It is funny you should say that omico. I believe almost the opposite. Whilst nativist romanticism gives light to the motivation of many folk who would, seemingly irrationally, oppose the demise of local manufacturing, it isn't the whole story.
I would think that when the design brief was drawn up for the Commodore, there would have been certain traits of previous generations, carried over to ensure some conceptual link to standing tribal precedence. These characteristics are what give Commodore and Falcon a little extra edge in the face of heavy social opposition and "moral encouragement" to downsize.
I made a thread not so long ago about driving through the regional areas that parallel the South East Queensland coastline. The general gist of it was that there is still a place where these traditional dinosaurs not only live, but thrive.
What's my point?
The qualities exhibited by the large RWD Aussie six are unique in the world. On a global scale they are a niche market. Their abilities are not highlighted by focus groups in capital cities or on line surveys and they are barely recognised by foreign markets because our conditions are also reasonably unique. Maintaining manufacturing locally (in concert with engineering) adds appropriate weight to the design brief, through the familiarity that the local engineer has with previous Commodores. Not the facts and figures, I'm talking about what it feels like to drive one.
In the future, local demands may head in a different direction and when it does, I want the replacement to be something that addresses our market demands. Those demands, and therefore the design brief, will not just be determined by computer modeling and calculations, but by memories, familiarity and, goddammit, just a pinch of Aussie enthusiasm. Without these things, the Commodore would already be dead.
