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Toyota is Gone. Goodbye Australian Car industry 1896-2017.

Jesterarts

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On the topic of small car vs big car.

Everyone will know that I prefer bigger cars to smaller as in a crash, mass matters as does safety rating.

I just finished up car shopping for the wife, so in the last month or so I have sat in a LOT of cars.

It was a mixed bag with many surprises, such as me not being able to fit in a CX-9 while fitting essentially everything in the Hyandai line up.

The the moment that is the most relevant to the conversation about how smalls cars are, in a lot of cases, bigger inside was when I "tried" to get into a H3 hummer.

Overall I guess that venture was a success.... in the same way a 6'8 African American gentlemen is able to "fit" into a 5' Japanese girl.

It happened, but no one really enjoyed the process except those watching.
 

Grennan

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It happened, but no one really enjoyed the process except those watching.

PM me link please (im serious).

The small cars these days have come a long way in making use of every last bit of space inside the car.

Im currently looking for a new car. Ive jumped in plenty of BF's, VE's, FG's etc. The center console on all of them is huge. They take up so much premium space. The VE door cards are chunky.

I feel my VX has a thousand times more room. Much like Jester said, some of these big cars are huge on the outside but there is so much wasted space inside.
 

mpower

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PM me link please (im serious).

The small cars these days have come a long way in making use of every last bit of space inside the car.

Im currently looking for a new car. Ive jumped in plenty of BF's, VE's, FG's etc. The center console on all of them is huge. They take up so much premium space. The VE door cards are chunky.

I feel my VX has a thousand times more room. Much like Jester said, some of these big cars are huge on the outside but there is so much wasted space inside.

except for the little Toyota's - what the hell Toyota make your rolla and yaris have leg room for someone 6ft and over - it's not that frickin hard - you make the seat rails a bit longer!!!
 

SavVYute

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Now I ask what happens after 2017 when all three car makers production plants close?
What happens to all the infrastructure? The real estate? Who cleans up the sites?

Are there any other Australian manufacturing companies you can think of that would jump at the chance to purchase any of the sites? (They'd pick one up cheap seeing there will be three on the market then)

There's a world of opportunity out there for a manufacturer given there will be a huge unemployed pool of people to choose from to staff it.
 

mpower

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Now I ask what happens after 2017 when all three car makers production plants close?
What happens to all the infrastructure? The real estate? Who cleans up the sites?

Are there any other Australian manufacturing companies you can think of that would jump at the chance to purchase any of the sites? (They'd pick one up cheap seeing there will be three on the market then)

There's a world of opportunity out there for a manufacturer given there will be a huge unemployed pool of people to choose from to staff it.

We certainly could go through a renaissance in the same way the UK has - there will be plenty of govt money lying around for those who want to invest as well.

Did everyone see the TG episode where they showed what auto-manufacturers are now doing in the UK, this is after brands like MG, etc closed down and the plants all got bought by the Chinese and shipped wholesale out of the country.

The plant will be bought and shipped overseas or just abandoned - GM has a history of abandoning plants in the US.
 

SavVYute

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I'd like to see an Aussie company forge ahead and do something world class with the sites.
Maybe aviation or trucks?
 

Calaber

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One thing that has to be considered is that all three companies will be required to service the repair and replacement parts for their cars for years after local production ceases. I imagine that things like body panels will be stamped out in bulk whilst production is still underway, but what sort of stocks will the manufacturers hold for items supplied by sub-contractors, such as electrical parts, glass, alloy wheels, diffs etc? The storage of parts will require huge space so at least some of the existing plants will be retained for that purpose for quite a while, at least until stocks run down. How much stock will be kept for obsolete (ie over ten year old) models? Will body presses be sold off for after market manufacturers to supply hard to get panels in years to come? I suppose a lot of the robot assembly line gear will be removed and either sold off or transferred to other plants overseas.

Even the Lang Lang test track will be disposed of - I can just imagine it being covered by houses in years to come. Maybe the speed bowl could be used as a race track?

Has anybody any idea what happened to the equipment when Mitsubishi shut down?
 

c2105026

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How much does the average production line worker make/year?

According to publically available workplace agreement, average Holden worker gets $45-60k/yr. Not exactly impoverished, but not Cristal and oysters neiter......
 

c2105026

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PM me link please (im serious).

The small cars these days have come a long way in making use of every last bit of space inside the car.

Im currently looking for a new car. Ive jumped in plenty of BF's, VE's, FG's etc. The center console on all of them is huge. They take up so much premium space. The VE door cards are chunky.

I feel my VX has a thousand times more room. Much like Jester said, some of these big cars are huge on the outside but there is so much wasted space inside.

I'd agree with that. VT-VX feels light and nimble compared to VE. VE was over-strengthened, apparently, to get the coveted 5 star NCAP rating. Which is odd, considering my 1080kg fiesta has the same safety rating.....drove a VE once, hated it. Terrible visibility, beltline too high, depressing interior. VX Commodore was like a greenhouse in comparison.
 

c2105026

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One thing that has to be considered is that all three companies will be required to service the repair and replacement parts for their cars for years after local production ceases. I imagine that things like body panels will be stamped out in bulk whilst production is still underway, but what sort of stocks will the manufacturers hold for items supplied by sub-contractors, such as electrical parts, glass, alloy wheels, diffs etc? The storage of parts will require huge space so at least some of the existing plants will be retained for that purpose for quite a while, at least until stocks run down. How much stock will be kept for obsolete (ie over ten year old) models? Will body presses be sold off for after market manufacturers to supply hard to get panels in years to come? I suppose a lot of the robot assembly line gear will be removed and either sold off or transferred to other plants overseas.

Even the Lang Lang test track will be disposed of - I can just imagine it being covered by houses in years to come. Maybe the speed bowl could be used as a race track?

Has anybody any idea what happened to the equipment when Mitsubishi shut down?

From private research -

Holden Pagewood Plant - closed 1980, became a cigarette factory. Now being turned into apartments as we speak.
Ford Lidcombe - closed 1994 - now HQ for Kia in Australia, has parts warehouse and holding yard.
Holden Dandenong - leased as warehousing and is also GMH spart parts depository.
Tonsley Park - redeveloped as industrial estate.

By law, makers must stock parts for about 10 years until car finishes production, afterwhich it goes to aftermarket. My EQUIPE badge for the VX actually came from Korea.
 
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