DEPARTING FORD WORKERS TELL THEIR STORIES:
91 years of car making in last days
NEXT Friday marks the beginning of the end for the Australian car industry.
Ford will close its factories after 91 years of operation, before Holden shuts its assembly line late next year.
Toyota will be forced to close as well — the last to turn out the lights in the country that was its first foreign manufacturing base — because of the collapse of the parts supply industry that needs the throughput of all three Australian factories to remain viable.
So how did an entire industry end up on the scrapheap?
The short answer is that although many of us have a soft spot for our homegrown heroes, these days nine out of 10 car buyers are choosing an imported model.
Back in the day, Holden and Ford accounted for more than half of all vehicles sold.
Little wonder, then, most Australians have memories of growing up in the back seat of one or the other. Or if the family ever dared to switch camps: both.
The Ford versus Holden rivalry was drummed up by the car makers themselves. When there is only one other main player in town, it’s easy to create an enemy.
Nowadays, though, there is too much choice. We get our utes and vans from overseas, and the wagon has effectively been replaced by the SUV.
Coupes, meanwhile, have the shelf life of an atomic isotope, as one former Holden exec put it.
Race fans might still be cheering for Holden and Ford, but they’re not buying the product. They’re driving Toyota HiLux and Nissan Navara utes, or one of 500 other imported models.
Now we’re faced with the extinction of an entire industry.