Government should buy car manufacturer

[Bolly47]

Just my thought so why cant Australian Government can buy Ford or Holden car manufacture out so we can move on by keeping employment on plus money will stay in Australia not to USA

cheers ian

[Mercury Bullet]

And we become a slave to multi-nationals?

Oh wait we already are....

Sorry couldn't help myself :P

[FormulaFG]

Because Holden and Ford have both proven when they have government protection they make cars that are not wanted by the masses and are of substandard quality. When the money runs out they put their hands out for more, where does it end?

The only positive I see in your scenario is if they were free from the restrictions placed on them by their parent companies they may have been able to export better. But recent governments and their free trade agreements snuffed that flame out.

[CyberWasp]

The Australian Political Parties can't even run themselves let alone a country properly putting the citizens 1st, so how are they going to run a Car Company?

[Itsme]

Government subsidies could not save the car industry and now you want the tax payer to dig further in their pockets & be managed by Govco, No F'n way.

[Strange1]

Can you image a car conceived and designed by the Australian Government!

It would make the Homer look like a Lambo...

[Franco Cozzo]

Castellan, we need you to explain about Hitler and Nazis again please

[Sabantien]

Maybe if they were investing in some sort of new technology, but they can do that without manufacturing, and quite honestly, the cars we were producing were already falling behind the rest of the world.The money needed to develop cars would be astronomical. Companies like Ford can do it and still produce affordable cars because they have a global client base. More customers than Australia has people.

No one would buy the stuff produced locally because it'd be inferior in every way and far more expensive.

If we're going to produce cars again it'd have to be a niche market, and it'd have to be a private company doing it.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Castellan, we need you to explain about Hitler and Nazis again please

[thefargo]

there is a belief that governments should govern, car manufacturers should manufacture cars, etc

[FPV GTHO]

Ford and Holden are part of larger companies, you can't just split them off locally and carry on.

[XRtowcar]

Original design would be a Liberal Sedan, V12 extended length limousine.
Nationals want there input so is now jacked up with 4wd to visit out lying cattle stations.
Labour asks for small changes to include families of 8 for the average working man so now resembles extended Tarago.
The Greens would get hold of the design as it went through the senate, and would make it a single cylinder hybrid running on unicorn pee and solar power reflected from Pluto.
Luckily Aus motorist party have a say and can now do extended burnout sessions and 10 second quarters due to optional top fuel engine combo.
Clive palmer disapproves as it is too close to his current chauffeured runabout and sends it back to lower house for redesign.

[Brazen]

Many car companies have part government ownership. 20% of the Volkswagen group is owned by German government.

[b0son]

The VW group is one of the biggest players in the game, it makes good sense for a maker that employs so many German workers, and contributes so heavily to GDP, to have some degree of government ownership.

Neither Ford Aus nor Holden had any real presence overseas, and people here didn't want the cars all that much either. I'm not sure what benefit government ownership would have brought beyond an even greater expectation by their foreign owners that we prop up their business.

[Moby Vic]

Originally Posted by Brazen

Many car companies have part government ownership. 20% of the Volkswagen group is owned by German government.

And yet they still cheated on diesel emissions.

[mik]

Never happen in a million years , we only sell stuff off ....... and give away our jobs and manufacturing to other countries , we dont make stuff and create jobs in ooorstraya !
unless there is more perks for pollies somehow involved .

[Wretched]

Originally Posted by Bolly47

Just my thought so why cant Australian Government can buy Ford or Holden car manufacture out so we can move on by keeping employment on plus money will stay in Australia not to USA

cheers ian

And what would they make? Who would buy it?
If they made average cars, no performance cars (think of Corolla esque) and added a massive tax onto other makes/models would that be suitable?
I shudder to think of this happening.

It won't happen, car manufacturing on mass scale isn't viable here for reasons already mentioned on this forum ad nauseum.

[Brazen]

Already talk of rescuing the Australian car industry has begun today

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-0...iament/7565308

Bob Katter: "With Nick Xenophon, I would hope that Nick and I can drag out of the government an agreement that all government motorcars will be Australian made, so we rescue one of the greatest industries in this country."

[Top_Ghia]

Originally Posted by Brazen

Already talk of rescuing the Australian car industry has begun today



http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-0...iament/7565308

It's too late. Way too late for Ford. As much as I love them, the Falcon and the Territory are just outdated. The world has moved on and Ford gave up on Broady many years ago.
Forget about making cars here as its a saturated market already. Buy the factories and start producing state of the art military hardware like UAV's and attack helicopters. At least they would sell.

[Brazen]

Originally Posted by Top_Ghia

Forget about making cars here as its a saturated market already. Buy the factories and start producing state of the art military hardware like UAV's and attack helicopters. At least they would sell.

I dont know, Im trying to think of car markets larger than Australia (1.1 million a year) that dont make cars.

Be interesting to know of markets bigger than 1.1 million units a year that dont manufacture cars. Probably the closest size market to us is Russia which is tracking at about 950,000 in 2016 but they have lots of car manufacturing.

Certainly ones smaller than us make cars: Czech republic 235,000. Sweden 350,000. Thailand 700,000.

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by thefargo

there is a belief that governments should govern, car manufacturers should manufacture cars, etc

Yet all of them are given govco monies. Some are really pathetic. At least when it was done here ever doller of government money was matched with 3 dollers of the car companies money. Not a bad return for the economy.

But still car manufacturing is dead here. The market isnt big enough yet one of the most competative, the falcon, terri and commodore is to unique in that no one really knows about the cars, the cost of labour is high and to retool plants for worldwide car would need big money....and why would they when other countries throw money to have jobs here.....Australia did this in the 50s but now with the lifestyle we enjoy its difficult.

[chevypower]

They would be better off just paying dole money than running a huge liability that they have no idea how to run. They can't even run a government like they are supposed to. You think they can make cars?

[Franco Cozzo]

The Government doesn't even buy local for the PM's car, then tries to deny they even tendered for it:

http://m.smh.com.au/federal-politics...212-2zabq.html

http://m.smh.com.au/federal-politics...#ixzz2nIctq4Nb

Maybe it was awarded to BMW because of this:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/new...9bb-1467578924

With 'friends' like these, who needs enemies?

[Junkyard-Dog]

I've heard this one before, the story ends something like this:

[Vesper Martini]

Originally Posted by Bolly47

Just my thought so why cant Australian Government can buy Ford or Holden car manufacture out so we can move on by keeping employment on plus money will stay in Australia not to USA

cheers ian

The amount of Money they pumped into them before they pulled the pin, pretty much would have bought them.

[bobthebilda]

Originally Posted by Bolly47

Just my thought so why cant Australian Government can buy Ford or Holden car manufacture out so we can move on by keeping employment on plus money will stay in Australia not to USA

cheers ian

Just let Australia work out a solution to the current great Queensland idea of having Pauline Hanson and Bob Katter in Parliament before you guys think of any more nation destroying ideas.

[ken1939]

Only if we let firemen run the government.

[FGX-351]

Yeah because we're just made of money....

[Cobra]

Originally Posted by XRtowcar

Original design would be a Liberal Sedan, V12 extended length limousine.
Nationals want there input so is now jacked up with 4wd to visit out lying cattle stations.
Labour asks for small changes to include families of 8 for the average working man so now resembles extended Tarago.
The Greens would get hold of the design as it went through the senate, and would make it a single cylinder hybrid running on unicorn pee and solar power reflected from Pluto.
Luckily Aus motorist party have a say and can now do extended burnout sessions and 10 second quarters due to optional top fuel engine combo.
Clive palmer disapproves as it is too close to his current chauffeured runabout and sends it back to lower house for redesign.

And Nick Xenephon mandates that the GPS system never recognise a Casino.

[Dauphin]

The Aussie government has recently committed to a $50 billion submarine contract, so they'd rather build a few submarines we don't need rather than help keep thousands of Aussies employed and our awesome car-making heritage alive.