Suckers

Suckers, thats us.

THE American owners of local Ford and Holden plants will be laughing at the Australian "suckers" who have handed them a $6.2 billion industry assistance package, former car company executives say.

Expressing disappointment yesterday at the latest industry handout, industry veterans said the money would ultimately end up back in Detroit rather than bolstering needy sectors of the local industry.

Former managing director of Mitsubishi Australia Graham Spurling said the car companies would get a "free ride" from the Rudd Government on research and development.

"They will say: 'Aren't we suckers'," said Mr Spurling, who led a South Australian government special automotive industry taskforce.

"We should be pumping so much - everything we can - into making the remaining car components people more efficient, more financially viable, less reliant on the vagaries of the car companies and their choices."

Thank you Mr Rudd for being so generous to those nice American companies.