hit the 1.1 to 1.15 million units.”
He also sais that Ford Australia was in “pretty good shape” and was fortunate that it did not have to make any decision about the future of its large car, the Falcon, until the end of next year or into 2011.
Print it: 
I’m alittle puzzled by to Australian manufacturing industry to go to small cars. I’ve always been told that there was no profit in building small cars in Australia.
well der! rocket scientists, the lot of them……
Good to see one of the bosses putting specualation to rest on their industry
Frenchie, there is money in anything that is made locally. There is not a lot of money in imported small cars.
Follow any successful car manufactures business plan and you will find they have covered all markets and are ready to make swift changes to meet the market when needed. Unfortunately our local industries method of make hay while the sun shines has caught them out and I am glad to see Marin Burela come forward and admit they have missed the boat on the small car market. Until they fix it the Koreans will dominate the Australian small car market.
Its good to see ford has their top men with fingers on the pulse.
Firstly its Mullally flying the mothership in the right direction, and now MB downunder seems to actually care about the company and australias part in it unlike the 2 previous americans that held the job.
MB has really made some cracking decisions in his short time as being appointed.
Good to see someone with a bit of passion and enthusiasm about their job.
If the falcons life is in MB’s hands, you can be assured its in the best hands possible.
Oh,
and to add,
its good to see MB reviewing the decisions of the 2 bone heads before him
just make bigger parking space, and wider roads.
Yes but Ford shouldn’t feel bad about it because at least they bring in the Fiesta and Focus, two cars which are often hailed as class leaders. Holden give you the Aveo, sorry, Barina and the Viva. It doesn’t sound like the Astra’s part of it’s future plans and I don’t need to wait for reviews because there is no way that the small Holden will be better than the Focus. The Focus is just too good for GM to beat it. Besides, the small Holden won’t get built anyway. GM will go bankrupt and Holden will probably go with it because (sorry to Holden fans) the only reason to save Holden is for jobs and you can’t keep people making big things for a lot of money just for jobs. They need to find another way.
So yes, they did miss the signs but Ford aren’t the ones who should be worrying about it, Holden are.
It’s going to be an uphill battle with so many established small car brands in the market. Hyundai has the budget market, Honda Jazz has the mid-range and VW has the higher ones.
Ford’s small cars are still imported so it makes little difference until they are assembled here locally (2010).
Sprae
I dunno where you got that from, but last time I heard,
Toyota Corolla leads the small car market (low, mid and high… what ever segment in that small car market).
Ford’s boss is stating the obvious… Its typical american-attitude of ignore the trend and try to force the market to adapt to the product as opposed to the other way around.
Camry is 4 cylinder, same engine size as Lancer etc, but with a big body, to cater for family who wants fuel efficiency.
Its ironic, that companies are producing smaller cars, but with powerful engines… again missing the point of why people want smaller cars… for fuel efficiency..
97% of the market are not enthusiast, they want an A to B car cheapest to run and reliable for as long as it can.
Lukass, you do realise that the 4 cylinder Camry has the same fuel consumption rating as the Falcon now?
Why would you buy an anaemic 4 cylinder to get you around when a more comfortable 6 cylinder costs the same to run?
Ford Australia is in a tough position, unless they can further reduce the fuel consumption of a Falcon sized car (diesel, gas, hybrid, etc.), they will need to downsize the Falcon which then starts to move into the Mondeo sector which Ford Australia can’t match for quality.
Yes they should all be making smaller cars by now but they should also be offering more in the way of Hybrids by the year 2009.
Years ago, Holden used to make the Kingswood and the Torana. Ford used to make the Falcon and the, err …
Somewhere along the way GM decided to change the formula which was successful back then and import the smaller models. That strategy could also be said to have been successful, with Barina and Astra outselling Focus and Fiesta by huge numbers.
But as the new Ford man says, both the locals lost sight of the goalposts over the last 5-10 years.
Hopefully when they both build a local Torana equivalent they can get the package right, for by then the Koreans will have equal quality models at keen prices.
reckless ford used to essemble the Escort and Cortina here as well.
Hw good would it be if they brang back the cortina? A smaller wheel based XR6Turbo Cortina, bye bye future torana lol. Think about it, itd be awesome, then the F6 version. Oh how good it is to dream lol. The torana n cortina goin round bathurst with the falcon n commodores, wow thatd be perfect. Go FORD N FPV lol
Ford also assembled the Laser in Australia too.
Holden shot themselves in the foot by diluting their small car brand years ago by rebadging Nissan’s as Holden’s. Rebadging Holden’s as Toyota’s hurt Toyota more :)
David Twomey:
Frenchie, there is money in anything that is made locally.
Explain that to the textile industry!
Lukaas, i think you should look at those stats again, last time i looked Mazda 3 was out selling nearly everything
What about the capri arnt ford going to bring this back and build it here
So there is no money in selling small cars hahahaah .
Just ask messers AUDI , BMW , VW , MINI , every extra they sell you is at a premium and the are laughing all the way to the bank .
DOH!!….Homer is that you?
This is where all the rocket scientists are!
The big sedan cars has always been the biggest seller in the Aussie market. In most markets, the small compact cars are the biggest sellers. This makes Australia unusual in this regard. If the trend continues with smaller fuel efficient cars, then there is money to be made in this segment of the market.
The only fallout is people are getting fatter in general, smaller cars will create more issues for them, its not going to be very good news for them.
I do not know how Aussie car makers cannot have seen the writing on the wall.
They are the ones who have been telling us that “Aussie prefer Big 6’s” – all the while sales have been falling.
Sales of small cars, like the Corolla, should have made them sit up and take note, but I think the cheap way out was to keep telling us Aussies “you like 6 cylinder cars, so that’s why we build them”.
This was the wake-up call that Ford and Holden needed… as for Toyota, please build something here other than that overweight, under-powered, most boring of cars, the Camry, which has the dummest auto gearbox in the world… please!
Holden and Ford would have little trouble remaining in business if the Import Tariffs were at the 1984 level of 57.5% rather than the current 10% soon to be 5%.
Just imagine – an imported car currently costing say $35000 would rise to around $50,000.
The effect of that would be as follows – people would buy Holdens and Falcons which are currently say $35000 in preference to an import at $50000 – I know I would.
But, the local prices would rise to probably $45,000 because the manufacturers wouldn’t be able to help themselves with greed.
Following this, the overseas major manufacturers would immediately set up local plants so their model would also drop to $45,000 becuase no more tariff.
End result – plenty of jobs here but all our cars would be much more expensive.
Sprae,
The Mazda3 is now the top selling car in OZ.
I say about time a deserving top seller was on top.
Reckless,
Agree,
Perhaps dont put it back up to near 60% but perhaps striking a balance where competition is still encouraged, whilst still preserving our industry is needed.
The Free Trade idea isnt bad as long as everyone cooperates, which they arent.
poor old Australia got bluffed on that one
im ashamed in all the people who call themselves aussies. Instead of cirticising our locals lets just except the fact that they made huge mistakes and they are now admitting it. Although Holden should have announced something earlier. Andrew M btw the Hilux is the top selling vehicle to my dismay.
I think Toyota are the biggest loser here. Their V6 Camry was selling fine, yet they went ahead and invested in another large car that has eaten into Camry sales, all at a time when the medium car segment (in which they are not represented) was booming.
And mediocraty would reign as it used to , the general and ford would serve up the rubbish we deserved in the 70’s and 80’s .
Tariff protection serves no one better than the maker , he hides behind poor plant and tools to maximise profits .
The public knows what it wants and has voted with its feet out of the great aussie 6/8 sedan , and the under 30’s are leading this charge , they have no interest in the big car .
Back in July 2006, Toyota Corolla became Australia’s top selling car….http://www.caradvice.com.au/676/toyota-corolla-best-selling-car/
The car makers at that time said “its not a trend”…idiots!!!
antrhraxx, the reason ford and holden build 6 cyl cars are
for the very reasons you just stated about toyota,
“underpowered”. your not happy with a 6 cyl or a 4 cyl,good
luck to sales person selling you a car.
remember when holden droped the kingswood for the smaller
vb commodore,a mistake that nearly sent them broke as
people bought the bigger xd falcon in droves.
Good one Sherlock,
The point is that Marin Burela, the rest in OZ and all the American makers would do the exact same thing again, make big cars, if the price of oil stayed down for a few years.
They did it after the 70’s price shocks, 80’s, 90’s. How much warning do these guys actually need? I know US buyers are idiots but to not have any small cars to compete and only produce big huge monsters ???
I hope GM, Ford and Chrysler go bankrupt, get rid of the debts and union pensions and come back properly. I bet they go back to big SUVs.
Alex – “It doesn’t sound like the Astra’s part of it’s future plans “. Wrong mate, stop talking about thing you know nothing of. The article clearly states that Holden will be building a car based on the Delta platform. For your info the Delta pan is the basis of the next Astra, the Volte and Ampera amongst others. I have every confidence that the next Astra will out-do the current Focus at least in terms of quality. The current one is pretty good and certainly more sporty than the frumpy over-odied look of the Focus. What would you rather neen seen in given the choice of a 3 door Astra or 3 door Focus. I know the answer for 9 out of 10 folk.
sorry “over-bodied” and “rather be seen”. Typist is now sacked.
on topic – Jolly big cars those Falcons!!
Cupid Stunt, it’s really hard for you to make that prediction about the Astra. Opel is in panic-mode at the moment, so much so that Holden currently has a stop on all Astra imports. Of course they would like to continue to offer the only 4cyl car in their range that isn’t absolute rubbish, but they are not in a position themselves to do this at a loss.
And yes, the Astra is nicer looking that the Focus, but in terms of driving it is way behind the class-leading Ford.
Philip – the spy photos are already out I’m not guessing. Even GM and Car Advice here have stated the Ampera is based on the Delta Pan which is what the next Atra is built on. I even from memory think the Chevrolet (Deawoo) Cruz uses the deta pan? So what’s your point.
My point is that all bets could be off depending on what happens to General Motors and its subsidiaries. If the company is split then the European Astra may not be available to Holden, which I believe is what Alex was getting at.
Sure, as you said, GM has a new global platform that the next Astra will be based on, but Australia is more likely to be on the more, shall I say, budget-focused end of that deal, meaning that the while Europeans will be driving around in their hot looking Astras, we will be left with some awkward looking Korean thing.
Cupid,
I would much rather be seen in the 3 door RS focus ;)
Do a big burnout aye, like just massive. Do it, just do it. Do it, nust do it. I love ford n fpvs, there so awesome with all the awesomeness. Holdens and hsvs are shit as
Poss agree Andrew but the humble Astra VXR is 25% cheaper and better looking again. Yours truly Vauxhall Man. Ha Ha.