Posted on 02/09/2014 10:55:24 PM PST by Olog-hai
Toyota said Monday it will stop making cars in Australia by the end of 2017, spelling a final blow to auto manufacturing in the country, where car companies say high production costs and tough competition have made the business financially unviable. […]
In a statement, Toyota Motor Corp. said its decision was based on a combination of factors including the high Australian dollar, the high cost of manufacturing and competition. …
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
For 20 years you encourage speculation on land and housing, causing massive inflation in land values that raise costs for the entire economy. $600,000 for a 3 bedroom house in the suburbs? No problem - everyone is rich! Insane rents for businesses? Who cares.
Then, almost overnight, your currency is pushed up in value by 50-100% because of financing flows related to government debt and investment in mining equipment. You don’t invest this windfall or take any steps to prevent it affecting the rest of the economy (like every other country in the world), you just stop buying the newly “overpriced” domestic goods, whose incompetent manufacturers inexplicably haven’t halved their costs overnight, and start buying from overseas.
Great! Who cares about these dirty old legacy industries when I can buy all this cheap stuff without even working for it? Just let them go out of business, if that’s what the market wants. Surely this flood of money will last forever, and, anyway, financing and “services” are the future (even though you still import more of those than you export), so you just don’t need to produce anything. People can all work for the government or claim unemployment benefits. Life is good.
Then there is a bit of a slump in the economy. One day you wake up and your currency isn’t worth what it used to be and you can’t afford these imported goods, but there are no domestic manufacturers left. Oh, oh well.
With luck that manufacturing base will relocate in the US. Toyota is not only a good product, they are a good company
What the announcement means is that the Australian population is so small it can not support a Toyota plant.
It is economically more sensible to import Toyotas.
You think that all vehicles produced at a specific plant in a specific country in the world are meant to supply just that country’s needs?
Just out of curiosity, are there any right hand drive vehicles manufactured in the US?
Not to my knowledge.
BTW I was on active duty in the USAF for twelve years, was E-6 with time in grade for Master and decided to leave for other opportunities. I really enjoyed my AF years.
Likely Honda.
I believe 100% of Accords are built in the US.
Additionally, “While 44 percent of all vehicles sold in America last year were built somewhere else, Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (NYSE:HMC) shipped more cars out of the country than it imported. “
I recall that the original Oddesy was also 100% built in the US and they had an AWD version - RHD - just for the Japanese market.
Not too long ago I was checking out from a grocery store. I was wearing my Retired USAF ball cap and a young man, 16 or 17 years old was working the check out. He saw my hat and asked me how long I was in. Told him 20 years and 20 days. He asked me if I liked it and I told him I like most of it. There were some things I had to do, and places I had to go, that I really didn’t enjoy. But I had 3 tours in Europe and very much enjoyed them. He said he was thinking of enlisting out of high school. I told him that was fine but suggested he check out an ROTC program. Life is a lot better as a Lieutenant rather than a lowly Airman.
I like Hondas. My first was a 1976 Civic. Then a 78 Accord, 88 Accord, 07 Accord, 08 Ridgeline, and a 11 CR-v.
Think my next car will be another Ridgeline.
In Australia...... most likely
I think this is a case of the dominoes falling: Didn’t GM announce a few weeks back that they were quitting AUS? That makes the local suppliers less economic, etc. The whole industry implodes.
What makes Australia a special case that prevents them from making cars for export?
The proximity of Japan
So? Japan can’t ever import vehicles built by its own companies from Australia, the way the USA does that with other countries? Both countries share right hand drive after all.
The USA has imported cars from much further distances than that between Japan and Australia too.
The USA is irrelevant here.
Toyota made the decision that it was more profitable to export cars to Australia than make them there
It was a decision based on profitability
No, the USA is a good comparison.
Toyota’s decision is based on high production costs, not the ability or inability of Australia to sell cars built on its soil to its domestic car buyers. They of course are not the only companies to do so.
Someone with GREAT taste!
Have a ‘07 Ridgeline and a 500’ hilly driveway that I just finished blowing 8” of snow out of. No sweat for the Ridgeline to get into and out of earlier today.
There WILL be a new Ridgeline, but it will not be for sale until mid-late ‘15. The current ‘14’s will stop production soon. Just an FYI.
The Admiral just got a ‘14 CR-V. Whew! It’s nice!
With the exception of a ‘45 Dodge 1/2 ton pickup, all my cars have been Hondas.
They work well and hold their value quite well.
Best,
I very much like my CRV but it has one feature I do not like. The transmission is 4 wheel drive but the 4WD is fully automatic, the driver cannot engage it or disengage it. But that’s not the part I don’t like. What I don’t like is that there is no light on the dash to indicate when the car is in 4WD. Wrote Honda, never got an answer back.
I understand that.
The VTM-4 makes the Ridgeline a monster. The Pilot has it, the CR-V does not.
The CR-V is easy to drive and that’s what the Admiral needs. No stinkin’ buttons to push...
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