MOTORNETNEWS -NOVEMBER,  2008

PLEASE NOTE: 

The format of Motornetnews will change as from December 1, 2008.

The site will be run specifically as a sales medium for automotive brochures, posters and memorabilia. The current road test of the Honda Jazz is my last one after 50 years of test driving and writing about new cars. I began motor road tests in 1959 writing for the Shepparton News in Central Victoria - the first test was the Fiat 124 Coupe.

While I have enjoyed driving and commenting on almost every make of new car over the years it saddens me to see  local industry  that produces quality cars of world standard in such a parlous state due to the increasing number of virtually duty free cars being imported - many of them at dumped prices to keep production figures up at foreign assembly plants. 

Australia is one of the few countries in the world that has the skills and capacity to design cars from the ground up. It is also one of the only countries where there is such a profusion of new models available - there are more makes and models on sale in Australia than any country in Europe, the UK and the USA.

Where once we had Government protection and 80% of the vehicles sold were built or assembled here, now, with so-called Free Trade Agreements, minimal duty and no quotas on imports the ratio is now less than 20% local versus more than 80% imported.

Once the local industry is scaled back even more than it is today there will be thousands of Australians out of a job as component manufacturers close their doors, design engineering work ceases and all the talent will go overseas and the costs of buying and running a car will be at the whim of giant overseas companies.

 PLEASE NOTE: