British dopers: some insight into the "Made in Britain" joke?

[Kal]

As an aside, it’s not just the UK that has this kind of joke. A recent episode of Family Guy, for example, did the same thing with American products.

[Pushkin]

@Malacandra

Supposedly Lucas once made a vacuum cleaner. It was the only thing they ever made that didn’t suck.

Seen somewhere, possibly a t-shirt, guy goes in for a artificial heart transplant and asks, quaking, of the surgeon, “What do you mean it’s a Lucas doc?”

[Baron_Greenback]

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

The Datsun name was eventually phased out because Nissan wanted a consistent global identify, not because people thought Datsuns were crappy. People thought Nissans were crappy, too.

The changeover in branding happened in the UK roughly at the same time as Nissan opened a huge factory on Wearside in the mid-eighties, which was very good publicity for them at the time.

[Cardinal]

@Ximenean

Maybe it was a reaction to “Made in Japan”, because I recall people of the post-war generation telling me that “Made in Japan” used to be a joke, a byword for cheap tat. But by the 70s, the Japanese stuff was better than what we were making, so it was turned around into jokes about “Made in Britain”.

My dad, born in 1940, told me that when he was a kid, the Japanese were known for making toys out of American beer cans, literally.

When he was about 33 (?), someone came in and told everyone about seeing a Honda car(!!!) on the road. Everyone laughed. That toy motorcycle maker??? Now My mom drives a Toyota Camry, although my dad drives a Ford-Jaguar. The Japanese showed the world what a work ethic really was (/UsualSuspects).

[Cardinal]

I want to mention that I recently heard that a major automotive survey had ranked Ford as the leader in initial quality from major manufacturers.

I’d actually really closely consider buying a Ford, if I weren’t just 4 years from buying my first new car.

[ralph124c]

Others have mentioned the 1970’s-possibly the nadir of British manufacturing. However, there was a time when British goods were of high qualityand very well made-like my Harris tweed sports jacket-that still looks great (30+) years old. Or British made leather goods-I had a pair of gloves that lasted forever…or sweaters.
I also remember that there was a British appliance brand (Russell-Hobbs) that made indestructible toasters-pity (they are now made in China).
As for Britsh cars, yes, they faced a double whammy by the 1970’s:-because of poor profitability/labor issues, they had to stick with obsolete technology-which is why British cars used 1930’s design carburators and starters (they used generators when everybody else had shifted to alternators
-their export markets had shrunk, which meant they had fewer economies of scale
-their labor problems-one Jaguar factory had 8 unions in it!
It is interesting to reflet that the Japanese based their early (export) car designs upon British makes-the Datsun Fairlady was a redesigned MGB. Had the British been more proactive (in quality assurance) their industry might not have failed in the way that it did.

[Johnny_L.A]

@ralph124c

As for Britsh cars, yes, they faced a double whammy by the 1970’s:-because of poor profitability/labor issues, they had to stick with obsolete technology-which is why British cars used 1930’s design carburators and starters (they used generators when everybody else had shifted to alternators
-their export markets had shrunk, which meant they had fewer economies of scale
-their labor problems-one Jaguar factory had 8 unions in it!
It is interesting to reflet that the Japanese based their early (export) car designs upon British makes-the Datsun Fairlady was a redesigned MGB. Had the British been more proactive (in quality assurance) their industry might not have failed in the way that it did.

British Leyland owned both MG and Triumph – traditional rivals. ISTM that MG got short shrift in that deal. BL could have developed the C engine, but they kept the B-type that they’d been using in the MGB since the early-'60s. It just couldn’t compete in the '70s. And the U.S. imposed ever more restrictive emissions standards. The 95 hp B-type engine used in the MGB was strangled down to 65 hp. Not sporty! I didn’t mind the ‘rubber’ bumpers. At the time I didn’t know about the change to the suspension. No driver’s license at the time, and I would get my hand-me-down '66 in 1980. But the suspension change and the strangled engines made the MGB non-competitive in the '70s.

BL made the TR7 – ‘The Shape Of Things To Come’. At the time, I liked its looks. I still kind of do. But it was saddled with a four-banger and a hardtop. By the time they became available as the V8, drop-top TR8 it was too late. You don’t replace your flagship (the TR6, which by that time had been outclassed by the Datsun 240Z) with a less-capable model! :smack:

The demanding Unions certainly played their part. Our emissions laws made it difficult for the British to supply the cars we were used to here. But I think the real killer was BL’s management failure to keep up with a changing world. They could have developed the C-engine. They could have developed other engines that would have some power and also be cleaner. (The Japanese did.) They could have seen the demand for cars like the 240Z and could have built something to compete with it. But they chose to be cheap. They nickel-and-dimed (or is it panced and shillinged) themselves to death. The shortsightedness of the unions and management killed the industry.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@ralph124c

It is interesting to reflet that the Japanese based their early (export) car designs upon British makes-the Datsun Fairlady was a redesigned MGB. Had the British been more proactive (in quality assurance) their industry might not have failed in the way that it did.

Doubtful. Modern Britain is just not a good place to make things. It’s densely populated, has a very old population even by G8 standards, and its most obvious export market is 5,000 miles away.

If British industry had pursued robotics the way the Japanese did, then of course things would be different, but that’s another whole thread.