[HFW003]

I just read Ford Australia has decided to close its factories in Geelong and Broadmeadows as it is no longer financial viable to produce motor vehicles here!

It was probably inevitable I would suggest, i wonder how long before Holden follows suit?

[Hivetyrant]

I always preferred Fords over Holdens, but I didn't ever want to see either of them close their doors here, they provide too many jobs and keep many Australians feeling proud.

But you're right, it was inevitable, our minimum wage and working conditions make it far too expensive to build here, and I imagine that Holden will follow suit if the VF doesn't take off the way they want it to.

[Sephanite]

does that means we will only have Holden hoons on the roads in the near future?

[HFW003]

Unfortunately no, there will be plenty of those.

Just means the death of the Falcon & Territory, there will still be Mondeo's and the Focus.

Even though its another nail in the coffin in Australia you have to feel sorry for all the guys who have lost their job.

[MikeVictor]

I expect Holden will likely scale back operations or follow suit in the near future. Possibly Toyota as well. Their manufacturing costs are twice Europe's and at least three times what you can make something for in Thailand.

[dcg71]

Bit of a shame really, particularly if the falcon is to be replaced by the taurus. Love em or hate em, there's something uniquely Australian about large powerful rwd sedans.

[digitallust]

What makes me laugh though... is that Ford Australia made an announcement a couple of years ago that they would stop producing the falcon in Australian in 2016.. So I am not sure why all the media etc is in a frenzy... yeah its unfortunate that so many people will be out of a job and the death of one of Australia's iconic vehicles..but how naive must they have been to thing no one would lose jobs once they stop producing the falcons.. They have talked about moving to a global falcon replacement for years.

Correct me if I am wrong, but aside from Ford's Falcon and Territory and Holden's Commodore and Cruze, the rest of their models are imported and have been for years.

I would pretty much put money on it that the commodore will also be gone by 2018-2020

On a personal note.. My 50th Anniversary G6E was one of the best cars I had owned... bet the Calais on many levels... Had not a single issue with the build quality, issues etc with the G6E... cant really say that about my F30

[jctg]

The closure announcement has been coming for a long time. I am not sure why it ought to be such a shock. Ford has been on borrowed time for at least 5 years. Surely if you are a production line worker you know you are going to be soon out of a job - they were selling 57k of Falcons in 2002 and only sold like 17k last year.

All this BS about Falcon being an iconic name and how it is so sad to lose it - we don't even buy the bloody thing anymore! How many of those 17k end up being a frigging taxi?

It is always sad to see people lose jobs but unfortunately that is part of life in this generation.

[RAM_AU]

It just because everything in aus were too expensive

[Who?]

hopefully this is good news for holden, maybe the commodore can survive another generation or two with no local rival

[GAV-F30]

With Falcon going when are they going to lower the car tariff

[AMJAM]

This is such great news. One less expense for the Australian tax payer. What made me laugh even harder was the moron union bloke saying the Australian government made it hard to manufacture in Australia. It's actually the unions with their often ridiculous conditions that make it cost prohibitive. Then of course add in Comrade Julia and you have no hopes of producing anything in this country

[jctg]

Originally Posted by AMJAM

This is such great news. One less expense for the Australian tax payer. What made me laugh even harder was the moron union bloke saying the Australian government made it hard to manufacture in Australia. It's actually the unions with their often ridiculous conditions that make it cost prohibitive. Then of course add in Comrade Julia and you have no hopes of producing anything in this country

Less expense? Are you sure? What about all those workers getting on the dole once they have used up their redundancy packages?

I agree with you about unions. But the government, be it either Labor or Lib/Nat and once you have scratched through the bullshit party lines, knows that sometimes you have to give them $3 a year to avoid having to dole out $10 through Centrelink, . It is when you give them the $3 and they still can't survive...

[ghettodefendant]

Originally Posted by AMJAM

This is such great news. One less expense for the Australian tax payer. What made me laugh even harder was the moron union bloke saying the Australian government made it hard to manufacture in Australia. It's actually the unions with their often ridiculous conditions that make it cost prohibitive. Then of course add in Comrade Julia and you have no hopes of producing anything in this country

That's a pretty poor attitude to have bud. News of job losses is never "such great news".

[AMJAM]

I am not saying the job loses are great news. Just sick of having to overpay for cars due to protection of Holden and Ford. As well as having to fund companies because they can't run at a profit. Every other business has to do it on their own why should vehicle manufacturing be any different.

As for unions they have brought so many businesses to their knees with their corrupt and questionable practices.