Fiat has stopped importing cars into Australia and Peugeot’s importer has given up on the brand, following the exit of other marques such as Citroen and Infiniti that left Australia altogether.

And major brands such as Nissan, Mitsubishi and Volkswagen may not be safe.

RELATED: Car giant sells just 13 cars, quits Aus Tony Weber, chair of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, says the automotive industry’s transformation is due to government policy.

At home, successive Australian governments have shifted from protecting an Australian manufacturing industry to encouraging cut-throat competition.

Abroad, China has invested time and money into making an electric vehicle industry capable of taking on the world.

“There’s no doubt that the market is incredibly competitive,” Weber says.

“For 40 years in this country, we’ve liberalised our market, we have taken away quotas, tariffs, non-tariff barriers, and like any open market, whether it’s mobile phones, soft drink, cars, new brands will come into the market and brands will exit the market.

RELATED: Car giant quits Aus as sales sink 87pc “We always knew that the design of Australian industry policy and trade policy was such that the markets was going to be one of the most competitive in the world, and the thing is that advantage is consumers, because you get more product.

“Competition drives down prices, it enhances quality.

We all knew this was happening and it has been a conscious decision of the Australian government for four decades and this is coming to fruition today.” Peter Jones, chief executive of the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce, says motorists should brace for well-known brands to exit the market.

“If you actually look at the market share and you look at anything under five per cent market share, they’re the ones that would be at risk,” he says.

“So you can have a look at all those.

There’s lots of brands in that space.” MORE: Aussies ditch big car brands for China dupes By Jones’ estimation, the only brands that are truly safe for now include Toyota (15.7 per cent market share for the year to date) along with Ford (7 per cent), Kia (6.9 per cent), Mazda (6.7 per cent) and Hyundai (6.5 per cent).

If we set aside luxury brands with higher profit margins, that leaves well established brands in trouble.

Those include Mitsubishi (4.1 per cent market share this year), Isuzu (3.4 per cent), Subaru (2.4 per cent), Nissan (2.3 per cent) Volkswagen (1.9 per cent) Honda....