gas guzzlers and the media

[burnz]

the head line banner say labour likes hosepower but has tony abbott
the media beat up by the daily telegraph that our pollies are driving gas guzzling,
six cylinder commodore's, falcon's, terry's, camry's

THE Federal Government is proving to be full of hot air when it comes to slashing greenhouse gases, with just two out of 20 Cabinet ministers choosing fuel-efficient "hybrid" cars.
Despite insisting Australia must reduce carbon emissions, Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Climate Change Minister Greg Combet are among scores of Labor MPs driving gas-guzzlers.

And former PM Kevin Rudd's campaign to roll out the eco-friendly Toyota Prius as part of the Commonwealth car fleet has also been dumped - with just one such vehicle still operating.

An investigation has revealed just seven out of 104 Labor MPs are choosing hybrid vehicles, such as the 2.4-litre Toyota Camry.

The Greens yesterday labelled the revelations "disappointing" and called on the Government to improve the supply of eco-friendly machines. The revelations come at a sensitive time for the Government, struggling to win support for a carbon tax- due in July next year.

more in the linkhttp://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/new...-1226057878607

[XRGhia]

Boo... Let 'em drive whatever they want, just make them pay for fuel..

Or get LPG-Equipped cars with lower emmissions, but still the same performance..

Easy.. (well, if only it was that easy, lol)

[grandpa_spec_F6]

I'm surprised that the level of "Smug" that would be generated by Kevin Rudd driving a prius hasn't blanketed the earth yet and caused severe environmental damage.

[93EB_SXR6]

I'm surpised they let politicians drive... surely having one's head planted so firmly up one's behind would cause vision problems!?

[burnz]

on the plus side all the cars are oz built, except for the priuses..

should govco buy all imports?? only to be bitched at for not supporting oz manufacturing??

will the pollies change to the falcon lilpg or cruze??

[Joe5619]

This is exaclty what is wrong with this country.. Governments should be supported in the media for buying anything Australian Built.. IMO any government person driving a Prius should be put down as this car is not Australian built... It is a joke it you ask me!!

The AUSTRALIAN government should support AUSTRALIAN industries first in every purchase they make!! End of story..

If I was a polly and should one asked why I drove a Falcon or Commodore my response would be "I'm buying Australia made, if you have a problem with that, you'rs not Australian!!"

[Mechan1k]

Originally Posted by Professor_Evans

I'm surpised they let politicians drive... surely having one's head planted so firmly up one's behind would cause vision problems!?

Hahahahahahaha ... quoted for truth.

[2011G6E]

Possibly because a Prius is a boring badly stlyed little embarassing crap bucket that people will laugh at if you pulled up to a state event?

You know, there was an interesting discussion on the philosophy behind hybrid styling on the radio one night.
They said people asked why Toyota didn't make the Prius look like a "normal" car? I mean, it could just as easily have looked like a Corolla (as they have done with the excellent Camry Hybrid), but they went for a purposely weird and out-there look. Honda made the Civic Hybrid look exactly like a normal Civic, only the badge gave it away. So why does the Prius look like it does? Other hybrid cars also have a "weird" look to them which really stands out from other cars.

The best reason they could come up with, after some surveys in the USA, was that people who wanted to drive a hybrid not only wanted to drive a hybrid, more importantly they wanted to be seen to be driving a hybrid...a "look at me, look how environmentally friendly I am and you aren't!" type of mentality. People were quite open about "wanting to be seen", as they thought this would somehow push people to get thier own badly styled ugly tinny little box of pus...sure chuckles...you keep thinking that...

[J.C.]

What can one say here?
Let me put it this way.
Hybrid/electric cars are a joke in my opinion. You still have to plug them into a power source. You have to burn energy to create energy. Someone correct me please if I have this all wrong.
I do agree with many here that our national and local politicians should be using locally manufactured motorcars and those cars fitted with the likes of LPG as already stated.
Personally, I believe there is more that happens behind the scenes that we do not really know about..........

[aussie muscle]

Originally Posted by xrghiawagon

Boo... Let 'em drive whatever they want, just make them pay for fuel..

yeah, who cares how much fuel your car uses when you don't have to pay for it?

[bobthebilda]

Originally Posted by Joe5619

This is exaclty what is wrong with this country.. Governments should be supported in the media for buying anything Australian Built.. IMO any government person driving a Prius should be put down as this car is not Australian built... It is a joke it you ask me!!

The AUSTRALIAN government should support AUSTRALIAN industries first in every purchase they make!! End of story..

If I was a polly and should one asked why I drove a Falcon or Commodore my response would be "I'm buying Australia made, if you have a problem with that, you'rs not Australian!!"

Well if you made that statement, then you would be following in the fine parliamentary tradition of telling a big fat lie. The Australian Made website clasifies "australian made" as

Australian Made
The product is substantially transformed in Australia and at least 50 per cent of the cost of production has been incurred in Australia.

Now we know the cruze doesnt fit into this category (25% local content at best), and I would have serious doubts that any of the other local cars meet this requirement also.

You will note that Holden doesnt call the cruze, australian made, they call it (direct from their website) =

the new Australian built Series II

Its a small legal technicality, that keeps a true australian from taking Holden to court, to ask WTF, for false advertising.

[burnz]

but a six potter is a gas guzzler??

i didn't see one vee eight in the list!!

[Mr Hardware]

Yeah when i started in the public service all the Directors drove G220 V8 Fairlanes!

[bmorris]

""A spokeswoman for Mr Combet said the Minister "drives an Australian made vehicle reflecting his support for Australian manufacturing"."

So they all should be. Its a shame the Telegraph is putting down our leaders for driving Australian made cars. A real low point for this newspaper. Good on them for supporting Australian jobs instead of sending tax payers money overseas.

I also posted this as a comment on the article. I regularly by the Telely but I'm not impressed at all with this article.

[2011G6E]

Remember Malcolm Fraser and the specially built stretched (more legroom in the rear) LTD he had for the Prime Ministers car? I think he did like Mercedes Benzes, but that car showed support for the Australian industry.

I remember seeing that car for sale quite some time back...wonder where it is now?

[MethodX]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

Remember Malcolm Fraser and the specially built stretched (more legroom in the rear) LTD he had for the Prime Ministers car? I think he did like Mercedes Benzes, but that car showed support for the Australian industry.

I remember seeing that car for sale quite some time back...wonder where it is now?

He had a stretched Chrysler Regal too. a white CM model.
The car is still around.

[2011G6E]

Originally Posted by MethodX

He had a stretched Chrysler Regal too. a white CM model.
The car is still around.

Yes, that car had a short write-up in a car magazine (Unique Cars?) some years back. It too had the "stretch" rear section with longer rear doors.

[FPV8U]

They shouldn't be driving anything that isn't made in australia, same goes with council cars, state government all the way up to the PM.

[RAPID_BA]

If they are public flogged for driving 6 cylinder gas guzzlers, what do they do to me? I have 2 V8s

[SteveJH]

Originally Posted by FPV8U

They shouldn't be driving anything that isn't made in australia, same goes with council cars, state government all the way up to the PM.

The one exception being 4WD vehicles. Of course if all the government bodies agreed to purchase australian built/manufactured only, maybe it would become cost effective for ford or Toyota to introduce local production of ranger/t6 wagon and/or hilux.

[302 XC]

Gas guzzlers !!!
How would we use this term ???
My 6 cylinder 4x4 uses 20-25L/100Ks
A new V8 doesnt !!!

If we pay for the fuel , who cares what usage we use
I think the powers that be, should be paying at the pump like everyone else
Claim it on tax, if applicable sure
But reach into the pocket
Then possibly they can get on the "Why is fuel and running costs so dear" band wagon

[RAPID_BA]

Thats whats wrong with australia, people too concerned with economy and environment.

We should be more like the yanks, they love their v8s, almost everyone has them.

[Ford_The_Win]

Originally Posted by HULK_BA

We should be more like the yanks, they love their v8s, almost everyone has them.

Because petrol is 90 cents per litre over there...

If we all lived as wastefully as they do, we would need three earths to sustain the human race.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by bobthebilda

Well if you made that statement, then you would be following in the fine parliamentary tradition of telling a big fat lie. The Australian Made website clasifies "australian made" as



Now we know the cruze doesnt fit into this category (25% local content at best), and I would have serious doubts that any of the other local cars meet this requirement also.

You will note that Holden doesnt call the cruze, australian made, they call it (direct from their website) =

Its a small legal technicality, that keeps a true australian from taking Holden to court, to ask WTF, for false advertising.

Like so many of your posts, it's littered with half truths and inuendo...

LINK
Holden has today announced the opening of its new body shop at its Elizabeth plant in Adelaide, commissioned to produce panels for the locally-built 2011 Holden Cruze sedan.
-----------------------------------------------------------

The roof, body sides, closures, fascias and majority of interior plastics for the Cruze will be produced at the new plant, before joining the Commodore on the line in General Assembly.

If assessed by local retail value, Holden says the Cruze has 40-50%
local content value so approx. $10,000 worth of local content...

Holden is now stamping Cruze II panels here in Australia and particularly since the
Cruze hatch is their creation it is probably going to be an even bigger seller than the sedan...

[sudszy]

Originally Posted by Joe5619

The AUSTRALIAN government should support AUSTRALIAN industries first in every purchase they make!! End of story..

In principle I agree, but in practice if government guarantees buying Australian cars then we get complacent manufacturing....they wont be forced to make a world class product if the government insists on buying it no matter how crap it is and at the end of the day who do you think will be paying for that?. It already happens to a certain extent anyway, take away all the fleet sales to government, council, police etc and our car makers would go to the wall..

[bobthebilda]

Originally Posted by jpd80

Like so many of your posts, it's littered with half truths and inuendo...
If assessed by local retail value, Holden says the Cruze has 40-50%
local content value so approx. $10,000 worth of local content...
Holden is now stamping Cruze II panels here in Australia and particularly since the
Cruze hatch is their creation it is probably going to be an even bigger seller than the sedan...

Holden have never said the cruze has 40-50% of local content, in fact in any of the releases i have read, they havent gone above 25% local content. And that 25% amounts to not much more than the labour content going into assembling the parts.

For the record, Holden dont stamp many of their own panels. They are stamped by a japanese firm, some kilometres up the road. It was this same firm, that Holden a few years ago, had to pay out approx. $50 million dollars to satisfy contract conditions due to not taking specified quantities. You know, a badly run American company signs a poor contract with a Japanese firm, but it doesnt matter because they can use Australian taxpayer money to make it right.

The Cruze sells for $21990. That $21990 includes approx $1500 rego and stamp duty, $1800 GST, $1000 dealer profit, $900 transport and insurance plus other ancillary costs. Base model cruzes are leaving the Holden yard for less than $17000. There is no way Holden are using $10,000 of local content in a cruze. Remember, $3000 of the price of the cruze is depreciation and ammortisation on the apparant $400 million plus (sarcasm), they spent on designing and tooling up for the cruze.

By your definition, the minute your local toyota dealer imports a landcruiser for $65,000 and sells it for $85,000 means it has more local content than most australian built cars.

[93EB_SXR6]

Originally Posted by Mechan1k

Hahahahahahaha ... quoted for truth.

I am sitting here, proud as punch that I have been quoted

[noosacuda]

GoAnna Blight apparantly has (or had) a Turbo deisel Chrysler 300,at she has good taste in cars.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by bobthebilda

Holden have never said the cruze has 40-50% of local content, in fact in any of the releases i have read, they havent gone above 25% local content. And that 25% amounts to not much more than the labour content going into assembling the parts.

Well then read this.

Link
Devereux says the number of parts sourced locally – estimated at between 40 to 50 per cent, with up to 30 components makers currently involved - isn’t up to the company’s expectation.

“The goal for us over time - and you have to keep in mind, this is a very fast-tracked program – is to continually look for strategic opportunities to increase the localisation of Cruze. So over time that number will get bigger,” he says.

Among the locally-based contributors to the Cruze are Hirotec, the Australian arm of a Japanese company that supplies doors and bootlids; exhaust and shock absorber specialist Tenneco; seat and interior trim supplier Futuris; and plastics manufacturer Venture Industries.

Roof and side panels are planned for Cruze II and should be in by now.

[Ford_The_Win]

Good on Holden. Yes the Cruze is lacklustre at best but at least they are having a red hot go at keeping local production viable, unlike Ford.