You will want to read this

[426Cuda]

In June 1941, the Nazis surprised the Soviets by launching Operation Barbarossa, Hitler’s secret plan to defeat and capture the Soviet Union. The mighty Soviet T-34 tank had just begun production, however, and the advancing Wehrmacht forces threatened all the factories where the Russian tank was being produced. A decision was made: The T-34 factories would be dismantled, put on trains, and reassembled in the Ural Mountains, hundreds of miles east of Moscow, far enough away from the advancing Panzer divisions. The human cost of such a massive undertaking was particularly brutal even by Stalin-era Soviet standards, but the results cannot be denied. The superior T-34 eventually mopped the Eastern Front with the outclassed Panzer IVs, helping to achieve Allied victory in World War II.

Why the history lesson?
Take the time to read the best review ever, the first of the last.

Thanks Monst aarrh . That was an awesome read!

 

[LS3SS]

Definitely happy I've got my blown & cammed 6.2L V8! Love it and always look forward to driving it. Definitely a keeper!

 

[figjam]

Don't know if this has been posted on here before, but here are similar US thoughts about the ute. Video.
https://www.motormag.com.au/features/1703/holden-commodore-ss-utes-in-the-us

 

[Sean880]

I'll answer the below question for him, most Aussie's don't know what they've got 'till it's gone.

True but most of them don't care apparently.

I does not matter how good your product is if insufficient people will not to buy it and in an annual Australian new car market of over a million new vehicles very few buyers want to purchase a Commodore of any description.
Sales of new Commodores over the past 6 years to 2015 in Aust ---------
45,956 -------2010
40,617...... 2011
30,532 .......2012
27,766 ........2013
30,203 .........2014
27,770..... 2015

In the mid 1960s Holden sold 257,000 EH model Holdens(the 1964 Holden) in two or so years. In 1998 Holden sold nearly 95,000 Commodores.

You cannot continue to manufacture a vehicle here with such low annual Commodore sales as we have now (because your unit cost are too high) and you can thank the new car buying public for that. The buyers killed manufacturing here because they largely wanted to buy imports instead.

For all those who are wringing their hands over the demise of the Australian built Commodore, I would ask how many NEW Commodores have you bought over the past 10-12 years because if the answer is none then you have done stuff all for local manufacturing and your decision not to buy a NEW Commodore has contributed to the demise of the industry. (No - buying a second hand unit counts for nothing because the guy that bought the Commodore new did all the heavy lifting, not you).

If Holden were able to sell 100,000 Commodores a year (not a huge ask) instead of the pitiful sales volumes that have been achieved over the last decade, I very much doubt they would not continue to build them here. They cannot because, sadly, most of the Aust buyers don't want them.

 

[zappaboy]

Given the patriotism that is displayed on this forum, would the people that claim not to be interested in any other offering coz it's not made in Oz still buy VF or its similar successor if the plant was moved to say Korea ?

We must not forget that the a high proportion of the VF components are made in Korea and Thailand. The VF has the lowest Australian content of any Commodore Model. One change with the VF over the VE is that the steel for the VF is mostly sourced from Australia where the VE was sourced from the US

 

[426Cuda]

Given the patriotism that is displayed on this forum, would the people that claim not to be interested in any other offering coz it's not made in Oz still buy VF or its similar successor if the plant was moved to say Korea ?

Yes. Unquestionably. But the preferable would be Aussie product.

 

[SnowDoggyDogg]

Low inflation has a large part to play when you look at consumption patterns from the past compared to today.

We've basically been stuck in a lost decade of wage growth since the GFC. This directly has an effect on purchasing of goods, especially big ticket items like cars. Look how retailing has responded in other ways to try and capture sales - harvey norman, super amart, etc offering interest free low payment options for years on minimal sums to sling white goods and hifi.

It is sad but we've plowed all of our money into a housing bubble instead of productive enterprises that help give people jobs and make them actually financially better off. The only people who've benefitted in the last ten years as a working sector outside of the mining boom (now bust) is the financial/real estate sector and its all on house flipping and building crapolla inner city apartments or hotboxes out in whoopwhoop for investors.

All manufacturing has suffered terribly in Australia, not just car makers. Business that had survived world wars and great depressions have folded up and/or gone overseas. All of which without much of a whimper from the general public here.

We've literally sold the farm or let it go to ruin. F-ing sad really but we don't deserve to be a country that has an auto industry really.

 

[VS 5.0]

I generally agree with everything you say here, however have to mention this:-

The only people who've benefitted in the last ten years as a working sector outside of the mining boom (now bust) is the financial/real estate sector and its all on house flipping and building crapolla inner city apartments or hotboxes out in whoopwhoop for investors.

The "mining boom" in WA is actually happening right now. Just have a look at the volume of product beig dug out and shipped off (record port volumes), combined with what is a good comodity price despite the volume in the market.

The "mining boom" term that the media and others continually refer to as having busted was in fact a construction boom (in WA at least) that happened to be in the mining industry. The construction boom was never going to last forever. You can't kep building mines and associated infrastructure indefinitely.

 

[SnowDoggyDogg]

I agree that mining export is going gang busters in WA but CAPEX investment has fallen off a cliff (compared to the last 10 years) as no new projects of significance are going forward. Operating a mine employs a fraction of the workforce it takes to set one up. This would be offset had we installed a decent tax on mining exports back in time to shovel money into a rainy day sovereign investment fund (like Norway does with their North sea oil fields) but I digress.
The high WA port volumes are matched by equally high and unsustainable stockpiling of our high quality ore product at Chinese ports... in actuality its a glut that will savage ore prices over the coming years.

Like I said, we don't deserve the manufacturing base our forefathers built because of poor management across both sides of politics and all levels of government for many decades now. Allowing our dollar to climb so high against USD was full retard and has effectively nuked our competitive advantage in a global stage.

 

[Sabbath']

Cant have a viable industry with unions doing their best to drain the companies of money through ridiculous wage requests.


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...e/news-story/d7b6fd9fd23d594a06041954f1af9fa8

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...n/news-story/d3cb0cba03b227ef28ce35ac0bbcfae0

Mr Devereux has described Australia as being "among the most expensive places to build cars anywhere on the planet", with $2000 of the $3750 additional cost of building a Holden in Australia attributed to labour costs.

http://www.news.com.au/finance/busi...s/news-story/5cb37eebf1866e08022a56df386df550

Staff at the Holden Adelaide plant earn between $45,000-$70,000 a year.