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Old 08-15-2013, 11:47 AM
 
25,024 posts, read 27,870,912 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dunno what to put here View Post
They may not be British cars or even British owned anymore, but they still have a large presence in the UK and car manufacturing is going up. We are exporting more cars than ever - in the 70s, half of cars made were never even exported. I see nothing wrong with celebrating the things manufactured in the UK - it is British people making it, and shows that the skill is there contrary to what people think.
It's tricky to decide what is British these days. What is British? The Ford Ka built wholly in the UK, or the (let's assume) Land Rover Range Rover built somewhere else in the EU? When it comes to cars, that's what it has come down to, pretty much
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Old 08-15-2013, 12:10 PM
 
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Originally Posted by Jan Alaska View Post
On Monday Top Gear did a wonderful tribute to the British engineering. All in all its amazing to see what is still produced on that industrious island. It made me rather proud to be British.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMb17Et6Wwo
Though I'm not British, I very nearly shed a tear on that episode. I'd love to see a British owned autocompany bring back the classic British roadster able to compete with the Mazda MX-5 (which took the British roadster formula and perfected it).
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Old 08-15-2013, 12:15 PM
 
Location: Itinerant
8,278 posts, read 6,255,705 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dunno what to put here View Post
They may not be British cars or even British owned anymore, but they still have a large presence in the UK and car manufacturing is going up. We are exporting more cars than ever - in the 70s, half of cars made were never even exported. I see nothing wrong with celebrating the things manufactured in the UK - it is British people making it, and shows that the skill is there contrary to what people think.
However...

Let's consider what real British Auto manufacturing gave us...

It gave us Lucas the Prince of Darkness Electrics (patent holder of the short circuit), with the worlds first auto-dipping headlights (with three position lighting on a two position switch, off, dim and flicker), and intermittent wipers

It gave us Triumph (motorcycles and cars) and Land Rover which we knew were running correctly when you needed to add a couple of pints of oil whenever you started them.

It gave us Rovers, who developed perforation rust holes six months out of the show room, I never knew anyone with a 70's Rover who's sills were more than 2 years old regardless of the age of the vehicle.

Hell even Jaguar were rust buckets and unreliable in the 70's.

Let's not forget it also gave us Red Robbo, the Marina, the Allegro, and who can forget the Princess or the peerless Ital?

Now that's not to say that British Prestige motoring had poor engineering it didn't as proven by British Racing teams and Marques the engineering is best in the world, Ariel, Aston Martin, McLaren, Bentley, Lotus, Morgan, Noble, TVR all have been top class names in automotive engineering, and don't get me wrong I'm a gearhead and love British cars (some British Cars anyway) and Motorcycles, but I'm not going to claim that their mass production engineering was anything but absolutely pigging awful. There is nostalgia in that poor engineering quality though, and having a reliable British car in the 70's was an achievement, even when you made sure everything was in tip-top shape.

Here's my memory of British cars, back in the day (before the summer of '76) we had a Morris Oxford a 1960 Morris Oxford (Mark V), it was a banger but got us from A to B with surprisingly little complaint over the three or so years we had it, only requiring ball joint replacement, points, brake lines fixed and a Cylinder head gasket (not too bad from a 15 year old or so vehicle). Our neighbor was a mechanic, he bought a brand new Rover 2000 (in red...) I remember him getting lifts to work with my dad regularly, because his car was in the shop getting fixed, that old Morris Oxford though got fixed by the family when it needed at weekends, and ran like a top (with blue exhaust hue) during the week for all the bruised and skinned knuckles and rounded nuts. Shortly after than my Mom got through her articles and she got a Mercedes with her partnership, but that's life for ya .

The other striking memory I have is riding in my friends Austin Allegro Vanden Plas on the A69, looking out of the window and asking, "that's weird I wonder who's wheel that is" just before a hard thump followed by screeching metal, that answered the question.

Now all that said, we can do the same with Italian car manufacturing too, Fiat/Lancia 'nuff said and Ferrari/Lamborghini/Maserati/Bugatti.
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Old 08-15-2013, 12:17 PM
 
17,543 posts, read 17,485,812 times
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Originally Posted by theunbrainwashed View Post
It's tricky to decide what is British these days. What is British? The Ford Ka built wholly in the UK, or the (let's assume) Land Rover Range Rover built somewhere else in the EU? When it comes to cars, that's what it has come down to, pretty much
Bring back British car brands,...except for Leyland! I'm American and my car is made in America. However, many "American" cars are made in Canada, Mexico, Korea, Europe, Australia, and other places especially when you factor in development and parts. Many Korean and Japanese car companies whose vehicles are sold here in USA are made in USA. Even some German models sold in USA are made in USA. I thought it made sense to set up factories on the continent upon which you wish to sell the vehicles. By doing so, you're employing local population and helping to develop the local economy. The more you help to develop the local economy, the better chance you have of selling your products.
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Old 08-15-2013, 12:45 PM
 
Location: The Silver State (from the UK)
4,664 posts, read 8,231,096 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jan Alaska View Post
I think someone missed the point

Still it made me proud, I don't care who the owners of the companies are, the point was that the cars or parts of are being made in Britain. Lets face it in the US only Ford and GM are now completely US owned and a high percentage of their product is manufactured outside of the US and some parts come from overseas yet they are still touted as the 'all American' car/truck.
Britain has lost a lot over the years, many manufacturers went broke or sold out overseas but the names live on and they are still produced using the same high quality techniques as always which is why some people will always buy a Rolls Royce or even a Mini.

With China and the far east leading the way manufacturing everything else we buy its nice to take a moment to recognise that engineering isn't dead on our little island, it may have slowed down and the owners maybe overseas but the product is as good as ever.

Not missing the point (as poor as it is) at all. Just a few episodes ago Jeremy Clarkson himself found a 70's Bentley that he bought cheap - BECAUSE it represented a time when it was actually British! He then declared, and I quote "being British is code for the fact that the door is about to fall off"!.

I am merely pointing out how shallow and silly the whole episode was, and how daft it is to have bought into it. Every rich country in the world manufactures parts that are exported, which is why making a big deal out of it is so rediculous!
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Old 08-15-2013, 02:22 PM
 
Location: SW France
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Just to balance things up Gungnir, in the 1970s Ford USA were knowingly producing a potential death trap in the Ford Pinto and GM were having issues such as rusting cars and unreliable engines.

We were not alone in having poor quality control.

The Japanese were rubbing their hands in glee when they saw how things were going in the West.
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Old 08-15-2013, 03:15 PM
 
Location: Harbor Springs, Michigan
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Ahh the glory days ! my dad worked for Pressed Steel/Morris/Leyland/Rover in Oxford. During those years he drove a leaky MK1 Escort then a couple of Marinas that were OK but nothing exciting, then he took a shine to a Vauxhall Avenger he saw at a dealer and decided he liked the lines and the colour so he bought it, what a POS that turned out to be, the door latches worked when they felt like it as we found out when my nana nearly fell out of the back door as he was navigating a roundabout, it had battery and alternator issues too. I think it spent more time parked in the driveway than out on the road. So back to BL it was with an Ital which he loved, a step up from the Marina and he had the 1.6 which was wayyy fast compared to the other cars he'd owned, after that he had a Montego which got stolen and left in a field (best place for it) then he went onto the newer Rovers which he loved and surprisingly had no trouble with at all.
I once asked him what he actually did and he said he worked on the presses as it turned out he was a fitter, he was sent off to Japan when Rover started talking with Honda and came back amazed and slightly worried about how few people actually manned their production lines. We really didn't have any clue as to how good he was at his job until after he died, at his funeral so many people turned all with their own memories and stories of my dad. Turns out he was the one the company turned to to press a set of gold chasers for one of the Saudi royals (nice side job totally secret at the time) the bonus he was paid for that paid for his first Rover. We were told he was in charge of a bunch of new apprentices and some times had a hard time with their attitude so used to tell them "If you don't love the job, then you won't cut it, get out". Before that we really hadn't thought about the workmanship that went into car manufacturing, all we saw was a set of wheels. Now I look at cars and look at the way the doors fit, some are machined to fit into the hole and others just seem to float there, I can just see my dad shaking his head in disgust.
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Old 08-15-2013, 03:47 PM
 
Location: Somewhere flat in Mississippi
10,062 posts, read 12,760,764 times
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Maybe the problem with British automobiles in the "good ole days" is that they were not designed or built with American climates and driving habits in mind. In other words, the USA has places that are hotter AND colder than the UK and we tend to drive longer distances than the Brits.
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Old 08-15-2013, 04:51 PM
 
Location: Harbor Springs, Michigan
2,294 posts, read 3,418,166 times
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Mouldy old schmo hubby and I were just having that very same conversation, we've recently liberated my sons 1974 Mini from storage and as you can probably guess it needs some work, first off hes changing out all the fluids and the question of how well the mini's side facing radiator handles the heat. If I remember rightly my son didn't have too many problems with it but I still don't think we'll be taking it on long runs in the summer.
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