After thoroughly decimating the combover and stupid electric car quotient at GM HQ in Detroit, it was time (after a fine prime rib dinner the night before) to jet over to set things right, after ten years of idiocy, at Holden.
This makes me think of my last trip to my psychotherapist. I address her as The Empress Ming. As usual, she was smouldering with anger. She has anger-management issues.
She whined, moaned, bitched and complained about my "lack of progress."
Suddenly, she raised her voice. "JOHN! Do you suffer from Megalomania?"
I replied, "NO! No no no no! I really enjoy it!!!"
Australian car manufacturing was great while it lasted, however, it required several hundred million USD in government subsidies about every 5 years or so.
Whether this would've been necessary had GM and Ford made better decisions and more aggressively marketed the products of their Australian subsidiaries is a legitimate question however.
All is not lost though.
GM has a so called 'Special Vehicles' operation in Australia that does factory RHD conversions on Silverburbans, Corvettes and Camaro's for the sale of the Australian and New Zealand markets.
I believe FCA has a similar operation because for the first time in about 60 years, you can buy Dodge trucks new in New Zealand, one sees many dual cab RAM 1500 & 2500 on Kiwi roads, because we New Zealanders love towing our 6000ib boats down two lane rural highways at 80mph..
And the US car divisions of the same car companies also have required subsidies every couple decades. They got bailed out in the 70s, again in 2009 (ya, ya ok Ford "didn't take the money", but did they really?) and they are all getting subsidies right now in the form of rebates and tax breaks on their stupid electric cars.
Agree that GM and Ford could have done much, much better in marketing their Australian products.
5 years and twice in 60 years are not the same time scale, and the subsidies the Australian auto industry received were proportionally much higher than their American parent companies.
One must remember though, that every line worker in the GM or Ford factories in Australia could go and earn 90k USD annually in the mines of Western Australia doing nothing more than pushing wheelbarrows, so the competition for and price of Australian labour is extreme.
First went to Australia as a 21 year old and played beach bum/ladies man for three months. Became a big fan of the Australian car scene. Having a natural soft spot for fast four door sedans (ya I'm a bit weird I guess), all the Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons running around with hi-po V8s and manual trannys was pretty surreal. The later model Commodore Clubsport R8 LSA is a serious car that could have competed globally, had GM actually wanted to sell some cars. Sure, not as refined as the German competitors, but they could have sold it for a lot less and still whipped some ass. But, since GM's best talent for the last 50-60 years has been shooting itself in the corporate foot, it was not to be.
Erm, as far as I can gather from the little Aussie car content I catch here and there, the biggest problem of Holden were the antiquated entertainment/nav systems. The 6L80 wasn't programmed with the kind of driving they do down there in mind. Take a sporty US version with the trailer towing package and make that the base version in AU. A guy (90% sure he was called "Bruce") explained to me without batting an eye that his 'just a weekend cruiser' Commodore has a hot motor, line lock, trans-brake and a bump box...
The couple times I visited Australia, I saw a few high-spec Holden utes, presumably with 6.2 V8 power..The modern El Camino SS. The only other car I was disappointed we never got in the states was their Holden Sandman, which looked like a love child between a 70s Chevelle and a bread van. Luckily now that all Klockau is in charge I’m sure both will be imported to the US..
Love the Pontiac honeycomb wheels on the yellow car!!!!! My only question is, has the waitress at the Supper Club been spiking Tom’s G&T with everclear? 😁😁😁
They should also make you the prime minister! The prime RIB minister!
A Division of Surf and Turf.
"That’s not a knife, THAT’S a knife sporting goods store"
ded
This makes me think of my last trip to my psychotherapist. I address her as The Empress Ming. As usual, she was smouldering with anger. She has anger-management issues.
She whined, moaned, bitched and complained about my "lack of progress."
Suddenly, she raised her voice. "JOHN! Do you suffer from Megalomania?"
I replied, "NO! No no no no! I really enjoy it!!!"
john
Agree 100% that real colors should be included in the price and stupid non colors should be extra.
Australian car manufacturing was great while it lasted, however, it required several hundred million USD in government subsidies about every 5 years or so.
Whether this would've been necessary had GM and Ford made better decisions and more aggressively marketed the products of their Australian subsidiaries is a legitimate question however.
All is not lost though.
GM has a so called 'Special Vehicles' operation in Australia that does factory RHD conversions on Silverburbans, Corvettes and Camaro's for the sale of the Australian and New Zealand markets.
I believe FCA has a similar operation because for the first time in about 60 years, you can buy Dodge trucks new in New Zealand, one sees many dual cab RAM 1500 & 2500 on Kiwi roads, because we New Zealanders love towing our 6000ib boats down two lane rural highways at 80mph..
And the US car divisions of the same car companies also have required subsidies every couple decades. They got bailed out in the 70s, again in 2009 (ya, ya ok Ford "didn't take the money", but did they really?) and they are all getting subsidies right now in the form of rebates and tax breaks on their stupid electric cars.
Agree that GM and Ford could have done much, much better in marketing their Australian products.
5 years and twice in 60 years are not the same time scale, and the subsidies the Australian auto industry received were proportionally much higher than their American parent companies.
One must remember though, that every line worker in the GM or Ford factories in Australia could go and earn 90k USD annually in the mines of Western Australia doing nothing more than pushing wheelbarrows, so the competition for and price of Australian labour is extreme.
That Monaro ad is pure gold. Exactly what I envisioned when I was getting my engineering degree.
you mean engineering isnt just doing track testing all day
lame
1 year later: “Sir, these are great ideas but we’ve only sold 3000 cars and the company is bankrupt again”
QUIET you ! .
=8-)
-Nate
Australian cars look like someone asked AI to render an American car.
First went to Australia as a 21 year old and played beach bum/ladies man for three months. Became a big fan of the Australian car scene. Having a natural soft spot for fast four door sedans (ya I'm a bit weird I guess), all the Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons running around with hi-po V8s and manual trannys was pretty surreal. The later model Commodore Clubsport R8 LSA is a serious car that could have competed globally, had GM actually wanted to sell some cars. Sure, not as refined as the German competitors, but they could have sold it for a lot less and still whipped some ass. But, since GM's best talent for the last 50-60 years has been shooting itself in the corporate foot, it was not to be.
Erm, as far as I can gather from the little Aussie car content I catch here and there, the biggest problem of Holden were the antiquated entertainment/nav systems. The 6L80 wasn't programmed with the kind of driving they do down there in mind. Take a sporty US version with the trailer towing package and make that the base version in AU. A guy (90% sure he was called "Bruce") explained to me without batting an eye that his 'just a weekend cruiser' Commodore has a hot motor, line lock, trans-brake and a bump box...
The couple times I visited Australia, I saw a few high-spec Holden utes, presumably with 6.2 V8 power..The modern El Camino SS. The only other car I was disappointed we never got in the states was their Holden Sandman, which looked like a love child between a 70s Chevelle and a bread van. Luckily now that all Klockau is in charge I’m sure both will be imported to the US..
I’ll take the red w/white top one! Hey, send this to GM. They need some good ideas
Love the Pontiac honeycomb wheels on the yellow car!!!!! My only question is, has the waitress at the Supper Club been spiking Tom’s G&T with everclear? 😁😁😁
My fictional alter ego is 1/3 C. Montgomery Burns, 1/3 Arthur Bach and 1/3 me. :)
Sadly, I can’t agree that Never Say Never Again is an excellent Bond movie. It’s just meh. And the soundtrack was terrible.
We fans of Rowan Atkinson make allowances for the Thunderball remake, all the same.
"We don't just build cars, we live them". That line should be copied, pasted and sent to every manufacturer out there right now.
You're in *very* good form today Sir .
-Nate