Is Australia the first.

[ljf12]

Is Australia the only country ever to lose a highly developed motor vehicle manufacturing industry ?
I have had a look online and it appears that sadly this may well be the case.

[mac_man_luke]

UK has pretty much lost theres as well i believe

[Fordman1]

Originally Posted by mac_man_luke

UK has pretty much lost theres as well i believe

Lots of Mini's, Jag's, etc bring made there

[Brazen]

Yep and with 1.1 million sales a year Australia will soon be the largest car market on the planet that does not have a local car industry.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by mac_man_luke

UK has pretty much lost theres as well i believe

According to Wiki there was 35 up to 2014

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...United_Kingdom

[mike_nofx]

How many other countries lost their locally produced, country specific Ford models due to the One Ford program I wonder?

[malazn mafia]

Originally Posted by mike_nofx

How many other countries lost their locally produced, country specific Ford models due to the One Ford program I wonder?

I don't think there's any where else in the world where Fords were developed so entirely different from the rest of the Ford empire and for so many generations. Germany made the focus and Mondeo though, and the Taiwanese seem to have had a love for the blue oval and gone about creating their own weird and wonderful models and derivatives of Ford vehicles native to their own market.

[Kieron]

Originally Posted by mike_nofx

How many other countries lost their locally produced, country specific Ford models due to the One Ford program I wonder?

Off the top of my head, USA lost the Crown Victoria and the US only Focus, replaced by the Euro Focus due to One Ford.

[Ford17]

Every other nation develops, nurtures and promotes their car industry.

[roddy1960]

G'day ...I read somewhere recently that after Holden and Toyota quit at end of 2017 we will be the only G20 country to not produce motor vehicles...Kind of embarrassing isn't it ?
Too bad some billionaire wasn't about to knock out a kit car or something like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purvis_Eureka ... Would that technically get us off the hook ? OR..what if a Dick Smith type developed a Tesla style vehicle that we could export???....Pie in the sky stuff...
Ah well , with so much other manufacturing going west these days we're maybe going to become the Banana Republic one day that Keating mentioned a few decades ago. What about us whacking out a nice range of clothes pegs or are they already made offshore..... Cheers Rod....

[Tonz]

Originally Posted by Fordman1

Lots of Mini's, Jag's, etc bring made there

true but owned by who? not the brits thats for sure.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by Tonz

true but owned by who? not the brits thats for sure.

To be fair Holden and Ford weren't owned by Australians either.

[BlueBear]

What other federal Government in the world doesn't use locally made vehicles for their fleet?
Can you imagine the US using Mercedes or BMW for their politicians?
Or Germany using cars from some other country?
Shows the national pride stemming from the top down.
Would have been so easy to save, but it's not in the best SHORT TERM interest of any recent government.

Cheers,

[Tonz]

What other governments are sponsering their local car industry to the tune ours were.

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by Kieron

Off the top of my head, USA lost the Crown Victoria and the US only Focus, replaced by the Euro Focus due to One Ford.

The Crown Vic was lost cause it couldn't pass future crash tests. It was nothing to do with the gfc. And it was replaced with the taurus interceptor, which is unique to the US.

[SumoDog68]

Originally Posted by BlueBear

What other federal Government in the world doesn't use locally made vehicles for their fleet?
Can you imagine the US using Mercedes or BMW for their politicians?
Or Germany using cars from some other country?
Shows the national pride stemming from the top down.
Would have been so easy to save, but it's not in the best SHORT TERM interest of any recent government.

Cheers,

Some BMWs and MB are locally made in the US.

[marty351]

Originally Posted by SumoDog68

Some BMWs and MB are locally made in the US.

And VW

[Ford17]

Originally Posted by Tonz

What other governments are sponsering their local car industry to the tune ours were.

Any protectionism would pay off, particularly for exporting nations - cars are big-ticket items, and would handsomely add to GDP; not to mention the indirect local/state/federal taxes which also significantly add to government revenue.

[minheim]

Yes sadly we have lost the manufacturing base of automobiles and will probably never get it back. Indeed we will have the first Toyota plant in the world to be shut down if I recall correctly. The Age newspaper had an article the other day referring to a study which suggests that dispite what Trump says many manufacturing jobs in the USA will never return due to automation and the loss of the necessary skill and supply base to support the same (http://www.theage.com.au/business/co...22-guijx3.html). Sadly we have been sold out by politicians who have accepted economic and ideological theory over pragmatism and common sense.

[b0son]

Originally Posted by Ford17

Every other nation develops, nurtures and promotes their car industry.

Pretty sure they had industries that sold cars that (a) people bought, and (b) had export customers.

[Itsme]

Well Keating wanted a banana republic, we getting there slowly....

[Bill M]

Originally Posted by minheim

Yes sadly we have lost the manufacturing base of automobiles and will probably never get it back. Indeed we will have the first Toyota plant in the world to be shut down if I recall correctly. The Age newspaper had an article the other day referring to a study which suggests that dispite what Trump says many manufacturing jobs in the USA will never return due to automation and the loss of the necessary skill and supply base to support the same (http://www.theage.com.au/business/co...22-guijx3.html). Sadly we have been sold out by politicians who have accepted economic and ideological theory over pragmatism and common sense.

We get the govt we deserve...

[Trump]

Originally Posted by Bill M

We get the govt we deserve...

We didn't choose any of the things done in our name by govco and its subsidiaries...

[Bill M]

Originally Posted by Trump

We didn't choose any of the things done in our name by govco and its subsidiaries...

No we just don't buy Australian made much anymore.

[Bill M]

Originally Posted by Tonz

What other governments are sponsering their local car industry to the tune ours were.

http://theconversation.com/factcheck...an-we-do-16308

[mike_nofx]

Originally Posted by Bill M

No we just don't buy Australian made much anymore.

And here lies the problem. People decided they would rather drive white goods on wheels instead of Aussie made cars. Now the Falcon replacement option from Ford is the biggest white goods on wheels, the Mondeo.

[Trevor 57]

NZ lost all years ago

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

To be fair Holden and Ford weren't owned by Australians either.

G'day...Good point and very true ..Just the same the cars were unique to Australia and built here..Neither applies after this year of course..Cheers Rod

[ljf12]

Originally Posted by Trevor 57

NZ lost all years ago

Did NZ ever do anything apart from assembling knocked down kits and some component manufacturing ?

[ebxr8240]

Originally Posted by BlueBear

What other federal Government in the world doesn't use locally made vehicles for their fleet?
Can you imagine the US using Mercedes or BMW for their politicians?
Or Germany using cars from some other country?
Shows the national pride stemming from the top down.
Would have been so easy to save, but it's not in the best SHORT TERM interest of any recent government.

Cheers,

Plus sell off our electricity, land etc...
NZ only assembled .. Using some local parts like carpet etc..