Death of the UK Car Industry - Part 4: The Rover Group and MG-Rover
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- Опубликовано: 26 июн 2024
- Hello, and welcome to the final act in the four-part tragedy that is the death of the British Car Industry, focusing on the politics, society, economics and decisions made over the course of a 70 year period that led from Britain being one of the largest car-making countries in the world to having no home-based indigenous car brands left.
Part 4 brings us to the end of the road, as despite the promise of privatisation following the buyout of the Rover Group by British Aerospace in 1988, the much needed investment to ensure a refreshed model line-up and a competitive business strategy was sacrificed on the altar of cost-cutting, while when plentiful money flow did arrive in the form of a takeover by German giant BMW, a plethora of bad habits and slow progress in developing new cars led to a highly antagonistic standoff between Britain and Germany as BMW poured millions into the Rover Group with no results, leading inevitably to the unmanageable British car maker being stripped of its best assets and sold on as a shadow of its former self, with its final years simply being a series of going through the motions in the face of its ultimate demise.
Chapters:
0:00 - Preamble
1:02 - Private Underinvestment
8:52 - Enter BMW
14:20 - Buyer's Remorse
21:58 - BMW's Civil War
25:11 - The Germans Retreat
30:15 - The Phoenix Consortium
35:52 - Yet More Unfulfilled Promises
40:45 - The Final Nail
46:01 - Conclusion
All video content and images in this production have been provided with permission wherever possible. While I endeavour to ensure that all accreditations properly name the original creator, some of my sources do not list them as they are usually provided by other, unrelated RUclipsrs. Therefore, if I have mistakenly put the accreditation of 'Unknown', and you are aware of the original creator, please send me a personal message at my Gmail (this is more effective than comments as I am often unable to read all of them): rorymacveigh@gmail.com
The views and opinions expressed in this video are my personal appraisal and are not the views and opinions of any of these individuals or bodies who have kindly supplied me with footage and images.
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References:
- AROnline (and their respective sources)
- Wikipedia (and its respective references) 
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You should be proud of this fine documentary. You really managed to spotlight the cloak and dagger shenanigans of the last days of the British car industry
It's like all the executives, gov officials and union leaders were covering themselves in teflon.
Britain you mean
@@colinmcgregor123 Brown is the new white ☹
Moral of the story: If the only way you can "build" cars is to cobble onto someone else's chassis design... maybe you're not a car builder after all. What an unnecessary, ignominious and extremely sad failure.
This has been a great series, thank you very much.
Better way of putting it; *don't focus on short term gains / savings alone. BAe did, and BMW failed to address it.
In one of the previous videos there was a fact along the lines of each UK worker was making 4 cars per year, each Japanese worker was making 30 or something like that. I mean at that point you might as well just give up.
Platform sharing doesn't work?
The problem was that it was all done badly and slowly, by an aimless committee, with a lot of wasted money.
@Legally Free It wasn't 4 cars per employee though, rather about 8.5 during the late 1970's. Bad yes when compared to GMC's 18 cars, or Toyota's 34 cars, but better than some of the competition across the channel, and amid dire industrial upheaval.
By the early/mid Austin-Rover had streamlined heavily on staff and unproductive facilities, and introduced badly needed Unimate semi-automated production.
During the latter productivity went up to at least 11.5 cars per employee.
@chris davidson Platform Sharing is fine across a single consortium, but when it's platforms from another company, it massively curtails what can be done creatively, and makes the company being shared to supplicant to the sharer in all but name.
BAe had an opportunity with AR to step off from being dependent on Honda to being self-reliant on developing platforms again and replace the models reliant on them with fresh designs... they chose not to... a blunder similar to BL back when it repeatedly put off replacing cars when they could've afforded it... only to finally find they'd waited too long and couldn't afford to replace them.
Nobody can mismanage an industry like the British. We're World Leaders at it!
This excellent documentary is a great study and reference in how NOT to run corporations which must compete in the world marketplace.
A sad tale, mirroring the UK motorcycle, shipbuilding and aircraft industries and finally summed up in Brexit.
British engineering, innovative and creative excellence being constantly undermined by commercial & political ineptitude.
So true. This story is just the headliner that was repeated everywhere in Britain especially after t'war.
Absolutely agree. This has been a terrific series and there is potential for a companion piece about the way poor management and governments veering crazily between intervention and hands-off led to the demise of so much of our aviation sector.
But Ruairidh deserves a lie-down before taking on another big project.
Idk about the brexit part
The Ben Houchen Teeside fiasco ( Private Eye) proves the Tories are as corrupt as hell with non entities in charge of Britain's post Brexit industry. All they do is siphon off public money.
Britain effectively became almost bankrupt by fighting against Mr Hitler. Then perhaps understandably (pride) it declined to wholly throw in its lot with France and Germany, which have dominated Europe since 1945, with the help of the USA.
"A long and cautionary tale of how not to run a car company": perfect closing sentence for an excellent series of videos.
Sadly there is two tales to this story, the utterly greedy lazy management but also many of the unionised workforce were too lazy and incompetent
Makes me sad for the UK manufacturing industry and all of the real hardworking professionals that wanted to make it work.
The disease - common to both management and workers - was the sense that they deserved something without the effort of earning it.
@@thedukeofbork3147 We see the same disease in leftists today. This disease is spread by globalists as part of their plan of world domination.
The management were just weak & very short sighted in not laying good solid business, design & engineering/production foundations for the future...They had it all, & just let it all slip away....
They all probably assumed it would be around forever and couldn't possibly fail
Terrific finale. I was in Istel - the computer systems div - when it was sold off in the late 80s. Sold in a management/employee buyout - and bought up by AT&T (another company that all but flamed out in the late 90s! Saved by a reverse merger). As I'd bought Istel shares I, amongst many employees, made a small fortune on the AT&T buy up. Since Istel continued to do much work with Rover, BMW separately acquired Istel's automtive systems div into Softlab in the late 90s. Where I believe it still lives. BAe made a fortune selling off much of Cowley and Canley, but they were thwarted in land sell offs at Solihull though - a lot of land between the LR plant and the A45 - as there were big restrictions on development, at least in the earky 90s.
Maybe off at a tangent, but to switch the POV, a commercial history of BMW's management from their big 70s rise to the stumbles of the late 90s and early 00s revival - that'd be interesting, to me at least.
The death of the British motor industry by thousands of cuts started back when Austin effectively took over Morris in the 1950s. Leonard Lord was the first to start the decline. British Leyland hastened the disease process.
Many years of bad management, poor workmanship, poor engineering, government buyouts and financial catastrophes led to the inevitable end.
Even the BMW takeover followed by the Phoenix debacle was the mere death rattle of the corpse of British cars.
The British taxpayer was the real loser in the end.
I'd put forward old man Morris of Nuffield himself as where the rust set in.
A great innovator before WWII, his failings became apparent during the war, when he repeatedly blocked all notion of building the *Rover Meteor* engine under licence, rather kept pushing variants of the ancient *Nuffield Liberty* , a former US Aircraft engine from the early 1910's.
He would postwar waste plentiful amounts of work hours, personnel and money in keeping old machine tools going when replacements were an option, and for years after retiring he'd encourage successors not to update the factories (as he saw it; wasting money on bells & whistles).
A bit like how Henry Ford, old man Morris was a main player when young in the interbellum, but failed to see in later times that what he wanted didn't line up with market nor practical reality.
People forget that Ford almost drove them into bankruptcy by building the T too long, that Chrysler passed them as the #2 US manufacturer in the 1930’s, and that the Government threatened to nationalize Ford if he didn’t step down after Edsel died.
Excellent series of videos.
Having been born in the 1960s in the UK and lived through this, I was well aware of the depressing endgame, but then you're just the messenger, telling the tale in how not to run a car company.
As I said, excellent series of videos, I learnt some new parts about this sad story.
Growing up in Germany and visiting UK for the first time in the 80s I was amazed how old and last generation most cars on the roads looked like. Apart from Ford Sierra and Fiestas most cars looked like the average car on the road in Germany ten years earlier. And in those days the design changes were bigger than in the lastb15 years. I was slightly shocked cause I knew about all the British makes like RR, Rover, Jaguar etc.
You should have seen what it was like in the poorer parts of the UK back then. To this day in some parts old Cortinas and other ancient ones are still on the streets!@@Dilley_G45
Yes I've been looking forward to this for weeks! I've thoroughly enjoyed this series. You've done a fantastic job
Me too, I was actually pretty psyched when I saw this new one
I read a book a few years ago about BL called "The story of a car crash" or something like that. The main takeaway wasn't how the British car industry managed to fail after BMC was the 3rd largest car maker in the world and profitable in the 60s but how it survived at all after bankruptcy in the mid 1970s. VW was offered to Routes Group after the war but they declined reasoning that the Beetle would never sell. It's all so sad.
IIRC it was a British guy who was tasked with getting VW back on track after the war, which he successfully did. So there's that too.
Ford refused to buy VW after the war too. I'll bet they regretted that a few years later.
after Sir William Rootes, who declined the offer to hover VW, the Britisch military gouvernment asked Henry Ford II if he want to takeover VW. he could get VW as a present with no costs. but Ernest Breech told Henry Ford II not to get VW because the beetle it was worthless in his eyes.
Thanks for putting this together - I grew up in the '90s and remember Rover group and BMW being on the news a lot. My grandad had worked for MG, Austin and then Land Rover before retiring in 1997 so it really impacted us as a family.
I now work at the British Motor Museum (which appeared in this a few times, including archive footage of the board room) and I enjoy researching the history to improve my knowledge. Such a shame what happened to all those brands.
Brilliant series on the Uk car industry, it would be brilliant if you made a spin off of the history of LDV vans and the demise of that brand
That was a sorry tale...not least yet again it involved the shadowy figure & infamous girlfriend/lover of Phoenix Four member Nick Stephenson & her direct link to the Longbridge demise & bargain buy-up by the Chinese....Dr Qu Li.... & she is now CEO of that retro 50's Morris EV van company... Seems she just can't leave anything to do with BMC/British Leyland alone....
That would be amazing! I am very curious about the Daewoo period at LDV
LDV was part of the Rover Group, hence all of the BL, Rover components and engines used. Looking at the Rover history the TWR part of it might hold some of the answers.
Also the Sherpa vans and LDV ened up in Russian hands somehow, and failed in 2007
@royalcrowntowing2464 the Russians then passed LDV onto the Chinese. The old design LDV vans were also built by BMC vehicles in Turkey.
great series thanks for the hardwork putting it together. The demolition firm I work for demolished the last sections of the rover plant in longbridge. the mains halls empty were amazing to see and I would often think about what they looked like in their heyday.
When that entire place was in full production, it was staggering to take it all in...
Sobering tale, like so many other British industries Ship building, Trucks, aviation, motorcycles, and more! BL, is a great example of when a business cobbled together from many parts, fails due to "tribal" self-interest of both managers and production workers of each of the various components, that fail to believe in, or buy into the new big idea. One in which petty personal divisions dominate all proceedings to detriment of group success. No strategy (even a good one) succeeds if the individuals concerned see no advantage in buying into the big picture. Failure is guaranteed. The UK's union itself is in great danger of the same factors playing out.
Indeed tragic. Great series, have to say the last Rovers sere pretty cool.
A workmate had a 75. Handled like a boat but he loved it. Nice interior as well.
i drove the same car in China, where it was called a Roewe 550.
@@michaelturner4457 It was the 750 in China
The final years of the mass-market UK car industry were indeed chaotic, lurching from one crisis to the next in pretty quick succession. Many of the models were pretty much cobbled together - due to budget constraints - and lacked any real design integrity. Some of the styling choices were, to say the least, ill-judged. As a former Austin Healey 3000 owner, it's sad to see the Austin brand now owned by Nanjing Automotive and any hope of a revival of the sporting marque lost.
Not completely lost. It could always be revived as a budget brand as they move MG up markets
I spent a few years living in China, and I saw many Roewe and MG cars there. As understand things, the Roewe marque was invented by SAIC, because it sounds like Rover in Mandarin, and even the Roewe logo is very similar to Rover's longship logo. And SAIC's dealerships in China are called "Morris Garages". From the Morris car marque of course.
SAIC had to create the Roewe brand at short notice after finding that they didn't actually own the rights to the Rover name.
@@thomasfrancis5747 I believe it's Tata Motors of India that now has the rights to the Rover marque. And cars like the Roewe 550, is actually a Rover 75. SAIC in their marketing materials for Roewe, does really emphasise the Britishness of their brand, with images of Big Ben, Tower Bridge, London buses, and the UK flag.
@@michaelturner4457 isn't the Rover name still owned by BMW despite the sale of the Land Rover marque to Ford and later Tata?
@@michaelturner4457 Yes, I think Tata bought it off Ford via JLR. The Roewe 550 is the equivalent of the MG6 which was based effectively on the Rover 75 bulkhead, etc.
@@laurentgully267 That's what I thought - that BMW still own it, in the same way that Rolls-Royce cars are a licensed use of the name now it's owned by Rollls-Royce the aerospace company.
Best, most detailed documentation series on the death of the uk car industry on the internet, it was a joy to watch. Wish we could have some of these marques back
Yup. BMW still owns the Triumph marque, probably to keep anyone from ressurecting a former rival.
Jaguar-Land Rover bought the Rover marque in thr end, to prevent some random combine from snapping it up.
8:28 That gear change looked about as premium as a 1980's Suzuki. Downshifting from 5th to 4th and having that much slop.
What an exceptional series! I admit I’ve watched it all in one sitting, my father worked for British Steel and sold to the various players in the saga so many parts of the story were familiar to me, but to see it put together in such a coherent cohesive and downright fascinating way has been a rare treat. THANK YOU 💐
In retrospect BMW was saved by NOT joining Chrysler. The Daimler-Chrysler debacle is another fascinating and awful tale.
Chrysler has that reverse Midas touch since at the very least the malaise era. The whole Stelantis group does.
Of course this was Chrysler after the Lee Iacocca era.
@@astafford8865 The Mini is now using Toyota engines.
Best analysis I've seen of all the reasons of the UK car industry demise.
From a car fan from Montreal, Canada, a wonderfully interesting and very exhaustive ,detailed look at the fall of the British car industry. Fantastic work and excellent series that should be considered a reference for any automobile fan who's interested in automotive industry history.
A great documentary! You really nailed the issues in this part, BAe being unwilling to ever invest in anything (look at how our domestic civil aircraft building capability was destroyed by them in less than 20 years). The Honda tieup delivered the best built Leyland/Rover cars of all, starting with the Acclaim and continuing with the R8 era 200 and 400. Even the 600 was a very highly regarded car when it came out. Between BAe and BMW they managed to totally screw it up, the fact that Rover was still building the Metro in the late 90s and that the company ethos was allowed to go after the pipe and slippers market with tat like the 45 was just ridiculous. Creating the MG versions of the 25/45/75 if done a few years earlier might have given Rover enough time under BMW ownership to get the Mini and Freelander to market, and then things could have been so different. Instead we got the Phoenix conmen wasting money on vanity projects like the SV and a Le Man's 24 programme! The CityRover was the final ignominy,
The City Rover what an insult to Rovers of the past!!
superb documentary series i have really enjoyed them , great achievement Sir
Arguably it should have been an Austin. The Tata Indica was a well designed car (Guigaro) hampered by its Peugeot engine. Rover engineers in India identified its faults, eg gearbox and poor quality components, but Rover management chose to ignore most of them and it bombed as a consequence.
Industrial history is always interesting whether it is fading or thriving. In this case it was like undoing the industrial revolution caused by so many reasons. Your series has been a top production! Well done.
Dad had an SV1 Vitesse. We lived rurally so the school run was basically a rally stage. God be with the days.
This is a brilliant series, thank you.
The only thing BMW wanted was Land Rover/Range Rover 4WD technology. Once they got hold of that, it was surprising how quickly the X3 and X5's appeared and how quickly BMW offloaded the dying carcass of the company.
Wouldn't it be cheaper to reverse engineer? i.e. Pay someone to take the vehicle apart, figure out how it works then write a tech spec for your own engineering team to develop from.
BMW jumped to SUVs to save itself with some desperation. BMW X-drive was developed by Magna-Styer, that time was Magna-Styer-Puch. BMW wanted to create a mass producing brand underneath to gain money sustainably and avoid take-overs, but that vison didn't turnout
That very risky. You can end up getting into the dangerous waters of I.P / Patents / Copyrights being crossed and expensive court cases being launched against you. Ineos nearly fell into that trap when it made the Grenadier 4x4 (by Tata who own JLR now funnily enough)@@R.-.
Such a sad tale, but very true
Amazing story well told.
What a shame, and so embarassing on the world stage, we have nothing left of our once
renowned car industries.
You're right. Most British brands are just foreign owned nowadays
@@Lando-kx6soAll British car brands are foreign owned now. Most prestigious London buildings are owned by foreigners too.
This is the most messed up saga I ever heard tbh ... 😢 freakin twisted !
British management has never had the ability to organise a piss-up in a brewery, let alone a car company.
@@smorris12 my mommy and daddy manage it okay 😌
Yes Yes yes! It's that time again...time to get out the beers, get the RUclips fired up and stick this on my telly...
Woah. Interesting to learn of BMWs troubles too around the same period. I mean for us BMW self proclaimed "purists", this was the golden age for BMW products.
I live in the US, and i stay awake for these (It's 3am here) these are my Saturday morning cartoons lol.
Cheers from Miami!
What a great series! Thank you so much!
This series has been great, thank you.
I've been waiting for this final part, a fantastic documentary and something to be very proud of. Should be released as a full length item too IMO!
Enjoyed this series of films about the sad failure of the British motor industry.
Thank you very much.
Waited for this and it didn't disappoint. Top notch 👍👍
A very fine analysis, as usual...Thank you so much !!
Brilliant series about a really sad and frustrating story. The level of detail and insight you have provided is awesome. Thank you!
A very well done series!! Thank you!! I still want to own a Rover 75 that came with the mustang V8 with a manual ‘box. I still think it is so cool!
The MG ZT yes
I just finished part 4 and all I can say is, what an amazing job you did here. I enjoyed every bit of it.
Thank you
47 minutes, you know it's going to be good!
This was the best documentary on the UK car industry, much applause!
Loved your 5 part series.. very interesting and informative.. very well made. I had to watch them all over 2 days.. keep up the good work.
Amazing research and quality production. I can’t imagine how much time you must have spent on this excellent series of videos. Thank you.
Great video.
Thank you for this WONDERFUL - if rather sad - series.
It explained a LOT for me.
☮
Excellent, absolutely excellent. Probably the finest account that I've seen or read about this sad tale.
An excellent series, thanks!
Mate this has been a Brill series, genuinely thank you !
This series has been of outstanding quality and detail. Very enjoyable and informative.
Such a great informative series. I've always found the BMC/BL/Rover story fascinating, so much unfulfilled potential at so many points in their history
Back in the early 90s, my father had a Rover 825i. and while time has marched on, I drove the Rover and I thought it was brilliant.
In what year the car was made?
@@Telecolor-in3cl I am not completely sure but I drove it in 1991 because I had a black Ice accident in my Vauxhal cavalier and it was in the garage being fixed, I had to travel 30 miles to work every day.
I really enjoyed this series, thank you!
Amazing series.
Thanks for the work taken to undertake and make this series of video. What a sad tale of woe.
Very happy with this , thx
I have been looking forward to this one about the Rover group. Thanks for the series. I have seen your earlier one on the Roots group.
Well done Ruairidh.. A well researched and logically put together documentary.
The final episode of a fantastic series.
Excellent work, I thoroughly enjoyed your fine documentary. You have every reason to be extremely proud of yourself.
There is really a lot in this documentary. An excellent watch. Well done!
Brilliant video!👍
A truly outstanding series of videos about a captivating and despairing tale of woe for British Manufacturing.
Really good series, thanks vm
Brilliant!
The Rover 75 was an odd car… it had potential (and a potent model in the MG range too) but looked dated when it was released.
The MG ZT & ZT-T got rave reviews when they came out but they showed how week the design language was as the interiors were visually okay but felt cheap and nasty.
What was on the drawing board for replacing the dreadful toadstool on wheels (the Austin allegro) was a step in the right direction but then they went and got cold feet and released the Allegro…
In essence, the Rover group deserved being raised to the group especially under Phoenix as it had become the bull too the matador…
Even now, under Chinese ownership, what remains is the misnamed MG range where a sports car brand is selling family cars many of which, has struggled to gain a foothold due to the designs being too much aimed at the Chinese market which likes odd and quirky designs.
Only now, are we seeing some worthy designs now in the form of the MG ZS, 4 and 5’s and the soon to be launched Cybester (probably misspelled the name) sports car.
The 4 is an odd wedge shaped car but it gets rave reviews and is priced really well and is a capable car.
The Rover 75 did realise its potential in China as the Roewe 550. I used to live in China, and did drive a Roewe 550 a few times as rental cars.
The Rover 55/R60 would have certainly pushed them in a better direction...It was alot sleeker, more aggressive & less pipe & slippers...
I think the Rover 55/R60 development eventually became the Roewe 750.
Thanks Rory for this fantastic documentary. A real landmark in my opinion.👍👍👍👍👍
Absolutely Brilliant. Should be screened on mainstream TV at prime time. That good.
Many employees at Rover boycotted the takeover by BMW. They putted dead mice and rats in the cars. The production quality was worse. BMW lost severall billions DM. This was the greatest mistake of BMW.
British workers and unions are known world wide by the rubbish automotive products they produced and how much time they spent on strike. BMW should have known better than to invest in that.
Er no. BMW got the Mini brand, Land Rover technology and shuttered a company that was beginning to become a direct competitor just as they did years earlier with Goggomobil.
Sabotaging cars....an old trick from the 70's...
Whole thing pisses me off - I'm not even British, but the fact that they could never fix their problems and fall entirely, is galling.
A superb series of videos, many thanks. It is a sad story to be sure, but you highlight really effectively how the seeds of decline and eventual demise were sown decades earlier and then nurtured at every stage by the misguided and ill-informed actions of management, unions and government. What a sorry mess.
Verry interesting series. Thank you
I hope these fou videos get a wider audience outside of RUclips . These are classics on the history of the decline of the British motor industry.
The Italian motor industry is now gone the same way. Fiat were world leaders in car design. Now new Fiats will be French engineered based on Peugeots.
I think the new Punto will be a Vauxhall Corsa with a Fiat badge. How sad!!
Well.. The old Vauxhall/Opel Corsa D was infact a Fiat Grande Punto. GM got the platform and everything from Fiat. So the Punto now turning into a badge-engineered Peugeot 208 is just completing the circle. 😀
Their Truck manufacturer IVECO has improved at least. That used to be considered a terrible make, the newer models are far superior now, almost at Scania / DAF / Volvo grade.
Been waiting for this 🎉
Very interesting and informative series.I think that a similar series on the demise of the Truck,bus,and special products divisions would be a good subject for a future series.It has been said that not only the profits,but also vital research and development funds were plundered from these divisions to prop up the failing car side of the buisness.This in turn led to the failure to develop new products,especially engines,transmissions,and cabs.also the rivalry between Leyland Trucks, and AEC is similar to the situation with Austin and Morris,and probably did more damage than the unions ever did.
Cheers. Thanks very much for all in series. What a cockup up eh?
Very interesting. I watched all four parts. I will recommend this professional documentary to my friends. Greetings from Germany - Martin
Upmarket, upmarket, upmarket. I can't hear it anymore. Ever since the last Rover P5 was built, Rovers direction was downmarket at various speeds.
Very interesting. Thanks
MG Rover - known as "The English Patient" by BMW management.
Still, car construction/assembly continues in the UK. Given the historically poor reputation of the quality of British cars, I find it strange that foreign manufacturers often market their cars as British. For example, Tata flog Jaguars and Landrovers as British products, VW flog Bentleys as British, PSA advertise Vauxhalls as "British brand since 1903" and BMW put union flag tail lights on their Minis. Beats me why that would sell cars - but you have to assume they know what they're doing.
MG does the same thing and sell tons & tons
@@Lando-kx6so I don't think MG market their cars as British products.
In Griffith, Indiana in 2011, I saw a Mini with a Union Jack painted on the top, and on both mirror housings. The lady who owned it said it was made that way.
They go on legacy and at the top end those marques still hold sway because the Royal family drive Range Rovers and Bond has whatever Aston Martin. They prey on foreign ignorance and actually, one thing the British are quite good at is marketting.
@@justme-hh4vp The British don't own the companies, so it is not the British who are doing the marketing. What puzzles me, is that British products have historically held a pretty poor reputation and yet these German, Indian, French etc. manufacturers continue to use Britain as marketing tool.
Noticing the lunch rooms for the employees... a sardine tin...this is a direct refection of managements LACK OF RESPECT for those who work there...
The U.K. car industry was actually doing alright up until brexit. Things gone to shite again since then
Things are up again
No, they are getting worse and worse
A fantastically detailed documentary with most of the intrigue and double dealing through the 40+ years of the demise of the UK owned car industry. The story of the British Aeroplane industry is so similar I wonder if you could indulge us with a comparison that includes deeper scrutiny of the politics involved?
Many thanks for all the hard work involved in this and your many other excellent videos.
I love it when companies and organisations think moving up market is the answer to everything, then wonder why no one is buying or using there services. It's because you got greedy and outpriced you key customers.
My last company car before decamping from industry to teaching was in 1995, a Rover 418 turbodiesel, we had a choice of Rovers or Nissan's.
Previously I'd had Sierra's, cavaliers, Escorts and Astra's, I liked the Rover design and interior more than a Primers, I was a bit sceptical about reliability, but in three years until I jumped ship it did 124,000 miles , just services, cam belt, tyres and wiper blades, absolutely unbelievable, most reliable cat I'd ever had.
Thankyou so much for this series, well made and explained.
Looking back over my own car owning years several models from the brand stand out as excellent, i had great service from my P6 2000TC and 3500, Landcrab and the Princess, both powered by the simple and frugal 1800 B series engines, which rarely gave any trouble and were simple to maintain, in S form in the Landcrab it was a plenty fast enough car, considering its overall size Landcrab still one of the roomiest cars ever made here and i have a soft spot for them.
Rust was the killer but then everything rusted in those days.
The most reliable range of cars though were those made with shared Honda components, my facelift 827 of '91 vintage is still one of the best cars i've had, not so simple but one of the sweetest engines you could buy.
R8's great cars too, 600 and 623 probably some of the best saloon cars of their time.
The lowest point was when we delivered City Rovers to the showrooms, these things were breaking down as we loaded and delivered them, pull the bonnet cable to jump start yest another flat battery and the cable would come away in your hand, sticking the Union flag on the bootlid was pure hypocrisy.
I used to deliver cylinder heads and blocks to Longbridge made at the foundry in Wellingborough in the 70s, and many years later picked up and delivered the finished products on transporters, i really liked the 75 but never owned one and probably never will.
Again thankyou.
the complete disinterest in consistent build quality and longevity during the entirety of this ensured it was the 1 thing the company remained consistently renowned for.
I'd put forward old man Morris of Nuffield himself as where the rust set into the industry.
A great innovator before WWII, his failings became apparent during the war, when he repeatedly blocked all notion of building the *Rover Meteor* engine under licence, rather kept pushing variants of the ancient *Nuffield Liberty* , a former US Aircraft engine from the early 1910's, with several severe issues that should've seen it never used as a Tank powerplant.
(any engine that shakes itself to bits on rough terrain has issues)
He would postwar waste plentiful amounts of work hours, personnel and money in keeping old machine tools going when replacements were an option, and for years after retiring he'd encourage successors not to update the factories (as he saw it; wasting money on bells & whistles).
A bit like how Henry Ford, old man Morris was a main player when young in the interbellum, but failed to see in later times that what he wanted didn't line up with market nor practical reality.
My father worked in engine production management...He said those years were difficult, a battle trying to convince the Old Guard owners & directors to make the jump from their very tried & tested old systems of production to in particular CNC control with new tooling...
Ironically the the two people who should have risen to prominence were Rover Car Co's Maurice & Spencer Wilks who were great engineers and marketers yet those old duffers Stokes and Morris seemed to have a stranglehold over the company
@@nudisco300 Agreed.
Absolute brilliant documentary series, well done and many personal thanks. The workforce finally pulling it together at the end against a poisoned business. I shudder when i see Chinese MG cars today pouring into UK carparks, such a shame. Vauxhall closed and pulled out of the UK last year, it is now just re-badged German cars. Please make a similar documentary on the history of Vauxhall. Absolute rubbish on TV today, more and more of you putting together professional videos is just amazing. Perhaps why is Britain a basket case when producing cars, we can definitely design. I have worked in Production for 38 years and worked in USA and Europe. I have toured the Skoda production plants many times, that is another area of fascinating history, but we seem to try and rebel against the defined production process and try an re-design it while burning through the money. There are almost 2 groups in British production, those that work their heart out 24/7 and are bullied for it and the other half there (but just want wage and not be there) who are appointed through family and friends. The final straw is always corruption at the senior Exec level and government (and another shudder it was new Labour that messed it up) selling vital IP for 67million. I have seen this many many times in the UK and but NEVER in any other country. They would destroy it rather than give it away,. anyway Brits, just keep buying those MG Chinese cars!!
An insightful conclusion to a good and well-researched series. Once the Empire was let go the UK motor industry lost its captive world market and had to face competition from modernised countries, so it was sadly inevitable that the chaotic motor industry which at best could only muddle-through, would soon fail and with it most of the intermediary parts manufacturers. Even the large foreign-backed Ford and Vauxhall got into trouble. Subversion of labour during the Cold War by enemies of the UK also added significantly to the problem. Joining the EU further undermined the industry by preventing unfair government subsidies and imposing fiscal common sense; and Brexit, when it came, was a generation too late to allow anything to be saved. Someone already mentioned on here that using the bodies from other manufactures as a base for different marques was not good enough. Car manufacturing Karaoke really, and buyers had seen through it long before!
Good point, I have a feeling that British Economy wasn't based upon competitive capitalism and, without colonies, things would not have happened. Lack of investment in building strong and valuable human capital adds a lot
The Germans and French still have prosperous car industries and they are in the EU still when I last looked 2 minutes ago. Britain fucked up its car industry all by itself. Don't blame the EU for the inadequate management of British industry.
Collapse of Holden should be interesting too
I have really enjoyed this four part documentary about the British auto industry. Thank you very much for your time and effort making this series. I will be watching it time and time again!
I am a massive fan of British cars (and am saving up to buy a MG ZT 260) but the industry they came from was a huge embarrassment for Britain. We are hopeless at running anything and everything, even with small exceptions notwithstanding. But, I am a proud British man because we did come up with some great cars, innovative technology and a lot of the global car industry copied us, albeit a lot better! Being consigned to the history books ain't a bad thing; we will all be in the end! 👍😊💜😅
I don't get why Brits insist their whole car industry is gone when they still have half a dozen, actually very prestigious, marques. Granted, most are owned by companies from other countries, and then there's the weird case of MG, which is quite unique, but from Minis to McLarens to Land Rovers to Jags to Bentleys and Rolls Royces, you still have a strong offer... And then there's specialised manufacturers, hell, almost all F1 teams have their HQs over there!
It's a British thing Esteban...There is no-one better at criticising, kicking, mourning & moaning about the demise of all things British, than by the British themselves...! I haven't seen it with any other nation....
@@_Ben4810 Yep, sure looks like it!
its good point you make Esteban , but the companies are not British owned anymore ( even though they are British) if that makes sense ) I think the tragedy is captured in a lot of what you say , a lot of F1 has been dominated by British teams ( even Red Bull are British managed, even though not British owned ) The land speed record is British, and so it goes on. But the sad tragedy is, we could not run a successful British owned car manufacturing company
Very good work on a very sad story. These cars are liked but they suck and everybody that tried turning their luck around got bogged down by them instead. Like your narrative style, keep up the good work.
cheers Ruairidh