british car industry

[les.millar]

standing this pm having beer and fag outside pub watching the cars go by.
bmw,vw,renault bmw,vw,citoen,fiat,peugeot,vw,bmw, renault,ford

i am told if you go to paris 90% of cars going by are citroen,renault
in germany vw

why in this country do we not support our own industries

mg/rover has gone yet auto express best cars last year has mg zt
in the top 5.

whose round is it ?

[Boot Hill Bandit]

standing this pm having beer and fag outside pub watching the cars go by.
bmw,vw,renault bmw,vw,citoen,fiat,peugeot,vw,bmw, renault,ford

i am told if you go to paris 90% of cars going by are citroen,renault
in germany vw

why in this country do we not support our own industries

mg/rover has gone yet auto express best cars last year has mg zt
in the top 5.

whose round is it ?

It's quite simple really........

MG Rover as well as many other British car manufacturers have little or no street cred with chavvy boy racers. The majority think it better to have a small engined French car with a huge bodykit attached to it more attractive than something that is sensible like an MGZR.

I have sold my Escort van to buy an LDV Pilot on the basis of value and where it was built.

My Escort van far exceeded the Pilot in terms of quality and refinement but I wanted a British van so I got myself and LDV. To date my van has been thrashed within an inch of its life and then some as some forum members can vouch for.......and it has been sooooo damn reliable it is mind blowing......still over 8000 miles overdue a cambelt change too.

People see the German brands as quality and prestige......I see them as Euroboxes myself and would be hard pressed to have one in my ownership. I would never touch a PSA car with a bargepole as they are too run of the mill for me and completely go against my character as someone who likes to be different and liking a challenge when it comes to making something my own.

After owning mostly Fords I am glad I have changed to the MG Rover brand........sure some of the cars have their problems.......but they are insignificant when I start the car up and go for a drive.......I have a smile on my face and the drive feels rewarding rather than a chore I am so familiar with.

MG Rover have become a very underrated car manufacturer in my books and too many think 'old farts and pipe and slippers......oh and Kleenex on the back shelf ;) '

One example of recent efforts........the Rover Streetwise. People laughed at it, manufacturers criticised it at the time.......yet it's bloody funny that the big German company VW have gone and made a 2WD 'Urban 4x4' with the Polo........yeah.........nice one.........wonder how many people gave that the thumbs up yet slated the Streetwise.

It's a shame more British people don't buy an MG Rover.........but if they want a Eurobox instead then we shall keep our little secret :D

Jim

[stamford]

We have no motor industry anymore for the people, we have been fighting the French, Germans, Japs and Koreans and losing many battles in the process, now we have lost the war too.

We never changed our ways to beat off the invasion, so we could not compete. Let's be honest, when was the last decade we could be proud of? I reckon it was probably the 60's! The 70's saw the Japanese export their motor industry and this started to kill of Triumph, BL and Vauxhall. Now Ford is not recognised, the same can be said of Vauxhall with it's Opel roots using Aussie motors to beef it up.

All we can do is support the heritage and keep the once proud name of MG-Rover in the spotlight.

[arwilson80]

Who sold the designs to the 'far east' in the 50's & 60's...? (or so i'm told anyway...)

[Zippy Saloon]

Oddly enough once (if?) MG becomes established as a cheap Chinese car, then you will probably see them on every street corner.

[Maxxed_Ross]

the problem with us Brits is that we are a bit slow on the uptake. We may have kicked off the industrial revolution but since then we've always been playing catch up. My 2005 ZS is based on a car designed in the early 80's! Infact most of the body parts are identical!

barnyard engineering is where the UK excels - Noble, TVR, Ultima, Radical, Areal ect. All crazy machines and all basic no comfort thrill providers

It's not quite dead yet!

[KevG]

That’s all very well Ross saying that these manufacturers are British, but we are talking volume production.

The motor industry in the UK has long since disappeared, as Mick said Vauxhall although very British in its roots got bought buy GM, and merged with OPEL, now they are an Amerieuro company, just Vauxhall has it UK HQ here but much controlled by the Americans, the same goes for Ford of Europe, very much controlled via Germany, Britain just makes some Transits, Engines, radiators etc.
As for MGRover Group, well since the "Rover" brand got bought by Ford to protect the "Land Rover" brand, that just leaves MG, since that was merged in to NAC then into SAIC, the chinese have been promoting the fact that the MG or as they say it "Modern Gentleman" are very much British rooted this appeals to a lot of young Chinese, since they want to be Western, so I won’t dismiss the fact the "MG" brand is not British, although Made in China and assembled in the United Kingdom.

Most modern car parts aren't made in the UK, and even when MGRover was in production some parts were in fact made in the France, Germany, Italy etc, Stadco made the body panels in the UK, but they make 95% of the Ford Focus which gets built in Germany for example.

As for Les Millars post, we do have a thriving motor industry, although we don’t have one of our own, Britain makes Honda, Nissan, Toyota, BMW Mini etc using a British work force using British tooling and British suppliers, who get parts from the Far East.

So, to summarise we do have a lot of British cars on our roads, but people perceive then as the make that they are.

[Mat C]

Kev, i totaly get where you are coming from in that we do buy a lot of Honda Civics, Nissan Micras and the like that have all been made and assembled here and have financed our industry and kept thousands in work. However, i also take on board the original post by Les Millar about the fact that when in France the vast majority of cars being driven are French brands, not just cars assembled in France. When i work in France or go there on holiday it is deafinatley the case that nearly every car you see is a Citroen, a Peugeot or a Renault - true patriotism. But also to answer Les' question as to why we don't see so many 'true Brit' cars on our roads then that is simple; To start with there weren't that many MGR's on the road anyway in comparison to say Ford or Vauxhall or Honda, now they've been out of production for 3 years there are no new ones and plenty that will have been scrapped. To then cap that off the remaining true British cars are either too expensive or too impractical or both (think Ariel Atom, Ultima etc !) :)

[stamford]

Indeed, the automotive build industry is all we have, and even that is gradually moving across to central Europe. The only British industry is a niche market as mentioned by Ross and Mat and is purely a design exercise for the dedicated followers and wealthy amongest us. What we do have are the automotive designers and concept designers, but all work for the 'other' producers.

We have the talent, but we do not have the budget to produce anymore, massive increases in overheads have put paid to production for the masses. That is why MGR collapsed as we cannot compete with £40 a month wages of some countries. Even the airbag and seat restraining divisions all moved to Poland, Romania etc as it was cheaper to produce and keep the overheads down. The 'on the road' price has dropped so much there has to be some give somewhere to compete, and that is the wages to produce them.

All companies that have a production structure are run by bean counters, they are not looking for long term investments. The board is run by Venture Capitalists, their fundemental aim is high profit margins for minimal initial costs, therefore hefty profit which can then be ploughed into other businesses. Very few VPs invest in current companies, it's all about big profits in short time, then strip the assets and move on the next easy kill.

Too many snouts in very few troughs! Only the strong and rich survive.

[markyzs180]

Add to this the fact that successive British Governments believe every word that spouts from Brussels so you must allow a fair tendering for vehicle contracts for the police/ambulance/fire/post office/local government just as they do in france (how many non french police cars do you see?) and germany (how many non german ambulances do you see?) etc etc etc

As the French say...keep the country's public money IN THE COUNTRY!!! Why should anyone else have it!!!

[les.millar]

Add to this the fact that successive British Governments believe every word that spouts from Brussels so you must allow a fair tendering for vehicle contracts for the police/ambulance/fire/post office/local government just as they do in france (how many non french police cars do you see?) and germany (how many non german ambulances do you see?) etc etc etc

As the French say...keep the country's public money IN THE COUNTRY!!! Why should anyone else have it!!!

cant agree more