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| GM walking away from Australia |
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| Ed.Kloonk:
--- Quote from: vk6zgo on February 22, 2020, 02:02:31 pm --- --- Quote from: nctnico on February 22, 2020, 01:24:20 pm ---You should breed more people! There just isn't enough people (and thus cars) to keep stock of every part. When I visited New Zealand the people where complaining about the same. Because the market is so small it is hard to buy equipment and parts at sane prices with short delivery times. --- End quote --- Our population is a lot larger than that of NZ. Australia has 25 million inhabitants, driving 19.2'million cars compared to about 4.8 million, driving about 4 million cars. Back in the day, when we had less people, you could walk into a car parts place & pretty much walk out with any part made by that company. No, this is a thing which has developed over the years, where it supposedly is cheaper to do everything in the Eastern States. It certainly isn't cheaper for their customers in other State capitals! We haven't got as bad as the UK back in 1971 though, where the Southhampton Ford agent had to get a part from London. It took a week to travel 70miles!! --- End quote --- John Canogan, the youtube host in the vid in my OP of this thread put out a video yesterday where he told the story of meeting a senior boss at Hyundai in Korea. John asked him why they cannot put a factory in Australia. The guy, to his credit, politely explained to John that a factory of any sort needs to pump out 300k cars. To break even. Hm. |
| nctnico:
--- Quote from: vk6zgo on February 22, 2020, 02:02:31 pm --- --- Quote from: nctnico on February 22, 2020, 01:24:20 pm ---You should breed more people! There just isn't enough people (and thus cars) to keep stock of every part. When I visited New Zealand the people where complaining about the same. Because the market is so small it is hard to buy equipment and parts at sane prices with short delivery times. --- End quote --- Our population is a lot larger than that of NZ. Australia has 25 million inhabitants, driving 19.2'million cars compared to about 4.8 million, driving about 4 million cars. Back in the day, when we had less people, you could walk into a car parts place & pretty much walk out with any part made by that company. --- End quote --- Back then the cost of the materials to make the part was relatively higher compared to handling it. But wages went up and material & fabrication costs went down. Even over here this is very visible. If I go to a car parts shop which has everything in stock I pay 2 to 3 times more compared to ordering the part from Germany (including the shipping costs!) |
| Ed.Kloonk:
--- Quote from: nctnico on February 22, 2020, 02:11:10 pm --- --- Quote from: vk6zgo on February 22, 2020, 02:02:31 pm --- --- Quote from: nctnico on February 22, 2020, 01:24:20 pm ---You should breed more people! There just isn't enough people (and thus cars) to keep stock of every part. When I visited New Zealand the people where complaining about the same. Because the market is so small it is hard to buy equipment and parts at sane prices with short delivery times. --- End quote --- Our population is a lot larger than that of NZ. Australia has 25 million inhabitants, driving 19.2'million cars compared to about 4.8 million, driving about 4 million cars. Back in the day, when we had less people, you could walk into a car parts place & pretty much walk out with any part made by that company. --- End quote --- Back then the cost of the materials to make the part was relatively higher compared to handling it. But wages went up and material & fabrication costs went down. Even over here this is very visible. If I go to a car parts shop which has everything in stock I pay 2 to 3 times more compared to ordering the part from Germany (including the shipping costs!) --- End quote --- Sounds like a lot of overhead for convenience. |
| coppice:
--- Quote from: Ed.Kloonk on February 22, 2020, 02:09:49 pm ---John Canogan, the youtube host in the vid in my OP of this thread put out a video yesterday where he told the story of meeting a senior boss at Hyundai in Korea. John asked him why they cannot put a factory in Australia. The guy, to his credit, politely explained to John that a factory of any sort needs to pump out 300k cars. To break even. Hm. --- End quote --- That 300k figure is not exactly an industry secret. A big change in the last 30 years which makes that figure easier to achieve is the 300k can now be the aggregate of a mixture of models suitable for the configuration of the line (e.g. ones that will fit in the spray booths). I think this is only the figure for an assembly plant, though. The plant would probably be bringing in engines from a larger plant, and many high value modules, like the transmission, are now only made by specialists in really big numbers. |
| Ed.Kloonk:
--- Quote from: coppice on February 22, 2020, 02:16:10 pm --- --- Quote from: Ed.Kloonk on February 22, 2020, 02:09:49 pm ---John Canogan, the youtube host in the vid in my OP of this thread put out a video yesterday where he told the story of meeting a senior boss at Hyundai in Korea. John asked him why they cannot put a factory in Australia. The guy, to his credit, politely explained to John that a factory of any sort needs to pump out 300k cars. To break even. Hm. --- End quote --- That 300k figure is not exactly an industry secret. A big change in the last 30 years which makes that figure easier to achieve is the 300k can now be the aggregate of a mixture of models suitable for the configuration of the line (e.g. ones that will fit in the spray booths). I think this is only the figure for an assembly plant, though. The plant would probably be bringing in engines from a larger plant, and many high value modules, like the transmission, are now only made by specialists in really big numbers. --- End quote --- The trouble we've got here is a plant needs to make 300k cars as close to the same as it can. But people here do not want the same car as everyone else. They pay thousands for a license place that says 'wanker1' |
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