Smart Follows Opel Out Of Australia Amid Weak Sales

Sounds like a very limited sales market - those city-only dwellers! I picture Australians as adventurous explorers of the country. Ha.

Close , you have a few people towing boats and caravans with cars, but the bulk use SUV's and Pickups. Still the loss of the Smart car, will be a huge loss, for Supermodels and interior designers

GM and Ford were both under that "Aussies prefer RWD sedans" impression. That's why they are closing-up factories in Australia. It turns out that Aussies like what the rest of the world does: FWD compacts and crossovers.

@heavy handle You are totally wrong. I think you have posted the same thing before. SUV's and Pickups are not remotely FWD. The best selling models for Ford and Holden are RWD,

@RobertRyan Exactly, and they are well behind Toyota, Mazda and Hyundai on the sales charts. They used to dominate the charts back when Aussies wanted RWD cars. Not counting actual trucks of course, since this is an article about Smart. We all know about Australians and their love of "real" trucks, thanks to a few beloved regular commenters.

@heavy handle It was easy for the Aussies to prefer Aussie cars when the import tariff was almost 60%.

@heavy handle Yes the best selling Vehicle is the Toyota Hilux , the others now make SUV's and Pickups, they make up 45% of the market, sound familiar? Unfortunately GM and Ford are trying to compete in that market but struggle compared to the Asians

@heavy handle Robert, The Hilux is third behind the Corolla and Mazda 3. A lot of Hilux sales are commercial (mining and agriculture), so it would rank lower in private sales. We used to have a similar situation in Canada: the Land Cruiser would rank in the SUV listings even though it wasn't officially imported. Turns out there were a few thousand sales a year to oil and mining companies, and those vehicles were never registered for on-road use, spending their entire lives hundreds of kilometers from the nearest public road.

@Heavy Handle, No you are getting it wrong. The Hilux is a daily driver for many people, the percentage of Pickups and SUV sales are similar to Canada and the U.S. Think F150 , but with a lot being used as actual work vehicles. You have 2WD SUV's , but they are RWD not FWD Hilux position fluctuates. New Hilux will be out soon

@heavy handle, Until recently we never had a 2WD SUV in our market. A SUV meant 4hi and 4lo. Now with the CUVs many are buying a 2WD CUV. Which are just more efficient station wagons. They offer good utility. Bland, but they get the job done for thousands of families. I would think overall RWD has the largest stranglehold here. But I do believe the FWD will dominate. Especially now that we don't have any taxes or import barriers. We don't have a 25% chicken tax or different regulations to stifle competition. With no taxes other than our GST (like a state tax) of 10% we can buy a new Corolla for $19 000 (incl GST and delivery) prior to bargaining, or $15 000USD. On the other hand low volume vehicle cost more. But then again Australia is has the largest ownership of performance vehicles per capita globally. So the pricing isn't really impacting the upper end of the market. A typical Japanese work ute/pickup with a diesel is now around $23 000 for a 2.8 litre diesel Colorado or around $18 500USD. Not bad. We can get a new Cummins powered ute with a tray fitted for around $14 000USD. It worked out that each and every car manufactured in Australia was subsidised to the tune of $2 000 per vehicle. The US is $3 000 and the Germans, who appear better is sitting on $1 300. We now let other country's taxpayers subsidise the manufacture of the vehicles we buy. How smart is that! Every American vehicle sold here irrespective if it's a Toyota Kluger (Highlander) or Jeep or whatever is having $3 000 donated to us by you. This is a win - win for the consumer. The Australian car market is the most diverse globally. It is way too small in a global world to sustain itself. The current government did the correct thing and forced GM, Ford and Toyota to stand on their own two feet or go. The first country to dramatically reduce "corporate welfare" will be the country that succeeds better than others. Economic liberalism is the correct way to manage an economy. We now have retained the cream auto industry jobs in design and engineering and leave the manufacturing to the less well off countries with lower wages. Even with the loss of the auto manufacturing jobs last year, jobs directly involved in our auto industry increased by 24 000. So, you don't require manufacturing to increase jobs. Even with imports you still require, dealerships, mechanics, logistic and engineering support. This doesn't include the guys working in discount and auto shops selling parts and accessories or the fitting of accessories, etc. It makes manufacturing jobs less significant at the end of the day. Our vehicle market is actually used as a litmus for other Euro and North American markets. If it can stand on it's own two feet in Australia it will pretty much make it a successful vehicle. That's also why we have a great design and engineering capability. GM and Ford had to compete with the best in the world. This was the Asians and Europeans. If you follow the industry you will find Australia receives new models quite early than most other countries. The US appears to lag in receiving new vehicles more than the countries that are aligned to the Global Harmonisation of the auto industry. This Smart car will struggle in many global markets if it failed here. Its way to expensive. If it was priced around $10 000AUD or $7 800USD it might have made it.

@Big Al from Oz The FWD market is starting to shrink already. Quite a few new Pickups, SUV's are in the Pipeline. FWD maybe ok for a smallish sedan on good roads, in the cities but not in a place where you are

@RobertRyan, BrisVegas?

@Big Al from Oz, Northern Territory

@RobertRyan, I was relocated after Christmas.

@heavyhandle, In Australia I don't know anyone who uses a real truck as a daily driver to collect the kids from school and take them to football and go to the hardware and supermarket. Why would you use a 10 or 12 litre diesel truck 35' long to do what you are stating. As a matter of fact I haven't seen anyone in the US use real trucks as a daily driver. We have utes, we have all sizes from around the world. From US HDs to even Indian Tata's. Ute prices here range from $17 000 for a tray back diesel to over $100 000 for the big boys toy HDs. When discussing "real trucks" Australia actually use larger trucks than the US overall. A B Double is a normal interstate truck and now B Triples are becoming common. When you are around 120 miles to 250 miles from the east coast we have Road trains that can have up to 3 and a half trailers, and in the more remote regions I've seen 7 trailers.

Correct, pointless indeed

The Australian market has been at near-record levels since the GFC, it recovered quickly. I think the statement must have referred to Smart car sales. I don't think Smart will be missed. In addition to the ForTwo they sold ForFours and Roadsters too.