Will the Holden brand survive?

[jpd80]

Mulally back in 2012 said no more one off vehicles for one off countries. He was so sick of Aussie journalists pestering him about FOA’s manufacturing future that he just refused to discuss it. It didn’t matter if Falcon and Territory were profitable or not, no money would ever again be invested in a new product cycle when Ford could get a better return elsewhere.

I don’t exactly know what Holden and GM were thinking but it looks like things changed after the election when the Liberals claimed they had a mandate to stop throwing money at the local industry, they listened too much to the ultra right wing rhetoric instead of just looking at balanced support, we give you something, what’s the return to the taxpayers. The local business activity generated, employment and tax paid from that was never fully considered.

In saying that, I suspect that Ford had quietly off-shored most of its suppliers by 2012, in complete contrast to Holden, zeta was very much home spun on local Aussie supplies set up as a cottage industry. All so sad to see can do attitude dismissed so easily by the brown shirts.

[Dr Terry]

Originally Posted by jpd80

In saying that, I suspect that Ford had quietly off-shored most of its suppliers by 2012, in complete contrast to Holden, zeta was very much home spun on local Aussie supplies set up as a cottage industry.

Not quite correct, so much of the VE & VF was made overseas. Things like rubber hoses & windscreen glass were all sourced offshore, often by the suppliers themselves.

For example the front windscreen which required new technology to make it triple-layered, yet thinner & stronger was made in Malaysia by the same company (Pilkingtons) who used to make them locally.

They could see the 'writing on the wall' way back in 2002-2004, when the VE was in its planning phase. They weren't prepared to invest in the local factory to supply GMH going forward. They just made them overseas & imported them like so much stuff nowadays. Much more profit for the multi-nationals.

Dr Terry

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by Dr Terry

Not quite correct, so much of the VE & VF was made overseas. Things like rubber hoses & windscreen glass were all sourced offshore, often by the suppliers themselves.

For example the front windscreen which required new technology to make it triple-layered, yet thinner & stronger was made in Malaysia by the same company (Pilkingtons) who used to make them locally.

They could see the 'writing on the wall' way back in 2002-2004, when the VE was in its planning phase. They weren't prepared to invest in the local factory to supply GMH going forward. They just made them overseas & imported them like so much stuff nowadays. Much more profit for the multi-nationals.

Dr Terry

And that's the key, the supplier bases were making things more profitable
and I bet that if you could see the actual internal figures Commodore, Falcon
Territory and even Camry would have been better than break even proposition.

I just think all lost patience with our governments grizzling about supporting
a local car industry - they just couldn't see the benefit of increased local
business activity, the less profit, the more money is kept here with business.

[Fordman1]

Originally Posted by jpd80

And that's the key, the supplier bases were making things more profitable
and I bet that if you could see the actual internal figures Commodore, Falcon
Territory and even Camry would have been better than break even proposition.

I just think all lost patience with our governments grizzling about supporting
a local car industry - they just couldn't see the benefit of increased local
business activity, the less profit, the more money is kept here with business.

The volumes were not sustainable, end of story 👋

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by Fordman1

The volumes were not sustainable, end of story 👋

So true but Ford kept taking co-development money from the government in 2012 for the 2014s
we should be grateful that Ford was generous not to chop off production in 2008 with BF3 and no FG
all thanks to Kim Carr flying overseas to convince Ford to proceed with a $700 M FG product cycle.