I understand that the industry directly employees 60 000 people and indirectly 200 000. I also understand that the us government is handing out USD$25b and the Germans EU$12b to their car industry but what I dont understand is the following.

1) none of the companies are australian owned i.e. if they do suddenly become profitable etc all of the money will flow overseas anyways. These companies are not going to develop green technologies alongside their parent companies so why bother trying. i.e. let toyota japan develop it and then patent / copy / steal the technology for a local car.

2) if I am complacent and incompetent in my business and dont adapt with the times will the government come and help me out? I dont think so. The car industry should not be any different.

3) The writing has been on the wall for a bloody long time about global warming etc. I still fail to see why I can not buy a ford falcon or a commodore (either sedan or ute) with a diesel motor in it.

4) The cars being offered by holden / ford and antiquated and almost irrelevant in the current environment. Gone are the days of sales reps driving around in commodores. Those that cant conduct their business over the net are driving around in corrollas et al. Surely the dwindling number of sales for falcons might suggest that perhaps they need to go in a different direction. i.e. something significantly smaller.

5) Our tax system. I have several managers that I buy Toyota Hilux Dual Cab SR5's for because I dont have to pay Fringe benefits tax. Thats right. It works out cheaper for me to spend $52k on an imported 'commercial' vehicle than it does to go and buy a brand new commodore for them. Our tax system is trying to stop me from supporting the local car industry.

6) Have you driven a bog standard commodore lately? The sooner the thing rusts to pieces the better. Whilst they continue to serve up unreliable / poorly built machinery why would I buy it? Been there done that, never again.

We need to use our competitive advantage. I am not trying to be racist but let the countries with cheap labour build the bloody things and we should focus on the technology side of it i.e. using our expensive but well trained labour to do thing like design gearboxes / suspension etc.

Having mentioned competitive advantage I think the whole thing needs a more united approach. i.e. Let the US build SUV's and 4x4's. Let japan build well designed and built small cars. Let Europe build exotics and high end performance cars. Let the koreans / malaysians / indians / chinese build cheap / unsafe / unreliable heaps of shit for the peasants.

Choice is a great thing but in these times of uncertainty I think people need to stop and go back to what they are good at. Clearly Australia is not good at building cars. Great. Let someone else do it.

__________________
Losing is worse than death. You have to live with losing....