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Imported Cars - The Future?

#1

A lot of Australians still like cars. Americans do not. The Ford badge speaks for Americans.

Does our future hold an ever increasing number of bloated, oversized, American vehicles and ‘world’ vehicles that get increasingly designed for the American market? Remember the previously svelte Subaru Liberty that ‘gained weight’ for the American ‘highway cruising’ market a decade ago? Was that the start of a trend that is going to accelerate now?

Let’s hope the European and Japanese manufacturers keep building cars.

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#2

It doesn’t really worry me, unless they are made in the US. US made vehicles still tend to not have the same level of build quality as the Japanese…but still possibly not much better than the Europeans/others.

I suppose to keep cars affordable and to compete with emerging player such as the Chinese/Indians, a ‘world’ platform is one way to do it.

It seems that most car manufacturers are going down this path and using the same subframe for most models across the same brand/brands in their manufacturing portfolio.

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#3

The Australian version of the Mustang has only a two star ANCAP safety rating. Almost unheard of in Australia. Since this rating it has not been re-rated. So it may have been fixed recently but until it is re-rated I wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole.
http://www.howsafeisyourcar.com.au/Search?make=ford&model=Mustang

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#4

And will the re-rating make any difference unless they actually make the car safer?

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#5

An article regarding where vehicles sold in Australia were manufactured.

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#6

It’s not just where they are made that may be of interest. Made in France is no assurance the assembly lines or suppliers use French labour. Closer to home in Japan, although a little dated very topical.

Japan has a worker shortage?


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