#Australia

After having received more than $2 billion in subsidies from, the Australian government in the past 12 years, GM’s down-under Holden unit announced that it will lay off another 500 workers in response to falling demand and the high Australian dollar, Australia’s ABC News reports.

Good news, Aussie car fans. The Commodore lives. But the evidence keeps piling up that the next one will be a front-drive car bearing little to no resemblance to the current RWD muscle car.

The big, rear-drive Aussie sedans beloved by enthusiasts overseas aren’t gaining traction in the Australian marketplace, and the smart money is betting on the death of the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon.

With stiff competition coming from both Holden’s HSV sedans and the Ford Falcon FPV, Chrysler is looking to make the 300C SRT8 more competitive by offering a decontented version, that’s actually a bit quicker than the standard-spec car.

A struggling domestic auto industry long past its glory days of big rear-drive sedans is at an existential cross-roads. An upcoming election may decide the fate of thousands of jobs and decades of motoring history. Sound familiar? The madness of America’s election is over, but the same scenario is playing out in Australia.

Ford and Holden are laying off hundreds of workers at their Australian plants as sales of domestic brands continue to take a beating.

Ford and GM co-signed a $6.5 million loan in an effort to pull a key Australian parts supplier from the brink, Reuters says.

Lately we have travelled to Iran, Japan, Puerto Rico and Poland, today I’m taking you to Australia. A once-in-a-(almost)-lifetime event has just happened there.

Kangaroos and koalas not your thing? That’s fine. You can discover the best-selling models in 170 additional countries and territories in my blog. Or today I can offer you the 264 best-selling models in the USA in October 2012. Every single one of them.

Now back to Australia.

You’d think a Holden or a Ford would be the best-selling local model in Australia…

Not so this month and for the first time in 17 years!

The demise of a large Australian auto parts supplier threatens to bring Australian units of Ford and GM to their knees as early as next week. Management is working feverishly on keeping the doors open, while complaining about “lack of support from key players in the industry,” Reuters says.

General Motors is so desperate to find new customers for Opel cars that they’re introducing the brand to Australia, where it’s set to butt heads against Holden – Australia’s long-time favorite car brand.

I don’t know why people buy a Mitsubishi. That is a simple question, difficult answer that I have to think about for the next three or four months. What is the benefit?

The above quote is attributed to Mutsuhiro Oshikiri, head of Mitsubishi Australia. While hearing any company head speak so disparagingly about their product would be shocking, Mitsubishi used to be a serious player down under, with local manufacturing facilities and best-selling cars.

“It should be right at home on the roads and farms of the US,” writes the Herald Sun in Australia, “but tariffs and the strong Australian dollar could prevent the Commodore Ute following the sedan as an export.”

An Australian financial publication is quoting two auto industry players who say that Ford will exit their Australian manufacturing operations, taking the Ford Falcon and Territory with them.

As if the absurdly hyperbolic headline “ The day the world changed” wasn’t enough of a tip-off , the hype machine for the Toyobaru twins has officially reached its zenith, with Wheels magazine’s Peter Robinson declaring the Japanese-spec Toyota 86 to be superior to the Porsche Cayman.

Australians are unhappy with Ford. In January, Ford received more than A$34 million ($35 million) from Australian state and federal governments to guarantee local production until 2016. Today, Reuters reports that Ford will cut 440 jobs, or about 15 percent of its Australian workforce.