Australian Vehicle Production By Make: 1997-2011

The Australian car market has traditionally been strong in large, basic cars. The GM Holden Commodore,  Ford Falcon and Toyota Camry have been big sellers in the 'Big Country', and  these three models have been the mainstay of the production industry for many years. Toyota has been big exporting their large car to the Middle East, GM less so and Ford hasn't bothered much at all, except for NZ.

Recently, big car sales have fallen as petrol prices rise and small cars get better at driving big distances. Ford has made an SUV (Territory -pic above) and Holden a small car (Cruze - pic below with Commodore) to compensate for the trend. However, the industry is propped up with government assistance, otherwise it would not be viable. The numbers of late have not been big enough, as the chart below of the past 15 years shows. Notice how the last few years have been below the average for the period. Mitsubishi gave up but the others hang in there.

Yr	Total	Holden	Toyota	Ford	Mitsub
97	344,100	92,000	77,600	116,000	58,500
98	359,800	123,200	99,900	89,800	46,900
99	322,500	103,000	91,000	93,900	34,600
00	344,900	130,500	92,300	85,800	36,300
01	347,100	129,600	100,600	73,400	43,500
02	359,000	123,700	86,600	102,300	46,400
03	405,200	151,800	113,600	105,000	34,800
04	406,300	164,000	109,900	111,000	21,400
05	389,100	153,000	109,200	108,200	18,700
06	325,300	121,700	111,600	81,500	10,500
07	332,100	104,300	148,900	68,800	10,100
08	337,000	118,000	141,400	75,300	2,300
09	218,500	67,100	96,800	54,600	-
10	240,000	64,100	119,900	56,000	-
11	219,400	88,000	93,600	37,800	-
Tot	4,950,300	1,734,000	1,592,900	1,259,400	364,000
Avg	330,000	115,600	106,200	84,000	33,100

Please note: The Mitsubishi average does not include 2008, a run out figure anyway.

Unless production rises, it is hard to see how the industry can continue. Many Australians realise the cost of subsidising the car makers is not worth it, while there are those who want to see it continue for national pride's sake. Perhaps it's not for me to say either way, but the signs are not good.

Pics: http://www.caradvice.com.au