Private sector efficiency

Former Victorian Premier John Brumby has an interesting take on where Ford in Australia went wrong.

The tragedy really in the Ford story is, you know, in 2004 Ford produced the Territory, which was a great, you know, a great car and a world leader at the time. At state level and federal level we assisted the Ford motor company with the development of that vehicle because it was really a breakthrough vehicle, but the basis of that was that they would produce a diesel and a left hand drive export. 

And, you know, Ford did neither and we're very disappointed about that because, you know, you could see back then the writing on the wall and what was happening in Europe with fuel prices and fuel consumption and the shift to diesels and I think that's a decision which, you know, cost, unquestionably cost Ford in the longer term. 

For whatever reason, there were some decisions which they took along the road, probably coming out of Detroit, not out of Australian HQ, probably forced on them by Detroit.

Assuming of course that his analysis is correct... so much for the much-vaunted private sector efficiency.