Well thats it, Toyota pulls the plug !
2017 is the go date.
Now watch Tony Abbott get the blame !

Bazz,
Right or wrong it has happened on his watch and history/folklore being what it is he will be seen as the man who brought it all about.
He wanted the job, such things go with it.
SD

Toyota had to go. Even if they had been building a suitable car, which they aren't, with them alone the components industry they depend on could not have survived on the volume.

Our last 4 manufacturers all made the decision on new cars about the same time. At that time the market was for large 6 cylinder cars, with a V8 option. However the long lead time it takes today, & the multimillion development costs did them all.

By the time even Mitsubishis 380 came to market, the required car was smaller, or 4X4 wagon. The wrong car killed Mitsubishi in Oz, & has now killed Ford, Holden & Toyota.

Yes the huge labor costs, pushed up by the last governments sped the death, but Holden, even moving to produce the smaller Cruise could not generate enough sales to support their plants & those labor costs.

I hate to see them go. The Commodore & the Falcon were a couple of the best value cars in the world, but as 4WDs became more comfortable, smaller cars more competent, & government stopped buying them they became nonviable.

I drove in the first ever Holden Dealer Team at Bathurst, I wonder if I could con them to give me a drive in the last? I'd probably kill myself, but what a way to go.

An interesting observation.
Could the decisions by the whole car manufacturing industry in Australia to close be just a coincidence ?

There has been discussion on US web sites that GM has pulled out of
Europe because the usage of cars in Europe is falling and many young
people are not buying cars at all.
I have seen figures that similar situations are developing in both the US and Australia.

Peak hour travel on suburban trains is increasing rapidly which may
mean that many families no longer need two cars.
The cost of petrol and motorway charges are also increasing.

Even in the US car mileage or usage has fallen significantly.
All of the above would lead to lower sales indefinitely.

The view of Australia to GM, Ford & Toyota might have coalesced into one decision.
Get out, while the getting out is good.

Have the car companies been reading their tea leaves ?

I don't think this can become a factor in Oz Bazz, even in the medium term.

Unlike the older part of the US, & much of Europe, which developed when people walked or cycled to work in the factory, most of Oz, like California developed after the car became common. In much of Oz we have industrial areas & dormitory suburbs. With much of our industry, even rail transport is not within walking distance of workplaces.

One of my biggest complaints about planning is the love of high-rise centralised workplaces, serviced by public transport. City centers become horrific places. Much better decentralized workplaces scattered throughout the outer suburbs, close to those dormitories.

We also have too many working parents who have to deliver kids to a couple or more different places, on their way to work, & return. No form of public transport yet developed can handle the diverse travel requirement of these people.

I feel we are about to see some massive changes across the board in Oz. They have been coming for some time. Much will not be to our taste.
It is a time where the best leadership we can find will be needed but sadly this is the area where we are lacking, and have been for some time.
It is mostly of our own doing as the warning signs have been there for a very long time.
Opportunities were lost and it is now too late. It will be some time before the Lucky Country will have that title again, if ever.
SD