I never quite understood why people buy those cars… they’re hideously expensive, hideous to look at (admittedly an IMO thing), and are outdone on almost every count by most other manufacturers. IMO, the only thing they have going for them is exclusivity.
Johnny L.A., you really need to come to the Old English Car Affair in the Park, that we hold every September at Fort Rodd Hill in Victoria. (September 11-12 this year). Linky: http://www.oecc.ca/ecaip.htm
You’ll be knee-deep in everything from 1930s Singers, to MGBs, Lotuses, Rollers, Sunbeams, Triumph, Allards, BSAs etc. We had over 200 vehicles last year (including some nice old bikes).
Our 1942 Willys won’t be in the show, but still on display nearby! If you’re in town, I’ll stand you a pint (or two!)
Looks like the Vauxhall plant at Luton is closing down (after nearly 100 years!); most recently produced commercial vans for customers including the French post office. Ellesmereport was making the Vectra, but I’m not sure if it’s still doing so (a lot of restructuring of the company in the last year).
A friend of mine here at work used to buy old MGs, fix them up, and sell them as a hobby. He had on his office wall a bumper sticker that stated, “All the parts falling off of this car are of the finest English workmanship.”
RR
MG was prime example of a part of the British motor industry which had the potential to be successful - a factory which actually functioned without striking every five minutes, two products - the MGB and the Midget - which still sold, although they were looking distinctly long in the tooth, and a customer base which was waiting patiently for a new model to buy. And British Leyland closed it down because they couldn’t think what else to do with it (the badge-engineered things which appeared after Abingdon closed aren’t MGs…)
The old joke was “Lucas, crown prince of darkness”
They really did have some strange practices. One I’d heard of was grounding the ignition system by way of a tail light. Using light bulbs is an old way of limiting current flow, so on the surface, it’s a decent way to do things, but the problem is tail lights tend to burn out at the worst possible times. And, if the tail light goes out or simply has a bad connection (Another Lucas legacy) the ignition will fail and in the inimitable words of Rolls Royce, the car will fail to proceed.
Hmm, if you just want to spout off about how useless Britain is, I think you’re in the wrong forum.
Returning to matters factual, Britain has the same per capita GDP as Germany and France, according to the latest CIA factbook, and higher economic growth. Someone, somewhere in Britain must be producing things that people want, then.
I have not seen anything innteresting or innovative comming out of UK in the last 50 years except ;Harrier VSTOL, or Concord actually French/UK design.
Wrong.
Land Rover and Jaguar, and Aston Martin are all part of Ford Motor Company’s Premier Automotive Group. (PAG)
According to a recent article in Automotive News these three are losing money like it is going out of style.