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www.theguardian.com/business/from-the-archive-blog...e
Avery interesting article from The Guardian.
Edited by Avant on 17/06/2020 at 17:09
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Thanks for finding that and sharing it with us, ORB.
Two sad things stand out for me from the article:
- The makes he mentions, apart from Borgward and Pegaso, are still around (and even Borgward is stirring again). The few British makes that are still with us are overseas-owned.
- In 1959 26,000 cars were imported to the UK from Europe, 108,000 exported by the UK to Europe. The 'export or die' mantra of the post-war Attlee government which helped the nation to come out of bankruptcy (and create the NHS) was still going strong in 1959. But now....
Edited by Avant on 17/06/2020 at 17:10
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Avant, perhaps we should all tinker with our names as often as ORB. Are you bored ORB?
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Perhaps we should all tinker with our names as often as ORB. Are you bored ORB?
Well, Actually....
As everyone refers to me as ORB, so having time on my hands, I decided that ORB was indeed to the point. (last change,PROMISE),
but I am not the only one to change monikers, (Collos anyone)?
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Thanks for editing my typing error.
I remember hitchhiking in Europe in the late 60's. Fiat 1555, alfa spyder, fiat 500 basel to amsterdam crammed in the back seat with bagage....Plus VW,s, of every type..
Martine from paris who picked me up at the spanish border in an R4 dropped at Perpignan, then came back and picked me up again...
The off duty gendarme who stopped by a british military cemetary to pay his respects, and told me to..
The Lunatic in a DS19 who scared the living daylights out of me on the N1 north out of Paris.
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Hitch-hiking out of Monte Carlo, the way one did in the 70's
White Matra Simca Bagheera with three platinum blondes sitting three...er...abreast (special feature of this car) and wearing those trendy mini-dresses made from shiny metal plates.
Had to have been for a photo-shoot
They didn''t of course, stop. No room, and that's only in the movies, but they smiled and shrugged most charmingly.
I note from Wickipedia that it had 1,294 cc (79.0 cu in) "Poissy engine" . Not very powerful, but a very nice looking car that must have been a Poissy Magnet until it rotted away.
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/anything-goes-throwback-thursday/throwback-thursday-1974-matra-simca-bagheera-first-drive
Edited by edlithgow on 18/06/2020 at 06:05
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Seems the Guardian, at least, didn't do graphs in 1960.
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“The few British makes that are still with us are overseas-owned.”
Indeed, a sad state of affairs. It’s not like the French, the Italians, or in many cases the Germans didn’t produce a plethora of lemons but they have pulled through far better than we have.
So often the refrain of people excusing themselves for not buying British is ‘we don’t make anything in this country anymore’ or ‘JLR is Indian’ when such people didn’t buy British before the foreign takeovers in the first place. This is not a reference to you Avant, you just reminded me of the common retort I get from people when I question them buying a BMW etc. Quite a sensitive topic for some people, judging by the hostile reaction I receive on occasion. For me, I continue to buy what is left of ‘British’ products, and have not come unstuck yet. JLR, in my view, is still British, just as a Chrysler/MOPAR is still American. Whilst it still exists there’s always a glimmer of hope that it will come back into British ownership. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
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I am not sure that half of the article would get past the censors nowadays!
How times change. :-)
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It’s not like the French, the Italians, or in many cases the Germans didn’t produce a plethora of lemons but they have pulled through far better than we have.
Real British patriotism died a long time ago. Many Brits don't have any interest in where the things they buy come from, or whether that matters much. Supermarket food - largely grown overseas, and we can have any fruit we want all year round. Holidays - fly abroad where it's warmer and drier. Cars - Japanese, German, Korean ones are better (even French ones :-) )
I just wonder how the balance of payments is no worse than it always is. If our service sector loses its appeal that creek may need a big paddle.
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I think the car that really made foreign cars fashionable here was the BMW "02" series in the early 1970's. They became popular with young middle-class people - particularly women - as a trendier alternative to the likes of the Triumph Dolomite. Buying one of these BMWs was also a way of thumbing one's nose at the bolshy British Leyland workers of the day.
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I remember my Gym master from school had a Renault Dauphine. Bright pale blue. A rear engine I recall. The head of Maths used to drive in behind him and park alongside in his Austin Healey 3000, two tone blue and white and wire wheels. He would give it good rev and sneer at the Gym master in his puny little French car. I think that would be about 1960. That was probably the first French car I had actually witnessed seeing.
The death knell for me came when I received my first Honda Accord in 1986, never went back to British or European for ages. Tells you everything!
Cheers Concrete
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When i was about 14-15 in school, one of the teachers had a renault 4 and said it would go anywhere a Landrover would, and the headmaster had a Ford Taunus, another had a GT6, used to give me a lift home. Our doctor had a Daimler Dart...
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Sofa Spud is surely right about the BMW 2002: I think the VW Golf was also a major factor. This was the car that the Allegro should have been as a successor to the 1100/1300. Having prouced the A40 Countryman and the Maxi, BMC/BL should have been able to see the trend towards small hatchbacks coming. VW and the French makers were happy to fill the gap, and the Japanese weren't for behind.
Steve Cropley was saying in this week's Autocar that it was a shame that Major Ivan Hirst, who got VW going 75 years ago, never moved into the British car industry. "If we could have substituted him for Donald Stokes in 1968, say, perhaps the sorriest phase in British car history would have been dfferent."
Edited by Avant on 19/06/2020 at 14:10
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I suppose you mean a shame, Avant, not a sham :-)
But speaking of teachers' cars, two memories from my school: Chem master arrived in his Rover one day without a passenger door; and a gang got our elderly French-mistress' Austin Seven soft-top inside the Lower Sixth classroom (it had double doors leading outside).
(Thanks for noticing, Andrew: corrected.)
Edited by Avant on 19/06/2020 at 14:10
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I think the key phrase is '..import duty lowered to 30%..'. No wonder that few paid such a hefty premium for arguably better French and German engineering. As for cars exhibiting national characteristics, one need look no further than the Morgan plus 4, which perfectly reflects the stagnant dysfunctional museum of today's Britain. On the other hand, we have the unaffordable McLarens which epitomise the disgraceful and probably soon to be unacceptable wealth gap.
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The world has changed massively in the last 60 years. In the UK we are largely responsible for the way in which those changes have affected us, and in relation to the car industry:
- we spent decades suffering the consequences of inadequate management and obstructive unions. So we now have no domestically owned car industry
- we joined the EU opening the floodgates to coompetitors from Germany, France etc
- joining the EU encouraged inward car investment mainly from Japan. Having left it we may now lose the associated jobs and economic benefits
- shipping cars around the world on large ferries has reduced shipping costs to the point where they are no longer a barrier to imports (or exports)
- making cars using components produced anywhere in the world is commonplace - manufacturing cost considerations prevail
- cars have changed from being objects of desire requiring significant design and technical skill, to (in large part) four wheeled "white goods"
Nostaglia is great but I am not sure what the point is!
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