Ford to close Aussie operations in 2016

[sambo]

Sad news for all those who work in the local automotive history.

Ford Australia to close Broadmeadows and Geelong plants, 1,200 jobs to go - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

On the bright side maybe we'll finally get access to reasonably priced Mustangs?

[MRGEORGE077]

Wow, what a loss, after so many years building cars down under, what in the world is the labor or benefit cost there?

[twobjshelbys]

no more utes?

[Gav]

I did my apprenticeship with ford Geelong and still have plenty of mates working there.
Genuinely I would expect them to close up earlier than 2016.
Their sales will now plummet, and that will give them an excuse to close sooner.

Very sad news for the Australian manufacturing industry.

[boxhead]

That is a sad thing.

[Aussie Mike]

Very sad indeed. No more Falcons, No more FPV cars. This sucks.

[d488y2]

Sad day for any car fan. Shell is talking about closing in Geelong as well.
What is this country coming to??

[sambo]

For the price of a Commodore/Falcon there are now so many other options, particularly with the high AUD. At the high end, you really have to be a die hard fan to spend $90k on a HSV/FPV, when for similar money you can have the performance and refinement of a European sedan. That's not necessarily how I'd spend the money but I think it's how a lot of people feel.

[Gav]

The downturn of the Australian car industry came with the removal of tariffs on imported cars.
Sure we paid a little more but at least we had local jobs.
It is quite difficult to imagine what is to become of Aus once a few more major manufacturers pull out and go OS.
Unfortunately Ford, GM and Toyota source parts for their local products from the same places, loosing one of the remaining 3 car manufacturers will put extra pressure on them and could possibly make it too difficult to be competitive with OS suppliers, resulting in further losses of jobs.
Sorry to be all doom and gloom but I reckon we are heading for a bit of a rude wake up call in the future.

[400TT]

Very sad news, how about all the flow on consequences, even the affect on V8 Supercars etc. We won't know the real impact for years to come.

Originally Posted by sambo

you really have to be a die hard fan to spend $90k on a HSV/FPV,

Hmm, brand new VF HSV GTS with Supercharged 6.2LT 430KW, 6 piston brakes front and rear, active LSD diff etc. I've heard they are selling like hot cakes...

[sideshow]

Thank fk for that
The last few years their quality is pretty piss poor
The ba and bf are probably worst car they ever made
Good motors but rest of the car is pisspoor
So beware do not buy a cheap ba falcon
I get 10 or more calls a week regarding them breaking down

[Dimis]

Very sad indeed.

Blame can be distributed to this or that. But the truth is why would any car manufacturer (or other manufacturer for that matter), burden themselves with the high labour cost that Aus has comparered to other developing nations in Asia or South America for example.

It's not a matter of "if" but sadly "when" the others fall by the way side also.

What upsets me most is that as obvious as this is the dumb ass government still thinks its a good idea to pump money into them to keep em afloat under the guise of saving jobs.
More like prolonging the inevitable and lining the pockets of the bigs wigs.

[fordracing65]

Originally Posted by Dimis

Very sad indeed.

Blame can be distributed to this or that. But the truth is why would any car manufacturer (or other manufacturer for that matter), burden themselves with the high labour cost that Aus has comparered to other developing nations in Asia or South America for example.

It's not a matter of "if" but sadly "when" the others fall by the way side also.

What upsets me most is that as obvious as this is the dumb ass government still thinks its a good idea to pump money into them to keep em afloat under the guise of saving jobs.
More like prolonging the inevitable and lining the pockets of the bigs wigs.

AGREED, well said...

[sambo]

Originally Posted by Dimis

What upsets me most is that as obvious as this is the dumb ass government still thinks its a good idea to pump money into them to keep em afloat under the guise of saving jobs.

Labor government, blue collar jobs, translates into... votes!

[sideshow]

Hopefully this is a wake up call to govt. which I doubt
That once the mining boom is over australia is fkt
If big business like ford is shutting down imaging how many small businesses
are closing, I know afew mechanical shops stuggling or closing down,
We r one of most expensive places to live in and it will fk us over in a decade or so
So many small businesses are doing it tough let alone the big companies like ford

[Gav]

Originally Posted by sambo

Labor government, blue collar jobs, translates into... votes!

Just like the Labour Party, it's voters are quite short sighted.

[sambo]

I've never been able to work it out... labor cost is high because wages are high because prices are high because wages are high... vicious cycle. Dollar for dollar, money used to go a LOT further 10 years ago.

[Dimis]

Originally Posted by sambo

I've never been able to work it out... labor cost is high because wages are high because prices are high because wages are high... vicious cycle. Dollar for dollar, money used to go a LOT further 10 years ago.

What cant you work out?
The truth would be the same if you said the same in reverse. No?
Labor cost is low because wages are low because prices are low because wages are low... until greed rears its ugly head

Money used to go a LOT further 10 years ago, because there was less of it.
Commodities & assets are still "worth" the relative same.

...in my humble opinion of course.

[Aussie Mike]

I remeber my dad saying to me when I was a kid. "A new car is going to cost you about a years pay and a House is going to cost you 10 years pay". The same rings pretty true today for the average person.

Cheers

[Rebel1]

All totally valid but I sure do object to the millions of dollars of subsidies paid over a great number of years going down the drain.

Subsidies should only be paid by the Feds in return for stock ... that is a shareholding in Ford that can be resold.