Why's that, purely down to cost what with other, possibly cheaper laboured, countries being relatively close...or difficult and legislation heavy rules regulations, again cost, or other reasons?

Not unexpected.

"Uncharacteristically short response Trology; you normally eulogise defunct car makers. :)"

Harldly 'defunct', unthrottled. This is an economics deal. The company isn't in the business to satisfy customers but to make the most profit for the shareholders. If the same financial circumstances arise here in the UK then the same thing will occur.

Market too small for vehicles produced, so a $ saved counts for the beancounters..

Was the subsidy given was outweighing the taxation and economic gain, and was that why subsidies were scrapped?

I seem to recall the cost of living in Oz as being higher than here in blighty, and what about employment costs, even if for the time being they are better at cricket.

Was watching a "Megafactories" film of the Australian Toyota's new hybrid engine plant last month; only came on stream in late 2012

Did toyota AUS only make cars for the AUS market then? Or did they ship them elsewhere?

The plant mainly produces Camrys and Aurions for sale locally in Australasia and for export to East and Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Australia is a slightly strange car market - they still buy a lot of big RWD cars and fewer small FWD cars, as market percentages - but few American RWD models are built in RHD so they had their own little RWD/RHD market - but it's clearly not profitable to continue like that.

Indeed there is much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth over here just now, it is bad news for manufacturing in Victoria. However the fact remains that locally manufactured cars have failed to reflect the changing market either locally or for export. Add to that high labour costs, high taxes and free trade and the prospects aren't rosy.

The cars: Ford Falcon, Holden Commodore aren't bad, they just miss the market zeitgeist, people want SUVs. The Falcon has been offered with the (relatively) economical 4Cyl 2.0L 200PS Ecoboost engine but is a sales flop in this guise, the 4.0L 6Cyl being the preference for those who still buy them. Similarly the smallest Commodore engine is a 3.0L V6, no diesel options for either. IIRC Holden don't even bother to tell you the CO2/mpg figures in their brochures... At least the Camry comes as a hybrid.

Then there's the build quality, there is no comparison between a Falcon which feels like a 1990s throwback and a Mondeo or a Focus when it comes to interior ambience, Honda, VAG, BMW, Merc even Subaru are in a different league with Holden falling somewhere in between IMHO.

Toyota on the other hand are the default transport choice for many, the Camry is a very common company car option and is currently locally made - no diesel option but a useful hybrid. The Corolla (Auris) is hugely popular but made overseas I think ? I suspect Toyota's problem is the lack of manufacturing scale that the component industry will face when Ford and Holden close. I think that Mitsubushi closed down in about 2008.

In the end Aussies want the same cars as Europeans and no longer want large RWD saloons (sedans) with soft suspension, massive thirsty engines and plasticky interiors. I wonder if the 1000mile road trip has been replaced by a cheap plane journey ?

Edited by idle_chatterer on 12/02/2014 at 12:06