I don't know so much about everyone else but I have a serious problem with auto makers asking & blackmailing the government for assistance. Yes, I paint ford with this same brush now too

I know it's about local products & jobs but if it's not viable, thats the companies fault. They should make a more profitable & economic car!

Which is where ford are trying to head with their "global marketing" which everyone complains about.

I don't have a problem with it. The government should invest in industry. Better that the taxpayer pays some money for this as opposed to some of the other useless crap that gets done.
If we keep Holden in Australia then there's hope that on the other side of this GFC rubbish it will turn things around.. but once it leaves our shores, it's gone. An Aussie icon, that isn't Australian.

So it this the Aussie Govt's way of subsidising the dole payments that the car owner will eventually recieve?

No body is buying Falcons anymore... Hence the direct injection LPG model and the 4 cyl model nowadays... Trying to fuel consumption down on paper so people will buy them... The Aust government funds them to keep their doors open... But in 5 years that's it... Geelong engine plant and the falcon production line will be no more... Then we'll have thousands more Aussies without jobs... At least the government is propping them up for a while so these people can start job hunting...

Everyone wants smaller cars that take up less space... Use less fuel... And park themselves... Ford sells more imported small cars then it's own locally built falcon... Soon the "large" car will be the Taurus... this was the one model covers the US and Australia... one production line... Less costs... And the financially crippled US Ford parent company will be making more money...

It's IMHO that Ford US is looking to cover their own a** and drop Ford AU on it's a** to do so... Just another American company ensuring it's survival...

+1!!!

I worked in a certain copper products plant last year and I saw the same thing. Since they got bought out by a yank familly they have been progressivley wound down. They went from being the largest producer of their product lines in the southern hemisphere to being not much more than a full time hobby shop with Ancient equipment in the space of about 16 years. s**t is leaking and falling apart left right and centre but you dare not say that it needs big bucks spent on it otherwise your a*** is on the line.
The only reason they got bought out was so the yank familly got the clientel and logistic operations for their own company.

As for ford, if ford US build quality and design engineering is anything like that of a modern chrysler then as a best case scenario we are no better off with the dumping of ford AU. Having said that we potentially stand to be far worse of with fewer options of cars that don't really fit the bill for us.

Take the 300C for example. Who in their right mind would build a luxry muscle car with flat backed and bottomed seats, no bolstering at all? The thing feels like it still has bench seats from the 50's and 60's. No wonder the bogan houso's are starting to take loans out for them now after everyone with half a brain cell has moved on from the luxury back destroyer known as the 300C. Your health is more important than looks. If that is what a falcon becomes like to drive than I will never buy a new falcon again. The emotional attatchement might be strong, but its not that strong.

Would you really care about the demise of holwhatever I mean, lets face it.. it has not been a holwhatever for years. It is an OPEL with yank input and a bit of running gear. Holfunny doesn't exist as it was.. a 100% aussie designed and manufactured product. The only thing that keeps GM alive in NZ is our Police force, without them their sales would be so miniscule. oh.. I forgot, they sell them dirt cheap cheap cheap to our lotteries commission so they can give them away.

If Ford were smart they would have downsized the FG from day one. Its not like there havn't been signs of a dwindling large car market.

If one were to conjecture you would have to agree that one the face of it, Ford are actually trying to kill off the Falcon deliberately without actualy apearing to do so.