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

[Sabbath']

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

Try comparing that to the average mechanic wage of $18-$25 an hour which involves 4 years of training. Not to mention the knowledgebase and diagnostic processes you need to follow.

Then compare that to some unionized retard who pushes a button and the machines do all the work yet they still feel hard done by.

THAT is why manufacturing is unsustainable in this country.

I have no sympathy for them.

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[Drawnnite]

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.

the machinery for the car factories will be disassembled, packed up and sent over to the factory that won the contract for the next models.
not sure about the holden and fords, but in Toyotas case it is quite certain.

many of the sites will either be snapped up or set up as industrial estates due to the infrastructure that is currently there.

quite possibly they could be used as a temporary storage spot for their cars until they get shipped out from dealers.
this would more so be the case with Holden and Toyota due to proximetry to the docks and main roads.

 

[c2105026]

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.

Back in the 80s/90s small cars were just that - small. Then ~2000 small cars got bigger, roomier and more powerful. My 8th generation 2000 Corolla with 85kw and auto struggled with highway driving (0-100 12s), and was very cramped in the back. In 2005 I bought a 9th gen Corolla auto, difference was like night and day. You could fit 4 6-foot men in it, and their luggage, and car could pass stuff on highway (0-100 10s). First generation Mazda 3 was a big hit, manual version could do 0-100 in 8.7s, whilst being fairly roomy and fun to drive. Indeed the 3rd generation Mazda 3 has grown to a size that is now on par with the original VB Commodore. You can now get a Mazda3 or Ford Focus with the same power as a VP/VR Commodore, whilst being a lot lighter.

Look to UK/Europe - biggest seller has always been a light or small car. In 2013, biggest selling car in UK was the Fiesta (I think). People rarely go bigger than a Vectra/Mondeo. Indeed globally, most of the all-time big sellers have been small cars.

 

[Calaber]

Both the Pagewood and Lidcombe plants were reasonably small. Pagewood is principally residential with light industry interspersed, and conversion to apartments would have been obvious. The buildings also had some historical significance so preservation of the façade in Bunnerong Road, I think, was probably required by any proposed development. Holding yards and open spaces are obviously easy to flog off for housing etc.

The Lidcombe one was really just an assembly plant, last used to assemble Lasers. It sits on Parramatta Road, in the middle of residential and commercial zones. It would be quite feasible for the uses each of them has come to. Another former plant is the Leyland one in Zetland in Sydney which closed down in the mid 70's. It is now used by various firms for warehousing and service centres.

The biggies, though, at Elizabeth and Geelong, will probably be broken down into multiple use sites, with perhaps some of the older plants at Geelong being demolished and the sites redeveloped for housing. Some of those buildings date from the 1920's. Much of the open spaces could probably be sold off, but I still wonder what will become of the Lang Lang test track. At least Ford has stated it intends to retain its test circuit in the You Yangs for future model development.

 

[Calaber]

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.

Have to agree regarding the comparison of the VE interior with the previous models. My daughter's VE Sportswagon is absolute garbage. How Holden ever considered putting such a cheap and nasty interior into such a modern, solid and safe family car, which had been designed with export potential in mind, is beyond me. It was, by far, the worst aspect of the whole VE program.

The body was built extra strong to ensure excellent handling. The single side pressings ensure a much tighter and more rigid shell, which has a major effect on a vehicle's handling as well as its structural integrity and crash safety. One of the reasons the battery ended up in the boot wasn't just because there was no space under the bonnet - it was to assist in achieving 50/50 weight balance between front and rear axles, an important factor in achieving high levels of handling.

Not sure if my next comment belongs here or in the political thread. The blame game is on again. Bill Shorten appeared on the Today show this morning saying that the collapse of the Australian motor industry is the responsibility of the Abbott government. When it was pointed out that Mitsubishi and Ford both closed or announced their closures during Labor government terms, he just twisted the discussion back to the fact that subsidisation for overseas makers was far more per capita than Australia and the government had done nothing to prevent the closures. In his words, the politicians in Canberra didn't care about the jobs of ordinary Australians, which was his biggest worry. I wonder what would have happened if these closures had been announced just five months ago - would Labor have poured huge bucks into both Holden AND Toyota to keep them afloat? How lucky are they with the timing - just a few months out of office and the whole shebang is the fault of the new government.

 

[VS 5.0]

....but I still wonder what will become of the Lang Lang test track. At least Ford has stated it intends to retain its test circuit in the You Yangs for future model development.

Holden to sell top-secret Lang Lang test track before 2017

And the old Ford factory in North Fremantle eventually became a brewery. Not a bad reincarnation.

 

[Sandman]

JC group buy on Lang Lang?

 

[mpower]

Holden to sell top-secret Lang Lang test track before 2017

And the old Ford factory in North Fremantle eventually became a brewery. Not a bad reincarnation.

The whole article is complete and utter speculation except for the approximated valuation.

 

[Ian Johnston]

One of the biggest problems, and cost, in redevelopment of any site, is the EPA. Down our way there has been a couple of
older sites being cleaned up for new projects. The depth of dirt that has to be dug out, cleaned(decontaminated) is unreal.
Major costs that dont have to be done if not knocked down etc.
Imagine years of car building industry poring waste onto/into the ground.

 

[c2105026]

One of the biggest problems, and cost, in redevelopment of any site, is the EPA. Down our way there has been a couple of
older sites being cleaned up for new projects. The depth of dirt that has to be dug out, cleaned(decontaminated) is unreal.
Major costs that dont have to be done if not knocked down etc.
Imagine years of car building industry poring waste onto/into the ground.

Yeh I think at Woodville (or Elizabeth?) the area around the old chroming plant had very bad heavy metal pollution. (await the puns...)