The culture that killed an industry

I’m no different from every other Australian, the last few years I have been watching the progressive death of the car manufacturing industry. In the last 6 months or so that has come to head with first the demise of Ford, then Holden and now finally Toyota. The writing has long been on the wall, who can forget the resigned look on the face of Holden Australia’s Mike Devereux at the VF media launch day when he sat in the driver’s seat listening to the Ford press conferences on the VF's new hands free phone connectivity system.

Now many have touted the ‘perfect storm’ theory, we have all heard the death cries before of high Australian dollar, high labour costs, declining sales and exports. Additionally; we have all heard the political ramblings of Labor said this and Liberals did that. All of which are undoubtedly contributing factors.

But I sometimes wonder if these easy to digest media sound bites are missing the point. The same day Toyota announced the final death throws, I happen to be driving the new VF Commodore when I pulled in to a car park and made note of the below photo.

 
 Here is why manufacturing has died in Australia, these are not cars, they’re a big mobile phone with an extended warranty. People are no longer drivers, they’re commuters inching their way to lives of containment like refugees travelling towards Christmas Island. Societies no longer care about cars, they care about fuel economy, iPod connectivity and skill sapping remote parking assists.

To be fair, can you blame society? Each one of these mobile box commuters will argue they don’t care about performance characteristics while stuck in grid lock on our shockingly obsolete road networks. Then there’s the question of why buy a new car just to pay new car tax, followed by road registration tax, then fuel tax, cleverly disguised as ‘excise’ and if you want to buy a nicer more exclusive model then expect to pay luxury car tax. If that’s not enough god forbid you by some stretch of the imagination exceed the signed speed limit by even one kilometre per hour, that will result in certain loss of licence – or at least a significant financial loss ($19 million from the South Australian economy alone)

But dig deeper and it gets even worse; the South Australian government’s own website recommends people ‘buy smaller cars or take public transport’ but then contradicts their own standpoint by arguing one should buy Australian cars. The state premier himself told SA police – one of Holdens biggest local customers - to ‘drive smaller cars’ in a bid to bring the state out of bankruptcy.

And that brings us to the dinosaur in the room - Australian motoring enthusiasts. So let’s say you do have the audacity to buy a new V8 Commodore or Turbo Charged Falcon (both excellent cars I might add) and attempt to change much more than a wheel nut, you are going to be arrested and pepper sprayed every time you reverse out your driveway. The car modification laws in this country and so confusing, fragmented and draconian that even aftermarket headlights can have your pride and joy put off the road – in some cases for good. The motives for these kinds of repressive actions can only be seen as state governments making desperate grabs for cash, or maybe if you’re a glass half full type, a nanny state move to avoid liability law suits.

I remember when I was a kid my dad dreaming about owning the latest ‘big V8’ and telling me how easy it would be to overtake slower cars while driving down the coast for a surf. But those days are long gone; the governments have killed the culture that sold cars. The idea of buying a new car now is so insane you would have to move in to Schapelle Corby’s old prison cell. You don’t tax an economy to prosperity said T-dog Abbott and you don’t sell cars by repressing a culture.

The Bucket List and a GT86

There are certain items that would appear on most bucket lists, some are mundane, such as buying a house, some are exhilarating, like hitting Tony Abbott with a rolled up news paper and some are downright stupid like wasting that said newspaper on a now former South Australian Premier instead.

For example; being a child of the nineties, I have always wanted to meet Liam Howlett, which I have done, several times now. He actually knows me by name, last time I checked. Other items on my list include skydiving - after being massively inspired at a Austrian drinks company publicity stunt and a team of engineers so good at their jobs even NASA got jealous.

But once again; that nineties child shines through when we get to the patch of road known as: Mount Panorama. You see; from before I can recall, I have always watched 'the great race' so there is an amount of installed romance about the place, add to that; my mid life guiding light Ben Collins stating in his overtly non-controversial book 'The Man in the White Suit" that Bathurst was and is "the second hardest race in the world, behind LeMans" that I really needed to tick this one off the list.

Now; one does not simply arrive at the mountain in a Korean box of snot and decaying human cells, so I set out to locate something a little bit more invigorating. The end result to those investigations resulted in a car that got a lot of media attention in 2012-13 the Toyota/Subaru BRZ/GT86.

Now no matter what; when you get handed the keys to a rented (read: owner-less) two door, rear wheel drive, bright orange hatch that was named car of the year from the characterture of his own existence Jeremy Clarkson it is pretty easy to fall in to the trap of confirmation bias. And rightfully so; driving the GT86 while lacking pedigree and heritage of a moronic bogan built V8 was, without doubt, one of the greatest driving experiences of my life.