Belgium Car Production By Make: 1995-2011

Belgium is a small country that builds many cars. The industry has had to deal with several issues that has reduced the number of cars made there. 1) It doesn't have it's own industry so depends on overseas manufacturers staying there, for which it has no control over. 2) Small countries have less political clout, so a plant closure has less negativity. 3) It is a challenge for higher wage countries like Belgium to be competitive against those nations with lower wages.

Looking at car production figures below shows recent decline. Ford is pulling out also in 2014, moving production to Valencia, Spain.

Yr	Total	Ford	Opel	Volvo	VW	Renault
95	1,168,400	385,900	304,500	144,100	202,900	131,000
96	1,144,100	367,600	295,500	143,900	196,100	141,000
97	1,005,000	355,800	301,500	145,500	167,300	34,900
98	951,200	318,500	300,200	151,900	180,600	-
99	917,500	217,900	319,400	149,100	231,100	-
00	912,200	178,800	328,900	120,800	283,700	-
01	1,058,300	349,300	313,600	146,400	249,000	-
02	936,900	261,400	297,600	149,900	228,000	-
03	791,700	205,200	253,900	155,600	177,000	-
04	875,000	193,700	231,500	265,400	184,400	-
05	895,100	179,200	253,100	258,400	204,400	-
06	881,900	234,300	224,300	244,000	179,300	-
07	789,700	276,200	196,300	240,600	76,600	-
08	680,100	281,800	132,400	181,300	84,600	-
09	503,400	188,500	88,900	183,900	42,100	-
10	529,000	185,600	51,600	223,100	68,700	-
11	560,800	178,300	-	265,000	117,500	-
Tot	14,600,300	4,358,000	3,893,200	3,168,900	2,873,300	306,900
Avg	858,841	256,353	243,325	186,406	169,018	136,000

The 1990's production was in the million area, but today about half that. The VW includes Audis in recent times, so the figure refers to VW Group. It has been a settled production in Belgium over the years, but economic times are tighter. Last year Opel, now Ford's departure is big for a little country.

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

The Limitations Of Car Crash Tests

New cars are tested for crash worthiness as we know. They are usually rated from zero to five stars and people are greatly influenced by the results. Potential buyers may shy away from anything less than a five star rating.

My personal view is that too much is read into the system. Of course, a newly released car getting two or three stars today would be unacceptable but the difference between a four and five star rating may not be as people think. The reason is that it is very difficult to replicate all the nuances of 'real world' accidents when testing cars in controlled environment.

Now a new overlap test that puts only 25% of the front of a car into an object (at 40 kph) as opposed to say 40% has been carried out. It was done by the The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and the results were sobering. It seems that many manufacturers that trumpet safety, are simply very good at making their cars pass existing tests. This new test showed how few cars are made to stand up to a smaller object impact, such as would happen with a tree of power pole.

Poor: Mercedes C Class, Lexus IS and ES350 and Audi A4.

Marginal: Acura TSX, BMW 3 Series, Lincoln MKZ and VW CC.

Good: Acura TL and Volvo S60.

The above models are premium, the next batch of tests will be every day models, and it won't be pretty I suggest. Yet even some reputable models as listed above had unacceptably poor results. The IS and C-Class had sufficient structural deformation to trap the dummies feet while the door of the VW CC came off!

It seems that five stars can be achieved if you study standard tests and engineer cars to meet those. A common accident like hitting a power pole is for some reason not in existing tests. So car makers generally don't worry about making them safe for that scenario. That is cynical to me. One of the brands tested builds cars not just to get five stars but to make safe cars, and that is Volvo.

So if someone says they won't buy a four star car, well maybe it failed a technicality on the existing test, whereas a five star car might in fact be worse in certain accidents. If you are very concerned about safety, buy a Volvo.