What or who do you think killed the British car industry?

[3 Lions]

Personally I think the unions were to blame for the demise of the British car industry. They would call strikes on a daily basis over petty issues like for pie heaters that didn't work and that basically ruined the reputation of BL & Rootes made cars. 

 

I look forward to reading everyones theories... 

 

Thanks

LinusTechTipsFanFromDarlo

[Drak3]

Simple. Their cars either sucked or cost way too much for what you got.

[Mutoh]

The Robin, the Allegro, the Morris Marina...

 

 

 

Does anything more need to be said, really?

[3 Lions]

27 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Simple. Their cars either sucked or cost way too much for what you got.

Most of them 'sucked' during the period when the companies were most in trouble. Take Austin for example, as an independent company they made some absolute gems like the 20's Austin 7 but when they joined BMC then things started to go wrong for them, I think the only successful car they developed and made under the BMC name was the Mini in the 60's. 

[3 Lions]

3 minutes ago, Mutoh said:

The Robin, the Allegro, the Morris Marina...

 

 

 

Does anything more need to be said, really?

Reliant died off due to the issues from BL and Rootes, as a company they didn't make as much noise as BL and Rootes because they were a smaller company with a much smaller workforce. 

[Drak3]

9 minutes ago, LinusTechTipsFanFromDarlo said:

Most of them 'sucked' during the period when the companies were most in trouble.

No, they always sucked. Most things Brit engineers touched after WW1 did.

[3 Lions]

8 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

No, they always sucked. Most things Brit engineers touched after WW1 did.

If they always sucked then why did the Indians like the Morris Oxford series III so much? The Hindustan Ambassador was basically an Indian made Morris Oxford series III. 

Edited December 20, 2018 by LinusTechTipsFanFromDarlo

[Blademaster91]

Well British cars are still mostly unreliable overpriced crap, brands like land rover,range rover, or jaguar are also terrible to keep past the warranty.

[Drak3]

9 minutes ago, LinusTechTipsFanFromDarlo said:

If they always sucked then why did the Indians like the Morris Oxford series III so much?

Because they didn't know that there was better options on the market.

[3 Lions]

2 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Because they didn't know that there was better options on the market.

No, it was because the first batch imported Oxford series 3's were popular with the Indian people so Hindustan just took the Core design of the Oxford series III and tweaked it slightly to make the Ambassador.

[Drak3]

1 minute ago, LinusTechTipsFanFromDarlo said:

No, it was because the first batch imported Oxford series 3's were popular with the Indian people so Hindustan just took the Core design of the Oxford series III and tweaked it slightly to make the Ambassador.

 

8 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Because they didn't know that there was better options on the market.

 

[3 Lions]

Just now, Drak3 said:

 

 

What were the better options? At the time the Indians just wanted a simple car that could go from A to B without breaking the bank while being very reliable and cheap/easy to maintain. You also have to remember that at the time the British were a big influence in India. 

[Drak3]

1 minute ago, LinusTechTipsFanFromDarlo said:

What were the better options? At the time the Indians just wanted a simple car that could go from A to B without breaking the bank while being very reliable and cheap/easy to maintain. You also have to remember that at the time the British were a big influence in India. 

Volkswagon.

Any Ford that isn't the Pinto.

A broken down Chevy.

[3 Lions]

3 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Volkswagon.

Any Ford that isn't the Pinto.

A broken down Chevy.

Unfortunately the British got there first, if they chose a national car now then they'd probably go with one of the brands you mentioned and then Hindustan just tweak the design. My point still stands though... 

[LinusOnLine]

They simply made crap that no one besides a Brit would even consider buying. Much the same reason why American Cars do not sell much in the EU.

[3 Lions]

7 hours ago, LinusOnLine said:

They simply made crap that no one besides a Brit would even consider buying. Much the same reason why American Cars do not sell much in the EU.

As I said before these 'crap' cars were developed and made in the period when the companies were most in trouble. 

[jones177]

Hi

 

I worked for Jaguar cars in the late 70s early 80s. Since I worked in the US before I went to live in the UK I had an outsiders perspective of what was going on.

 

Any time there was a stoppage it played into managements hands. If stocks were low issues were resolved quickly. If there was an over stock, management had no incentive to negotiate.

I found it quite silly since labor fell for it every time.    

 

The poor quality of the cars was due to poor management decisions and not the workforce. 

 

I worked as a paint operator. I was made redundant when BL built a new robot paint factory. A few months later I was asked to go back because the quality of the paint coming out of the new factory was sub standard. Some of the long time workers in the paint shop got redundancy money in excess of 20,000 pounds and then they were asked to go back a few months later. What kind of madness is that.

[Nicnac]

The good brands like Aston, Jag and Land Rover are still alive so there's that  I's a shame for Austin-Healey though.

[zassou]

i dont think car industry died in uk, nissan and honda build massive number of cars in the south and many of them export to various places, including japan

[3 Lions]

1 minute ago, zassou said:

i dont think car industry died in uk, nissan and honda build massive number of cars in the south and many of them export to various places, including japan

I'm talking about British car firms, companies like BL and Rootes.

Edited December 21, 2018 by LinusTechTipsFanFromDarlo

[3 Lions]

29 minutes ago, Nicnac said:

I's a shame for Austin-Healey though.

Austin-Healey was actually a joint venture between Austin (BMC) and the Donald Healey Motor Company (Healey).The venture ended between them ended in 68, Healey then had a joint venture between Jensen Motors using the Jensen-Healey name. Healey was never a true BMC/BL brand, for the most part it was an independent company but like Reliant they died off due to the issues of both BL and Rootes, at this time all of the British brands had their reputations destroyed even brands that were never apart of these multi- franchise organizations.  

[Bananasplit_00]

The british car industry.

[Radium_Angel]

Rust, and to a lesser extent quality control. But in the 70s it was expected to get out of your car, and work on it from time to time with a spanner.

Then the Japanese came along and showed everyone how to do it right.

 

[3 Lions]

5 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Rust

You see the thing is though at least with BL anyway they sprayed a rust protection agent all over the bodies before painting, was this application too weak or something? 

[Radium_Angel]

Just now, LinusTechTipsFanFromDarlo said:

You see the thing is though at least with BL anyway they sprayed a rust protection agent all over the bodies before painting, was this application too weak or something? 

Oh sure, they sprayed it...on the *outside*

Then made the car a convertible...

 

(ex owner of several British cars...including a TVR.)