Prime Minister Scott Morrison may be angry but, when it comes to automobile production in general and General Motors in particular, the writing was on the wall.

When the last locally built Holden rolled off the production line in Elizabeth more than two years ago, the promise of maintaining Australia as a design and engineering hub had a hollow ring to it.

It is worth remembering GM filed for bankruptcy in 2009 as the global financial crisis ripped the heart out of global car sales and as the great global car industry rort ran aground.

The Prime Minister is right to be angry about the $2 billion various governments pumped into GM's local operations stretching back decades. Vast amounts were handed out to Ford as well. And Toyota. And Chrysler. And Mitsubishi before its inglorious exit in 2008.

Then PM Julia Gillard was at the launch of the Australian-built Holden Cruze. ( AAP )

For decades the global car giants, led by the Detroit powerhouses, all had a similar modus operandi. Roll into town, ask for government assistance to establish a manufacturing plant and promise thousands of jobs and vast tax revenues.

But the subsidies never ended and the tax revenues never arrived. Every couple of years, they would ask for even more cash. And it wasn't just Australia either. This was a global business model.

It worked like a charm until the global financial crisis, as demand evaporated and governments embarked on austerity programs.

One of the enduring images of the GFC was the sight of executives from Detroit's three big car makers flying into Washington on private jets to demand bailouts from the Obama administration.

For Australia, it was the mining boom and the soaring Australian dollar that ultimately signed the car industry's death warrant.

Fast forward to 2020 and GM is a different beast. It has been profitable, but only at home. While it pulled in $US8.4 billion in 2019, its international operations lost money as the fallout from US President Donald Trump's debilitating trade war with China hit home.

Global slump in car sales

Globally, the car industry has been in upheaval for the past year.

Sales dropped by about 3.1 million last year, the steepest since the depths of the financial crisis, as Chinese demand evaporated. Exports of German luxury vehicles slumped, with the German economy lurching into near recession.

It wasn't just imported foreign cars. Thousands of workers in China's massive car industry were laid off as the trade war sapped Chinese demand for locally produced vehicles and as tariffs battered foreign demand.

China's car makers have also struggled with weak demand for new vehicles. ( Reuters/File )

Sales also declined in the US, forcing GM, Ford and Honda to ratchet back output while Brazil, Russia, India and Western Europe also declined.

Here at home, car sales have been stuck in reverse for several years. In January, total sales were 12.5 per cent lower than the previous January. While the bushfires had an impact, the previous January also slumped.

Last year was brutal for the Australian car industry. Sales for market leader Toyota slid 5.2 per cent. Holden, once the dominant force in the Australian car market, found itself in tenth place after a catastrophic 28.9 per cent sales avalanche as overindebted households decided to keep the old model a few more years.

If that wasn't enough of a signal, you only needed to look offshore for GM's intentions.

Its global ambitions were ejected long ago. It sold Swedish niche operator SAAB for a song in 2010 and came close to dumping German mass market producer Opel before announcing it was crucial to future strategy.

Two years ago, however, it offloaded UK brand Vauxhall along with Opel to French group PSA. Around the same time it exited South Africa and then, last December, it bid adieu to India.

That left Australia and New Zealand among few remaining right-hand-drive markets. Until this week.