Our car industry doomed says former Ford boss A former Ford boss has said the Australian car industry is reaching the end. FORMER Ford boss Jac Nasser says Australia's automotive industry is doomed. Mr Nasser, who had a 33-year career with Ford, including three years as its chief executive in Detroit, said "it would be a very sad day for Australia" if it no longer built cars, "but unfortunately it looks like it could be inevitable." "I was optimistic or hopeful two or three years back, but the signs look more onerous now," he said. Mr Nasser, now the chairman of mining giant BHP Billiton, also warned the supply base of Australia's three car makers was intertwined and it would be very difficult for any to survive if one car maker closed. "As soon as you have a reduction in the scale of domestic manufacturing ... you end up potentially with a subscale supplier infrastructure, and once that happens I think it's a domino effect," he said yesterday. Mr Nasser said a high Australian dollar, high costs, excessive global car-building capacity and weak Japanese and European currencies were all dragging down the local industry. He said it was disappointing that Australians were not more patriotic about their car-making industry and the government did not spend a lot on it compared with its global rivals.