Oz Mickey T, pretty good insight. But just to put a few things into perspective:

$1 millon Aus is roughly $680,000 US. If you want to by a decent house in LA, you'll easily pay that much. In San Francisco, unless you wasnt a 100 year old house, expect to easily pay nearly $1 million US. San Diego's alot better, but it's still going to set you back at least $300,000 US, with most in the $400-600,000 range.

I 100% agree with you about US cars not being able to hack it in the Australian market. Taurus was a disaster, and it was one of the better made US cars. Mustang Cobra doesn't measure up to Monaro CV8 except in acceleration. The Cadillac CTSv is just about right for the Australian market, but it cost about $10,000 more than comparable Aussie performance sedans.

While I think the Falcon is exactly what Ford should be selling here, and that law enforcement would love em, it wouldn't replace the Crown Vic. For some reason, old folks here love em, and with Ford making over $10,000 on each CV they sell (and at least $20,000 on each town car), the Vic isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Few people here realize that a sizeable portion of our agriculture is subsidized, and unless something catastrophic happens, is generally run in a pretty "hands off" fashion. And unless I'm mistaken, this is perhaps our country's largest export.

As for our cars, we also have to compete with cars from Japan, Europe. For those of you who have actually spent some time inside a GTO, and taken a good look at how the interior's put together, be advised that that's the norm in quality & materials in the Australian market.

Now, sit in an average US made car. Tell me honestly you think US cars will do well in any market outside the US & Canada!

Hell, we are being paid to buy our own cars here, and they're made here!!

 

Good points, but A$1mill is, on current exchange rates, around US$790,000, but that's not the point.
The issue is the currency you earn in and where you live.
if you were paid in US and lived in Australia, it's not bad.
if you were paid in US and lived in US, then you'll find the relativity of incomings/outgoings would not be dissimilar to earning Aust and living in Aust.
It's the same in England. One of their pounds is worth about 2.5 of ours, but a $30 meal here is still a 30 pound meal there, because a job earning A$50k in australia earns (with exceptions for supply/demand quirks) 50k pounds there, and it's similar in the US.
It's the relativity of income and expenditure where you live that's the underwriting factor; not so much the advantages/disadvantages of currency, especially in real estate. After all, you can't export it, so unless you're an expat, it makes no difference.
And, our currency has risen from around US$0.50 to US$0.79 in two years, so exporting cars/parts back to you guys has, suddenly, become a lot less attractive...