Good money after bad

Let’s see if we’ve got this lined up: Ford Australia is investing $21 million to keep building an engine whose origins lay in the 1960s with the promise of making it meet Euro IV emissions requirements which become obsolete next year all to go in a car that nobody’s buying.

Yes, keeping open the Geelong engine plant post-2010 is beaut news for the 400 who work there.

But let’s not have ourselves on. This is as useless as a bandaid hastily slapped on by a company which hid for years behind tariff barriers and taxpayer subsidies (it was unclear as of Thursday 1pm AEST as to how much of the $21 million was derived from public monies) without a thought to the future.

No question the 2008 Falcon is the “best Australian car ever” as the apologists bang on ad nauseum. There’s even less doubt that it’s not selling. Falcon sales are down 4.3 per cent year to date on 2007, which is great news for cab drivers who pick ’em at auction for a song.

So Ford’s “answer” is to keep pouring good money after bad.

“This is the first step in a broad product investment strategy to reduce emissions and deliver fuel economy across our locally built vehicle line-up,” trumpeted Ford Australian boss Marin Burela.

Great. Except for one thing – and stop me if you’ve heard this - NO PRIVATE BUYER’S BUYING THEM.

And with the parent company taking its begging bowl to the US Senate because no-one wants their cars either, this insignificant outpost of a declining empire is running out of time faster than money.