[anjan_c2007]

New taxi being road tested at Coventry, clicked this morning 23/01/2014 at Coventry, UK (incidentally it was morning there in the U.K. till a few hours back) and posted by Mr Rob Foskett on FB.

According to Rob, LTI ( London Taxis International ) is now owned by a Chinese company and they are building taxis in China, as well as here in Coventry. So how long the Coventry plant will be there is anyone's guess.

Incidentally, this car factory is the last one surviving in Coventry (once an auto manufacturing hub).

[rajeev k]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

Some of the finer points and attention to details, as observed in British cars are sorely missed. These features have left deep imprints in the world of automobile history and have become passe now. Here are some of the many features from British cars of yore, that contribute to their iconic image till today.
....leather upholstery.Our Landmasters, Hindustan 10's and 14's were as a rule fitted with leather upholstery as these were assembled from CKD/SKD kits received from the U.K.

All round nostalgia for me seeing this compilation. I went down memory lane, rather forced, and saw black and white memory images of many of these cars which once ran through the narrow roads of Trivandrum. It made me even smell those upholstery and that of the petrol vapour so reminiscent of those cars.

[anjan_c2007]

Lamenting the disappearance of British marques of commuter cars since the 1980's and 1990's , the prime causative factors appear to be the two major political parties and their respective leaderships, who have been at the farther ends of the ideological spectrum. Our aim should not be to discuss politics here but to talk more of how British car industry faced those doom days and later disappeared.

One major party went on appeasing workers by nationalising some auto companies that faced trying times. A laid back approach at the employee level set in soon after and quality suffered. These nationalised car companies were either getting or were already sick prior to nationalisation. Losses started showing glaringly on their balance sheets. When the other political party came to power, it discouraged such nationalisations and soon after some of these companies were up for sale. Some companies found no buyers and hence suffocating sans buyers compounded by stoppage of government support and doles, they perished. Private enterprises, some based abroad picked and selectively with their shopping baskets, went out to choose some marques that they thought could be profitable for them. At the end of the day, the once upon a time leading and famous marques became history.

The British two wheeler brand survival rate however is just a wee bit better as compared to cars, though many famous bike marques are history. It could be because the politicians never perhaps interfered in bike companies as they were sustaining themselves. The laggard companies though perished.

It can be summarised as visionless political leadership at the helm of the government that stemmed the rot since the 1960's need to be apportioned with the blame. The 1970's created sick car companies and that soon was the perfect recipe to their beginning of the end. Some brands just disappeared in the 1980's, while by the 1990's the other gullible ones perished.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Eben though I'm British, and have been alive since 1952, I am no historian and I could well be wrong, but...

I don't think that any car company was nationalised due to simple political desire, or to "appease" workers. It would have been a mater of survival, and not surviving would have meant the loss of many, many jobs and communities.

I do remember the bottom line quality of cars in my early life. My dad always bought second-hand, so that the people who bought new fixed the problems, and it was simply expected that cars would be hard to start on cold, wet mornings, and that rust holes would blossom in a very few years. And I am thinking of Ford, eg Consul, which my family had, which was not one of the native British brands.

I think it was competition from Japan that brought us reliability and decent build.

[shankar.balan]

A very nice Youtube video by Jack…Number 27.
On this topic.
I watch a lot of his videos because they are factual and good.

https://youtu.be/l7qKebPKMJQ

[anjan_c2007]

The Times, London, of February 10, 1984 describes about the demise of the iconic Morris and Triumph brands, both till their last breath under the British Leyland management after the latter, a former truck and bus maker became a big car maker taking over many iconic British marques, starting with its acquisition of the Triumph marque in 1961.

[sandeepmdas]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Eben though I'm British, and have been alive since 1952, I am no historian and I could well be wrong, but...

I don't think that any car company was nationalised due to simple political desire, or to "appease" workers. It would have been a mater of survival, and not surviving would have meant the loss of many, many jobs and communities.

Absolutely not flaming you sir, but as a person who had witnessed the change brought by just one budget speech in the Indian parliament (made by Manmohan Singh in 1991) I beg to differ. British socialism - which we sadly adhered till the 90s, instead of ditching it immediately after the 1971 war - has this major drawback: it kills factory jobs.

The Brit/Indian socialism always viewed the factories, manufacturing, heavy industries etc. are bad and the people who work in them are inferior, the people who run them are evil. Essentially, it is against hard work.

The ideal votebank for the economist-politician socialist is the middle class desk jobber. People who come to the office at 11 and leave at 3. People who aways say negative to anything and everything. People who are never satisfied. Any other profession that involves physical or risk-taking effort is considered inferior or even stupid. You are correct about Mrs Thatcher, she too was in favor of banking, finance and other services where men wore suits instead of jump-suits and coveralls.

As a result we ended up with engineers who were good only in office gossip. A very senior engineer in Kerala Telecom in Trivandrum was not even heard about Ham radio in 1990.

Forget the British car industry; let's take a look at the British aviation industry. How many aircraft does the (once mighty) GB now make? Except Rolls Royce, leaders and players are all long gone:

Folland (our war hero, Folland Gnat!)
Supermarine
Hawker
de Havilland
Britten-Norman
Avro
Bristol
Vickers
Gloster
Boulton Paul
Handley Page
Short Brothers
English Electric
Blackburn

Hope someone should write a similar thread about the decline and fall of the British aeronautical sector.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by sandeepmdas

Absolutely not flaming you sir, but as a person who had witnessed the change brought by just one budget speech in the Indian parliament (made by Manmohan Singh in 1991) I beg to differ...

I wonder... I just have to ask. What is your experience of Britain and British Industry in the 1970s/80s?

[shankar.balan]

Here is an informative video on the big let down of the Rover SD1 which, had they had the vision and the sense, could have resurrected their ailing company, which in turn is sort of representative of the British Auto Industry. I find the videos by Big Car, well researched and presented in a simple, factual manner with no sensationalism and drama whatsoever and I like this style and manner a lot.

https://youtu.be/N9L7mrUj3mE

[sandeepmdas]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I wonder... I just have to ask. What is your experience of Britain and British Industry in the 1970s/80s?

I have heard a lot about the British sense of humor.

I don't have any first person experience, for I was a schoolkid. My father was an exporter (of coir rugs and carpets) to England and Malaya/Singapore.

BTW, he was also a tyre dealer, a business that I liked very much.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by sandeepmdas

I don't have any first person experience

I didn't think so.

As for me: I am no great economist, social scientist or historian, but... I was there. And I worked in several factories.

And... Lefty and pro-union though I am, I eventually worked for a company in printing and publishing. It was a non-union company, and I was not sorry. A lot of harm was done to the industry. Although, as a lefty who also has no inherent objection to capitalism, I believe that the captain is responsible for the ship, and that the responsibility for bad industrial relations ultimately lies with management.

Take good care of your political theories: they are are very, very fragile.

[V.Narayan]

UK car production collapses to lowest for 66 years

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64399748

The number of new cars made in the UK fell sharply again last year, sinking to its lowest level since 1956. The drop marks a 10% fall from 2021, which itself was a historic low. The SMMT* said the UK produced 775,014 cars last year. In 2019, before the Covid pandemic, the UK had made 1.3 million vehicles. Monthly output is down to roughly the 50,000 units per month mark!

Manufacturers hope that they will hit one million vehicles again in 2025, but getting to pre-pandemic levels would require major investment and new car makers to come to the UK. Firms are worried that the UK is falling behind the US and the EU when it comes to offering state aid to manufacturers. One of the benefits of Brexit was meant to be escaping from the straitjacket of EU state aid rules which limited the amount of support governments could give to favoured industries. The UK could be in the unenviable position of offering less support to crucial industries than it did before leaving the EU.

Sad state of affairs. The UK once had the second largest aircraft and ship building industry in the not so distant past. Sadly all that's gone. While ship building was lost due to Japanese & Korean productivity and efficiency, the aircraft design and building competence was lost due to a long line of second rate politicians and bureaucrats. The same seems to be happening here. First Brexit and then lethargy in policy. Hurts to see this in a nation that over the last 175 years gave us so many engineering marvels and inventions.

*Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders

[Jeroen]

Whilst they did away with the engineers, they grew their banking/service industry. Which meant only a handful of people (all Tory voters no doubt) started earning obscene amounts of money.

Brexit was heavily promoted by these people who already had considerable wealth and ridiculous high income. Because they were afraid EU rules might impact them and their wealth.

Brexit has certainly left a considerable mark on the UK in almost any industry and other areas. Few companies will publicly speak out on these sort of mega political decision. But most did act upon it quietly and started rethinking what part of their business needed to move out of the UK. One of the few big industrialist that spoke in favour of Brexit was Bryson. And he is complaining bitterly now as well.

The UK is still an interesting place to visit from an engineering perspective. One thing the Brits always did extremely well is to preserve the past and their heritage. With Brexit they found out it is one thing doing this in a museum, but quite different to think you can turn back the clock and fly solo in an immensely complicated and global society.

Jeroen

Jeroen

[anjan_c2007]

"The British Car Industry - Our Part in its Downfall" (2008) is a book by Mr James Ruppert, auto journalist,who has seen it all happening.



Found this book review by a reader Duncurin and others on Amazon, U.K.. These words can help in completion of the jigsaw puzzle, summarising the whole saga crisply.

A wonderful book and for people of a certain age, like me, an atmospheric and memory-jerking read. For sure, it’s a nicely balanced and I believe accurate account of the decline and death throes of the British car industry – the like of which we will never see again. At times the author’s exposition is a little harsh, but I am sure well-deserved about the careless, negligent and unthinking way in which it was sold down the river and allowed other manufacturers in to make off with the marques and strings of brilliant ideas our engineers crafted; and then to make them their own.

I cannot help but feel, however, that the magic is not quite dead; and of course I speak as the once teenage boy who drooled over a fantastic red Triumph Spitfire and who went on to buy 2 Minis, 2 Metros, 2 Maestros and a 216 before meltdown took place. None of these cars ever let me down and though the 1600 TC MG Maestro was a devil to start, the EFI was in my view more than a match for the Golf GTi and I never felt inferior, especially when making Newcastle from Eccles in 90 minutes – ah the joys of motoring.

The interesting thing is that the Indians, the Germans and the Japanese see the magic that still lies within and they would do well not to discount our expertise our sheer verve (ok that’s a bit strong, but you catch my drift ) and of course our wonderful workforce who can run the world’s most efficient car factory. In addition though I have had a dalliance with foreign built cars I have returned - albeit to a Japanese car which is full of French components - but is at least built in the UK and I realise I will not now ever buy a car that isn’t and when I can afford it I will buy either an Evoque or a Jaguar: furthermore I am of the view that this time they will still be there for me. So, all in all, a great read but I think one that now demands and deserves a post 2008 addition.

A review by primrose

I see a lot of myself in Ruppert's father who is the main character in this book. I too bought British for most of my life in the vain hope that the various incarnations of British Leyland would profit and survive.
Lots of facts I didn't know and lots that I did know confirmed. Also changed my perception of Rootes group that I thought of as a blacksmiths shop.
I worked in manufacturing for 35 years as a design engineer and can confirm that most UK companies were run in the manner that Ruppert describes. It's also a mirror image of the motorcycle industry.

A review by Daniel Fox

James' astute and informed observations are based on his family's experiences of British Motor Cars from the 1950s to today. Any child of the late 50s to early 80s will relate to James' obsession with collecting marketing brochures from car dealerships - to excitedly checking the trim level of next doors new car - to the sheer elation of spotting new car registrations on the 1st of every August.

It's a lovely tribute to our car making industry, but make no bones about it - it pulls no punches. It refuses to flatter the suits at Longbridge and Cowley who, frankly, deserve nothing short of ridicule. That said, James writes fairly and with conviction and - most importantly - passion.

This book will enhance your understanding of how we arrived in 2015: where the most British mainstream car you can buy is, ironically, a Nissan Qashqai.

A review by Dorfdarb

As a long-time fan of the great British sports cars of the 50s and 60s, I was always curious as to what went wrong with their auto industry. During the struggles of U.S. car makers, I always kept Great Britain in mind as an example of what might happen in the U.S. if we weren't careful. So I was curious to see what this author had to say. In a very entertaining and personal account, James Ruppert chronicles the history of the rise, decline and ultimate failure of the British Car Industry through accurate reporting of the governmental and business factors, while all the time relating it to his family's personal experiences with the cars they owned. His comments on the highs and lows of British car design were hilarious in their pithy and merciless descriptions of some of the truly awful vehicles being created, as well as a real appreciation for the standouts. Among other things, I gained an awareness of which car brands were associated with which qualities. I also was impressed at how Ford of England seemed to do almost everything right while BMC and British Leyland couldn't ever get their acts together, even when they weren't being interfered with by well-intentioned but ill-conceived governmental interference. One feature I really appreciate is how each chapter ends with a series of pictures showing the cars James was commenting on---most of them are unfamiliar to Americans, so it helps to be able to know what they looked like. He also includes aspects of daily life in Great Britain in a manner that helped me place the events in a context I never experienced as an American. In the end, the book is a poignant look at a slow-motion disaster that feels almost inevitable, but could have been avoided several times by just a few better decisions.