You could be just as patriotic by buying an initially expensive old car for much less the price of a new one from a British vendor and spend the money you have saved providing labour for Brits to MoT, service and repair it when necessary.

Looked at a Marks & Spencer Harris Tweed jacket - Scottish / British manufacture? NO

(I was not buying just passing time when SWMBO goes shopping...hours pass and 1/2 of what she buys is returned)

Scottish wool, Natural dyes from lichens, plants etc, woven in the Hebrides. Then the cloth was shipped to China -cutting. tailoring, sewing, buttons, linings ..all Chinese.

Hence why that shop no longer interests me, and thanks for the post, i'll be looking for a new Harris Tweed jacket and waistcoat in the near future (height of fashion me:-) and it's going to be a real one, again, any suggestions welcome.

off topic i know.

The three door versions of the first generation Toyota Auris (2007-2012) were built in Turkey, and the five door versions at Burnaston, Derbyshire. The second generation Auris (December 2012 onwards) is built at Burnaston.

The Auris range has recently been trimmed down to the hybrid and 1.2T, due to the next, third generation being introduced late 2018/early 2019.

The Avensis is also built at Burnaston, but production finishes this month (February 2018).

Petrol and hybrid engines are built at Deeside, Flintshire.

Edited by Auristocrat on 20/02/2018 at 13:44

Thanks for that detailed response.

It's a fact that auto manufacture is probably about as multi-national as you can get but as someone with an engineering background and is (sadly) old enought to remember when we built ships, cars and lots more besides and had a huge steel industry I would at least like to support what we have left.

I was inclined towards the Auris, as my son-in-law has a Toyota Corolla which is now 12 years old with 90k on the clock and has been ultra reliable, but if a new model is on the way maybe I should hold off for a while.

The recent article on the Mini crankshaft's journey was interesting for a "British" car:

Cast in France

Machined in Birmingham

Assembled into engine in Austria

Engine assembled into car in Oxford

A large part of the reason why mass car manufacturing continues to thrive in the UK is because we have a large competitive component design and manufacturing base these firms can draw on. Yes not everything is made here but a good deal of it is.

I fear the effect of Brexit on British motor manufacturing/assembley and very much hope the government can broker a good/free trade deal if possible.

Engineering was a huge industry when I was a youth and many of my peers went into apprenticeships sadly now virtually gone it seems.