Why Australia Doesn’t Make Their Own Cars
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- Опубліковано 15 січ 2022
- Once upon a time, the Australian automobile industry employed 100,000 people. They produced tens of thousands of vehicles for both domestic consumption and export abroad.
The cars were uniquely suited for the Australian market, and they were prized in the country's rural areas.
But now that industry has vanished. The last factories, operated by Toyota and GM, closed in 2017. Other than a few units produced for national security purposes, the Australian car-making industry has all but vanished.
In this video we will return to the Land Down Under and look at the rise, decline and fall of Australia’s automobile manufacturing industry.
Notes:
- GM and Toyota both closed at about the same time in 2017. Holden, 2 weeks later
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Links:
- The Asianometry Newsletter: asianometry.com
- Patreon: / asianometry
- The Podcast: anchor.fm/asianometry
- Twitter: / asianometry
I am glad that I pulled off pronouncing "Melbourne" right. Subscribe and check out the newsletter: asianometry.substack.com/
In some parts of Melbin, its Malborn.. it's a swamp.
Better than most, but not perfect. I'm not sure if this explains it right, but I think your intonation is too high at the end. The last syllable is spoken softer with more of a flat intonation.
Source for the MITI car mergers?
Damn solid effort on Melbourne, well done.
Yep, pretty good mate! 🙂
The answer to why we no longer manufacture cars (and all other products) is simple - We DO NOT want to manufacture anything here, we just want to dig a whole in the ground and give away our raw resources.
Wow! That, if true, is a good reason for saying, "Be careful of what you wish for."
Gotta love the liberal government giving incentives for mining companies to give our resources away.
@@LucasCarter2 That is what we do best. Subsidise the miners so that our raw materials can be given away to overseas interests, so we can buy items that are manufactured from those raw materials at highly inflated prices.
The reality is, we simply didn't buy the cars we made. Sales figures fell so much the industry wasn't sustainable.
All governments subsidised the car industry for years.
Way back in the sixties, seventies and eighties, our car industry was also assisted by tariffs on imported cars.
With "Free Trade agreements" those tariffs were removed, and imported cars simply took sales away from local product to the extent our factories started shutting down.
There's no point blaming governments. If Australians had bought enough Australian made cars we'd still have car manufacturers here.
Lies again? Harvard Barcelona Orlando
Hey man, great analysis and especially the history section, learned a lot here. As someone who worked at one of the OEM’s in Australia in the 2010s specifically on the viability analysis, I’d like to add a bit of my personal insight here:
1. The closure of the industry was a matter of time. The long term viability of Australian auto manufacturing was ultimately predicated on achieving economies of scale. Compared to the factory outputs of other plants in North America, or Japan which were in the millions, the meagre outputs of Australian plants (50-100k each) towards the mid 2010s was not sustainable even with government subsidies. Normally factories are sustained by large domestic markets with export being a nice bonus. Australia’s market is quite small at only 1m cars per year. Manufacturing Costs were too high in an industry that survives on cost leadership and import tariffs were so low that importing made more sense for the consumer and the manufacturer. Government Subsidies were a bandaid on a bullet hole since the underlying business model was not sound in the same way it was in other larger auto markets.
2. A unique aspect of the Australian market is high demand for D segment sedans (which is what all 3 manufacturers produced Ford Falcon, Holden Commodore, Toyota Camry/Aurion). Australian drivers especially liked large output V6 and V8 engines. This particular product has very little export market opportunity, so you had 3 plants all producing for a segment with limited export opportunity. The fact that D-Segment sedan segment shrank in favour of SUVs starting from the mid 00’s also aggravated the issue. 2016-17 also happened to be the final year of product generation cycle, so the 3 OEMs had to decide from that point onwards whether to invest in the next generation of products. Keep investing in a dwindling D-Sedan market or switch to an entirely new product segment altogether, which added to the already high investment costs due to retooling. There was no easy solution.
3. The third major factor was that the subcomponent supplier network was barely surviving with the meagre combined volumes of all three OEMs. If only one manufacturer pulled out, the remaining two would have no option but to also close as they could no longer support the supplier network with minimum ordering quantities. What is little known is that all three manufacturers shared many sub components (head lamps, seatbelts, brake pads etc.) from suppliers like Bosch. It was a case of one in all in. Ford pulled the plug first, thus forcing the hand of Toyota and Holden who were still keen on exploring options to continue manufacturing in Australia. So to keep manufacturing in Australia, the government had the unenviable task of negotiating an outcome that all 3 manufacturers would agree - that was also a long shot at best, since each manufacturer had their own long term strategy and plan B for the exit.
Thus to summarise, the root cause of the problem was inability to achieve economies of scale due to the small domestic market. This problem was further complicated by a declining D-Sedan market which was where the OEMs all invested their production capability into, and required all three to be committed for the industry to survive.
I’m typing this on my phone so sorry if it’s a bit rambly and lacks structure, but happy to answer any questions you may have if you’re interested in any of the details.
Should write a book
Most informative UA-cam comment I’ve ever read! Thank you!
But are you familiar with The LaSalle?
Or maybe The Prophecy of The Shadowy Clown?
Excellent comment. They ended up having one customer, the State as not enough other consumers wanted their produce. When the State said no, the production finished.
It’s pretty sad as every year there are fewer Australian built cars on the road. By the time I’m dead I guess there will be almost none. The first three cars I owned were Chrysler’s made in Australia. They were bombs by the time I had them but I liked them.
The last Australian car I owned was a Mitsubishi Magna, made in the same factory as the Chrysler’s. It was an excellent car, reliable, powerful, good to drive, quiet. All in all an excellent Australian made car.
True loads of people saw the writing on the wall for Australian car industry, and it will never be like it was in past. However the government should have realised this at tried to transition Australian car industry into comparable advantages that Australia has using our own natural resources finding ways don't screw us for the future.
My old boss was a line manager at an OEM supply to auto industry back in the 90’ Adelaide.
He told a story of one time, they had a factory tour for Japanese clients. The Japanese clients were shocked and amused by the outdated manufacturing equipments &process.
My old boss said he felt embarrassed and told upper management not to have him lead any more tour in the future.
In brazil there was a similar outlook.
We had a promissing automotive industry until the 80s. With governmental aid for the makers, without demanding quality or efficiency as a trade-off, makers became lazy and too dependent on public funding. This, combined with the opening of our markets in the 90s for foreign enterprises, resulted in the complete demise of our national automotive industry.
....................................... Satanic Zionist international money power freemasonry controls all ... the Australian auto manufacturing industry and nearly all other critical industries here was/is deliberately sabotaged and destroyed to the satanic zionist globalist money power plans .. to make Australia weak and help enable the so called 'Asian century' =covid19 'great reset' mass genocide control UN agenda 30...everything else is bullshit ... tic toc for the synagogue of satan tic toc
E eu que pensava que o caso do Brasil era único hahahah
That's right, but the brazilian automotive industry seems to be resurging with all the new local electric vehicle startups. Seems promising.
@@Yahweh312 this is what happens when you copy and paste "insane conspiracist" into GPT-3
@@Yahweh312 You need to go back on your meds.
I live in Adelaide near the Holden factory and even worked there for a short time in the early 90s . It was not an enviroment I fit in well with . There was a culture of bullying and conformity that was going on and god help you if you worked hard because you could easily become a target . Most of the time new workers were told to slow down by other line workers .The biggest fear in the Adelaide GMH factory was that management would speed the line up . Never been so bored at a job in my life . Needless to say I did not last long .
my late father who was a doctor had patients who worked there.the quality we take for granted in the Japanese cars just was not there and by united nations codes such bullying should have gone exposed live to 60 minutes or a current affair at that company.It was an old family friend of ours who was a Honda salesman who advised us not to buy a Statesman some 28 years ago and instead in the same kind of price range we can put you into an Integra or a Prelude or an Accord(dad had an 89 rx7 due to be traded up and I was getting too tall at age 16(I am now 44)for sports cars as a rear seat passenger,we ended up getting an Accord.the reason for us buying a RX7 this time 33 years ago was Holden could not offer us till the Calibra arrived from Opel in 1991 anything half decent in a sports car and the best on offer was a Commodore SS V8 Yuk I cannot imagine a doctor showing up in that,the alternative was buying an Alfa or a BMW OR A CELICA.
That's the adelaide culture. I worked in a pizzaria, the work culture was the same.
The 380 was well built as the workers knew it was their last chance.
You speed up, you mess other peoples jobs up. Theyll put more work on you or other people. No one wants a hothead that changes things at their job, especially with the intent to make them work harder.
You tell someone who would lose their house if they lost their job they have to work harder for the same money. They wont be happy. Especially if youre a coworker.
You wanna make the world more efficient? Dont like those people? Think theyre ruining the output and economy of your nation or something like that? Then stay out of the labor workforce.
@@stevenrochelle2238 All well and good to say but as an answer to your comments I would point out that Australias motor vehicle manufacturing sector is no longer an entity .Poor workmanship , high wages , low productivity and a lack of pride have driven production overseas .Now maybe you would have to work harder for less money but you would still have a job in an industry with a future . What have we got instead ?
“Low” cost Malaysia couldn’t make their car manufacturing industry viable despite high tariffs and exports, so how could Australia, with its high labour costs and inflexible work practices, do so?
Funny thing is Proton had just as much money and technical expertise like Toyota in mid-2000s. They even had an all-aluminum 400hp sports car almost into production in Tanjung Malim and use that to spearhead into US and EU market. Politics happened, and everything was gone.
.......................................... Satanic Zionist international money power freemasonry controls all ... the Australian auto manufacturing industry and nearly all other critical industries here was/is deliberately sabotaged and destroyed to the satanic zionist globalist money power plans .. to make Australia weak and help enable the so called 'Asian century' =covid19 'great reset' mass genocide control UN agenda 30...everything else is bullshit ... tic toc for the synagogue of satan tic toc
@@mimimimeow proton is made with daihatsu technology, daihatsu is under Toyota.
@@boycottnok1466 thats perodua...not proton..proton JV with mitsubishi..
Precisely why we no longer have a car manufacturing industry, we pretty much no longer have a manufacturing industry.
I live in the city that used to host Mitsubishi/Chrysler and Holden. While we've mostly rebounded from Holden's closure (we knew it was inevitable since mid 00's), the saddest thing about it is the area the factory was in; not because on unemployment or anything but because the council there have decided to put a whole bunch of murals and artwork up about Holden.
Whilst I'm all for appreciating the past, whenever I'm in that area I ask myself: "What about the future of this community?". There's nothing there that indicates any future plans for the community
Yes, sounds like backward dreaming !
yes change the flag and gay rights . enjoy higher prices on cars and parts on everything.
We had Holden made cars here in the Arabian gulf region (Branded as Chevrolet Lumina SS/CR8) they were so powerful (I believe they came with the LS1 engine and later models with the L98) and car enthusiasts were into it with some beefy modifications.
do they still exist there? Will probably be good collector cars in the future.
@@Viper4ever05 discontinued. I believe the only Chevy sedans exist now is the Malibu and that also might get canceled. we also had the Holden Grange (Branded as Chevrolet Caprice S/SS/LTZ). some enthusiasts used to replace the chevy badge (back and front) with the holden ones since they thought its the real deal. I remember those Holdens dominated the streets for a few years with even slight modifications.
In the US the Pontiac G8 was a branded Holden sedan with an 6.2 ls and a manual transmission. You can only get them as 2008 year, as Pontiac was disbanded as part of GM's bankruptcy and bailout
@@jammon798 they should have kept that car. It was the only decent car they had
Walled, i believe you also had Toyota Camry's there too which were made in Melbourne, Australia. I heard the Middle Eastern countries liked the Australian built cars because they handled the hot weather better than European or American cars.
What happened to it? They fucked it mate, it’s gone - Holden is gone, the Falcon is gone, it’s over
Good riddance, try making a car that isn't labeled the Craptiva next time, yeah?
@@m2heavyindustries378 they made crap nobody wanted.I tested a Calais and a W203 Mercedes C180 for my mother to replace a 1996 c200 quite a long time ago and on the same day,The Mercedes since I learned driving on my mothers new in 1997 was like home to me in terms of layout and driving position and while the quality wasn't say as good as equivalent cheaper Honda or Mazda or Subaru's in that class of car It was perfect.The same sadly could not be said of the Holden.Thirsty V6 and awful driving position and sub standard.the truth of the matter was by that stage given the person who often bought that class of vehicle the kids were all grown up driving themselves in their own small cars You could get a 318i BMW Executive or Mercedes C180 Classic(The latter with lambswool seat covers and alloy wheels)for not much more than Aussie made crap,yes the upkeep was going to be dearer but you still see them second hand for about 10% of the original cost today.the local cars have gone to the scrapper by now.
Thank goodness. What right does the government have to waste money on producing cars? It's a competitive industry worldwide and Australia has no competitive advantage.
I was a GM employee and owner of a Pontiac G8, so I had a personal and professional interest in GM, Pontiac, and Holden and what all happened to them. I believe that US politicians also played a part in, or at least hastened, the demise of the Australian car industry.
In 2007 GM planned on selling Holden cars as Pontiacs. The Commodore Sedan, Ute, and Sportwagon were all slated for release in the US. But in the years leading up to the G8, US politicians had been gutting the regulations that kept borrowing in check. This had short term benefits to the economy, but contributed to the Subprime Mortgage Crisis.
dependent
Pontiac GTO = Holden Monaro. For a couple of years...
Yeah the reason their nobody see the El Camino the light of day in the US, yet bringing the El Camino back could bring Australian production alive but that just went out of the table.
No Chevrolet El Camino!
Now presenting the New Holden Envision it is Made in China.
I think the most important factor, which gets skated over, is that Japanese car manufacturers are owned by Japanese investors; whereas, the Australian auto industry was always an extension of foreign production and manufacturing. Instead of subisidizing foreign operations, the Aus govt could have been incentivizing a domestic manufacturing base that was locally financed
..............................Satanic Zionist international money power freemasonry controls all ... the Australian auto manufacturing industry and nearly all other critical industries here was/is deliberately sabotaged and destroyed to the satanic zionist globalist money power plans .. to make Australia weak and help enable the so called 'Asian century' =covid19 'great reset' mass genocide control UN agenda 30...everything else is bullshit ... tic toc for the synagogue of satan tic toc
@@Yahweh312 lol wtf
bingo
Well why didn't they do that when the had the chance. Why couldn't GM Holden be re-vitalized at the time BY the Government to become Holden Australia, and disconnect from GM America. I think the government should have reduced the amount of cars Allowed into Australia, and made our OWN Brand more obvious to the masses. Still today there are WAY too many manufacturers IN Australia, we don't need so many, I can think of at least 20 different companies that sell cars here, I think about 10 foreign companies would be enough, and NONE of those would be from China.
we should have bought GM-Holden when GM went into bankruptcy in 2009.
Man, I really would appreciate if you covered the Brazilian automotive industry, it's big but always seem to be behind in cost and technology.
doesn´t seem to be...we are....we didn't have standard ABS brakes or Airbags in our locally produced cars almost a decade after it became mandatory in many other countries.
@Ithecastic i don't see a reason gor not having ABS as mandatory, it improves breaking performance in 99% of situations.
We didn't implement it in Latin America because we use old tooling other countries discard and cheaper parts so our people can actually buy the cars. As an example the Ford Falcon was produced in Argentina until 1990...with full steel body with no crumple zones and a wooden steering wheel. It's insane when you compare it to the cars Americans or Europeans were producing at the time.
12:27 The UK tried the same thing in the 1950s and 1960s with disastrous results. The real problems were labor costs and quality.
Unions.
@@dreamdiction "labor costs and quality" are objective measures. "Unions", while accurate, is both subjective and inflammatory.
@@RonJohn63 Unions resisted modern manufacturing improvements to protect jobs which reduced productivity but they still demanded pay increases, making their company objectively uncompetitive.
A Japanese manufacturer was producing a car in 15 man hours while the British could not do better than 65 hours. Cutting tools were infrequently changed reducing precision in vital components, that's why British engines needed an overhaul after only 70,000 miles and the engine had starting difficulties due to low compression after only 50,000 miles.
Britain made good cars until about the mid 1960s but after that even British car works bought foreign cars because they knew how shit their own products were.
15% of the floor space in British car factories was used for "snagging" (correcting faults). Japanese car companies had no snagging area because they stopped the whole production line and only restarted it after manufacturing faults were corrected. Any British worker who insisted on quality workmanship was label as a "jobsworth" and denounced by shop stewards as a sellout and a management lickspittle.
Management published reports saying they could not fire workers who came to work only to steal things or curl up in a corner and go to sleep. Union bosses and shop stewards were pawns in a game they did not understand, it was always the plan of marxists to collapse British industry and make Britain dependent on imports so that political control would fall into the hands of globalists who use economy power of and authority structures of capitalism to achieve the aims of communism, that's why everything Mein Kampf warned us about has come true today.
@@dreamdiction mate. Detroit union is the best union. The best until they destroy entire city
I've seen the blowback on the parts sector first hand. In 2014, a Denso-style Alternator for a 1999-2006 Toyota Camry cost $250, fitted. Today, that same alternator costs $450 alone.
yes but them denso alternators from the 90s are high quality and can be rebuilt mine is over 32 years old has been submerged plenty of times and still keeps going. The new ones don't seem to have the same build quality
Just import two cheap Chinese equivalents, if you have a spare, the first will not give trouble.
Years ago, as part of my remuneration package, I was provided with an Australian made car, over a period of a few years, twice in succession. In both cases, the car newly delivered from the dealer had defects, and had to go into the workshop for repairs.
A friend’s Australian made car, while out of town, broke down due to a faulty drive shaft. Luckily, it was still under warranty, so my friend was spared the expense of towing the car back.
Perhaps we were unlucky to have received “lemons”, but it didn’t speak well of Australian made cars.
............................. Satanic Zionist international money power freemasonry controls all ... the Australian auto manufacturing industry and nearly all other critical industries here was/is deliberately sabotaged and destroyed to the satanic zionist globalist money power plans .. to make Australia weak and help enable the so called 'Asian century' =covid19 'great reset' mass genocide control UN agenda 30...everything else is bullshit ... tic toc for the synagogue of satan tic toc
Unlucky. Ford falcons here drive as taxis for 2 million kilometres easily
Yup. Unlucky. Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore were the most trusted models on the Australian market. I've never heard of a problem straight off the lot.
Not unlucky. Holden and Fords build quality was trash for at least the last decade of their manufacturing in Australia, especially when compared to the likes of Toyota and other asian brands which were cheaper, more reliable, and put together by people who were prepared to do more than the bare minimum to stay employed.
I had a mate who worked at the Ford plant in Geelong, he straight up told me that if I ever purchased a Ford to: 'take the rocker covers off and re-torque the head bolts as soon as possible, I know the guys who work in that area and they are a bunch of inept clowns.'
@@StaffordMagnus I have had Mazdas and Nissans plus one Korean Made Holden in my time.The Mazda's were pretty decent it all started from a 121 metro then a 323 astina I have recently returned to a 2008 3 after having had a Tiida and Micra(New)and a 2017 Spark(second hand bought 2018 but written off by a truck three years later).Even the Toyota people advised us not to buy the Astra(which is Holden from Opel Germany).
Back in the day my Altona built Toyota Camry had misaligned panels, squeaks and rattles and was missing many of the features of its equivalent model built in Japan. When I traded it in a Japanese built Toyota the differences were night and day. Australian built cars could never keep up with the quality from Japan.
Its about the design, not the location its made. A vw jetta made in germany and mexico has no differences cuz of tge same design.
Really enjoying your Australian related videos lately! I live in Perth and really like your take on the water problems we face and our isolation here which is a double edged sword. This one about the automotive industry was great too.
For those wondering, "ute" is an abbreviation for "utility vehicle" and is used here in New Zealand as well.
@@santosvandary7116 Nope, it's a shortening of utility as they said.
And was invented by Ford in Australia.
Excellent anaysis of the history of our auto industry. As someone who was primarily involved in it for 20 years, it was sad to see it end, but it was inevitable.
Whilst I'm fundamentally against governments propping up private business, I'm a bit torn in this case, since all other countries do it, regardless of their political idealogy.
It's a huge deal for any country to male the leap into automotive manufacturing. My background is in toolmaking (making moulds, dies, etc for mass production). That skill base is quickly lost when major manufacturing leaves a country and to regenerate it could take at least a generation...
True!
It takes years and years to train an average idiot to even approach the skills needed to be a semi competent manual toolmaker never mind the ability to program and use modern CNC machines.
Meanwhile my country seems more ready to move on to manufacturing new products as the economy evolves e.g. we previously had Ford & Morris car factories but they've since been replaced by semiconductor ones, which're seen as more profitable, & also because our domestic car market has shrunk even more with heavy taxation (as the gov't is worried about traffic jams). It probably helps that our gov't is constantly drilling into us that we have to be ready to retrain ourselves from time to time to suit changes in demand for the manufacture of different goods & services over time. Think we also have a law that legally allows workers to be retrenched if their job becomes economically obsolete & they refuse to be retrained for a different career
Since you've mentioned the situation with Japanese car industry in the 60s, could you make a video about this specific topic and what did they do right?
Yeahh, this great topic
I'm also curious how Tesla apparently is making cars 3 times faster than VW according to VW's CEO.
@ReddoFreddo perhaps with lower tolerance given the number of reports about panel gaps
@@kcfish4862 The panel gap stuff is exaggerated. Also, 3 times faster, not 1.3 times faster, 3 times.
+1 there is an astonishingly lack of content of what MITI did to there
Good essay. There were a couple of things worth pointing out though. In the early to mid 70s Holden was on fire exporting cars to all right hand drive markets from Rhodesia to Trinidad. You touched on it but how the hell could we compete with Thailand, Indonesia and China for manufacturing? Canada is more or less next door to Detroit we're 10000km from anyone let alone a supply chain. Frankly I think our auto industry was like a junkie in the family that was once full of potential but was never going to end well. The only sad thing was the last gen Commodores and Falcons were seriously good cars.
Yet Buick Envisions sold as Holdens as China is making cars with the Holden name for Australia and not the other way around.
@@Embargoman I'm talking about the 1970s and 1980s. Envisions weren't even dreamt of then!
@@matt_hayward What suck about it is that GM killed the brand, yet Australian built Ford Falcons where exported to Asia, how about to say do you ever own an Australian built Ford?
Hello John, what a wonderful documentary and very detailed too. I'm an Australian and I drive a Holden that was made in the last 3 months of the GMH Holden factory before it closed. It is the best car they ever made. Australians tend to be very patriotic in sport and other Australian achievements. But sadly Australians tend not to be very patriotic with their spending dollar and various "Australian Made" campaigns have failed to change their mindset. I love the work that you do. All the best, Jamie C.
Hello from VK3.
I only hear how awful holdens are and you would be mad to buy one on depreciation alone , yours is the first positive review i have seen in years ! GM is an awful company .
@@vk3fbab QRZ ?
It's really the fault of the government, who fail at capitalism because of their belief in capitalism making them say "It is not the government's job to serve the people by ensuring they have jobs".
Tell me, are those right-wingers saying "Let's give them welfare! It's better than giving them jobs!" or are they saying "Let them eat cake!"?
Capitalism is a dumb word, because it implies philosophy. Making capitalism into a philosophy is poor "business sense".
In fairness, if someone was in the market for a D-Sedan, Australian made was pretty much 90% of the segment. Problem is the Aussie consumer wanted SUVs more than sedans so they had no choice but to buy import - that’s not really evidence of not being patriotic.
The pic of the aussie PM in wiki is hilarious 19:51
Thanks for the nostalgia.
My first car was a Holden HQ which I bought for 12 cartons of beer... one per month. Bench seats, three on the tree.
Kingswood Country...... lol
I hope you still have it! They are worth good money these days (assuming not rusted out).
Your investigations are excellent, but I find this one very hard to watch, as I used to sell test equipment to Ford, and Holden in Melbourne. I think this is a great loss to Australia.
I sympathise with you and have had a similar experience in a different industry. As an economist though...
not all shotgun weddings work, in the UK amalgamating individual small auto companies into a single national champion resulted in British Leyland, a name that still conjures mental images of bad and boring cars in the heads of Brits of a certain age.
It's partly because the amalgamation happened really only on paper. As far as the factories were concerned they were still separate manufacturers, and often refused to share components and tooling resulting in a ridiculous amount of redundancy.
UK is still making luxury cars
@@Coolsomeone234 They aren't actually British anymore
Another awesome analysis! Between you and Perun I have gained so much knowledge with little effort. You have motivated me to do my own research on what is affecting my life here in the US.
"Cars cost more in Australia" according to Ford when asked why the Capri produced in Australia was sold in USA for less than it was sold for in Australia.
True.there was a ten grand price gap between a BMW OR Mercedes 3 series/C Class and the equivalent in terms of price Ford and Holden based on 20 years ago figures.I recall my late father looking at a 318i executive and only wish I had a copy of the wheels magazine calais and fairmont ghia test of the day to show the sales people what people are buying when they buy locally made is garbage and a terrible drive.
There is still some automotive manufacturing in Australia, Nissan still manufactures in Dandenong, their advanced castings are used in Nissan cars assembled in Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Thailand, Mexico and South Korea.
Until the 1990's the Australian car industry only existed because of government subsidies, but they were they making unique vehicles that filled a domestic requirement. Australians wanted a full size (luxuary size) car with a large powerful engine (3.0 to 6.0 litres) for the price of an entry level medium car. They wanted a stripped out Mercedes S class for the price of a Toyota Camry and that is what Holden and Ford gave them.This configuration was unique to Australia and sales justified these unique platforms.
By 2010's Australians were buying SUV's and the unique platforms no longer made economical sense and it didn't make sense to build SUV's in Australia when they were already being built in Asia with much lower labour costs, about $3,000 per unit. So the foreign owned companies shut down production and imported Asian built SUV's instead.
Basic economics.
love all your Podcasts! Very well researched ! Keep doing great 💛
17:10 I live in Adelaide and went on a tour of that Mitsubishi plant as part of some careers thing in high school around 1996, I remember them talking very positively about stuff like job stability into the future. Things weren't looking so rosy 10 years later!
(Although personally I ended up working in the print industry which hasn't exactly turned out to be immune from decline either lol)
Same as the rail industry in Queensland....
I did one of those tours of both plants too, plus Solar Optical that was opposite the Lonsdale plant.
Your next Mitsubishi will be made by Proton of Malaysia!
Thanks for the thorough mini-documentary on the subject. No other UA-camr covers so many subjects in such depth so often. I'm very happy to be a patron on the Early Access Tier!! Hopefully this 27 minute documentary will get the recognition it deserves from the UA-cam algorithm!! Keep up the great work!
Doing a great job. Refreshing and in depth outlooks.
The company my dad help create supplied Fabrics to the like of Holden & Toyota in Victoria. They're most specialized product was Fire Retardant fabrics. It's sad to see this industry die soo quickly even though writing on the wall. Luckily that company was smart enough to Pivot into other industry before Automotive Manufacturing ended in 2017. Bitter sweet to see it being covered by some of my favourite UA-camrs.
When Ford & Holden closed down in the last year of production. They only made less than 60k cars per year.. combined. They didn't have a large enough scale of production to make an affordable car. The numbers were not enough to be economically viable .
Well done - general enough to see overall picture but detailed enough to pose historical questions going forward.
Great detail and research you've done in this excellent video
Something that was missed, Nissan still has an aluminium casting plant in Victoria, which actually had a major expansion in recent years.
Hey man Love the videos! Just might want to add a one time payment option for those that would want to opt for that instead of monthly payments
Awesome Video! I really like how you covered this!
I always surprised at the quality of research and picture you find for video. Thankyou for the videos
One factor of the demise of the Australian car industry is the export competitiveness. Thailand became a car export hub for Asia, Australia and Oceania.
A pretty similar thing happened to our furniture manufacturing industries back in the 1970's and earlier, with closure after closure, at least in Sydney where I used to attend the dispersal auctions. Lots of other manuf companies went then too, like Slazenger and Hi Fi makers. Eventually our little manuf enterprise closed after 40 odd years too.
Perhaps a natural cycle for small business !
Hey, since I discovered your channel two weeks ago I’ve become a regular viewer. I have huge respect for your work and the high quality of your content! I’ll consider becoming a patreon for the first time because your content really fuels my curiosity and interest in economics. Thank you and keep going!!!!
Merging their companies would really have been a great idea and I can't believe they didn't think of it before.
That exact same government (Hawke/Keating) did it with Telstra though, and Telstra miserably failed to expand overseas
One big difference was the Japanese companies were Japanese-owned, thus they had a finger in the pie and something to gain and lose In Australia we had nothing, no say but were at the mercy of others' perceived benefits.
certain politicial wievs dont allow those thoughts so maybe they didnt
AMI did multiple brands
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Motor_Industries
Except they were subsidiaries of GM, Ford, and Toyota; and earlier Mitsubishi and Nissan. There was some cross-branding, so a company could buy 10 Camrys and 2 Lexcens from Toyota; or 8 Holden Commodore sedans or wagons, and a Apollo to get the mail, etc. Nissan Patrols were sold as Ford Mavericks, and Ford Lasers as Mazda 323s.
Top notch pronunciation of Melbourne!
In the 1900 or thereabouts, Argentina had the 5 largest GDP and was ranked the 10th richest country in the world, but it was all overseas controlled and the profits flowed back out of the country, the wealth didn't remain so it was all artificial. This is happening to Australia today we are selling our minerals at pennies in the dollar, we do no value-adding. Indonesia just made a very very smarty move they said to Tesla "You want our Lithium then process it here and Build an auto plant here as well." When a car only takes 10 hours to make the labour component becomes minimal, they also ship it halfway around the world and it is still very very profitable. OWNERSHIP IS EVERYTHING, we need to start investing in Australian Industry, we develop so many things i.e. Blue tooth and everyone else cash's in on it. I am not Just talking about Australia, but all developing countries so as to raise all standards of living.
Excellent video. I'm very sad that Australian style Utes are not widely available in the US.
We no longer make those utes want to blame someone fucking Tony Abbott our former PM and his conservative government.
Blame parent GM for that.
No El Camino relaunch sorry!
Partly to blame is the average Australian worker. I've personally seen many Australian manufacturing workers stick to their union negotiated units per hour with die hard dedication. As in 12.6 units per hour, well that's all they'd do, even if 15-16 was effortlessly attainable.
Japan has now subaru which was transferred from gm to Toyota
Mazda that's now out of fords umbrella.
Mitsubishi which is in alliance with Renault and Nissan.
Honda is independent from the two.
There's Suzuki which sells like 10 million cars in India each year.
Toyota is indeed the leading force
Average indian spends $10,000 on a car while an average Australian spends $40,700. Suzuki don't sell cars of pricetag $20,000.
i envy Japan for that.
@@g1y3 yeah, people really overestimate the market for high end cars and just cars in general based on the population. There's a reason Tata made a "car" like the Nano to increase the number of potential customers because a decent part of the population can't even afford scooters so it's not even close to a market of 1 billion consumers
@@oblivious7642 a scooter cost less than a nano car. India is still a large market for two wheel. Nano failed because of the tag "cheap" , and with the price of a new nano you can get a decent used car.
@@mrx9920 I know, I was just pointing out that companies tried to make cars even cheaper to boost units sold. The car companies typically don't make anything off used car sales. The nano was a failure mostly because it wasn't worth the cost given you could get used cars for a little more (at the time it came out) and scooters for much less. The safety concern news reports that kept coming out also didn't help.
well researched and consequently very informative vid.
Another awesome ep as always, well done! I think nailed the true reasons why Aussie car industry eventually collapsed and dissolved. May it serve as a learning lesson for others who might benefit from it.
One thing the Australian (and even State) governments could have done, was invest. Instead of just handing over cash and subsidy boondoggles, they could have just offered to invest capital. They could have demanded shares in the local operations. By doing this, the multinationals would have either had to match the capital inputs, in order to maintain control, or leave the locals to accumulate a majority stake in their own automotive industry. BTW; the government wouldn't have had to exclusively own the Australian shares; they could have forced the issue of shares that could only be held by Australian citizens or government bodies; which could have been freely traded on the local exchanges.
My sentiments exactly! Previous Australian governments continually kept throwing money at foreign manufacturers to fund their operations in Aust., but those corporations simply pocketed the profits!
Even when they shut down their operations they took all the equipment & robots which the Aussie taxpayers had paid for!
I doubt it would have helped any, Australia is gust to small a country to have much of a auto industry, it probably would have been best if it had tried to find something it actually had a comparative advantage in.
Good summary, John!
The Button Plan also had another aspect. For economy of scale in car production, car manufacturers were forced into model sharing, at the time. This meant the manufacturers traded models from their line, getting a competitor's product (or products). It was a simple rebadging and for differentiation, slightly different options and minor styling details applied and they werfe selling that, instead of their own. This meant that companies didn't have to design and manufacture a vehicle for every segment of the market for full coverage. I'm not sure exactly what carrot and the stick were used to effect this but for a few years we ended up seeing some strange automotive twins. Think along the lines of the Toyota 86 and the Subaru BRZ but with less collaboration between the companies. Just slap a badge and the front grille on and change the upholstery colour and hey presto, different brand and model car! For example, Toyota made the Camry which was also sold as the Holden Apollo. There were several other examples. The thing is though, those automotive alter egos didn't sell nearly as well as the natively badged vehicles. Car companies sold just enough of the weird doubles to be able to claim that they are "model sharing". From the buyers point of view, why buy the "fake" Camry, when you can buy a real one and get Toyota support and service for an essentially Toyota car?! I had a Camry for 10 years. (A good, practical and reliable car.) The Apollo would've had to be significantly cheaper for me to consider it but it wasn't, with two companies trying to turn a profit on the same car!
In theory, this sharing scheme could've been a winner if it meant that fewer car models were produced but in higher numbers. However, instead of that happening, often it was the barbarians at the gates, that is, other foreign car imports filling up the gaps.
So, apart from some small bright spots, Australia's current contribution to the global automotive manufacturing industry is...
...mining!
Australia's problem is that even profitable local manufacturing activities are killed off, if companies can do the same cheaper, i.e. with a healthier profit margin, in another country.
Australian mining future is in production of EV, wind turbine and solar panel materials. Watch Pilbara.
Exactly as it should be. Little brother New Zealand were subsidising sheep. The government took that away. They said don't make it unless you can sell it. There was lots of agony for a while. But within a few years NZ was booming. The farmers have never looked back and are probably the most competitive in the world with no subsidies
Yet Nissan's version of XF ute had better base level trim, and longer warranty.
I like how well reseaeched ur videos are. Good job
When I was a kid in the 80s almost every car was a Holden or Ford. I have loved all my Falcons and Commodores, Shame they dont make them anymore and I have noticed the price creeping up on 2nd hand ones already.
A Toyota executive told me that as result of an ndustrial relations court telling Toyota that it could no longer communicate directly with its own workers about conditions of employment such as wages and had to go through the Vehicle Builders Union, Toyota immediately decided to pull out of Australia.
The government screwing business?? I simply don't believe it, I can't believe it.
Nonsense
No Michal, it is not "nonsense". Facts are not nonsense simply because you do not like them. Unions that do not care about the viability of their members' employers are a menace not only to the prosperity of the nation but also the livelihood of their members. Even worse are those that pursue a Marxist agenda ie the destruction of their society.
@@peterkavanagh498 Right. Feel free to name this executive and quote the relevant legislation. I will wait
I have 5 early to mid 90s Holdens in my collection, 2 of which are daily drivers. One has over 350,000km and still running well, although age and weather sure has had it's told in the last 31 years. My first car was the same model and had done 400k with 600k on it's transmission without issues but an accident killed that car before it's time was due.
Toyotas will do a million with nothing but oil changes. Kudos for keeping those cars alive though. They are a part of our history... but history is where they belong.
@@jeffmcdonald101 I hear lots of people say that about Toyotas but I have yet to see that myself. Some of my family have/had Toyotas and they were all terrible and had major engine issues well before 200k. My nephew bought a Hilux and the engine didn't make it home from NSW, thew a rod through the block on the border. My mum's Rav engine was toast at 200k and couldn't get proper parts for it so sold it as a wreck after a partial engine rebuild was not really successful. My nephew's 4th Toyota 4x4 we ended up doing a Buick conversion and it's been the only reliable part of the car. It's funny how a whole brand's perceived reputation comes about from only one or two successful engines, the 4AGE and the 2JZ despite the rest of the brand being mediocre at best. That's why I tell people to buy specific engines and don't worry about the car too much.
@@jeffmcdonald101 most do not make 200k and they are toast !
Buick 3800 is one the best engines ever made and certainly best GM engine
@@randlecycling2462 I agree. My crap box daily is still going with another 10k since the comment.
Thank you devoting such a large chunk of time to our car industry.
Exelent content Sir!
The study of the Indian automobile industry is just as interesting
Great video, though most Aussies refer to Holden as 'Holden', rather than GM-Holden. In fact I've never heard an Aussie call Holden 'GM-Holden'
Satanic Zionist international money power freemasonry controls all ... the Australian auto manufacturing industry and nearly all other critical industries here was/is deliberately sabotaged and destroyed to the satanic zionist globalist money power plans .. to make Australia weak and help enable the so called 'Asian century' =covid19 'great reset' mass genocide control UN agenda 30...everything else is bullshit ... tic toc for the synagogue of satan tic toc
@@Yahweh312 what the actual fuck?
@@a11u45 😂😂😂
Some development still takes place in Australia. Ford Ranger is primarily developed here. Approximately 2500 people are employed at their design centre in Melbourne.
Satanic Zionist international money power freemasonry controls all ... the Australian auto manufacturing industry and nearly all other critical industries here was/is deliberately sabotaged and destroyed to the satanic zionist globalist money power plans .. to make Australia weak and help enable the so called 'Asian century' =covid19 'great reset' mass genocide control UN agenda 30...everything else is bullshit ... tic toc for the synagogue of satan tic toc
There were four main advantages of local vehicle manufacturing:
1. Strategically it gave Australia a significant value added manufacturing and skill base that could be repurposed for and/or support defence.
2. The locally made vehicles were extensively tested for Australian conditions (rough roads, high temperatures) They were mostly fairly rugged and easily repaired with spare parts readily available.
3. With a domestic market in which to develop their products, vehicle component manufacturers were able to develop globally.
4. The Australian dollar floats and is quite volatile. Local manufcturing limited the extent to which price inflation was imported theough higher vehicle prices as the dollar fell.
The cost from the loss of manufacturing in Australia has been high.
The country has become a dumping ground for minly low quality vehicles, that are difficult to repair and maintain and usually junked after just a few years.
Manufacturing and the associated skills base has substantially declined. The country has largely succumbed to the Dutch disease. Individual incomes are mainly derived from low value added so called service industries. National income is maintained mainly by exporting low value added commodities to China.
I owned a *1994 Mercury Capri XR2.* So yes. Australian car? Check!
I’m not surprised Holden went out of business.I bought a brand new 2005 GTO ie Monaro here in the States.The worst fit and finish of any car I ever owned.So bad that the car leaked in water every time it rained.It could not be repaired due to the fact that water seal did not exist on door bottom,I had never seen that before.Weather seal on 2 thirds of the doors,rediculous
Holden was in the saddlery industry in the 1800's, in 1914 they transitioned into the automotive industry. Holden was around long before gm teamed up with them
Good analysis. Something else was that the GM, Chrysler, and Ford products were poorly designed and very poorly assembled. They continually produced cars for a market that no-one wanted to buy. There was no way they could compete with the better-designed and assembled Japanese products. And don't even start me on the British products.
Great video analysis. One of my cousins worked for Holden in Port Melbourne and have owned Australian built Mitsubishi Sigma, Ford Futura LPG and currently drive an Aussie built 2010 Toyota Camry Hybrid. I am on the lookout for a 2017 Camry Hybrid for my last car. In the end Aussies paid for their cars at the dealer and the auto companies got their profits through government subsidies. For such a small population with high wages, we just could not sustain the industry.
Satanic Zionist international money power freemasonry controls all ... the Australian auto manufacturing industry and nearly all other critical industries here was/is deliberately sabotaged and destroyed to the satanic zionist globalist money power plans .. to make Australia weak and help enable the so called 'Asian century' =covid19 'great reset' mass genocide control UN agenda 30...everything else is bullshit ... tic toc for the synagogue of satan tic toc
The government claims it couldn't substain those subsidies well they could have all countries that have a car industry subsidize those car factories in one way or another the conservatives wanted to get rid of that industry no doubt to satisfy Murdoch and his backers.At the moment this conservative government subsidizes the oil coal and gas industries a industry that is likely to mostly disappear by the second half of this century as the world moves to cleaner sources of energy to combat climate change so why couldn't they have continued to subsidize our former car industry oh wait they say it couldn't be sustained the reality is the government was putting the fossil fuel industry above what was once our car industry just too satisfy Ruport Murdoch and his wealthy backers who probably have shares in US fossil fuel companies.Time for these conservatives to go and time to get rid of the Murdoch media machine.
I'm going to finish watching this video later, but the short answer is this: The LibNats happened.
Truth
Into the 2000s, Aust labour cost per worker in car manufacturing was more expensive than each German worker making Benz and BMW in Stuttgart and Munich, and all for a saturated market of just 25 million. And thnx for posting a pic of the Corolla Twin Cam 16 @23:31, we had that in the late 80s & 90s, brings back some nice memories.
Interesting to see footage of the Mitsubishi assembly plant. I couldn't help but notice the blue paint from the days of Chrysler Australia.
Tonsley Park, Adelaide.
Australia policy is kinda different. Especially about jobs. My Canadian niece went to visit her Australian cousin in Australia. At entry customs she was asked how much money she had and how long she planned to stay. It was not yet established when she would return, and so she said that if she runs low on funds she could find a job waiting tables or such. Big mistake. Apparently they don't like that.
That ended her visit to australia, as she was barred from entry and never made it past customs. She was sent on the very next plane back to Canada.
She had never planned to move there and told them so. And she was from Canada after all, you know, part of the British Empire. She was extremely shocked at her treatment and the customs cretons were, like everywhere else, unbending and cold to her pleas. From my own experience, I imagine the border people got a certain kind of pleasure and satisfaction from making this 20 year old girls life miserable, and ruining her little vacation. She even offered to buy a return flight right then to ensure she had a departure date.
Kicked out of australia!!? I see that country quite differently now. Wouldn't go there. Been a lot of places. But I won't travel there. Too creeped out about it.
Its an old fashioned concept now. But the politicians used to try and protect the careers of ordinary people and not let in loads of migrants to do the same job at a reduced price.
@@benfordslaw5105 on that note, ten years prior to the incident, her cousins entire family of 5 emigrated to Australia and proceeded to make 2 more cousins. For one reason or the other that was allowed. They certainly weren't millionaires.
Hmmm, they wouldn't have passed for " migrant workers" on the surface. For that matter, neither would my niece.
If you know what I mean.
You are not allowed to work on a tourist visa... There are specific 'backpacker' visas for that purpose that do allow working in cafes, picking fruit etc. If anything, it would be MORE unfair to allow a Canadian tourist in who says they may try to work but only discriminate against a Bangladeshi tourist who says the same thing.
@@markhonea2461 I imagine they had the proper visa when they emigrated. It is quite difficult and expensive to apply for Australian residency. Yes, no exceptions are given, migrants from United Kingdom or Canada need to produce the the same IELTS English language test certifications as those from non-English-speaking countries! [It's actually not that trivial for native spakers to pass the IELTS test... It's a relatively difficult and specialised test, which even a native speaker needs to prepare for!]
@@TassieLorenzoThat's all very interesting, but my niece had no desire to, nor intention of moving to australia. Mate.👍
A really in depth and accurate analysis. I grew up in New Zealand and was very much aware and interested in this industry. What I saw as complete madness at the time in both Australia and New Zealand politics was the severity of how new policies were introduced. Massive changes were made and announced as the new policy without any period to allow those who were going to be impacted have an opportunity to adapt.
I’m from New Zealand and I have no idea what you think you’re talking about.
Good analysis excellent and well presented documentary. I have been seeing some of your videos lately and they are great. Although I know you had to use the image in Wikipedia to present the personalities but I could not help but laugh on the part of Tony Abbot's Wikipedia entry at that time. I mean couldn't the wiki people find a better photo than one in his swimwear.
"Merged the five OEMs into one..." How did that work out in the UK?
Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view !"
Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam."
Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!"
Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..."
Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!"
Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky."
Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction."
Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment ?"
Great you said Melbourne correctly 👏👏🇦🇺
if by correctly you mean he sounds like he barely graduated primary school then sure
19:49 LOL I can't believe that was actually the Wikipedia photo of Tony Abbott when you took the screenshot.
Just a small technicality, there is a difference between a ute, ( utility), and a pick up. You can unbolt and remove the tray on a pick up but it is an integral part of the ute and cannot be unbolted.
We never use the Term 'Pick Up Truck' in Australia, even tray bodies ... those purchased either with neither a Tub or Tray (left to the purchaser as to what they bolt onto the 'cab chassis;) or a removable Tub or tray known as 'Cab Chassis' or a Ute with a non removable 'Tub' we simply lump them all with the term 'Ute"
Great analysis. Mostly it was caused by mismanagement both at company and government levels.
The companies were just corporate vultures as always.
And high cost of labour due to high cost of living due to high cost of tax.
@@kingcosworth2643 Taxes in Australia are not particularly high. Places like Denmark have far higher taxes AFAIK.
I was in Aussie in 96 in the marine industry, it was a well known fact (and I personally experienced this) the union was the government and the government was the union. Multiple times more expensive to do things in Australia as opposed to almost any other country.
Exactly! The unions destroyed the local car industry in Australia
Jesus makes you think australia is more communist than china hell even vietnam.
There was a General Motors railway station out near Clayton - it was on the main metropolitan line
Yes, Holden. Thanks for reminding
The comparison with Canada is definitely relevant, but it’s also worth noting the Canadian auto industry has struggled in the past decade with higher costs compared with the southern United States and Mexico. Still, the quality of Canadian built vehicles is hands down the best in the western world. There’s a reason Toyota allowed the Lexus RX to be built in Ontario and nowhere else (besides Japan of course)
Don't forget the Canadian Muscle Cars as well like the Acadian and Beaumont.
@user-ix5br4ug8g Electric cars are nothing but useless and soulless eggshells that won't have enough range to go on a trip and takes about 4 hours just to charge up the stupid things.
The Bricklin?
The article didn’t really highlight the timeline of competitiveness loss of the auto industry. Up into the mid ‘90’s Holden and Ford we’re still selling Australia’s best selling models, and during the time of the Holden Commodore VT model, they were exporting Commodores to the Middle East and US, even though the head office at GM in the US was anything but helpful in assisting the Australian operation in exporting its cars. In credit Holden in that era, if became known that GMH could develop a new car for very little money, and designers would be be sent Australia to learn the Australian way of thrift. It was known that the first Commodore Ute was developed with $11million. GM USA thought there was a zero missing. What was also responsible for killing Holden, apart from all the market related factors was being victim of its own success. They thought they could keep on making big and bigger cars, when the reality was the most popular selling car in Australia had changed little size wise. In the ‘80’s the Commodore was the size of a Mazda 3 of 10 years ago.the last Commodore sold was twice the size.
That's sad to hear, the merger to create a national champion may have worked of that was the case
Great video, thank you.
Satanic Zionist international money power freemasonry controls all ... the Australian auto manufacturing industry and nearly all other critical industries here was/is deliberately sabotaged and destroyed to the satanic zionist globalist money power plans .. to make Australia weak and help enable the so called 'Asian century' =covid19 'great reset' mass genocide control UN agenda 30...everything else is bullshit ... tic toc for the synagogue of satan tic toc
I worked at specialist machine design companies , designing control systems for the Automotive industry in the. 90,s . I helped build Toyota Altona in 93 . Like many of my jobs in Oz over the years in manufacturing, the companies no longer exist . Great video and kudos . You got it right .
All these other comments complaining about how shoddy their australian built cars were - this was your fault??! 😅
@@FrederSnorlax lol.
Ironically, since the "protected" industry ceased, car prices have risen quite a lot (yes, even before the shortages). Car journalists rated the Holden VF SS as the best sedan on the market under $70k until production ceased and they now sell for far more than their original price. With 20 years in Holden and dealing with Ford management as a supplier, the key factors were lack of support from the parent companies in exporting, fragmenting market segments and decisions always made on exchange rates that had flipped by the time the decision was implemented.
The Commodores and Falcons were heavily subsidised by the government to the tune of 10k+ per car. Of course they were good value!
I took advantage of this, of course.
There's no doubting they were darn good cars.
"Who to blame?"
Seems straightforward to me. The local economies were unable and/or unwilling to keep alternative options available in the country, so they were totally unprepared for the OPEC crisis. That's the fatal blow and everything else is just stemming the bleeding until the eventual death.
To get into it a bit more, Australia may be a fascinating country that basically runs an entire content, but being so heavily dependent on foreign oil and yet plodding on with American-like gas-guzzling engines is utterly stupid. The general American economy of the 60's and 70's could afford that direction because it had a much larger market and was one of the two major world economic superpowers, and it has natural oil reserves it can tap into. SO through sheer brute force coupled with economy of scale it would have survived the OPEC crisis with some losses, which is exactly what happened. Australia has neither market size nor that level of international pull.
I GUESS you could say that the government should have strongly encouraged local automakers to focus on efficiency in the case of a crisis, and it would seem reasonable because there had been similar crisis due to WWII just 30 years earlier. But democratic governments, if they lack long-term stability, lead themselves to very poor long-term planning, so even if the Aussie Government before 1972 tried to prepare the local automakers in such a way, there's no guarantee that a plan would have had enough funding and support to help prepare the local economy. And asking for companies to make and maintain such a choice (without government intervention) is silly, once a company has some moderate short-term security they'll make short-term quarter-beneficial decisions 99 times out of 100, and would have not bothered adjust their product unless the average citizens very vocally protested, and that wouldn't have happened because the average citizen wouldn't have been aware or even known how to prepare for such a crisis.
Well, the fact that Australian car industries almost never invested substantially in RnD, or innovation of any kind, says whose fault is this. The fact that Australia's Govt. also never had any polity to push and organize the companies for such (like Japan) shows that it's every Australian's fault with a capital 'A'.
look up the Lima agreement mate.
when i was in Australia in 1968 in Brisbane and Sidney a 3500.00 Mustang's shipment cost 3-5 thousand dollars
Excellent analysis, much more clear-eyed and insightful than a lot of the commentary here in Australia itself. I grew up in a service station, cars were at the core of our lives. But, yeah: fundamentally Australia is geographically challenged, for a car industry: we will never have a large enough population to really justify a domestic market, and we're too far away from major markets and too expensive to have a major export market. It turned out the entire Australian car manufacturing industry was a trick of smoke-and-mirrors from Day 1, it was never going to be sustainable. Sad, but true.
It's what happens when your domestic business is owned by foreign multinationals. Many examples...and a sad story of industry shafted by "globalisation"
Thank you for this documentary, it was very informative and shows where the blame should mostly go and I'm looking at the government, specially since we are still paying Luxury Car Tax designed to support local car manufacturers here in Australia even though we no longer have a local manufacturing, and this tax is a joke too since it applies to most cars irrespective of their luxuriousness, almost all new cars get slapped with this tax. I was personally mad at Holden when they were around because I had to pay extra tax to support them while buying my favorite European car, now that they are gone though, people still need to pay this tax (I was able to avoid it this time around since I've gone EV)
what a rip off.
The LCT is a absolute myth.
It was introduced as part of the GST reforms so the price of luxury cars wouldn't go down (as it would look politically bad if the price of milk went up but price of BMW's went down).
Yes, absolutely. It grinds my gears to pay tax to support an industry that doesn't exist.
@@adam872 the luxury car tax should not be there.Rightfully without it you could buy a Mercedes A class the a180 none the less for say 5 grand above say a Mazda 3 pure similarly specified drive away if all you want is an alarm and an automatic.currently the price gap is fifteen grand.
Very interesting video! Thanks for making it.
All this talk in the comments about small domestic markets, and economies of scale completely ignore countries like Germany. Their big auto makers have plants domestically as well as in other 1st world countries. Their market is global because they have excellent brand recognition, and they invest in innovations to keep them competitive. Yes, Australia has a small domestic market, but why couldn't we compete in the global market? I can't believe that it's because of our remote location? German cars are built and shipped around the world.
I believe the issue is multifactorial, but a big contributor to us not being competitive is 'high labour cost/low productivity'. Some others have talked about being forced to work slow by the unions/other senior workers. You can forget about tariffs, the real protectionism in Australia is the labour force. Unions are a critical piece in any society (no one wants kids in coal mines), but they can also drag a country down with them.
I really think that any manufacturing should be a major part of any national GDP, we can't be entirely driven by resources (because that demand is now drying up) and knowledge services. Again, I think we can follow Germany's lead here and develop a strong mittelstand based manufacturing base. The pandemic, and devastation of the supply chain has shown us that we cannot rely entirely on international manufacturers. Any government who ignores these signs is just lining us up for more pain.
24:40 This is how you prevent your house from ever being robbed. A broken down HQ in the front yard with grass growing through it. Are you rich? Got a nice house?... Doesn't matter. Busted ass HQ security got you covered.
A broken HQ is worth $10,000 now...
It really is a shame that 1) Australia is so far from the US, and 2) the Pontiac G8 came out just in time for economic collapse in the US which still has an impact on disposable income to this day. Ute's like the G8 ST variant have a special place in the hearts of many US consumers. The closest thing we have today is the Ford Maverick. The problem with all of them is availibility in my opinion. As soon as they arrive they dissappear again. Anyone interested in buying one better be ready that year or they might not get another chance. That's not really a good way to market something as a viable alternative to the ubiquitous pickup truck. Another option here is to weld a Subaru Baja rear onto a Prius. Why can't we have a fair chance at these cars without making them in a garage?
First it suppose to be an Australian built Chevrolet El Camino now it is the other way around a Made in China Holden Envision, that is actually a Buick Envision with the Holden nameplate to be exported to Australia.
As a 68 year old Australian, for over 50 years I have puzzled over why we have never developed and owned (or been allowed to own?) our own car manufacturing business. Your analysis has served to identify the underlying reasons.
You have obviously invested an immense amount of time to sleuth out and present the underlying reasons. So thank you.
the reason that the Australian car industry was pathetic was because it had caught the English disease
@@geraldgreenman4715 That being?
@@macalacalan1175
Basically the government didn't impose import taxes on over seas vehicle's coming into Australia that other countries did like Pakistan.
Just to ensure that locally made car's were always competitively priced for what they offered.
So the over seas vehicle's offered much better quality at similar or cheaper prices.
Plus Holden, Ford & even Mitsubishi chose not to adapt to the market when it shifted to medium sized car's & SUV's.
They kept putting all their money into large car's that no one wanted until they went bust.
@@brantleyfoster021 Taxes were imposed but they were low and every few years the duty was lowered, from 15% down to 10 then 5%, then finally no tax at all. That was the last nail in the coffin.
@@therock8224
Yes this shouldn't have occurred if they wanted the local market to thrive.
But even the local market had problems here too, they should've adapted & they were just obsessed in recapturing the record sales they used to enjoy in the large car sector.
They could've still enjoyed it if they listened to where the market shifted & if the government imposed larger import taxes.
But there was just no logic & everything went to pot😢