Fat Fish!
 

There's an old Greek saying....

It takes a lot of little fish to feed a fat fish!

Soul.

It seems that nation the size of Australia should be able to make something, rather than just dig it up and sell it off. Governments have pumped money and favours into the local car industry - Howard did so big time - as all governments do. Just look at the US bailout of GM. SAAB gone, Volvo on the way, the world market in cars in all about the multi-national big companies, cheap labour and government sweeteners unfortunately.

Merv, what the US feds did was not subsidize GM but bought a large holding of GM shares. That's a whole lot different than just handingover a fist full of money.

The US feds, bought the shares, then assisted in re-organizing GM which also included putting a cap on GM executive salaries.

Now, GM are on the come back and the US Feds are selling out their stake in the company. See here:
Government sells big hunk of GM stock

Whether the US Feds get all the money back is speculation but at the very least they will get a large part of it back and will not suffer the consequences of a full loss as will the Oz. Government with Ford.

Also note that other the other GM shareholders whose holdings were worth nothing at the time of GM claiming a the Chapter 11 have now not lost their total investment.

And this is the procedure I subscribe. Certainly assist the Industry, but do so by protecting the interests of the taxpayer as much as possible.

I am always suspicious of large multi national Companies when they make claims as seen here:

Ford workers 'devastated' by announcement Victorian plants will close in 2016 | News.com.au

Note: "Ford CEO and president Bob Graziano "manufacturing is not viable for Ford in the long term" in a press conference this morning. Australia Ford operations have lost $600 million in Australia over five years."

Really, lost $600 million hey? .... And this is despite the taxpayers of Oz giving you over 1 billion since the year 2000.

If we sent in some forensic accounting types to look at the Ford Australia's Balance sheet, I bet we would find all manner of costs like two favourites used by US companies:

The first being: Loans ... In the US corporate loans can be sourced at damn near nil interest from the Feds. These funds are then "sent" to overseas subsidiaries but at an interest cost much greater than the local market.

Second: Licencing fees .... As a totally different legal entity Ford Australia could well be paying the Ford Holding company in the US a "licencing Fee" just to use the Ford name.

I suspect the pending closure is just a strategic move by Ford to a cheaper manufacturing centre.

The devil is always in the detail.

Sad news indeed.
I too Like Gav started my apprenticeship at Ford in 1989 and have been hearing that Ford will be closing since this day but they had manage to keep struggling.
I saw a lot of changes over the years from the shop floor work force (blue collar) halving in 10 years to the office work force (white collar) doubling then more and more job losses for the blue collar. The blue collar worker is a direct labour (makes money for the company) and the indirect labour (costs the company money) balance was out and got worse which made making any part within Ford tough. To many chiefs & not enough indians. Ford lost so much of their manufacturing business because it was not viable. Blue collar workers were on a good wage thanks to the unions which put more pressure and the machinery needed upgrading.
Then they built the AU and because of the declined sales they sacked the sales staff. Not the design staff or the ones responsible for releasing the design.
I wasn't able to buy a new Ford until the AU in 1999 and although the sales experience and car were fine the experience from the dealer's service department was so bad it put off buying another. I did how ever buy a FG ute for work and the experience was no better.
Ford had the dedicated gas cars and we didn't see any government's buying them. This could have been so much of a advantage to the Australian's as the government would have supported the car industry, local councils would had less expenses for their rate payers etc.
A fellow employee left 2 years ago and works for the armed forces now and although he is still a passionate Ford person he notices that all the governments cars in the 2 site that he works at are all fully imported cars. So how much does our government care about our industry? Only the income from cars being sold and registered.

In my opinion only Ford Australia has dug it's own hole and made it deeper and deeper over the years. They have even had crap adds.
The d' spec the cars so that people don't want them or buy other brands and then say the are discontinuing these models due to lack of sales, bad after sales service, lack of support for racing etc.

America has it's own interests to look after and Australia is suck a small market for them.

Not sure what european you can buy for $90K that also has a mighty V8 and goes like a FPV/HSV, but I would sure like to know.

Personally I think the Falcons/Commodores represent great value for what they are, but also I think in this current economy most people do not want to spend $40K plus on a car. All the best sellers these days are low cost vehicles.

I rue the day when the only 4 door rear drive V8 I can buy is a $150k euro.

Yes, it is disappointing to say the least, I agree.

But no one has addressed real question? Will I be able to pickup some cheap v8's locally now for my Cobra when I build it? :-)

Tim, you're right, not many brand new bahnstormers on the market for 90k but if you don't mind buying a 12 month old car there are plenty of options. BMW 335i, Audi S5, Cayman, etc.

This might be the Falcon replacement.

A Taurus turbo was spotted comming in through Sydney airport.

http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/...psa9e9cdf5.jpg

Not yet I think, there is a falcon facelift due next year.
The proving grounds and product development facilities are not closing down so if a 'test' car was to come in it would be through Melbourne I would think.

Gav, there's a highway between Sydney and Melbourne. :D

Really?

Have you driven an Mercedes C63 AMG Tim? I have and it is pretty dammed impressive. I don't know how they pass the noise test.

My sister has one and it's mental.

Cheers

More info/confusion on that Taurus.

Drive - Ford Taurus Spotted | Ford Falcon replacement

There is an older one at our local Merc dealer. I was down here last month looking at a car for my wife and there was this 2010 C63 with about 15kms. I made an enquiry and was told that it was not for sale and that it was bought new back in 2010 and was never picked up. Apparently was worried that his wife might not approve ...

They are the best car Mercedes has made for 20 years.

Oh I am a big fan of the C63 AMG. They still run to $150K or so, and are much smaller inside than the HSV. But I do like them.

A few months ago a bloke in a C63 Brabus (AMG on steriods) tried to provoke me into a bit of traffic light racing along Beach Rd - no thanks. This is how it sounded. Not the actual car but you get the idea.

I keep talking myself out of one of these, over the last 4 years. It's getting harder. Some cars are not worth $15K and some not worth $150K in value terms. The C63 is worth the money for what you get. Amazing re-sale value as well. Stop ... stop ... :CRY:

I believe your Brabus fellow also owns a Cobra, GT40...and a stable full of Italian prancing Horses!