Ford Australia

[colliehauler]

Seen on the news Ford will pull out of Australia by the end of 2015.

[RobertRyan]

goducks10 wrote:
Move the equipment over here and build the Global Ranger in the USA

It is actually made in Thailand, designed in Australia and was the 8th best selling model in Australia. The Toyota Hilux and Nissan Navara beat it on the Pickup stakes. The Ford pullout will not help it progress up the charts. The Hilux was best selling "car" at one stage in Australia for several months. The Navara (no it is NOT the Frontier) was about 5th.

[RobertRyan]

BamaFlum wrote:
Are they pulling out manufacturing or pulling out totally? IOW, they will still sell Fords, but will import them from else where.

That is a major problem overseas Fords from the US and Europe have not sold well. Only the Territory is realy making money for Ford here.

[RobertRyan]

Wilber1 wrote:
Wonder what will happen to the V8 Supercars series.

They are already have new manufacturers coming into the series, i.e Nissan and Mercedes. ford's departure was on the cards for a while.

[RobertRyan]

Lessmore wrote:
I wonder if the closing if Ford Australia is reflective of a general economic malaise in Australia....or just that Ford and possibly GM are having trouble down under ?

No both are affected by the high dollar. So are other manufacturing and export industries

[wilber1]

Wonder what will happen to the V8 Supercars series.

[Colorado71]

They are just pulling out of manufacturing. But I guess that means the end of the Falcon since it's made in Australia.

I always loved those 70's XB Falcons 😞

[BamaFlum]

Are they pulling out manufacturing or pulling out totally? IOW, they will still sell Fords, but will import them from else where.

[Colorado71]

RobertRyan wrote:

Colorado 71 wrote:
So true and so sad.

The above gent is similar to NewsW. He claims he is from Australia, but he started a 'dicussion" with other Australians here that they did not know what they were talking about as regards Australia! He then proceeded to take the 'discussion" to an Australian RV site and continue there. Most Aussies on the RV site "Caravanners forum" guessed he had some issues as his knowledge of Australia was vague and he was telling them they were all wrong. He only appears to post to criticize Australia.
Colorado71's "heated"discussion with other Australian RVers on these forums.

mogwogman wrote:
Your perception of the Australian way of life is floored and full of errors.

Robert, you don't appear to be playing with a full deck of cards. You started that thread, I simply joined to defend myself since you are in the habit of 1/2 truths. Honestly I'm not sure if you realize it or there is something else going on with you, but I will leave it at that. I don't mean to be insulting, but it is what it is.

My wife are I we born in Australia and attend school and university (Griffith University, Nathan Campus). We left 15 years ago, but since our families are still living there, we travel back there every few years. In fact the wife has been back in Oz twice in the last month on business. In her position she sometimes has to relocate people from the US to OZ and has to do cost of living comparisons for salary purposes.

So I am intimately familiar with the cost of living in both the USA and OZ.

Anyway getting back on topic (sorry for the thread jack) when I was back in OZ last October, we rented a Falcon XR6 and a Holden SV6. Gotta say I liked the Holden a lot better. It has an excellent steering feel vs the Fords mushy numb steering. Tranny was better in the Holden also.

[goducks10]

Move the equipment over here and build the Global Ranger in the USA:)

[Lessmore]

I wonder if the closing if Ford Australia is reflective of a general economic malaise in Australia....or just that Ford and possibly GM are having trouble down under ?

[Dadoffourgirls]

RobertRyan

Thank you for your perspective. Many individuals are not open to details to make better decisions. I appreciate the understanding that you have.

Currency fluctuations or manipulations definitely impact manufacturers with gigantic investment. Many do not realize how significant this impacted the US auto industry in the early to mid 2000's. This was one of the reasons Ford mortgaged everything ahead of the global crash.

[RobertRyan]

Colorado 71 wrote:
So true and so sad.

The above gent is similar to NewsW. He claims he is from Australia, but he started a 'dicussion" with other Australians here that they did not know what they were talking about as regards Australia! He then proceeded to take the 'discussion" to an Australian RV site and continue there. Most Aussies on the RV site "Caravanners forum" guessed he had some issues as his knowledge of Australia was vague and he was telling them they were all wrong. He only appears to post to criticize Australia.
Colorado71's "heated"discussion with other Australian RVers on these forums.

mogwogman wrote:
Your perception of the Australian way of life is floored and full of errors.

[Colorado71]

ArcticDodge wrote:
EVERYTHING is expensive in AU! I'd need about 2.5 to 3x my current US earnings to live a similar standard in AU.

So true and so sad.

Paying 500K for a 200K house is bad enough, but then you get to finance it at 5-6%. Oh an you can't even lock in a rate for more than 5 years.

Whatever happened to Australia, the lucky country?

[RobertRyan]

fla-gypsy wrote:
f they cannot make a profit there then they should close down the operations.

Not that simple. Ford owes the Australian government millions of Dollars in development loans. Ford WAS making profits BEFORE Mullaly turned up, but his cronies hinting that the Australian operation was going /not going to close down affected sales. The High Australian Dollar and some heavy handed advice from Dearborn really hurt the local operation. US and European imports have sold badly here for Ford, so the local products were the only things that were keeping it going till this decision.