Government cars: a matter of some imports

There was a time when seemingly every politician taking a pew in Victoria's Legislative Assembly (the lower house of the Victorian Parliament) was seen in the nightly news driving a Ford Territory .

Frankston MP Geoff Shaw was particularly fond of his Territory. He memorably racked up many kilometres in it, making deliveries across state boundaries for his hardware business – until he was found out.

Shaw is no longer in the Victorian parliament, and nor is the Territory any longer a common sight in parliament's car park.

At the end of October 2016, Ford ceased building cars in Australia, and the Territory fell victim to that decision. Around 12 months later, Toyota and then Holden also closed down their local production plants at Altona and Elizabeth respectively.

Every brand marketing cars in Australia is now a full-line importer, and that has made an impact on the choice of vehicles available to government staff.

Back in 2015, before the three remaining manufacturers had shuttered their factories, state government department VicFleet listed a number of passenger cars and the Territory SUV as acceptable vehicles for government employees. A 'buy Australian' policy skewed VicFleet's 'approved vehicle list' towards the locally-built cars available at the time.

It was natural that Victoria would support Australian product, with a Holden engine plant at Port Melbourne, a Ford vehicle assembly plant at Campbellfield, a Toyota vehicle production plant at Altona, with an engine plant located there also, plus Ford's engine factory in Geelong. Each of the three remaining manufacturers had a head office located in Victoria, and each company's product development facilities were based there too.

For executive staff and chauffeurs the approved vehicle list offered the Holden Caprice; large-car drivers could choose between the Ford Falcon, Holden Commodore and Toyota Aurion; the Toyota Camry (including hybrid models) and the Holden Cruze covered demands for a small or medium passenger car. The Territory catered to the rest.

VicFleet maintains and updates the approved vehicle list to this day, with a lot of changes implemented since the end of local manufacturing. Some of those changes seem arbitrary, but Holden's imported Commodore and Toyota's imported Camry appear on the list – suggesting that vehicle selection for the list is still guided by nostalgia or long-standing experience at least.

Ford's Mondeo is not on the list, however, despite the mid-size passenger car being the nearest surrogate for the Falcon. And there's no direct replacement for the Holden Caprice either. One would think the Skoda Superb would be an appropriate successor to the big Holden, and there's already a Skoda on the approved vehicle list.

VicFleet insists that vehicles can only be considered for inclusion in the approved vehicle list if they are rated five stars by safety authority ANCAP and feature three active safety features from a prescribed list. Additionally, the eligible vehicles must achieve a set standard for running costs across the whole of life.

Toyota's Aurion has been succeeded by the latest Camry V6 and Holden's Astra stands in for the Cruze. In a pale shadow of yesteryear, Ford's one and only entry in the current approved vehicle list is the Everest, the seven-seat SUV that perhaps comes closest to replacing the lamented Territory.

VicFleet's 'customers' can order a car not on the approved vehicle list, but they have to arrange special dispensation accordingly. These, broadly are the vehicles approved by VicFleet for purchase, as of April 2019:

Light car:
Toyota Yaris

Small car:
Holden Astra,
Hyundai i30,
Hyundai Ioniq,
Kia Cerato,
Skoda Octavia
Toyota Corolla Hybrid

Medium car:
Toyota Camry

Large car:
Holden Commodore/Calais,
Subaru Liberty

Small SUV:
Hyundai Kona (including the EV),
Mitsubishi ASX,
Nissan Qashqai,
Toyota C-HR

Medium SUVs:
Hyundai Tucson,
Kia Sportage,
Nissan X-TRAIL,
Toyota RAV4

Large SUVs:
Ford Everest,
Hyundai Santa Fe,
Kia Sorento,
Mitsubishi Pajero,
Nissan Pathfinder,
Subaru Outback,
Toyota Prado