Opinion

Ford fans might not want to believe it, but the exclusive story by News Corp Australia’s James Phelps in the lead-up to last weekend’s Bathurst 1000 is true. Ford is planning to pull out of V8 Supercars once it stops making cars in Australia at the end of 2016. It has already cut funding and will trim the budgets even further over the next two years -- even though the last official Ford-funded team just delivered the company back-to-back wins on the mountain, in an unprecedented last-to-first victory Please, Ford. Rethink this decision. But emotion carries little weight in such heavy boardroom decisions. Ford won’t say this publicly, but privately it thinks motor racing is bad for its image. It wants to reposition as a technology leader, and move upmarket. I have one word for Ford on this: Toyota. The Japanese giant sells more blokey four-wheel-drives and utes than any other brand in Australia. Toyota also sells a tonne of hybrid cars globally (it just passed the 7 million mark this week). In other words: you can market both. Successfully. I completely understand why Ford wants to move its brand upmarket. Even Ford dealers admit the cars are better than the brand’s image. But to walk away from the core V8 audience is madness. Ford walked away from motorsport and V8s before. And the fans forgave them when they came back. I’m not so sure fans will be so forgiving a second time around. One more thought: if the V8 Supercar audience isn’t worth talking to, why did Ford have so many advertisements all through the telecast on Sunday? Please, Ford. Rethink this decision. Ford race teams need genuine financial support to remain competitive, not a few body panels donated in kind.

Toyota Peformance Racing star Chaz … Wait. That doesn't sound right. Let's start again. Hyundai charger Chaz Mostert … Nup. That doesn't work either. Beginning any story about Bathurst's newest champion with anything other than Ford would just not be right. But sadly we may soon be calling the kid who shocked Mount Panorama a Toyota top gun, a Hyundai hero, or maybe even - and God forbid - a Holden driver. As revealed by News Corp Australia last week, Ford have told high-ranking V8 officials that they do not have a future in the sport. They may elect to give Ford Performance Racing - the one and only team they sponsor this year - some help next year, with the team committed to racing the new model Falcon. But after that they are out. They want to kill off the famous Ford v Holden rivalry; the great Australian sporting war. It's the war they just happen to be winning despite their apparent lack of interest as Mostert helped them to back-to-back Bathurst titles on Sunday following Mark Winterbottom's epic win last year. They won't commit to Ford Performance Racing despite the team proving they are not just one of Australia's best sporting teams, but also brands. They are fast, popular and right now facing an uncertain future because Ford can't see the value in taking $2 million a year from a $60 million marketing budget and spending it on … wait for it …cars. Sure, we all know the car market is changing. Apparently the only people buying cars are 22-year-old, latte-sipping, poodle-walking girls. But even if this is true, isn't it still the father that ultimately takes his daughter to the dealer to have the final say? A bloke called Bruce, who hates poodles, drinks Nescafe and has watched every Bathurst 1000 since he was born? Let's take the emotion of a car company using cars to sell cars (yeah, stupid right?) and look at the pure advertising. Ford need to be as visible as possible. Since announcing they are shutting down their Australian operations at the end of 2016 and axing the Falcon, people think the company is in decline. Some people even think that Ford will not exist in Australia soon. The company needs to be as visible as possible, so what can FPR do? Well how about the 3.7 million people who sat in their homes watching a 300km/h advertising board win Bathurst? And the 193,647 that were at Bathurst watching the Ford poster beat Nissan, Holden and Mercedes. There is that. And then there are the other 14 rounds of the championship. The ones that hundreds of thousands of fans go to and spend $60 to become mobile advertising boards themselves by buying the shirts, hats, and flags. Wait … they pay to advertise your brand? Yep. They do much more than that. They buy cars, too. Sure, maybe there won't be any V8s on the road soon, but these people will still be driving something. Ford, do you still want them to be driving a Ford?Chaz Mostert's Bathurst win could not have come at a better time. Surely it will make Ford see what they will lose if they go. Wake up Ford. You have been warned.

The value of the Australian dollar against the US dollar fell to a six-month low this week, but don't expect to see a kneejerk rise in new-car prices.   There are several compelling reasons for this.   For starters, every car already on dealer lots was imported by the car company and paid for by the dealer when the currency was stronger.   Secondly, most brands do not buy in US dollars.   And thirdly, most companies buy their foreign currency up to six and nine months in advance, to protect customers (and the price of cars) from such fluctuations.   The value of the Australian dollar versus the Japanese Yen, the Thai Baht (Thailand is now our second biggest source of cars ahead of South Korea), and the Euro are all relatively steady.   Furthermore, economists are predicting that the value of the Australian dollar will remain above 90 US cents for at least the next 12 to 18 months.   Any guessing beyond then is exactly that: a guess.   So while the latest car sales figures don't reflect it, as we've now seen eight months in a row of sales decline and the biggest dip since the Global Financial Crisis, the reality is new-car prices in the mass market (below $60,000) are the lowest they've been in 20 years and, thanks to low interest rates, car affordability is at a 38-year high, according to CommSec.   New-car prices will only start to rise once the Australian dollar slumps across more currencies for a several months in a row. Then, we will need to worry.   All that said, Australians still pay over the odds for luxury cars, but you can blame that on our relatively small market (less than 1 per cent of global vehicle sales) and a Luxury Car Tax that slugs buyers 33 per cent of the cost of most cars above $61,884.

Safer vehicles -- and car affordability at a 38-year high -- deserve at least some of the credit for the record-low road toll announced this week.   Figures for July released by the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development show 1157 people died on Australian roads over the past 12 months, down from the 2013 calendar-year tally of 1193 deaths.   The latest 12-month tally is the lowest since 1935 when 1100 people died, and is down from a peak of 3978 deaths in 1970 when there were fewer cars on the road -- and the population stood at 12.2 million, a little more than half what it is today.   Governments across Australia will no doubt take the credit for the latest reductions in the road toll as speed cameras continue to rake in the cash.   But it is worth noting that five of the past six years have been records for new-car sales and most new models have six airbags and stability control (which can prevent a skid) these days.   That means there is a greater chance the cars alongside you can avoid a crash in the first place and, if things do sadly go awry, you're more likely to be in a car that's better protected by airbags.   The old adage that we don't make 'em like we used to is true when it comes to cars.   Back in the Kingswood era, cars were designed to be strong -- and the human body took the brunt of the impact.   Modern cars are in fact designed to crumple around you so that the forces on the body -- the rapid deceleration -- are minimised.   We shouldn't pat ourselves on the back just yet, however. The average age of cars on our roads is getting younger but it is still not as good as other developed countries.   The average age of all cars on Australian roads has dipped to below 10 years for the first time, but is still not as low as Japan, the UK and the USA whose vehicle fleets are an average of six to eight years old.   Which is why the thought of opening the floodgates to imported used cars is disturbing. The Federal Government is still considering this flawed proposal.   We need to find ways to continue to make new cars more affordable so they can filter onto the used market and be within reach of the masses.   Today, you can have a brand-new Honda Jazz with six airbags, a five star safety rating and a rear-view camera for $14,990.   Given that Australia's used-car prices are at 10-year lows, chances are near-new two- or three-year-old cars will soon be in the $8000-$9000 price bracket.   Imagine how many more lives we can save as the nation's car fleet gets newer and safer -- and imagine the tragedy if a flood of older used cars led to an increase in the road toll.   That would most certainly not be progress. Here's hoping common sense prevails.   Fast facts   Motorists need to give cyclists a bigger safety gap as the number of fatalities has risen by a staggering 44 per cent over the past year -- to 56 deaths in the 12 months to July 2014, or more than one fatality a week.   The latest figures show Australia's road toll has fallen to a new low -- and deaths of 17-to-25-year-olds have dropped by 33 per cent over the past five years -- but fatalities among those aged over 65 have increased by 10 per cent over the same period.   Five years ago, 307 drivers aged 17-to-25 died on the nation's roads compared to 235 road users over the age of 65. But in the 12 months to July, 204 young drivers died compared to 258 deaths of those aged over 65.   Road deaths over the past five years are down in every state in Australia except Tasmania, where the road toll is up by 28 per cent (from 32 in the 12 months to July 2010, to 41 deaths in the 12 months to July 2014).   The latest figures show motor vehicle fatalities in Australia have fallen to five deaths per 100,000 people for the first time since records were kept -- but our roads are still the 16th most dangerous among OECD countries, behind Turkey (4.99), Finland (4.71), Germany (4.39), Switzerland (4.26) and Spain (4.12).   Figures from the World Health Organisation show China and India have much higher road fatality rates (approximately 20 deaths per 100,000 people according to 2010 data).   The worst places on the planet for road deaths are the Dominican Republic (41.7 fatalities per 100,000 people), Thailand (38.1), Venezuela (37.2), South Africa (31.9), Iran (34.1), Iraq (31.5) and Oman (30.4), the WHO data showed.

Holden could be without a V8 in its showrooms in 2018 as Camaro still not confirmed.    Australians still can't get enough of their V8s. There was so much demand for the first and the last of the "final" edition Falcon GT that Ford had to auction them off for charity to avoid a backlash among buyers -- and dealers. If you want to make a sizeable donation to a worthy cause, the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and end up with either car 001 or car 500 of the GT-F, get onto e-Bay between August 17 and 24. Meanwhile, following our exclusive story last week about the epic new HSV GTS Maloo, our dealer sources tell us the initial allocation of 150 cars are sold out and Holden and HSV are scrambling to see if the factory can squeeze in another 50 to 100 cars. One dealer had an allocation of five cars but has 16 signed deposits. Other dealers we spoke to said they could sell twice as many as they were allotted. Collectors fear not, however. HSV and Holden are unlikely to flood the market. We suspect they will cap it at 250 maximum, if they can indeed get enough of the extra bits to put them together. Most of the heavy-duty parts (and, of course, the supercharged V8 engine) are carryover from the GTS sedan. But the lengthened tail-shaft is unique, as are some interior bits and pieces, we hear. Keep in mind that HSV and Holden have not even publicly confirmed the GTS Maloo even exists yet, which it makes it all the more remarkable that it's already a sellout. I hope Holden is watching this love of V8s closely (our guess is that Holden at least has some idea, given that it will introduce a Craig Lowndes special edition at Bathurst to mark 20 years since the V8 Supercar driver debuted in a Holden). Even though Holden's sales and marketing boss Philip Brook told dealers late last year there were plans to introduce a Camaro in 2018, we now hear that was not necessarily true. Apparently the comments were made to pump the dealers with confidence after last year's announcement about the factory closure in 2017. Reliable sources in Detroit say there is still no plan to build a right-hand-drive version of the Camaro. As incredible as it seems, Holden dealers could be without a V8 in their showrooms in 2018 for the first time since 1967. For the sake of Holden fans, here's hoping the arrival of the Ford Mustang next year will give General Motors all the incentive it needs to approve the Camaro for Australia.

There's been a nasty battle brewing for months between French car-maker Renault and the Australian crash test authority, ANCAP. The furore reached a new low last fortnight when the Renault Australia boss questioned whether Australian car buyers will even need an independent authority on car crash safety once local manufacturing ends in 2017. For the record, ANCAP isn't going anywhere, even though some brands wish it would. This change in attitude is surprising from the company that was the first manufacturer ever to be awarded five stars for safety -- and to promote the fact. So why has it all gone sour? A couple of new Renaults, when measured against current Australian criteria, would only earn four stars in Australia because they lack rear airbags. Australian authorities closed this loophole after Ford got a five star rating for the Falcon a couple of years ago without rear airbag protection on what it dubbed "a modern family car". But Euro NCAP was slow to close this loophole, and Renault (and Volkswagen) began introducing models without rear airbag protection. The sole purpose of Global NCAP is to improve vehicle safety and yet, right under Euro NCAP's nose, European car makers began offering less airbag protection to save money. Well, now the game is up. Euro NCAP has finally followed the lead of Australian NCAP and will close the rear airbag loophole. Unfortunately the requirements won't come into force in Europe until 2016. The tragedy here is that Euro NCAP assumed, perhaps naively, that car makers wouldn't dare take a backwards step when it comes to safety. But when it comes to saving money, car makers are masters at reading the rules. Which is why you should only ever judge cars sold in Australia by the Australian NCAP ratings (ancap.com.au) as they are the more robust standard. Australians like to think that something from Europe is automatically better. But on this occasion the opposite is true. Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see Renault and others change their attitudes to rear airbags once the European rules come into force. For the past few months, Renault has been trying to tell us that rear airbags aren't essential, and in some circumstances can even be dangerous. Don't make me laugh. This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling  

Last week's story about the hassle of simply getting a price on a new car certainly hit a raw nerve. It seems we're not alone in our frustration, if the overwhelming feedback from readers is a guide. Some car dealers also weighed in on the debate. Reader Riki Waugh tried to buy for his daughter a brand-new Toyota Corolla off the showroom floor, but walked out after being bumped up through three layers of sales staff, none of whom would supply a price. Suffice to say, he bought elsewhere. Reader Hubert Breitenstein summed up the view of many buyers who struggle to obtain a price: "It seems like some crazy form of self sabotage." He added: "Everyone who has any sense does price comparisons, no matter what they buy. Why do car dealers think that they are sacrosanct? What do they think they gain by withholding prices?" Mr Breitenstein says he has walked away from three potential purchases because he could not get a price on a vehicle he was intending to buy. Incredibly, one dealer refused to reveal the "change-over" price from his trade-in to a new car until a deposit had been paid. This may sound fanciful but, sadly, it is not the first time we have heard of this practice. Reader David Toohey understood our point, too: "If dealers could just be transparent they would sell more cars". Mr Toohey says he experienced the same wall of silence when it came to a straight answer on the trade-in and drive-away prices. "Surprisingly the salesman who was looking after us couldn't supply an answer and suddenly transformed into a school boy going to see the headmaster," wrote Mr Toohey. "He had to consult the dealer principal and he met us with the response ‘we will tell you that when you are ready to buy'." Some dealers accused us of trying to push car sales staff below the poverty line. Others understood our point: that an open negotiation can lead to more sales. Dealership employee John Bellizia wrote: "You're absolutely right, dealers are their own worst enemy at times and can make the experience somewhat draining." However, he said: "Not all dealers have a code of ethics but (some) customers come out punching harder than Mike Tyson!" Mr Bellizia said at his dealership it was policy to "treat every customer with honesty and integrity, every day, every time, without fail ... no exceptions." But, he lamented, "it seems that only the nice customers get to experience this". As we wrote last week, we were merely trying to highlight the point that if sales staff were more forthcoming with a price, they would sell more cars. No-one is paying full price for cars these days, so dealers who try to find the one customer a year who might pay full tilt actually end up losing countless other potential sales. The smart brands that are doing well have all moved to transaction pricing, with little to no wriggle room because the deal is already sharp -- and the customer can see that. For example, last week Honda put up the price of its Civic hatch by $1000 -- just as Volkswagen limboed to a staggering low of $22,990 drive-away for a new Golf (including metallic paint), $2000 off the launch price less than a year. The VW deal is so skinny that dealers apparently can't even afford to include free floormats -- but we suspect there would be room to move on the Honda pricing. Which is why customers go in fighting: it's hard for inexperienced buyers to pick the good deals from the bad. As we wrote last week, we don't begrudge dealers from making a profit. The cost to run a dealership and employ all the staff is massive, even before the lights are turned on. Indeed, showroom stock costs the dealership money just sitting there until it's sold. One industry insider revealed it costs an average of $1860 just to sell one car -- regardless of the cost of the vehicle -- when you include dealership rent, wages, advertising, demonstrator models, fuel and other expenses. Which is why it's so perplexing that many dealers don't move heaven and earth in order to move metal. Why don't more dealers break down the barriers, and reveal a fair drive-away price from the get-go? Understandably, not every car has a $12,000 discount in it, like the BMW X1 we mentioned last week, which went from $62,000 to $50,000 in 37 minutes. But surely it's better for consumers -- and the long term health of the dealership -- to charge everyone a fair but competitive price, rather than make no money on some deals and try to make up for the losses on others. This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling

Last night the ABC’s Four Corners program reported that up to 200,000 jobs are at risk once Australia's three car manufacturers close their factories by the end of 2017. The TV news story quoted figures from a new report compiled by the University of Adelaide, called Closing The Motor Vehicle Industry: The Impact On Australia. However, the headline figure of 200,000 potential job losses is inflated by up to 400 per cent, and one of the co-authors of the report, Professor John Spoehr, admits it may be too high. The Advanced Manufacturing Council and Auto Skills Australia also dispute the University of Adelaide findings. News Corp Australia has learned the study included tens of thousands of workers in “automotive manufacturing”, as defined by Census, that do not work at companies that supply parts to Toyota, Holden or Ford. The study’s figures include “automotive manufacturing” companies that also make truck bodies, trailers, tow-bars, caravans and other automotive parts that have no link to Australia’s car manufacturers -- and will continue once Ford, Holden and Toyota factories close. According to detailed analysis by the car industry, which has traced the job numbers at parts suppliers and associated industries, there are 45,000 to 50,000 workers employed across the sector. But the University of Adelaide report said 198,826 jobs were at risk nationally after calculating the potential impact in the following states and territories: Victoria: 98,483 NSW: 32,491 Queensland: 30,900 South Australia: 23,903 West Australia: 11,275 Tasmania: 1742 ACT: 421 NT: 421 In an interview with News Corp Australia journalists Joshua Dowling and Ben Pike, Professor John Spoehr explained the report’s findings -- and the anomalies in the numbers. In the end, he conceded that the forecast 200,000 job losses is an inflated figure and it was almost impossible to accurately measure. Below is an edited transcript. Auto Skills Australia estimates the job losses in the car industry would be 50,000, and if you were to extrapolate that out to the rest of the economy it would be about 100,000. The 200,000 figure seems a bit stratospheric. Well, you’ve got to take into account of the total downstream effects of any closure. We’re making the point the impact of a closure of this magnitude is going to have effects right down into the supply chain and beyond, into a range of other industries that are affected by the loss of wages and salaries that flow from people losing their (manufacturing) jobs. We know in the real world that the job losses will be significantly less than 200,000, but this is a sobering presentation of the significance of the industry to Australia. If you take it out of Australia, it’s a significant hole that will be left. Even at 100,000 it’s a very substantial hole, so I’d expect the actual effects are going to be mediated by the scale of the assistance package and regional responses by state governments to diversify in the face of the closure. The study’s estimated job losses of 23,903 workers in South Australia alone are more than three times higher than the 7000 job losses estimated in a report prepared for the SA Government by Professor Goran Roos in 2012. What is a number you’re more comfortable speculating, if there are not 200,000 national jobs at risk? We can’t tell. Nobody can predict that. What we have to understand is what the significance of the industry is to the Australian economy and the labour market in its entirety, and then the actual impact will be a consequence of state, federal and private sector decisions in response to the closure. The work that Goran (Roos) was involved in, based in part on our work I think, didn’t take into account the full closure of the Australian auto industry. That (report) was largely based around the closure of (Holden) rather than the collapse of the entire industry. But in preparing his report, Professor Goran Roos would have known that if Holden closed, Toyota would likely follow.  Most commentators were deeply concerned that if Holden closed, Toyota would follow, that it required keeping Holden here to keep Toyota here. This report says very clearly that the projected job losses are 198,826, but in fact you say no-one can predict that. What is a fair number in your estimation? In forecasting and projections, what you’re outlining is what the projected job losses are in the absence of policy change and in the absence of any major interventions. We can project what we think are the likely job losses, with some degree of accuracy, based on the robust methodology and modeling that the National Industry for Economic and Industry Research has been able to do for us, but what we don’t yet know is what the policy response at the national and state levels are. If you were to know that, then you’d be able to determine what the absolute job losses might be. The problem with a total collapse of an industry like this, particularly one that’s heavily foreign-owned, is that we know that most of the investment will go offshore. It’s not going to be re-invested in Australia. So we know with a great deal of a reliability that the impact of the closure is that much worse than many other closures when an Australian-owned company might re-invest (in another industry). Holden’s factory workforce peaked at about 8000 and the company has lost about 6000 workers over the past decade, and there doesn’t appear to be a major impact. Hasn’t Adelaide absorbed those workers? I don’t think that’s true. Adelaide hasn’t absorbed those workers. The unemployment rate (in South Australia) is now at 7.1 per cent, which is very high by recent standards. The 30,000 manufacturing losses that have occurred (in the state) in the past 10 years are being seen in the unemployment figures and they’re being seen in the decline in full-time employment growth. Most of the growth in recent times has been in part-time and casual employment. It doesn’t help us to look at the employment (at Holden, Ford and Toyota) directly to understand the full scale of the problem. What we’ve got to look at is the many hundreds of companies that surround those three companies, to better understand that, and that’s what this report does. It helps us understand the flow-on impacts to the Tier One and Tier Two (automotive parts suppliers) but also to the many companies that surround those companies and the companies that are dependent upon the salaries and the wages of (automotive manufacturing) workers. You take that into account and you get across the nation this number of 200,000. We’ve never experienced in recent history the collapse of an entire industry and that’s what we’re experiencing.  With that in mind, do you think the Federal Government should have stepped in and offered an increase in assistance to the car makers and the parts supply industry? I think it’s possible that we could have kept the industry in Australia for longer had a package of assistance been successfully negotiated with Holden.  Do you think the cost of keeping Holden and Toyota factories running would have been less than the cost of the forecast job losses and the potential impact on unemployment benefits? I think the cost of adjustment would have been less if we’d been able to keep (car manufacturing) in the country for longer.  So you accept that it was inevitable that car manufacturing in Australia was going to close at some point? I think that was largely dependent on the Australian dollar. The dollar remained very high and is still high, but it’s going to come down in the medium term. Had the dollar come down in the short term, Australian automotive manufacturers would have been in a much stronger position. This is the problem that Australian manufacturing as a whole faces. It’s a bit like drought in the agricultural sector. These are exceptional circumstances, out of the control of the manufacturing industry, so it needs support through this period of exceptional circumstances, when the dollar is above its value and makes Australian manufacturing uncompetitive internationally. Your figures show 30,090 jobs are at risk in Queensland and 32,491 jobs are at risk in NSW, even though car manufacturing and the bulk of the parts suppliers are in Victoria and South Australia. Would you be advocating that NSW and Queensland also have some form of government intervention to cover for these job losses? Yes. The scale of the job losses is very significant. It’s a national problem, not just South Australia and Victoria. Although the worst hit parts of Australia are concentrated in South Australia and Victoria, Western Sydney is also badly affected as is Sydney itself, from the collapse of the auto industry. So the answer is that it requires a national adjustment package focused on the four states. It’s not well understood that there is very significant manufacturing capability in NSW and Queensland, because Queensland is known as a mining state and NSW is better known as a business services state. The four states combined are the manufacturing heartland of Australia. What do you expect the impact will be on Western Sydney of the car factory closures in Victoria and South Australia? It’s incredibly difficult for places like Western Sydney to absorb shocks of this magnitude, on the back of a long period of structural challenge and relatively high rates of unemployment by Australian standards. People who lose their jobs in those areas are going to find it very difficult to find alternative jobs, particularly in manufacturing, because of the long run decline in Australian manufacturing jobs: 100,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in the last decade, and a large number of those in that part of the nation as well as South Australia and Victoria. So it forces those workers to look further afield and that has all sorts of problems in places like Western Sydney. Unfortunately the experience of major closures like this, particularly of mature age male manufacturing workers, is periods of unemployment and long-term unemployment. Unless significant programs are put in place to provide alternative employment opportunities in infrastructure projects and construction projects, many of the manufacturing workers in Western Sydney will find it difficult to attain work with a similar level of security and a similar level of remuneration and many will, unfortunately, experience unemployment. Do you have any examples of manufacturing facilities in Sydney that supply automotive parts to Australia’s three car makers? Or do these figures take in companies that make trailers and truck bodies, for example, that don’t have anything to do with car manufacturing and will likely continue? The figures include the full gamut of jobs, so you’re picking up lots of indirect jobs. This is based on the Australian Bureau Of Statistics Input-Output tables, in terms of the presence of automobile activity in each of the states, and the significance of that auto activity throughout the NSW economy. And more-so in NSW than in South Australia and Victoria, (the figures) are going to (include) jobs that are indirect rather than direct. How did you trace, for example, a manufacturing job in Western Sydney to a production line at Toyota, Holden or Ford?  It’s the presence of auto economic activity and workers in that region. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re making parts for car-makers. There are companies making trailers and other automotive components such as tow-bars that have nothing to do with Toyota, Holden and Ford. The concern is, it undermines the data if there is not a link with a lot of these numbers that are being used to add up to 200,000 nationally. The modeling is no different to any other input-output based modeling. It’s imperfect science, but that’s the nature of all modeling. There’s no other real way of doing it. You’re not going to find an alternative to that. It’s important to exercise caution in the use of any modeling statistics. They’re the best tools that we’ve got to understand the significance of the industry and it takes us a lot further than the fairly narrow debate that we’ve had so far about the direct jobs from the three main manufacturers (Toyota, Holden and Ford). Their employment has reduced a lot over the last seven or eight years but that masks the much deeper roots of the auto industry. Won’t most displaced automotive manufacturing workers find new jobs? Other reports estimate up to 70 per cent of redundant manufacturing workers will find new jobs. It’s just not credible to expect in the current environment, when manufacturing jobs are hemorrhaging in Australia, for those workers to find alternative jobs at that rate. This is not like it was during the Mitsubishi closure (in 2008). This is a totally different ball game, when growth is much slower and manufacturing nationally is in recession. So there are no easy transitions for manufacturing workers in the current environment. It will take a lot of assistance to retrain and re-qualify and recognise the skills of those workers to be able to ensure that they have a reasonable chance of getting jobs in alternative sectors. The (jobs) growth is mainly in health and community services. It just is not credible that they can all shift to health, aging and community services. They’re not qualified for it and many are just simply not going to be interested or willing to make that transition. Many of them are middle-aged workers who would be much better positioned to work in related sectors and the obvious sector for transition is the area of construction and infrastructure. The push to accelerate industrial diversification through advanced manufacturing is very important but that’s going to be slow to unfold. It’s a 10-year proposition. Finally, what would you say to those who dismiss the figure of 200,000 job losses as being too high?  We’re not saying that 200,000 people are going to lose their jobs. We’re just indicating that this is the significance of the industry, and when you’re considering how to respond to the closures, you need to understand the significance of the industry. This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling

Back in the late 1960s when I bought the potential deathtrap that was my first car, a second-hand 1950-something Simca, its safety features included aftermarket seatbelts (they'd only recently become compulsory) and... umm... that was about it. Even the new Volkswagen Beetle that replaced the Simca within six months – the latter having died before it could kill me – although significantly safer, didn't have any of the features that we now take for granted. There were no airbags, no ABS brakes, no stability or traction control, all standard in every new car now sold here. Despite the best efforts of the general media to downplay the dramatic drop in the road toll (bad news is good news and good news is no news) and of politicians who explain it entirely on driving slowly, the real heroes are the carmakers themselves who have continuously made their vehicles safer to such an extent that the vision of an 'uncrashable' car could become a reality within the next decade. While the benefits of these new safety features are self-evident many also bring with them new problems, generally because some drivers allow the technology to take precedence over their own instincts. This was driven home to me recently when, for the first time in months, I test drove one of the rare new cars that didn't have parking sensors and found the confidence in parking that I'd developed in nearly 45 years of driving had all but disappeared such had become my reliance on these series of little beeps that alerted me to the warned me park. The same risk applies to new features such as Blind Spot Monitoring where you rely on a camera to warn of vehicles coming alongside rather than correctly adjusted the rear mirrors; relying on reversing cameras instead of the correct procedure of walking around the car before entering and then also using mirrors; and Lane Departure Warning if you've become too busy thinking of something else. Lack of attention to the road has always been a problem but has never been more so than at the present time. By far the biggest offender is the smartphone with its vast array of potential distractions including telephone, audio, camera, traffic information and other apps. Although Bluetooth and voice activation commands reduce the level of physical distraction research has shown that mental distraction can be just as dangerous. So the bottom line is that technology is there to make your time on the road safer, more enjoyable and comfortable. Not to replace your experience and judgement.  

Every month the paycheck comes and miraculously disappears. Sometimes I may stroll (or should I say sprint) to the nearest fashion outlet. And my dream car fantasies take a backseat. But with some simple saving solutions my dream hot-hatch is still attainable. Whether you're a newly christened P-plater or a high flying corporate car nut saving for some wheels doesn't have to be impossible. In fact, it can be as easy as plan, budget and save.  Here are 6 easy car saving tips: Create a weekly budget: Forget those designer threads and have a good look at your monthly budget. Set aside money for the essentials, such as food and rent. Of course you're only human and need to budget for weekend get-togethers but have a think about areas where you can save that works for you. My clothes indulgence may have to be kicked to the curb! To track your budget day to day with ease, make sure you have access to your money through an account that allows for mobile, phone and internet banking. Make a savings goal: While scouring the net for my dream car, I stumbled across the new Porsche 911 and it seemed like the perfect fit. Sadly my measly budget didn't seem to agree and a more budget friendly Toyota Yaris or Mazda2 was down my alley. Once you have planned your budget, it's time to start setting money aside for your wicked wheels. It's important to think about how much you want to save and whether you will pay for the car outright or apply for a car or personal loan. Remember the more you save the less you will have to pay over the life of the car loan (some car loan interest rates are over 15 per cent!). Once you start saving look out for opportunities where your money can get rewarded for sticking to your savings plan. ANZ's Progress Saver account pays bonus interest on top of a base rate when you make a minimum $10 deposit per month and make no withdrawals or debits in that same month. Road trip here I come! Open a high interest savings account: A great way of reaching your savings goal is by opening a high interest savings account dedicated to your car purchase. This way you can set up automatic deposits that come out of your pay weekly, fortnightly or monthly. For those who aren't planning to purchase a car for a significant amount of time a term deposit may be the perfect option, as you won't be able to touch your savings for the specified period of time. When I started to save for a car I decided to open a savings account with limited access, so I wouldn't be tempted to dip into my savings. On payday my bank would automatically deposit $200 into the specified account and before you know it, this car-dedicated account had built up an attractive amount. Negotiate a good deal: Once you have the money in the bank take your time to do some research and practice your negotiating skills. Using my Instagram I started to get inspiration from car accounts and the dream started to feel real. Thorough research prior to purchasing a car will give you confidence when approaching the car seller. Find out what the vehicle is worth before you visit the dealer or private seller and have an idea of the amount you're willing to pay for the car. Visit our price guide and car reviews and road tests sections. In terms of financing make sure you don't get hit with extra or hidden fees. Search for second hand deals: Purchasing a car a couple of years old can save you thousands. But tread carefully with used cars that are priced much lower than their market value and if you do decide to go ahead get the car thoroughly checked over. Search our used car reviews section.   Keep saving for ongoing costs: Now that you've successfully saved for your sleek ride, there are still many ongoing costs to think of like registration, insurance and servicing. Don't get caught out by surprise car related bills instead keep up your savings habit with a separate high interest savings account and set up a regular direct debit that rolls easily into your account each month. So when the time comes to pay for a big nasty bill your wallet will be smiling! The ANZ Online Saver account is perfect for ongoing savings. It has no minimum balance so you can save as little or as much as you want for ongoing costs like registration and no withdrawal fees so you can withdraw extra money for servicing the car whenever the need arises. There are also no fixed term requirements meaning you can save for as long as you need to. Saving for a car doesn't have to be a headache, by making a budget and savings goal you'll be cruising in your cool mobile in no time. Time to get my piggy bank out! Boost your car savings with ANZ's competitive bonus interest rate with the Progress Saver account or enjoy the flexibility of the ANZ Online Saver account. Start saving for your dream car today! Any advice does not take into account your personal needs and financial circumstances and you should consider whether it is appropriate for you. ANZ recommends you read the Terms and Conditions and the Financial Services Guide before acquiring the product.