Forg
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A lot of people have said this move added an extra 10-20 years of car manufacturing in Australia ...The rot started in 1985 when the Labor Govt, via Senator Button, stuck their nose into the car industry, uninvited, and created badge engineering.
Australians don't like being fed rubbish. Frankly, stuff designed here has been rubbish for most of history. It takes a long time to build trust when your products cost such a large proportion of the average yearly wage, and longevity/reliability has been historically pretty lame c/f products made in Japan ... VE was realistically the first decent platform, but it was hidden under a plastic interior Hyundai would've been embarrassed about; and the less said about the volume-selling HFV6 engine, the better.But who would have bought them? Australians are up themselves with badge snobbery.
On the topic we've been discussing; yeah, gumbyment basically munted it at the time. Any first-world country with a manufacturing base only does it due to gumbyment subsidy or concession. Sure manufacturing has to be for more than the local market, but Folden have known that for ages and have been trying to design for a global market; Ford Oz just weren't allowed, Holden were allowed but then the decision over Zeta being a global platform was reverted in favour of a US-designed platform.
And that, there, is the crux of it. Our industry was bought by overseas interests in ... what, the 1930's? Since then it's been totally overseas owned. So when global cost-cutting occurred, as will eventually happen according to the rules of Capitalism, the Home Country will always win out.
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