There'll be blood on the streets! (Mine!)Joshua Dowling Motoring Editor in Geneva
The Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday March 1 2006
A Commodore made in Korea? It's possible, according to General Motors' head of global product development, Bob Lutz, who oversees Holden's Australian operations from head office in Detroit.
Speaking candidly at a preview to the Geneva motor show yesterday, Mr Lutz expressed grave concerns for the viability of the Australian car manufacturing industry if import tariffs remained low and the Australian dollar remained strong.
GM owns Korean brand Daewoo and in October 2002 Holden became the biggest stakeholder in the company, buying a 42 per cent share.
Holden is already increasing the number of small and medium cars it imports from Korea; the new Barina is a rebadged Daewoo Kalos and the Holden Viva is a Daewoo Lacetti.
By the middle of this year Holden will also begin selling a Korean-made four-wheel-drive to compete with the Ford Territory after the locally made Holden Adventra (an off-road version of the Commodore wagon) failed to meet sales expectations.
While Mr Lutz stressed that Holden had no plans to close its vehicle assembly factory in Adelaide (the same city in which Mitsubishi is struggling to survive) he said the Australian industry was "at risk" of being uncompetitive with its nearby Asian neighbours, which have lower labour costs.
"I tell you the Australian manufacturing industry is in a difficult situation right now," Mr Lutz told the Herald. "If the Government doesn't do something about it or the Australian dollar doesn't weaken, then I'm not sure what's going to happen. The Australian market really is at risk."
He said that while there were no plans at this stage to build the Commodore in Korea "it is possible and it is feasible" to do so.
He said it was more likely that production of the Commodore - Australia's best selling car for the past 12 years - would remain in Australia for now but that other locally made Holdens which sell in relatively small numbers domestically but which are strong sellers in other countries (such as the Statesman luxury sedan), could be assembled in Korea.
"The new Statesman is going to be exported from Australia to China, Korea and the Middle East," Mr Lutz said. "If the export volume is strong, and it makes sense to build the Statesman at [GM's Korean division], then why not do it?"
Local car makers Holden, Ford, Toyota and Mitsubishi are struggling against the weight of imports. In 2001 imported vehicles accounted for 58.9 per cent of all new-car sales in Australia. In January 2006, imported vehicles accounted for 81.1 per cent of all new-car sales.
Japan is the single biggest source of imported vehicles (41.1 per cent in January 2006, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries) but Korean imports are growing, from 7.6 per cent of new-car sales in January 2005 to 9.9 per cent in January 2006.
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Originally Posted by dydzi
Instigated (and financed) by a socialist, protectionist Labor Govt under Ben Chifley 
Expunged overseas by the free-market, conservative Liberal Govt of little Johnny Howard? 