|
|
Who could be so LUCKY!May 04 '02 Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Cars
The Bottom Line Is there an Aussi at your place?
With the recent announcement that the Australian designed and built Holden Monaro range will form the new Pontiac GTO from 2003 much interest has been sparked in the Australian car Industry. To answer many of the questions I have received recently I thought now would be opportune to give a brief rundown on the Auto Industry here. For a start the two most popular cars by a "country mile" are the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon. Both these vehicles are world class and are equal in size. To put size in perspective they are almost exactly the same as the USA Buicks and Ford Crown Victorias. They come with optional six and eight cylinder engines and both will run reliably all day in hundred and twenty degree heat. All cars must be able to do that here so imported ones are upgraded with larger radiators, transmission coolers and heat dissipation panels placed strategically over anything likely to get hot. Consequently Australian designed or modified cars operate very poorly below freezing point, thirty two degrees but that temperature is so rare as to not warrant consideration. The majority of cars on our roads are made by the "Big Four", who are in order Toyota Australia, General Motors Holden (GMH), Ford Australia and Mitsubishi Motors Australia. All tend to operate basically autonomously and their role in almost all cases is to make cars not just for Australia but all the warm to hot climate countries such as those in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. All have right and left hand drive production lines since the planet seems pretty evenly divided between the two. Now some examples of just what is made here and where they go; Toyota began exporting the Camry to Saudi Arabia in 1996 with just 4,000 cars. They are now sending around thirty five thousand a year and the hundred thousandth was exported just to this country in May 2001. Toyota's major Australian factory has produced over a half a million vehicles in the last five years and growth is very strong. Toyota export to twenty eight countries in both "Completely Knocked Down" and CBU guises and export sales are now well in excess of a billion dollars. All the other manufacturers operate similarly and total exports are currently around five billion dollars and increasing at around thirty per cent per year. Even Brazil is in the top ten market for built up Australian cars. Ford exports around a hundred and twenty thousand cars a year and Holden alone expect to almost match the current total exports within a few years thanks to the Monaro and soon after the Holden Ute. Holden has also created an all new V6 engine that many companies want right round the world for many and varied vehicles. Holden, General Motors Australian Division already exports about three hundred thousand four cylinder engines designed here and used globally. Holden's expertise of specialist engineering services is used to support GM product programs in the Asia Pacific region and in Europe. By way of example the Holden Powertrain Engineering was responsible for the design and development of a new generation 1.8 litre ECOTEC 4 cylinder engine which powers GM's top-selling Astra model in markets such as Europe, Asia, South Africa and Latin America. Holden Commodore is used in police fleets in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. They are fully fitted as police cars before leaving the Adelaide factory. The larger Cadillac sized Statesman/Caprice are also part of these countries police requirements. Holden has made its first shipments of SS Commodores to South Africa, Namibia and Botswana - where they sell alongside Cadillac and SAAB. Huge expansion is planned for the Asian region with the Commodore the most likely volume export. Chevrolet Lumina (Commodore) sedans and wagons and luxury V8-powered Chevrolet Caprice sedans (based on Statesman/Caprice) are the top-selling GM models in the Middle East. So the Australian Automotive industry is alive and well. Mitsubishi are to build two brand new models both for local and export consumption so don't be surprised if you see more "made in Australia" vehicles in your country soon.  |
| Read all comments (4)|Write your own comment |
