Comments on: Ford – Geelong Plant Closure Disgrace – Opinion

By: Azza

Azza — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:38:54 +0000

This is the most pungent piece of crap I have ever in my life heard of. What a sorry bunch of people you guys are. The very first comment made by Ford Employee is completely correct. Put yourself in the shoes of heads of Ford Australia. How would you like to have the information handed to you that if the I6 engine was to continue production longer then X amount of time, you could bankrupt entirely!?

It’s not something I particularly like to see, I really do feel sad for all the people that have lost their jobs in Geelong. But thats the way life is… And it is no one’s fault at Ford, its the general public for not supporting the only Australian built engine left.

So before you go blaming the people that had to make the necessary decisions at Ford, think hard about who really is to blame.

I would also like to point out, that should anything really bad happen to Ford over here, the Ford USA, SVT, Prodrive, Mazda, Volvo, Lincoln, Landrover, Mercury and Jaguar would stick their necks out to help. As much as some of you people don’t like it, we are actually friends with the “yanks”.

By: rick Harris

rick Harris — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 08:13:45 +0000

I hope events like this make people realise that buying products made in australia is very important. Isnt it better to have jobs than to save $5 a week in petrol?

By: rick Harris

rick Harris — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 08:06:56 +0000

Havent you heard ? These people still have jobs for the next 3 years..they have not been sacked. In this time they have plenty of time to find other jobs inside or outside of Ford. Maybe they can even improve their skills in this time and get a better job?? With the Focus being bult here 300 jobs in Melbourne and who knows how many in the stamping plant in Geelong. Ford have to re-align themelves in a world market or they will go out of business. Eveyone must go through change so these 600 people have 3 years to decide what they want to do. Holden sacked 600 people and gave them 2 weeks notice…………Ford gave 3 years.

By: alborz

alborz — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 02:14:56 +0000

front page news here now :D

By: Paulst

Paulst — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 02:13:46 +0000

Press release: http://www.fordaustraliaforums.....hp?t=25595
Ford Australia’s announcement that the Focus will be built here in Australia must be slightly embarrassing for you Benjie? Especially since you criticized others for suggesting that an announcement was only days away.
Back to class mate.

By: Frugal One

Frugal One — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 01:22:52 +0000

** NOT DISGRACE!! **

300 new jobs at Ford

Good on them!

http://www.theage.com.au/news/.....89026.html

[Everybody now say sorry to FOMOCO]

F-O

By: Jacob

Jacob — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 16:26:15 +0000

These job losses arent something in the immediate short term though. Of course its never a good thing for it to happen, but its a fact of life – especially in the motor industry.

By: Benjie

Benjie — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 14:22:26 +0000

That’s true Jacob and I wholeheartedly agree, but at the end of the day 600 people will be left without jobs.

That figure is also understated when you take into account all the suppliers for the I6 engine – which there were plenty of.

As with everyone else, I want to see the success of Ford, but feel ashamed that they have flicked so many people.

Life does go on but, meh, I just don’t feel good about a company I have loved for such a long time giving so many devoted and long-serving employees the can.

By: Monster.

Monster. — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 12:25:17 +0000

with the 4.4 v6 turbo diesel in u.s 248kw and 698nm i know its gonna be good.

By: SRTargets

SRTargets — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 12:09:31 +0000

kids these days!

By: Jacob

Jacob — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 05:56:51 +0000

Even if Ford continued to develop the I6, they’d be competing globally with not only Ford’s global Duratec V6, but also Volvo’s range of I5 and I6 engines displacing 2.5-3.2L and also featuring turbo technology.

The European manufacturers are switching onto this, and the rest of the world will soon follow. These large displacement engines, or even engines of all displacements, are going to be phased out for smaller, supercharged/turbocharged engines that are more efficient, especially when driven sedately.

By: Benjie

Benjie — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 05:43:16 +0000

It must be the school holidays, people imitating me with foul language and misleading statements are far from amusing.

By: Benjie

Benjie — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 05:41:15 +0000

Sorry guys, I was wrong. I was mislead by the amateur article by these inexperienced writers at CarAdvice. Perhaps in the future, they will write more thought out articles that ignorant people like me follow like blind sheep. I can actually admit that I am ignorant. I blame Caradvice.

I had a previous entry stating this, but the editors deleted it. This site is crap.

By: Monster.

Monster. — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 19:31:17 +0000

Looks like the kids are back saying the same shyite.

By: Sam™

Sam™ — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:28:54 +0000

yep, this website has really gone to shit

sorry alborz

By: Superfresa

Superfresa — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 22:57:29 +0000

PaulST, I was confused too, but I think he’s refering to, just “Paul”, who posted earlier on (scroll up ;))

Ford is now rumoured to be stopping opperations in Thailand – I guess with the Ranger being moved to being developed in Australia, they can do without the Thailand division. As you can see, losing the I6 engine is the least of what could’ve happened…

By: PaulST

PaulST — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 13:37:54 +0000

Andrew M, are you referring to me or another Paul?

By: DKR

DKR — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 12:19:00 +0000

9 years ago wheels ran a story that the falcon would be killed off by the next model change. To be replaced by the taurus. Its failure against the ef/el falcon at the time saved the falcon. But the writing has been on the wall for a long time. Look at Holden in the 80s it was bankrupt until GM pulled it out. That will not happen now for either Ford or Holden, their US owners are now in debt so if either run anyting at a loss they will just be shut down. It will be a sad day when the l6 stops production but if Ford needs to cut off dead limbs to stay alive so be it. At least we will still have an aus Falcon and maybe it will be sold like the VE to other countries. It is needed so the other Ford jobs can continue, dont forget Ford may assemble the v6 here so not all is lst just yet.

By: Andrew. M

Andrew. M — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 09:52:30 +0000

wow i hadnt been here for 24 hours and it seems like it took me 2hrs to read all this. i forget who said what now.

i feel the real reason behind this is globalisation.
dont give me fuel consumption
dont give me large car sales slump
dont give me out dated motor stuff
all this stuff is just a smoke screen to help those who dont know much about life to find reason.

i have a fat $50 on the new V6 not being any better on fuel consumption. just take a look at holden and toyota. the 4.0l inline gives same consumption as the 3.5L toyota V6.

i do know who wrote this one though….
Paul, i love the way you always try to find/put a negative spin on anything that is not toyota.
DeathByPizza points out that it doesnt mean 600 people get sacked as it states “job losses” what it could be worded as is position losses. cause paul lets not assume that 1 person is classified as doing half a job meaning its actually 1200 people/positions, that would be silly now wouldnt it

my thoughts,
i can see why this is being done as it makes very good business sence.
its just a shame to see one of the best motors go
remember this
Most torque out of a 6 in the world
Most torque out of a 6 or 8 in Australia
Torque has been fords standout trademark. its also a shame that the falcon will have to blend into the crowd.
i have seen the torque stats on the twin force V6 and it still doesnt match what the typhoon has.

oh yeah i think people should stop believing the media. the breaking headline had to read “600 sacked shame on ford” to grab peoples attention. because “ford restructure their operations” would have been lucky to surface to page 30. people just love to find the negativity.

very well said by most people!!!

By: WJ

WJ — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 08:42:37 +0000

Some great points being debated, and I couldn’t agree more in relation to the lack-lustre marketing of Ford products, let alone the apalling dealer backup they offer. In fact I’d say that the level of service you get at Ford dealerships is probably a bigger issue than anything as to why people are choosing other brands, but I guess that’s another topic for another time.

So not to stray to far from this topic, in my opinion (and at the risk of sounding repetitive) there should be some assessment of the aggressive tariff reduction policy, to ensure we don’t cut our nose off to spite our face, and continue to overpressure our local manufacturing industry.

Finally it appears that at some levels of government there is a similar awakening. From this news story http://carsguide.news.com.au/s…..2,00.html, the following quote actually makes some sense…

“Victorian Premier Steve Bracks urged the Howard Government to reconsider its planned 5 per cent tariff reduction on imported cars, due in 2010, in an effort to help the domestic car market.

“We believe, if you look at what’s happening worldwide, where we don’t see the concurrent reduction in the tariff barriers of other countries, that there is a strong case to put to have a pause on that tariff reduction and to not implement that by 2010,” he said.

We’ve already lost our iconic Oz Ford I6, and I’d hate to see Australia lose the likes of the falcon/commodore based on loose government policy. Take a look around the world and see if other countries are reducing their barriers before we do the same. Why must Australia be the first to drop it’s skirt?