Why do Aussies think Australian made cars are inferior?

[Trevor 57]

I don't and I am as Aussie as they come (read: convict stock)

[csv8]

1985 I had a VK Commodore and it dropped a valve in the first week.(Holden replaced engine)
My Fords have been reliable,( XC, XD, XF, AU Series 3 Futura , BA MK 2 Ghia. Festiva, Fiesta WP and WQ..) never off the road for more than day.
But my daughters BA MK1 has been nearly rebuilt in 200,000kms. Name it, its been replaced except engine internals. Now Buying a Corolla.

[TheSneakiness]

Had an EA - enough said. Mainly related to cooling system
Had an AU - power steering rack replaced, radiator replaced, thermostat housing replaced numerous times. Engine wise it was near flawless, no oil leaks or anything like that.
Had a BA MkII - Throttle cut out issues, other than that I never had it long enough for it to develop any other serious problems.

[SumoDog68]

Originally Posted by vztrt

Our production facilities are fine, but seeing as its an old plant making it more efficient is difficult.

As for the workforce they are actually have to think more then your regular asian car worker. Asian cars make one car on a production line (sometimes high series and low series models are split if there is enough units) Ford Oz have 3. This is much harder. BMW do this and do this well but they also have a bigger budget and command a much higher price.

You don't want for assembly workers to think more. Production facilities in Australia are not as advanced (automated) as in some other car producing countries hence the variation in quality.
Local cars are good value for their size but not leaders in quality or reliability . We own one local one Japanese made and one German made so not biased .

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by Resurrection

It &^%#s me to death some of people's dribble about how crap Australian cars are. I've had 7 cars of which 6 are Australian made (5 Falcons and 1 Magna). All were reliable. What more do people want?

Some people get a bad one every now and then and we do hear about it I when it does happen
Ive always had Aussie cars, everyone of them had faults, from mechanical to build quality. Granted some mechanical were just wear and tear.
I bought an XR5T Focus, being a euro i had high expectations of it and it had lived up to those to no end, not an aussie car ive had even compares to the focus.

[pottery beige]

dealing with fw's aftersales at stealerships with any issues really stuffs the whole experience up..... enough to put you off buying another new car...

[BAGT514]

I have a friend with an Audi TT. Interesting car - but his auto kept giving him neutrals ay the most inconvienient time and always under different conditions. They changed just about everything and it spent longer in the workshop than it did in his possession. The last step was them sending the whole car back to the factory to be checked out by their technicions there....
He politely took his keys back - drove the car out of the workshop and traded his car in to another interstate Audi dealer on......
Another Audi TT coupe
And his reasoning was apart from the one problem the rest of the car was great....

There is always a degree of what we the consumer will put up with due to the feel of our hearts. There are a lot of us who will put up with niggly little problems that continue on because of the way our hearts race every time we turn the key or press that start button...

[Ducati888]

You need to remember that nearly every car available in Australia is built in massive volumes for a global market, unlike our locally made vehicles. That allows manufactureres to spread the cost of manufacturing across many more units, as well as identify and fix problems quicker as there are way more on the road.

Secondly - what is this continued tripe about local cars 'built for Australian conditions'?

Is a traffic jam in Sydney for commuters any different to one in Berlin or Tokyo? Is the trip to the supermarket more onerous here than O/S? Really, most people use their car to commute to work. What percentage tows 2 tonnes across the nullabor or up the Hume daily? Very small I'd say. Also, given the VFACTs sales data, those that do are using Hiluxes.

[The Yeti]

I have never had an issue with actual reliability on my new falcons, fairmonts fairlanes or territorys BUT I have had alot of issues with the level of finish and this is why my last new car wasnt one of these, I cant say for the commodore, my wifes was 2nd hand when we got it and has been an excellent car but the level of finish in some area's has been less than perfect, but it was 2nd hand and well some of this could have been due to the previous owners use / abuse

I'm now at 20,000km on the car I got last October, its had 2 services and the only warranty repair was the T Bar indicator light stoped working the same cant be said for the previous new Aussie built fords

[Smoke Pursuit]

Ive had tones of issues.. They are okay mechanically and keep going but the quality is nothing exciting... Ive never had a major failure, at the end of the day all my faults have been attributed to refinement / fit finish / things breaking.

No more for me :(

[OzJavelin]

I love Australian cars because they are something different and unique - or were until recently. Relatively cheap, large, powerful, simple cars designed to travel long distances, carrying/towing stuff and be simple to fix (and typically required a lot of little fixes). No one else builds cars like that anymore; they've become too specialised or expensive. Instead of a sedan to do all things, you buy a sportscar to go fast, a SUV to tow the boat, a people-carrier to take the family of five on holiday .. or you pay $100,000+ to buy a big Euro car to emulate an Aussie RWD sedan.
Despite all their failings, I'm still proud of Aussie cars and what we can do with what we have - eg. VY-VZ platform modified from sedan, to wagon, to LWB Statesman, to ute, to dualcab ute, to AWD wagon, ute, dualcab ute, etc. Anyone else in the world would have given up and built 10 different platform vehicles ..

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

dealing with fw's aftersales at stealerships with any issues really stuffs the whole experience up..... enough to put you off buying another new car...

I get excellent service from my dealer and i didnt even buy my car from them. There are some great ones out there.
Selfless plug- Nova Ford Caboolture QLD

[Ducati888]

Originally Posted by OzJavelin

I love Australian cars because they are something different and unique - or were until recently. Relatively cheap, large, powerful, simple cars designed to travel long distances, carrying/towing stuff and be simple to fix (and typically required a lot of little fixes). No one else builds cars like that anymore; they've become too specialised or expensive. Instead of a sedan to do all things, you buy a sportscar to go fast, a SUV to tow the boat, a people-carrier to take the family of five on holiday .. or you pay $100,000+ to buy a big Euro car to emulate an Aussie RWD sedan.
Despite all their failings, I'm still proud of Aussie cars and what we can do with what we have - eg. VY-VZ platform modified from sedan, to wagon, to LWB Statesman, to ute, to dualcab ute, to AWD wagon, ute, dualcab ute, etc. Anyone else in the world would have given up and built 10 different platform vehicles ..

Reasonable points OzJavelin, but then we get the old chestnut - what's an Aussie car truly? Commodores & Falcons, whilst made in Australia do have a fair component of overseas design, and the Camry/Aurion is designed mostly overseas but made here too, as was the Magna/Verada range.

Early Commodores were almost soley a German design, and the XD Falcon was a dead ringer for the British Granada., albeit built on the XC floorpan.

For what it's worth, I've got an Aussie built 2005 AWD Mitsu Verada. Whilst it's ugly, it's outstanding in its build quality. 120K km, and not a single leak, rattle or electrical problem. Haven't even blown a globe yet. The ONLY problem in all that time was that the CD player was replaced under warranty as it wouldn't play..

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by Ducati888

and the XD Falcon was a dead ringer for the British Granada., albeit built on the XC floorpan.

Looks are different to engineering the car. FG is meant to look like an Audi but the work was done here in Australia...except for the saftey where they went to Volvo and used their computers to make it safe.

[OzJavelin]

Originally Posted by Ducati888

we get the old chestnut - what's an Aussie car truly?

Anything built in Australia, sold by the factory as a ute but based on a sedan platform

The might be based on Opels and Granadas, but I've never seen a Opel or Granada ute ..

[mik]

Originally Posted by BAGT514

I have a friend with an Audi TT. Interesting car - but his auto kept giving him neutrals ay the most inconvienient time and always under different conditions. They changed just about everything and it spent longer in the workshop than it did in his possession. The last step was them sending the whole car back to the factory to be checked out by their technicions there....
He politely took his keys back - drove the car out of the workshop and traded his car in to another interstate Audi dealer on......
Another Audi TT coupe
And his reasoning was apart from the one problem the rest of the car was great....

There is always a degree of what we the consumer will put up with due to the feel of our hearts. There are a lot of us who will put up with niggly little problems that continue on because of the way our hearts race every time we turn the key or press that start button...

Jeremy clarkson basiclly said the same thing thing at about a perfomance beemer he was testing, the driveline broke/ failed twice during the test, his comment was "BMW its brittle but i love it", i don`t think our cars in general are any less reliable, i see plenty of euro asian cars on the back of tilt trays and tow truck broken down as much as anything else, if anything its been the qaulity control that has been the short fall imo.

[Rodp]

Originally Posted by Resurrection

It &^%#s me to death some of people's dribble about how crap Australian cars are. I've had 7 cars of which 6 are Australian made (5 Falcons and 1 Magna). All were reliable. What more do people want?

I want the Aussie cars that I buy to be reliable (and they haven't been by a long stretch), I don't care that yours are.

[kinksta]

We think they are inferior because if we all thought they were better than the rest of the world, then every country would catch on and everyone in the world would be driving Falcons, we only want them in Australia :P Just like our marsupials...

I don't want to go to Italy or China and see roos and koalas, so I don't wanna see only Falcons there either.

[Ford_The_Win]

I wouldn't say they were inferior to foreign vehicles...in some respects they are, but in some ways foreign vehicles are far inferior to Aussie vehicles. Euros may be more refined and better built, but cost a fortune to service/repair. Japanese cars may be more reliable, but not as rugged and don't handle long trips as well. It's always crap auxiliary parts and cheap plastic interiors that let Falcons down.

[Mz Revvv Head]

Out of all the fords I have owned, the only 1 I haven't had a problem with was my, and dare I say it, AU XR 1999 series 1 ...
it was however recalled due to others having problems with them ...
and they were far from the best series from memory due to the few - lots of problems ...

I want to buy a brand new vehicle & what to get, well I'm lost there ...
I know nothing about other car brands & it's so very hard choice ... ?

I'm always on the search for Australian made anything, but finding it, is mission impossible as it's not purely Australian made
And also any thing Australian made, comes with a bigger price tag !

[dannyhilton]

Originally Posted by Wretched

I don't expect the locals to have 7 series or S class quality or technology but what I do expect is a lot better than now. They're both local arms of large international companies yet where is the component & technology sharing? This is what lacks in local cars, what are you giving the buyer if they're not after a bogan traffic light racer?

That right there, agree 100%. I can't even offer anything more than what you've posted. Spot on.

[Windsor220]

Originally Posted by Mz Revvv Head

Out of all the fords I have owned, the only 1 I haven't had a problem with was my, and dare I say it, AU XR 1999 series 1 ...
it was however recalled due to others having problems with them ...
and they were far from the best series from memory due to the few - lots of problems ...

Actually the AUs were very good with reliabilty.

[Nikked]

Working in a smash repair shop shows the australian cars lack in some areas, the japs/koreans can jam gadgets into cars at cheap prices and the Euros have the edge in design and engineering. At least Aussie cars are better then American ones :-)

[2011G6E]

Oh hell yes, Australian cars are better than American ones. The only exception is the 300C Chrysler...the rest of the Chrysler car range looks like the interiors are made of Macdonalds plastic food trays and are very flimsy and cheap looking.

I've never said our cars are "less reliable", but some of the touches inside are a little "cheap" even at higher levels.
I've noticed a few little bits in our new G6E...stuff like the lid of the center console just banging down with no finess or padding, just clacks into place like something out of a $12,000 Korean car. The roof grab handles, when you let them go, don't "soft return" back into place like even the cheapest foreign offerings (like our sons new $11,990 Suzuki Alto), but just flick back into place with a whack. Other than that, it's pretty much on par with interiors in much more expensive European cars. The panel gaps are pretty good as well, nothing stands out, the engine has a nice note but I do pick that there's a bit of a "fart" of gas somewhere around the slightly crookedly welded on chrome exhaust end...probably nothing a spot of muffler putty wouldn't fix though. Other than that, it's good value for money!
I've heard the G6E is comparable with a BMW 5 series, and having had a little to do with BMW's before, I'd agree. Of course, the power that BMW can extract from an NA six cylinder engine leaves us for dead. The main reason more people don't buy a 5 series (which is an ordinary family car overseas), is that import duties and protectionist tariffs mean it's priced as a luxury car...same problem with the C-class Benz.

[chevypower]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

the rest of the Chrysler car range looks like the interiors are made of Macdonalds plastic food trays and are very flimsy and cheap looking..

Have you seen the current (2011) interiors on the following vehicles? Ram Laramie, Longhorne, Charger, Grand Cherokee, 200, Avenger, Durango. Personally, I think the interiors have improved dramatically. I especially like the one piece dash that all these cars now have. I'm far from being a Chrysler fanboy, but gotta give them credit where its due.

[SSD-85]

As far as reliability in falcons go, my experience is nothing that falls outside of general maitenence requirements that apply to essentially any car.

So I guess it could be said ive had a dream run with the 7+ falcons ive owned.