SA Footy

http://www.news.com.au/business/ford-to-cut-240-jobs-as-sales-of-larger-vehicles-slump/story-e6frfm1i-1226039177973
Doesn't look good, feel for the workers but the company hasn't moved with the times. Perhaps an all-gas or diesel Falcon is the answer.

Doesn't look good.

If the vehicle industry goes under in Australia,

We are gone.

So many environments feed of the vehicle industry.

Wake Up Australia

Wake up Julia

Dog_ger wrote:Doesn't look good.

If the vehicle industry goes under in Australia,

We are gone.

So many environments feed of the vehicle industry.

Wake Up Australia

Wake up Julia

The industry is propped up enough by the government. As mick alludes to, these companies have to take responsibility for failing to move with market trends.

Quichey wrote:

Dog_ger wrote:Doesn't look good.
If the vehicle industry goes under in Australia,
We are gone.
So many environments feed of the vehicle industry.
Wake Up Australia
Wake up Julia

The industry is propped up enough by the government. As mick alludes to, these companies have to take responsibility for failing to move with market trends.

True - they may finally follow the logical market trend and set up in China, or somewhere similar.
I can't see Australia maintaining any low tech. manufacturing base in a free trade world due to our high cost environment.
Only import tariffs could do that, and, sadly, we are not doing enough to support and encourage high tech. developments instead.

Psyber wrote:

Quichey wrote:

Dog_ger wrote:Doesn't look good.
If the vehicle industry goes under in Australia,
We are gone.
So many environments feed of the vehicle industry.
Wake Up Australia
Wake up Julia

The industry is propped up enough by the government. As mick alludes to, these companies have to take responsibility for failing to move with market trends.

True - they may finally follow the logical market trend and set up in China, or somewhere similar.
I can't see Australia maintaining any low tech. manufacturing base in a free trade world due to our high cost environment.
Only import tariffs could do that, and, sadly, we are not doing enough to support and encourage high tech. developments instead.

Free trade is a fact of life. Fact is if more Australians bought Australian built products then it would help the local car makers and would have flow on effects through the whole economy.

Ford need to rapidly swallow some pride and manufacture what people want to buy. XM to 2010 is a great success story for the Falcon and clearly there are people that will continue to buy it as well as the Territory which has a market also. Yet the market is changing, the Camry plant in Altona Victoria is the most profitable Camry Plant that Toyota have worldwide which suggests there is plenty the Australian industry can do if they wish to.

Toyota are a success because they build bland yet reliable cars, they compete in all sections of the market and dominate most of them. Ford would do well to model themselves on Toyota.

Honda make a fantastic Hybrid car as well as the Prius, Yet it does not have the name or brand recognition like the Prius. In the 1980s, Ford took a shitty Mazda, improved its design and sold it as the Ford Laser and dominated the small car market for a number of years, you still see the last model Lasers on the road in high numbers. There is no reason that they cant do the same with the Honda Hybrid engine into one of their own vehicles or even as a rebadge, in return Honda could tap into their commercial vehicle network which they have none of.

Ford could also look at a 4cyl plant for their Falcon, modern 4cyl engines have a high KW range and run high fuel economy as well as attracting much lower registration costs and being able to meet the criteria for government and private firms that get tax breaks to buy there vehicles.

The problem is that Ford dont seem to have the will to change nor the capacity to deal with a changing market. If they do fall over in Australia it will be there own fault, yet a very sad day for the thousands of people that work there though.

Yes, our cost of living is high.

Compared to nations that get by on wages of $2 an hour or less.

Free trade will kill Australia.

"NO IMPORTED GOODS" is the only way to go.

Australia must wake up.

One day we will all have to live in corrigated iron shanty towns.

Fighting for survival.

Dog_ger wrote:Yes, our cost of living is high.

Compared to nations that get by on wages of $2 an hour or less.

Free trade will kill Australia.

"NO IMPORTED GOODS" is the only way to go.

Australia must wake up.

One day we will all have to live in corrigated iron shanty towns.

Fighting for survival.

I think you've answered your agrument there.

If all that shiny stuff in your house that you love so much was made in Australia then you probably could never afford to buy it. Same applies to all Western countries. It's only because there are those in the world who work for a real pittance that enables everyone else to be 'haves' instead of 'have nots'. No country ever has been or ever will be self-sufficient in the modern world...you export goods...you import goods...so does every country.

The current economic climate might be bad for some companies but plenty of others will be doing very well out of it.

Regards
JAS

considering that Ford motor company is from USA are you meaning the Australian operations? And on the topic of Ford the next Falcon out next year is going to be front wheel drive

Dog_ger wrote:Yes, our cost of living is high.

Compared to nations that get by on wages of $2 an hour or less.

Free trade will kill Australia.

"NO IMPORTED GOODS" is the only way to go.

Australia must wake up.

One day we will all have to live in corrigated iron shanty towns.

Fighting for survival.

Better give back most of what you have in your house then ... because if Australia had the trade barrier walls up then either you wouldn't have been able to buy those things or they would have cost too much.

101 stuff really ...

Don't you think if we were apart or isolated from the rest of the world,

We would pay a fair price for our commodities...?

Stop imports. Only buy Australian.

If it is not made here, we cannot buy it.

Made/grown In Australia...

Make it.

If you are not born here, you cannot live here.

Any car company that produces cars that have high fuel consumption (to be honest anything over 10L per 100km) now is living in the past.

Ford's number 1 car is the Falcon that does over 10L per 100kms (prob more like 11 or 12 combined).

There are so many other options now that are more fuel efficient and have similar performance.

Turbo wrote:Any car company that produces cars that have high fuel consumption (to be honest anything over 10L per 100km) now is living in the past.

Ford's number 1 car is the Falcon that does over 10L per 100kms (prob more like 11 or 12 combined).

There are so many other options now that are more fuel efficient and have similar performance.

Think whats contributed to the downward spiral of aussie built family cars are people are now buying SUV's in record numbers, and they mostly use more than 10L/100km. Just for your info too, these cars use roughly 13-15L/100km in urban traffic but when balanced out for rural driving (7-8L/100km) they get an average figure around the 10L/100km mark. I know Holden are working on every aspect of the commodore to reduce that to under 10L/100km, things like aerodynamic drag & engine improvements.

auto wrote:

Turbo wrote:Any car company that produces cars that have high fuel consumption (to be honest anything over 10L per 100km) now is living in the past.

Ford's number 1 car is the Falcon that does over 10L per 100kms (prob more like 11 or 12 combined).

There are so many other options now that are more fuel efficient and have similar performance.

Think whats contributed to the downward spiral of aussie built family cars are people are now buying SUV's in record numbers, and they mostly use more than 10L/100km. Just for your info too, these cars use roughly 13-15L/100km in urban traffic but when balanced out for rural driving (7-8L/100km) they get an average figure around the 10L/100km mark. I know Holden are working on every aspect of the commodore to reduce that to under 10L/100km, things like aerodynamic drag & engine improvements.

Yeah we bought an suv for my wife and it's great. It averages about 8-8.5 combined fuel and has about 400nm of tourque.

Dog_ger wrote:Don't you think if we were apart or isolated from the rest of the world,

We would pay a fair price for our commodities...?

Stop imports. Only buy Australian.

If it is not made here, we cannot buy it.

Made/grown In Australia...

Make it.

If you are not born here, you cannot live here.

Should we stop selling commodities to China too?

dedja wrote:

Dog_ger wrote:Yes, our cost of living is high.
Compared to nations that get by on wages of $2 an hour or less.
Free trade will kill Australia.
"NO IMPORTED GOODS" is the only way to go.
Australia must wake up.
One day we will all have to live in corrigated iron shanty towns.
Fighting for survival.

Better give back most of what you have in your house then ... because if Australia had the trade barrier walls up then either you wouldn't have been able to buy those things or they would have cost too much.
101 stuff really ...

True..
Back in 1975 I bought a colour TV set made in Australia - a Rank Arena 14".
It cost me $450 - about $4500 in today's money I'd estimate.

Turbo wrote:

auto wrote:

Turbo wrote:Any car company that produces cars that have high fuel consumption (to be honest anything over 10L per 100km) now is living in the past.

Ford's number 1 car is the Falcon that does over 10L per 100kms (prob more like 11 or 12 combined).

There are so many other options now that are more fuel efficient and have similar performance.

Think whats contributed to the downward spiral of aussie built family cars are people are now buying SUV's in record numbers, and they mostly use more than 10L/100km. Just for your info too, these cars use roughly 13-15L/100km in urban traffic but when balanced out for rural driving (7-8L/100km) they get an average figure around the 10L/100km mark. I know Holden are working on every aspect of the commodore to reduce that to under 10L/100km, things like aerodynamic drag & engine improvements.

Yeah we bought an suv for my wife and it's great. It averages about 8-8.5 combined fuel and has about 400nm of tourque.

... and a turbo?

With the Aus $ up to $1.09 US, a Chrysler is looking like a pretty good option at the moment!