Australian Car Industry

[Bully]

they made 2.3 million cars in Thailand last year compared to 230,000 in Australia.

Something about when Japan caught wind of Holdens doing deals to compete with the cruze that they make here , then Toyota cut tarrifs or something to make it harder for holdens to sell the cruze.

[norwood8]

Manufacturing in this country is going to continue on a downward spiral because of the ridiculous salaries these workers receive. The unions are to blame just as much as anyone, how can an industry that's struggling so much afford to continually increase wages and better working conditions. I'm all for people working hard and making a decent salary, but many of these workers who won't have the ability or skill-sets to work in different environments are getting paid too much. People who choose to gain a trade or undertake academic training/study should be rewarded for the hard work they have to put in, rather than see those who take the simpler (and somewhat easier) option often earning as much as they do.

Maybe the big wigs earning the huge dollars should do their job and make sure the company is innovative and ahead of the curve.

The failure was an inability to create demand for their product. This is not the factory worker's fault.

That maybe so for the car industry, but what about other markets? Of course the big guys at the top should always be trying to innovate and better their product, Australia used to manufacture great products (eg. electronics) that were top of their range but it's just not viable to produce things here in the current environment. The high Australian dollar plays some part, as do ridiculously high wages. There aren't many other countries that pay their lowest skilled (skills that can be transferred to other employment avenues) workers as much as we do.

There's going to be some tough times here down south and especially out north. I personally have a number of family and friends who work for various automotive suppliers and to see the stress some of them are going through at the moment isn't what you want to see anyone close to you experience.

[Bully]

I can see the stress as I have a few mates that work at holdens, but they have 4 years notice to find other work!. At least they didn't rock up on Monday of last week to closed doors and gates. Surely these people can find other employment and I hope they do!

[therisingblues]

Exactly. Look at the sales of Japanese made cars in Australia, don't tell me the Jap workers aren't getting paid decent coin.

I'll try to find this out.

[Ian]

Exactly. Look at the sales of Japanese made cars in Australia, don't tell me the Jap workers aren't getting paid decent coin.

I'll try to find this out.

Not everything you think is Japanese still is, a lot of Japanese "Manufacturers" now have their cars made in Korea India or Thailand (look at the 1st digit on the Vehicle's VIN, if it doesn't start with a "J" it wasn't made in Japan) particularly their cheaper (good value) models

[gadj1976]

Sorry to throw the political element in but I don't get how Abbott is responsible for this though. The industry has been unsustainable for ages.
...
Now if he'll just reduce funding on the arts and defence!

Got to pull you up on that one. With manufacturing about to die in the arse in SA, it becomes imperative to maintain (if not increase) funding for defence. The defence sector employs a proportionally massive amount of people in SA; if that were to go as well, Adelaide would become another Detroit. Furthermore one significant chunk of defence is manufacturing (subs, boats etc); this arm of defence has demand for the skills of workers about to be discarded by Holdens.

You're making a rather large assumption that the money given to Defence is spent effectively.

Throwing money at things doesn't fix them (see GMH for example).

And your assumption that defence is on par with the arts is how large, exactly?

Na Pseuds, my comment about the arts is that it just does nothing for me. If they cut funding to the arts by 70% I wouldn't be any worse off. But my comment was jocular, purely selfish!

[therisingblues]

Exactly. Look at the sales of Japanese made cars in Australia, don't tell me the Jap workers aren't getting paid decent coin.

I'll try to find this out.

Not everything you think is Japanese still is, a lot of Japanese "Manufacturers" now have their cars made in Korea India or Thailand (look at the 1st digit on the Vehicle's VIN, if it doesn't start with a "J" it wasn't made in Japan) particularly their cheaper (good value) models

This is true, though the bit about license plate numbers is news to me.

[dedja]

The fish wrap today claims labour costs are the same in Australia, USA and Japan at $35.70/hr.

There are 3 1/2 times as many Japanese cars imported compared to the number manufactured in Australia.

[therisingblues]

Thanks Dedja.
I wonder what that translates to in real terms though.
For example most Japanese workers on a full contract receive two bonuses a year. Is that calculated in?
Also, Japanese are work FANATICS! they are flabbergasted when I tell them of 4 week leave every year, and 10 days sick leave which accumulates if you don't use it. In my experience here, almost everybody RECEIVES 20 days vacation leave which also doubles as sick leave. But here's the thing: they feel too guilty to use it. I kid you not. It's there, available to them, but the vast majority of them are too ASHAMED to take their holidays! And if they don't use it, they lose it.
Many Japanese will put in extra hours for free. Some work sites have a culture of no one leaves before the boss. I've heard many stories of families that just don't see their fathers/husbands during the week. They go off to work around 5:00 and get home around 12:00. They sleep on their commutes and lunch breaks and just about every waking hour is spent in devotion to their employers.
I honestly want to shake them, snap them out of their company/work worship, but I wonder how healthy many Australian companies would be with similar worker devotion (and how many screwed up families there'd be as a result)?
Consider that, and 6 weeks of a worker not turning up for work (ie.annual leave plus sick leave) and perhaps we've found the difference between the two work forces.

P.S anyone seen "Working Class Man"? I think Alex Keaton is the main actor.

[Ian]

Exactly. Look at the sales of Japanese made cars in Australia, don't tell me the Jap workers aren't getting paid decent coin.

I'll try to find this out.

Not everything you think is Japanese still is, a lot of Japanese "Manufacturers" now have their cars made in Korea India or Thailand (look at the 1st digit on the Vehicle's VIN, if it doesn't start with a "J" it wasn't made in Japan) particularly their cheaper (good value) models

This is true, though the bit about license plate numbers is news to me.

Licence plate numbers?,...............................where were number plates mentioned?

[Ian]

The fish wrap today claims labour costs are the same in Australia, USA and Japan at $35.70/hr.

There are 3 1/2 times as many Japanese cars imported compared to the number manufactured in Australia.

The higher the volume, the cheaper manufacturing becomes. We don't have the domestic market and while our dollar is so strong we are not attractive to other markets wanting to import.
The US subsidises their car industry the equivalent of over $265 per head of population per annum
We subsidised our car industry the equivalent of less than $20 per head of population per annum

look at the populations and do the maths, pretty obvious why they still build cars in the US and why they are quite cheap to buy there as well

[therisingblues]

Not everything you think is Japanese is, a lot of Japanese "Manufacturers" now have their cars made in Korea India or Thailand (look at the 1st digit on the Vehicle's VIN, if it doesn't start with a "J" it wasn't made in Japan) particularly their cheaper (good value) models

This is true, though the bit about license plate numbers is news to me.

Licence plate numbers?,...............................where were number plates mentioned?

Didn't read that too well I think. anyway the bit about the VIN is news to me.

[BIG SEXY]

Not everything you think is Japanese is, a lot of Japanese "Manufacturers" now have their cars made in Korea India or Thailand (look at the 1st digit on the Vehicle's VIN, if it doesn't start with a "J" it wasn't made in Japan) particularly their cheaper (good value) models

This is true, though the bit about license plate numbers is news to me.

Licence plate numbers?,...............................where were number plates mentioned?

Didn't read that too well I think. anyway the bit about the VIN is news to me.

This is correct, each vehicle manufactured has a vin, the first letter of that vin indicates where the vehicle was manufactured, australia is 6, Spain is v, Thailand is m (think those 2 are correct, if not swap the letters!) 1,4 and 5 are US, box head cars start with w.
That's the ones I can remember off the top of my head

[Ian]

This is correct, each vehicle manufactured has a vin, the first letter of that vin indicates where the vehicle was manufactured, australia is 6, Spain is v, Thailand is m (think those 2 are correct, if not swap the letters!) 1,4 and 5 are US, box head cars start with w.
That's the ones I can remember off the top of my head

yep, Japan is 6, Korea is K

[RustyCage]

JA-J0 Japan
KL-KR Korea (South)
LA-L0 China
SA-SM United Kingdom
SN-ST Germany
VF-VR France
WA-W0 Germany
ZA-ZR Italy
1A-10 United States
2A-20 Canada
3A-37 Mexico
6A-6W Australia
7A-7E New Zealand

[gadj1976]

It's been good to see the king pin of GM say that the car industry was dead in the water in Australia (manufacturing wise) and no matter how much money was thrown at it it wouldn't have mattered.

Libs, certainly off the hook on this one IMO.

[kickinit]

It's been good to see the king pin of GM say that the car industry was dead in the water in Australia (manufacturing wise) and no matter how much money was thrown at it it wouldn't have mattered.

Libs, certainly off the hook on this one IMO.

he really should of removed car industry and replaced it with manufacturing industry.

[tigerhutch]

It's been good to see the king pin of GM say that the car industry was dead in the water in Australia (manufacturing wise) and no matter how much money was thrown at it it wouldn't have mattered.

Libs, certainly off the hook on this one IMO.

and its very cold in adelaide today

[gadj1976]

It's been good to see the king pin of GM say that the car industry was dead in the water in Australia (manufacturing wise) and no matter how much money was thrown at it it wouldn't have mattered.

Libs, certainly off the hook on this one IMO.

he really should of removed car industry and replaced it with manufacturing industry.

Oh, that might've been me paraphrasing incorrectly. Did he actually say "car" because I agree, I should've said "manufacturing".

[gadj1976]

It's been good to see the king pin of GM say that the car industry was dead in the water in Australia (manufacturing wise) and no matter how much money was thrown at it it wouldn't have mattered.

Libs, certainly off the hook on this one IMO.

and its very cold in adelaide today

is it? That's good...

no idea what you mean though.....