Death of the (Independent) British Motoring Industry

[dave_c]

Recently, we saw the axe of the last British car company, my question is, why has the Motor Industry in the UK failed so dismally whilst foreigns companies from the likes of Asia/Japan, US & Germany seemed to have prospered?

Britain was the birth place of so many prestigious car brands over the years it puzzles me why we have rely on foreign companies to to stay afloat. So what are the reason, was it a side affect of the general economy? Did good old Maggie Thatcher have something to do with it?

[Loosehead]

The main reason was the total destruction of car making by out of control union  power in the 60's and 70's. Go back to that time and read some of the horror stories, I really think a lot of people have forgotten the union dogma of those days. People like Red Robbo where causing strikes over the most trivial things, the quality of any cars that did get made where very suspect, remember the Friday special??. Management where very inneffectual as well but that was mainly because they had no power to change anything.

Maggie had nothing to do with it, in fact she kicked their socialist arses in the eighties.

[KebabMeister]

I watched a special Top Gear, or something like that, and it featured the British motor industry.  British Leyland was the joining of Rover, MG, Morris, Austin, Triumph, etc.  It was actually the 4th or 5th biggest motor company in the world.  Everything was looking really good.... but what they found was that each marque, i.e. Triumph, kept their own factories.  This meant that the workers had pride in their product.... a bit too much pride because even though they all came under British Leyland the different marques refused to swap ideas, share ideas, share engines etc.  Each product was up against their stablemate.  An example was the Triumph Stag and it's troublesome Triumph V8 engine.  Why didn't they use the very reliable Rover V8 engine? 

So, I think it came down to poor management and direction.  If someone had the skill and expertise they could have joined the best of each company and made them work together to provide what the customer wants.  Too many cars were poorly built, some affected by strikes etc.  It was a tragic shame because they could have been world leaders if they really pulled their finger out.

[Tim Baxter]

Since the eighties, it would seem that each subsequent set of mangers and directors were quite happy getting their huge salaries and 'forgot' to point the company in the right direction.  I feel this is especially so with latest lot who have walked away with huge payments whilst the workers and suppliers get shafted.

The main reason (I think) that foreign manufacturers keep going is that they are subsidised under the table by their governments.  Or in Renault's case directly 'cos it's state owned.  So now Renault/Peugeot own Nissan (can you believe it?)  The Italian makers are state owned.  Ford owns Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo.  I can't remember who owns Lotus, is it GM?  It's just the same as the plane industry, none would survive without 'discreet' state aid.

[jgk]

 Proton of Malaysia own Lotus cars.As regards British mass vehicle manufacturers their is one still going strong after a management buyout in 1993, It goes by the name of LDV, makers of panel vans , chassis cabs and minibuses and is based in the Washwood Heath area of Birmingham.