Motor vehicle subsidies wasted on Ford

Ford Australia made just over a quarter (60,000) of all the cars made in Australia last year and less than one-fifth of all the new cars+light trucks registered in Australia in 2009 (a total of 302,400: see the ABS Motor Vehicle Census)

Ford is not going to be a profit center for its global parent any time soon.

'As soon as choices have to be made, Ford is the next Mitsubishi,' said John Wormald, principal of international consultant Autopolis, referring to the Japanese company's decision to shut down its Adelaide factory two years ago.

Mr Wormald, who is in Australia to advise the Victorian government, said the replacement for the Falcon, due in about five years, could be imported cheaply and the carmaker did not need its Melbourne plant. 'Ford isn't short of assembly capacity in other places,' he said. 'Where's the plan to integrate Australia?'" Extract from Ford will be next carmaker to quit Australia | The Australian

Wormald confirmed what everyone except Kevin Rudd and Kim Carr has understood for decades about the Australian car industry. Referring to the massive $6 billion bribes extended by the Rudd government (including $13 million to prop up Ford's Geelong factory), he said

"Subsidies were doomed to fail because the industry lacked a vision for the future and Ford was most vulnerable because it was isolated from its parent's global operations.

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