Ford to end Australian manufacturing in 2016

laxmax613

laxmax613

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2009
Messages
4,071
Location
Tel Aviv, Israel
Car(s)
Merkavim Mars
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/07/ford-to-shut-down-australian-manufacturing-in-2016/

TTAC said:
An Australian financial publication is quoting two auto industry players who say that Ford will exit their Australian manufacturing operations, taking the Ford Falcon and Territory with them.According to the International Business Times
This month alone, Ford laid off 15 percent of its workforce after collecting substantial handouts from the Australian government. While the Falcon is something of an Australian institution, consumers have been moving towards small cars in increasing numbers, leaving the Falcon and the Holden Commodore to become relics of a bygone era.
Click to expand...

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/368097/20120730/ford-jobs.htm#.UBb-kDG3DvL

TIBC said:
That Ford Australia recently slashed ?production to about 33,000 cars a year and laid off 440 employees are by means already telltale signs it will soon be padlocking the doors of its plants permanently in Australia.
"Ford will still be here selling cars but it will not be manufacturing cars in Australia," PPB Advisory partner Stephen Longley, a receiver for collapsed automotive supplier companies, told The Australian Financial Review.
In fact, "I don't expect them to be here after 2016 when the Euro 5 standards kick in."
Ford Australia's demise has actually been a forecast long in the making made by the industry's very own companies and experts.
For one, the sector's third largest player from local shores has been on life support for years, continuously strained under pressure from falling tariffs, more competitive imports and not to mention an increasingly growing cautious consumer.

"They are going to be closing within two to three years," James Kaias, director of automotive and defence manufacturer Abcor Group, said in the report.
"That is the consensus. I think it is pretty obvious," Mr Kaias said, noting that Ford Australia will close as soon as the Falcon nears the end of its life.
Ford Australia is one of three remaining car makers in Down Under after Nissan left in the early 1990s and Mitsubishi ended local production in 2008, the report said.
Mr Longley likewise revealed that components makers have completely written out Ford Australia from their business plans four years from now.
"It's going to be a slow death, or nearly a death by 1,000 cuts for some of the suppliers," he told ABC local radio. "There's been no announcements. The expectation though, is that this will happen.
"And without any announcements, all the people I deal with in the supply chain are assuming this is going to be the case. So decisions are being made on the basis that Ford Australia will definitely not be around from 2016."
Click to expand...


Terrible, terrible news. I hope to god it's not true.
 
It's been expected for a while. The union pushes up labour costs and profits are just unable to meet the demanded levels
 
Hope its not true.

Where would they source their production if that happened?
 
jack_christie said:
Hope its not true.

Where would they source their production if that happened?
Click to expand...

Many say they'll replace the Falcon with the Taurus and the Territory with the Explorer. Dunno if they'd start this with the next generation of these vehicles or not. IMO they should wait for the next gen...the Taurus is very space inefficient for it's size, and the SHO variant isn't terribly brilliant to drive.

Ditto Explorer which rides on the same platform. Ironically these cars direct predicessors were far roomier, practical, and more efficient...on the same D3 platform.

Funny how people ask for X, Y, and Z then reject a design once it hits the marketplace. Even funnier is how people then ask for the opposite and also reject the design at least when it comes to the current Taurus.
 
Last edited:
GaryC said:
It's been expected for a while. The union pushes up labour costs and profits are just unable to meet the demanded levels
Click to expand...
Of course, the unions are at fault *rolleyes*
 
jack_christie said:
Hope its not true.

Where would they source their production if that happened?
Click to expand...

Somewhere that isn't Australia.

Dr_Grip said:
Of course, the unions are at fault *rolleyes*
Click to expand...

In this case, they are to at least some degree. They have been agitating at various .AU suppliers of Ford, demanding higher wages and there's just no room to give - so the .au suppliers are going bankrupt and closing up shop instead. So instead of some jobs for some wages, they're getting no jobs and no wages and Ford can't rely on their local suppliers. Some of these suppliers are so on the edge that they can't even make their rent any more. And the unions demand more money - blood from a turnip, anyone?

Case in point: http://www.news.com.au/national/car...closes-factories/story-fndo4cq1-1226434919109

If you can't rely on local suppliers in .au, why bother making cars there?
 
Last edited:
rickhamilton620 said:
Many say they'll replace the Falcon with the Taurus and the Territory with the Explorer.
Click to expand...

They'll probably do that and just rebadge in order to keep the provenance of the names. Of course, that'd be seen as a mortal insult to Aussies and ammo for the Holden army. If this was pre-Mullaly, Ford would do it anyway.

And, Grip, I think this is the first time we've ever agreed on anything here (viz. unions).
 
laxmax613 said:
That way no matter how mediocre the new Commodore might be it'll be incredibly popular now.
Click to expand...

I only know one thing about the australian car market, and this ^ was my first thought as well!
 
rickhamilton620 said:
Many say they'll replace the Falcon with the Taurus and the Territory with the Explorer. Dunno if they'd start this with the next generation of these vehicles or not. IMO they should wait for the next gen...the Taurus is very space inefficient for it's size, and the SHO variant isn't terribly brilliant to drive.
Click to expand...
Seeing as it won't happen until 2016, pretty sure they won't be using the current gen models.

I don't know if they would keep the Falcon name, it would anger a great many people. But then if they do bring the Taurus they probably wouldn't call it that because of how shit that car was when they tried bringing it here in the '90s.

laxmax613 said:
That way no matter how mediocre the new Commodore might be it'll be incredibly popular now.
Click to expand...

It's been a long tradition that although the Falcon has always been the better car (pretty much all press outlets agree on this), the Commodore sells better because it's perceived as being more 'Australian'. This is even though more of the Commodore is sourced overseas and has only been a local design for the last six years, whereas the Falcon has been for 40 years. It's the longest surviving nameplate in Australia and it's sad to see it go.
 
The Falcon might survive as a global platform based off the next gen Mustang. But my bets are on the Taurus replacing it.
 
It is of course not a happy moment, especially for the employees, but on the other hand I've got to say I'm quite surprised that it took this long to axe a factory that only makes 30k cars a year. These days, car factories are usually designed to produce 10 times as much or more. Especially in a secluded place like Australia, it means that the whole supply chain either needs to rely on local suppliers running similarly tiny, inefficient factories or the parts need to brought in from a different continent.
 
Well.....say goodbye to V8 sedans everybody, because Holden will probably follow suit.

No more falcons, sorry, here: have this rebadged taurus/mondeo/whatever it's going to be, it has the new I4 2.2L ecoboobcrapdcptwfti engine with added witchcraft to make it feel almost like a real engine.
 
Last edited:
Yes Florida have managed to up the number of people living on food stamps by close to 50% in recent years, despite having no unions who's fault it isnt. The top employer in all counties of Florida is the government. So what we've learned that there are no unions in Florida and everyone is employed by the government. Thus Florida is the Soviet Union.

H0nzik said:
It is of course not a happy moment, especially for the employees, but on the other hand I've got to say I'm quite surprised that it took this long to axe a factory that only makes 30k cars a year.
Click to expand...

Yep. It's not viable to make consumer cars at such low production numbers.
 
Last edited:
Ow dear.......
 
But that 30k figure is Ford's main mistake. Rather than make more cars in Oz to sell across Asia and possibly Africa, they took a Gov't handout to buy out their workers. Shameful on Ford's part.
 
I agree on that aspect, but given what Ford of Australia produce (thirsty muscle cars), I think the appeal to other countries in Asia is very limited. And as the cars in the range that do appeal to the region as a whole are already produced in Thailand (FTM, Ford Thailand Manufacturing have an annual capacity of 445000 vehicles) Australia have been left behind. And beyond FTM there's talks of opening 8 new plants across the region, for example in Indonesia, not to mention that Ford have lots of manufacturing in China. Currently they only produce cars for the domestic market, but once the MADE IN CHINA stigma disappears from cars (and it will) the floodgates are open.
 
Last edited:
Cowboy said:
Well.....say goodbye to V8 sedans everybody, because Holden will probably follow suit.

No more falcons, sorry, here: have this rebadged taurus/mondeo/whatever it's going to be, it has the new I4 2.2L ecoboobcrapdcptwfti engine with added witchcraft to make it feel almost like a real engine.
Click to expand...

The current Taurus does offer a turbo 2.0L I4, but also has two version of the 3.5L V6, NA (288 hp) and turbo (365 hp).

And, at least for now, the Dodge Charger/Chrysler 300 are available with V8s.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top