Farewell to Australian Car Manufacturing by Paul Marinelli
After more than seven decades , the doors finally closed on the Australian car manufacturing industry in October 2017 , when both Holden and Toyota followed on from Ford ’ s manufacturing operations closures one year prior . This industry saw the birth of specific Australian designed and manufactured models from each of the big three car manufacturers , as well as Mitsubishi and Nissan in decades prior . At the car manufacturing industry ’ s height there were five leading global car makers with extensive vehicle and parts manufacturing operations located in Australia . Our local car manufacturing industry produced a maximum of almost half a million vehicles in the 1970s , ranking Australia within the world ’ s top ten vehicle producers . The car makers ’ Australian growth led to the similar growth of many local parts manufacturers and suppliers , feeding these hungry manufacturing plants which in their halcyon days manufactured close to 800 cars per day to cater for this country ’ s demand for new cars . Dealerships across the nation also grew as competition intensified between the locally produced cars and imported makes and models , with many tens of thousands of Australians employed either directly or indirectly in the business of manufacturing and selling new cars .
It is sad that this chapter of Australian manufacturing history has come to an end . The quality cars being manufactured here in more recent years really did stack up against some of their European and Asian equivalents . We could look at reasons why the industry is no longer feasible for these foreign owned companies , but put very simply , it came down to two major factors . The Federal Government ’ s decision to end paying billions in subsidies to these companies to keep them viable was one of these factors . Secondly , with the exception of Toyota ( who for years have led and continue to lead sales in just about every Australian car market segment ), Holden and Ford continued to design and build cars that Australians made clear that they didn ’ t want to buy . Both of these companies heavily underestimated the impact of the high quality , smaller but high performing economical cars emanating out of Asia , continuing to produce large six cylinder and even larger engine capacity cars that were totally decimated in the marketplace by the competition . This is an important point , as with all of the political vitriol surrounding the end of Australian car manufacturing , it is vital to understand that it is the market that ultimately decides the success of a consumer product , whether it is
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