Quote:
Originally Posted by zilo
I always thought the export potential of australian cars was undermined by the wild currency fluctuations of the Australian dollar.
My brother worked at Mitsubishi...they made 270 cars a day...200 were exported to the US.
That was when we were 48 cents to a USD.
Then we went to $ AUD0.99 to $USD1.00 that made an Australian made Diamate (Magna) the same price as a C class Mercedes in the US.
What happened next is history...
Nothing to do with the workers.
Poor Mitsubishi released the 380 at the same time planning to export it to the US.
it was cheaper to build the same car (galant) in the us...and they did right up to 2012.
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When Mitsubishi closed up shop in Adelaide that killed one of the branches of our companies - we had eggs all in one basket with Mitsubishi having lost all the other manufacturers up to that point in Australia, Ford and Holden abandoned us for Thailand manufacture around the time of the Thailand FTA, then add in over the years losing Nissan and the like too, all roads lead to Mitsubishi.
Then Mitsubishi said goodbye and that torpedoed us.
Its not just the people working at the manufacturers it torpedos the whole supply chain of all the little companies manufacturing and supplying all sorts of bits and bobs to them.
Couple decades ago we employed 700 people in Victoria alone across two production facilities in our day, now its around 30 of us in Melbourne and 15 in other states.
The irony in it all even though we're tiny now, we've got a unique capability because everyone else gave up on it
