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Old 02-15-2023, 12:09 PM
 
Location: DFW
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One of my Youtube interests is in the field of automobiles and a video came up on my automatic feed talking about how Australia doesn't build cars anymore. I assumed Holden was a proud part of Australian manufacturing history and I assumed that General Motors or whomever owns it now cared about this brand.
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Old 02-15-2023, 01:33 PM
 
Location: Dayton OH
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They still build buses and heavy commercial trucks in Australia - Volvo, Mack, Kenworth & DAF are the truck brands, and the buses are Aussie brands. Toyota, Hyundai, Kia and a few other Japan brands dominate the car & small truck market. All have a bunch of factories in Asia so no surprise they ship to Australia rather than build there for the Australia consumer market.
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Old 02-15-2023, 02:40 PM
 
Location: Sydney Australia
2,141 posts, read 1,415,593 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by D-Towner View Post
One of my Youtube interests is in the field of automobiles and a video came up on my automatic feed talking about how Australia doesn't build cars anymore. I assumed Holden was a proud part of Australian manufacturing history and I assumed that General Motors or whomever owns it now cared about this brand.
Not enough to keep building them here. It economy of scale, much cheaper to produce cars in Asia or elsewhere. We used to have a Holden Commodore years ago, now we have Audis.
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Old 02-15-2023, 03:15 PM
 
Location: NSW
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MarisaAnna View Post
Not enough to keep building them here. It economy of scale, much cheaper to produce cars in Asia or elsewhere. We used to have a Holden Commodore years ago, now we have Audis.
Yeah I had a Holden Cruze for a few years.
Built in Korea, and an absolute lemon from the start.
Even radiator hoses blew up on the highway, as they were cheap parts and poor quality.
We now stick to Honda or Subaru cars, much better quality than what Holden was churning out.
But on the OP, it is a real shame that the car manufacturing industry is no more in Australia.
Toyota ended manufacturing in southern Sydney many years ago too.
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Old 02-15-2023, 06:41 PM
 
4,158 posts, read 4,818,477 times
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They weren't great cars. They belong to a different era. There's a reason people stopped buying them. Holden's locally manufactured quality improved in its later years, but they kept making big engined, family sedans at a time when most buyers wanted smaller cars, smaller engines, and SUV's. The cars they were importing (the Holden Cruze etc) were piles of junk and couldn't compete with Japanese manufacturers. If you ask a person under 35 about Holden they would have no particularly strong opinion about it.

Cars are going to change over the next couple of decades, both in terms of how they are powered and in what younger consumers want. The US makers are actually starting to get creative again. The Koreans are really coming along in leaps and bounds. The Germans, who have been building really poorly for 20 or so years, have a lot to lose, imo.
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Old 02-17-2023, 09:02 AM
 
Location: Sunnybrook Farm
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Well, as far as I know "Australia" never built cars; COMPANIES built cars IN Australia. I don't believe there's been a government-owned auto factory there.
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Old 02-17-2023, 02:07 PM
 
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It was my understanding that twenty or thirty years ago used cars shipped from Japan were quite popular in places such as Australia and New Zeeland.

Japanese regulations required vehicles operated in Japan to meet stringent inspection and certification requirements every two years. The result was that everyone in Japan sold their older cars when they failed inspection and simply bought new ones, and that the beneficiaries of said policy (aside from Japanese auto manufacturers) were other Asian and Oceanic nations that received the exported used vehicles from Japan that failed JCI inspection but were still perfectly acceptable vehicles.

Was this ever the case? If so, does this practice still go on?
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Old 02-17-2023, 02:41 PM
 
Location: Sydney Australia
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I have not heard of it here but I not sure about other places in our region.
Japanese cars are still extremely popular, Toyota is our best selling brand.
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Old 02-17-2023, 06:04 PM
 
4,158 posts, read 4,818,477 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by djmilf View Post

Was this ever the case? If so, does this practice still go on?
Yes. It was a huge thing in the mid/late-90s and early turn of the century. They changed the laws in Australia so it's no longer possible. There were car dealers across Sydney that only sold Japanese grey imports. I think it's still legal in NZ. Generally, at least in Australia, it was all about bringing in sports cars from Japan. Mitsubishi FTO/GTO, Toyota Supras, Mazda RX-7s, Subaru Legacy, Nissan Skyline GT etc
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Old 02-22-2023, 02:03 PM
 
1,764 posts, read 1,007,313 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Derek41 View Post
Yeah I had a Holden Cruze for a few years.
Built in Korea, and an absolute lemon from the start.
Even radiator hoses blew up on the highway, as they were cheap parts and poor quality.
We now stick to Honda or Subaru cars, much better quality than what Holden was churning out.
But on the OP, it is a real shame that the car manufacturing industry is no more in Australia.
Toyota ended manufacturing in southern Sydney many years ago too.
Same here, they were unreliable and remember the radiator hoses blue up on the highway. Plus getting parts for it was not easy compared to Japanese cars. I have Honda and yes the quality of it is much better and easier getting parts for it.

Holden did not much bring about new investments since its parent company General Motors had bankruptcy issues in 2009. Plus, the strong Australian dollar made the Holden unprofitable. Also, there was a promise to build at least 20 new car models by 2020 was shelved. In the end Holden was not making money. With that General Motors made the decision to close all Holden operations in Australia. https://www.drive.com.au/news/where-...ng-for-holden/
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