TMR is looking for your comments on the Australian car industry, and your views on its future.
It has now become faintly absurd, but how much has changed since the Bracks’ Report into the Australian Motor Industry was delivered to the Rudd Government? Surely, any recommendations it contained must now have been overtaken by national and international events.
The ‘goal posts’ and ‘playing field’ for local automotive manufacturers - and the industry generally - have not just moved in the past two to three months, they’ve bolted right across town and out into the next county.
Submissions to the Bracks’ Review Panel closed May 14; the Report it produced was handed to the Government on 31 July. Then, the Australian new car market was on track for another one million sales; Ford had a CEO called Bill Osborne, and the G8 had arrived in the US to rave reviews. Any ’situational analysis’ conducted then, would be barely relevant now.
That toxic barrel of bad loans, derivatives and credit default swaps had not yet exploded on world financial markets. (Back then, things were shaky, but we hadn’t yet worked out that the real worth of US banking was about the same, or slightly less, than a boot-full of used Y-fronts). Back then, the global credit crisis had not fully emerged in all its skid-marked glory.
So, without putting too fine a point on it, are Holden, Ford and Toyota now stuffed? Should Australia be building cars, or is it time to give the game away (like we gave away textile manufacturing)? If we built smaller cars, would we sell more of them?
Tell us what you think: do the TMR poll on the front page, or comment below.
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The Australian Automotive manufacturers have suffered a large decline in their market sector. The failing of the Australian motor manufacturers to include a small - medium vehicle in their production line up is the biggest mistake.
With the increased pressure on the Australian dollar and the current pressure on the finacial sectors importing at higher costs into a declining market probably sits the Australian manufacturers in the driving seat, especially when it comes to exporting.
The problem however is that they are still all living in the dark ages of large thirsty petrol motors and this means they remain in a small sector of the market.
On the brighter side their market is dominated by expensive over priced european people movers and SUVs’ that have stolen their market share over the years. The now decreasing aus dollar means these european competitors will have no choice but to price themselves out of reach of the average Australian family and they will probably head back to good old Australian value in droves.
Sadly for the current Australian manufacturers long gestation periods for their cars meant that approval was given for larger, thirstier models back when the price of petrol and environmental concerns weren’t at the forefront of buyers minds as they are today. With the backing of GM, Ford and Toyota there is no reason that the Australian plants couldn’t build cars based on a modular platform that would allow a variety of market categories to be filled. I know the reality isn’t quite that simple, but the industry, despite only having three players at the moment is vitally important to the economy and must be kept afloat.