Who killed the British Motor Industry ?

[Wobblybob]

14 minutes ago, LosLobo said:

I also had two 70's Datsun 260c sedans which were unreliable but not as bad as my British cars.

Did the early Datsuns have BMC engines in them?

[transam]

Just now, Wobblybob said:

Did the early Datsuns have BMC engines in them?

Not the ones I worked on....????

[KhunLA]

All my Detroit cars were 2nd hand, and OK, as found after a while, I could pick a good car.  But when wife #1 wanted a new car, it was Datsun for dependability, since more hers, and never let her down.   

 

When I wanted a new work truck, again, Nissan, for dependability.   Although I did have a F-100, that never let me down.  Had plenty of Detroit cars, but not for over the road trips, and always had a Jap car for that.

 

Last Detroit car I owned before coming to TH was Ford Escort, and damn if it wasn't almost a twin of my Mazda 323 ... go figure.   Actually last production that Mazda put out of the Escort with their engine, as Ford starting putting theirs in.

 

Went threw all the Detroit Big 3, especially GMs.   Stuck with Datsun/Nissan (Maxima) & Mazda (323/Escort) for my dependable autos.

 

Actually VW Van was 1st car, POS, but fun.

 

Scooters, the same, Honda, with lots of miles riding.   Friends-Harleys, not so many miles riding ???? Nortons & Triumph scooters didn't fare too well either in the states.  Looked nice, like the MGs & Triumphs cars, but don't go too far from home with them.

[transam]

1 minute ago, KhunLA said:

All my Detroit cars were 2nd hand, and OK, as found after a while, I could pick a good car.  But when wife #1 wanted a new car, it was Datsun for dependability, since more hers, and never let her down.   

 

When I wanted a new work truck, again, Nissan, for dependability.   Although I did have a F-100, that never let me down.  Had plenty of Detroit cars, but not for over the road trips, and always had a Jap car for that.

 

Last Detroit car I owned before coming to TH was Ford Escort, and damn if it wasn't almost a twin of my Mazda 323 ... go figure.   Actually last production that Mazda put out of the Escort with their engine, as Ford starting putting theirs in.

 

Went threw all the Detroit Big 3, especially GMs.   Stuck with Datsun/Nissan (Maxima) & Mazda (323/Escort) for my dependable autos.

 

Actually VW Van was 1st car, POS, but fun.

 

Scooters, the same, Honda, with lots of miles riding.   Friends-Harleys, not so many miles riding ???? Nortons & Triumph scooters didn't fare too well either in the states.  Looked nice, like the MGs & Triumphs cars, but don't go too far from home with them.

Don't think Norton or Triumph ever made scooters, well they never when I worked at Norton.....But when I did, they made a one off for export to the USA, 750cc Norton P11, seems it was very popular.....

[LosLobo]

11 minutes ago, Wobblybob said:

Did the early Datsuns have BMC engines in them?

Never needed to find out but I think mine in Australia were fully imported from Japan.

[xylophone]

5 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

Remember the Stag a car in the workshop more than road. 

Remember the Triumph 2000 when it was fuel injected I think and flattening batteries to get it started.

Remember the Allegro got the name Aggro.

My Marina van becoming a Fred Flintstone motor when the floors collapsed in a heap of rust. 

My Dads mini use to fill up with water on the floor when driving along in the rain.

I thought the Stag was a great looking car, however it had its problems as did the Triumph 2000 that I had, with a stub axle breaking just after leaving the motorway.

 

A workmate had the Allegro and that was a heap, with a gearlever a bit like pushing a knife through custard, and I had a company car which was the Morris Marina and that was also a heap of rubbish.

 

My mini had to have a new subframe and about the same time a new gearbox because they failed. In addition to that it was going rusty/rotten through and through.

 

My Ford Cortina 1300 cc was a good looking car but an absolute dog to start, and thankfully a couple of mechanics I knew got me a second hand 1500 cc engine and fitted that, and the difference was remarkable.

 

The Triumph Herald that I borrowed from a friend was reasonable, although the road handling was poor, as was the TR4A IRS that I had, and you never knew whether you were going to make it round a corner or if the car would "hop" round of its own accord.

 

Before I left the UK I did get a nice company car which was the Vauxhall Cavalier 2L and never had a bit of trouble with it and it was a solid car which I liked.

 

Almost forgot, there was an Austin 2002 (?) which was a big heavy old car that nobody seemed to like.

 

Strangely enough my first Ford Prefect (not the one with the sloping back) with a side valve engine gave me no problems whatsoever.

 

When I look back now at all of those cars I had or drove, and compare them to the cars I had later on in life such as a range of BMWs, Mercedes Benz 350 SL, and the fantastic Saab 9-5 Aero, the difference is absolutely astounding.

 

The cars of today with the likes of Kia, Mazda, Toyota and others, really do leave those I've mentioned above, in the dust.
 

[LosLobo]

I had an Austin 2200 6 cylinder which beside having amazing handling, ride and comfort was c**p. It was off the road more times than on.

[xylophone]

20 minutes ago, LosLobo said:

I had an Austin 2200 6 cylinder which beside having amazing handling, ride and comfort was c**p. It was off the road more times than on.

That's the one I meant, not the 2002!! My bad!

[Kwasaki]

54 minutes ago, xylophone said:

I thought the Stag was a great looking car, however it had its problems as did the Triumph 2000 that I had, with a stub axle breaking just after leaving the motorway.

 

A workmate had the Allegro and that was a heap, with a gearlever a bit like pushing a knife through custard, and I had a company car which was the Morris Marina and that was also a heap of rubbish.

 

My mini had to have a new subframe and about the same time a new gearbox because they failed. In addition to that it was going rusty/rotten through and through.

 

My Ford Cortina 1300 cc was a good looking car but an absolute dog to start, and thankfully a couple of mechanics I knew got me a second hand 1500 cc engine and fitted that, and the difference was remarkable.

 

The Triumph Herald that I borrowed from a friend was reasonable, although the road handling was poor, as was the TR4A IRS that I had, and you never knew whether you were going to make it round a corner or if the car would "hop" round of its own accord.

 

Before I left the UK I did get a nice company car which was the Vauxhall Cavalier 2L and never had a bit of trouble with it and it was a solid car which I liked.

 

Almost forgot, there was an Austin 2002 (?) which was a big heavy old car that nobody seemed to like.

 

Strangely enough my first Ford Prefect (not the one with the sloping back) with a side valve engine gave me no problems whatsoever.

 

When I look back now at all of those cars I had or drove, and compare them to the cars I had later on in life such as a range of BMWs, Mercedes Benz 350 SL, and the fantastic Saab 9-5 Aero, the difference is absolutely astounding.

 

The cars of today with the likes of Kia, Mazda, Toyota and others, really do leave those I've mentioned above, in the dust.
 

2.0L cavalier auto was one of my company cars, when it was sold to one of our roof fixers it had 250,000 miles on it and he had it for another 2 years from what i heard.????

[proton]

6 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Margaret Thatcher killed all Brit industry.

It was the easiest way to destroy the Unions and the backbone of the Labour Party.

Nonsense, one of her first acts in 1979 was to bail out British Leyland, and contrary to popular opinion she closed less coal mines than Labour did. She did prevent the Unions from holding the country to ransom though.

[Callmeishmael]

My first car was a Triumph Spitfire Mk2.  It was the most fun a young man could have on 4 wheels... except when one fell off and literally rolled down the road ahead of me.

 

That car was a great education for me, pretty much anything that could break did break.  I learned a lot about fixing cars!

[Kwasaki]

8 minutes ago, Callmeishmael said:

My first car was a Triumph Spitfire Mk2.  It was the most fun a young man could have on 4 wheels... except when one fell off and literally rolled down the road ahead of me.

 

That car was a great education for me, pretty much anything that could break did break.  I learned a lot about fixing cars!

My mates i guess not so PC as today and all this woke stuff knocking about now a days  always said they were a girls sport cars.

[zzaa09]

7 hours ago, markclover said:

The British killed it by selling the factory and blueprints to China.  That will do it.

Yes....

The sellers should be to blame, less the buyers [in this case traditional boggieman].

[mikebike]

7 hours ago, markclover said:

The British killed it by selling the factory and blueprints to China.  That will do it.

The Brit car industry was dead long before China became an industrialized outsourcing nation. 

 

Try again. 

Edited March 19, 2023 by mikebike

[Wobblybob]

1 hour ago, transam said:

Not the ones I worked on....????

This took some finding but there is a connection between Datsun and BMC, you may find the link interesting.

 

The arrangement was extremely generous with Austin provide every assistance possible including materials, drawings, specifications and importantly patented technology that the Japanese company was able to use in its other products. From then until 1960 Nissan produced 21,589 A40 and A50 saloons and Cambridge station wagons using the BMC ‘B’ Series engine design. While doing so Nissan gradually built up local content.

No doubt a lot of us remember the sixties and closely looking at the range of small-engined Datsun vehicles at the time and noticed the similarity between the engines and BMC ‘B’ series engine. Back then I didn’t realise the connection. Nissan actually continued to produce cars with the ‘B’ Series based engine right up to 1972.

 

http://www.acmefluid.com.au/larry/austinnissan.html

[transam]

5 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

My mates i guess not so PC as today and all this woke stuff knocking about now a days  always said they were a girls sport cars.

I thought the Spitfire GT6 was a cool looking ride, with a bit of pep....????

[mikebike]

7 hours ago, Wobblybob said:

The greedy unions and joining the EU killed the British car industry.

German unions are way stronger than Brit ones. Could it be that the German govt protected their industry while Maggie was decimating it at home? 

[transam]

2 minutes ago, mikebike said:

The Brit car industry was dead long before China became an industrialized outsourcing nation. 

 

Try again. 

Really, don't think we were alive at that time.....

[mikebike]

7 hours ago, MisterTee said:

Socialism + unions + workers who don't give a damn.

Government. 

[transam]

3 minutes ago, Wobblybob said:

This took some finding but there is a connection between Datsun and BMC, you may find the link interesting.

 

The arrangement was extremely generous with Austin provide every assistance possible including materials, drawings, specifications and importantly patented technology that the Japanese company was able to use in its other products. From then until 1960 Nissan produced 21,589 A40 and A50 saloons and Cambridge station wagons using the BMC ‘B’ Series engine design. While doing so Nissan gradually built up local content.

No doubt a lot of us remember the sixties and closely looking at the range of small-engined Datsun vehicles at the time and noticed the similarity between the engines and BMC ‘B’ series engine. Back then I didn’t realise the connection. Nissan actually continued to produce cars with the ‘B’ Series based engine right up to 1972.

 

http://www.acmefluid.com.au/larry/austinnissan.html

Yes, they made engines under licence. In 1967 I was rebuilding a Mini, I was surprised that the timing chain I bought had made in Japan on the wrapper....

[Wobblybob]

1 minute ago, mikebike said:

German unions are way stronger than Brit ones. Could it be that the German govt protected their industry while Maggie was decimating it at home? 

Were the German workers sleeping on the nightshift. The Unions were the workers worst enemy. 

[transam]

2 minutes ago, mikebike said:

Government. 

That's a cop out................

Factory management and decisions killed off the motor business, B.L. being no.1......

[Kwasaki]

13 minutes ago, transam said:

I thought the Spitfire GT6 was a cool looking ride, with a bit of pep....????

I had a MGB 1800 but my mates had E-types and Healey 3000.

[transam]

Just now, Kwasaki said:

I had a MGB 1800 but my mates had E-types and Healey 3000.

I had a 1964 MGB Roadster, it was a fun car, would have liked to have had a go of an MGB V8, or even an MGC............

[Kwasaki]

2 minutes ago, transam said:

I had a 1964 MGB Roadster, it was a fun car, would have liked to have had a go of an MGB V8, or even an MGC............

Test driving.

The MGC was a like it or hate it kinda motor.

The V8 I found that a nice sports car to drive. 

 

[LosLobo]

1 hour ago, xylophone said:

That's the one I meant, not the 2002!! My bad!

I was not being critical of your post or trying to correct it.

I just wanted to sympathize with you on our shared bad experience!

[In the jungle]

I was born in Abingdon.  Perhaps unsurprisingly there was a plague of MGs in the area.

 

Even back in the 1970s I thought that the MG Midgets of that time had matt black sills so that when the rust holes appeared you could do a passable bodge job with filler and a spray can.

 

 

[G Rex]

In Australia in the 70s we thought the Brits killed their industry by producing rubbish quality cars. We had Leyland and morris vehicles . They were absolute <deleted>. Marina, and the locally engineered P76 - absolute cr#p.

I had a few British cars, triumph Herald - great to look at, but not a great driving experience (!) . Jensen interceptor - a brilliant car ruined by British electricals (Lucas) , & a Hillman Hunter Estate while working in the UK - more cr #p. The 79 3 door Range Rover I had was fun to drive -but crazy thirsty - but the torque body roll you got when you revved that insipid 3.5 V8 made you forgive it!

The quality & reliability of the vehicles made in the UK in the 70s and 80s was abysmal - and that led to their demise. After this the UK car industry was more construction , not design.

 

[In the jungle]

The colours British cars used in the 1970s didn't help.

 

Why so many poo brown and vomit yellow cars?

 

[Henk Langeweg]

Not driving at the right side ...