It's been a long time coming. How many billions of govt support cash wasted? Ford confirms plant closures
Sad day for Australia IMO. Will impact on a lot of businesses besides Ford. How long now for Holden and Toyota?
according to Dept Immigration in Feb the annual cost of the illegal immigrant (sorry lefties, "asylum seekers") debacle in FY13 will be $2billion. And rising. Labor have now put back 95% of the border protection that was in place when they came to power, reality catching up with left ideology. Just imaging the manufacturing R&D we could have funded, just imagine the benefit of giving a 150% tax break to small manufacturing business in Australia. Instead, we have rivers of wasted money and the decline of industry. Listening to Gillard on the radio today, blaming the dollar, blaming Ford "not connecting to a global supply chain", blaming everyone but not a word of admission of error on her part.
Bloody spot on Ian!! These crims have yet to work out that socialism doesn't work. If ever you want to see if things are rocking in the manufacturing sector, drive around some industrial estates during the week and see the vacant buildings. Where will our kids get things made in the future? They have got to go. If they get back into power we all need to by shares in KY and get your own applicator, your gunna need it.
Found out last week FPV silently killed production of the F6 ute at the start of the yr, and it looks like the F6 sedan was going as well. At the end of the day, people aren't buying the cars. If ford adapted to the market, they would surely be in a better spot. VF commonwhore is a sure sales failure as well.
Buy it anyway MG, wer'e past the point of repair I think, the knowledge needed to fix the mess we are in does'nt exist (or should I say balls instead of knowledge?)
Article formatted for Mobile - US Covers things you likely already know, but, there it is. http://m.yahoo.com/w/legobpengine/finance/news/high-costs-currency-push-ford-035050150.html?.intl=us&.lang=en-us Shame about the Falcon, but no surprise about Unions & Boatherders. Watch the demands they'll all make from here on out. via rubber ducky
We need to get rid of the carbon tax to reduce the price of coal fired power (which started Vic as a manufacturing state) and get investment back into the region... from companies that don't hvae their agenda set by US union requirements.
Genuinely peeved when I heard about Ford playing hard ball and leaving the country, probably even more so when I saw the VF design (mentioned before to be doomed from the start). Australia has lost it's passion for automotive design, and possibly the manufacture of entirely new concepts! If we have learnt anything in the last few decades of manufacturing Holden and Ford, it's that inspiration was key to paramount to making the next big thing. As the generations go by, so does the attitude to the newest design, and hence affecting the next lot of sales... So if there was anything that they could have done better it would be till listen to the trends and invest invest invest! Sorry I just had to post this somewhere, Michael
That's actually part of the issue. The government departments are run as profit centres now, buying all manner of cheap imports (Hyundai, Kia etc) and totally ignoring the local product Folklore at the time suggested that Chrysler used to go to Canberra every year to bleat about how badly done by they were, that the Government needed to help them out or they would be forced to shut down. That visit was said to almost always include a fleet order for the Commonwealth car fleet... Now they would be getting their panties in a bunch over the latest i30... blehhh What will the taxi industry do now? Will we be stuck in Priuses?
In QLD it is rare to see a Falcon taxi. Whats common are prius, Camry, VW passat wagon. The G6E falcons are mainly seen in Silver service taxi's only.
Yep. I had to get a taxi to somewhere in Cairns and a Prius turned up. As I'm in the renta car game I asked him what he thought ect. ..anyhow it turns out that Cairns has the highest,per-capita number of Prius's as taxis',to the extent that when becomes to old/wrecked/broken,they don't sell 'em,they're stored as parts cars.....'cos the cost of new parts is prohibitive.....as I'm led to believe. Is that right Prius lover PP?
They will make a lot more money selling products that Ford makes around the world that are more competitive in the market than the Falcon. I'm sure Mitsubishi is much more profitable now than 5 years ago when they made the 380 here.
On the same day Ford announced the plants closure, in 2016 I might add, with a loss of 1,200 jobs I see that Swan Cleaning went into receivership with a loss of 2,500 jobs. Not much press on the that one, despite the Swan Cleaning jobs going yesterday. The Ford employees have over two years to: 1. Find another job 2. Retrain, a TAFE course, night school etc. 3. Take a package which the militant unions will demand. 4. Accept that if you work in a highly unionised environment, you will sadly embrace the entitlement mentality which hardly puts you in good stead in the real world. It's amusing at best that the Government was happy to throw money at Ford as a loss making venture for over 10 years. With no accountability. At the same time, not demand Ford produce a car that appropriate to the market. Ford management are irresponsible in the extreme and should be asked to give the money back. The Government is seriously misguided in its attempt to encourage local manufacturing by throwing money at a dead horse such as Ford, and Holden. Yet at the same time, making it virtually impossible to start a manufacturing business here in the first place by the obscene amount of red tape and compliance issues, not to mention the unions themselves that pride themselves on being combative and counter productive. I'm not sad to see Ford go, nor the Government.
