yep no doubt partly as a result of the unions/Labour resisting workchoices and Abbott being so weak as to be me too. And people are dumb enough to ask why. So selfish that future generations miss out on work as we continue to feed ABC and the Thompsons of this world.

For years we had the tradition of running Falcons as the shopping trolley.

Eventually we had to change because Ford senior management would never listen to their own dealers to make simple changes to very obvious and annoying design faults, largely ergonomic. Examples could be:

- the over-large blind spot for the driver from the stupid pillar supporting a too long swept windscreen. Ford had been trying for years to 'educate' Aussies towards the Taurus, an exceptionally ugly car sold in Europe which they wanted to import instead of building Falcons;

- stupidly heavy front doors that wrenched arms when the car was on a slope. Again, Ford was trying to import the Taurus design etc;

- the poorly padded seats above the large hump that made the 5th and middle seat in the rear a 'numb-bum' hazard, and also required that passenger to sit with legs uncomfortably parted; and

- needless bulky shell that added weight and made parking difficult, while offering no more room inside.

The sad fact is that Ford and GMH made what they wanted to make, were very grudging in accepting and often refused reasonable warranty requests and their dealers themselves made dough out of pre-delivery, the so-called first complimentary 'service' (where they did SFA) and out of skimming from general services.

While I might have some feeling for (say) a 1964 Holden, it is more nostalgia for lost youth. I am damned sure I would never want to own one again. What can I say about car companies that only introduced disc brakes and airconditioning, or even a half-decent radio, when sales were affected by Japanese imports, and preferred to lobby government for socialist protection instead?

Mr y'abbott is in a no win situation. He dug himself a nice hole and now he is scrambling around trying to get out.
Gives holder the money he saves holden, no money an he is the Prime Minister who shot Bambi, forever. No amount of re programing of websites and deleting speeches or telling Rupert not to ask difficult questions.
Ford is on the way out and by the looks of things so will holden. y'abbott doesn't care he is on a crusade to leave his mark on this country good or bad.
We loose so much to overseas be it cars or farmland. manufacturing, call centre jobs, ICT jobs. When will it all stop, under this govt not anytime soon! But we have a PM who is adamant he always right and never wrong....ever!

Raw mustard, that's common sense and common sense just doesn't fit with the union power brokers.

Perhaps once we do loose the likes of Holden, Ford and Qantas, they may wake up to themselves.

These clowns have to come to terms with the reality that while wages may increase in good times, they must be allowed to decrease in bad times, such as we are experiencing now.
Fat chance of it happening though, evidence being in the fact that Bill Shorten and co honestly think they did a great job over the past six years and, that we are in great shape, the envy of the world they say.

I fear we will have to wait until unemployment is out of control and the people revolt in mass.

Unfortunately though, it will be too late by that stage.

Abbott will be the mastermind that created all this unemployment butch is talking about. The noalition is in govt; not labor or anyone else.
Holden have not made any decision, it's only what you read in the paper and Abbott has taken that as gospel, instead of checking it out himself.
Another case of shooting from the hip, then putting his foot in his mouth. The figure was supposed to be 500 million, not the 250 that Abbott is offering. It is all in Abbott's hands if he is good enough.
Ask yourself why does Hockey want to lift the debt level by 200 billion $. After what they were sprucing, before the election of course.

ode..to gm

BY LAW..a trademan..OWN..his tools
dont allow the TOOLS..to go overseas
[give them./.a tax credit..an/iou..if anything]

importantly..for historic completeness..all the holden molds etc
must be archived..in situ..much..like a crime scene..that then evolves..into a huge car museum..acers and acres of holdens..with all the spar-parts..to keep them rebuilt

think..like cuba..lots of jobs jobs jobs in revealing THE FULL story
[in working condition]..BUT THE LINE STAYS HERE*..wee at least own..the tools.[and their 'storage'/boxes]..a COMPLETE story.

thousands of books..lots of car nuts..with BIG money*