Whatever happened to the British Motor industry (Other Motoring Issues)

Member Name: CyrixDes

Product:	Other Motoring Issues
Date:	14/08/00 (54 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: n/a

Disadvantages: n/a

The British motor industry, back in the 60's seemed to be here to stay. We were going to rule the world. So what went wrong??? Well I am going to try to explain a few of the things that went wrong and give a history of the British motor industry.
The story begins in the 1960's. The British motor industry was very successful with the bulk of cars in this country being genuinely British. At this time the industry was made up of a couple of partnerships and several single companies. The top selling cars were produced by Austin/Morris who had merged. Austin/Morris was actually called as a cumulative group, BMC or the British Motor Corporation. Around the mid-60's Jaguar was added to these companies which then became known as BMH or British Motor Holdings. The British government at the time was adament in its belief that bigger was better so merged Leyland the truck company who also had the names of Rover and Triumph under its brand, with BMC, forming the entirety of the British motor industry and being called the British Leyland Motor Corporation. This merger happened in 1968. As it stood British Leyland (BL) now had something like 12 brands to use on its cars. What was to follow from here was some of the grossest mis-management combined with the most disasterous union intervention known in this country which effectively killed off the British motor industry.
It was a disaster from day 1. BL's first planned car was to be the Austin Maxi. However in the first of some classic decisions by BL's management, they rushed through the production and release of the first BL produced car to prove what an efficient company they were. Of course the Maxi was fully developed by Austin before the BL merger and had nothing to do with BL design. However the car was just not ready and had too many problems that should have been ironed out before release. The Maxi was released in 1969 and promptly withdrawn a few months later due to them basically falling apar
t because they werent ready. The Maxi was reintroduced in 1970 and was reasonably successful selling through the 70's until 1980.
The Marina was the first car to be developed thoroughly by British Leyland. It was released as both the Morris Marina and the Austin Marina. It was released in 1971. This is where the British public got there first taste of that world renowned BL rubbish build quality (It was BL's policy to release a car without any real quality control and so they left all of the testing to the unwitting consumer. This is why all BL's cars werent particularly reliable until they were about 5 years or so into production because you needed to allow time for the build quality probs and faults to be ironed out). It was a very very simple car which slightly helped its reliability, although it was actually formed from all parts taken off British Leylands shelves. Half of the car was built up of parts that made the Morris Minor in the 1950's. As with all BL cars the Marina suffered from the poor build quality and the poor styling (the quality including it leaking water all over the place). It was re styled in 1976 and then again in 1981 (when it was badged as the Morris Ital) before being discontinued in 1983.
1973 saw the launch of a car that people either love or hate. It was the launch of the Austin Allegro. The Allegro was the replacement for the popular Austin 1100/1300 series. At the time of the Allegros introduction, the workers at Longbridge were on a 3 day week and their wages were frozen, so as you can imagine this did a lot for the already poor British Leyland build quality. Suprisingly the first Allegro's (as always with BL), were a build quality disaster. The early models were renowned for various things happening to them like when the car was jacked up, the rear windscreen would pop out and even on a more serious and potentially fatal note, there were over 100 reported cases of back wheels just falling off whilst you we
re driving. BL knew about this fault early on after it went on sale but chose to withold the information (all that was needed to solve it was to add a safety washer). Also as with the Marina, leaking problems occured with the car leaking water into the passenger compartment and the boot easily. The Allegro was ok if looked after but with all future BL cars, they rust away very fast unless carefully looked after. The Allegro was revised in 75 and 79 before being discontinued in 82 to make way for the Austin Maestro.
1975 saw another BL car launch. This time it was the Princess, labelled under either Austin, Morris and Wolsely names. A few months later and the brand was dropped and the car become known as just the Princess. This car in its form went on until 1981 until it was restyled with a new front and rear end and became labelled as the Austin Ambassador. This in its Ambassador form went on until 1984 before being dropped.
1976 saw the launch of a futuristically styled exec car. It was the Rover SD1. This could have been a real big success had it not had the famous BL build quality. SD1's were prone as ever to easily rust but were made for 10 years, being pensioned off by AustinRover in 1986.
The late 1970's saw British Leyland nationalised, which added to the pressure as they now had shareholders to please as well.
1980 saw the end of an era. The mini was replaced (it was brought back later under the Rover brand in the 90's). The Austin Metro was the car to replace it. The Metros in all fairness did sell quite well, thats why theres so many of them around (that and coupled with the fact that they were made for so long). They would have done even better had they not been BL built. By this time they were a laughing stock and people were very unwilling to touch anything associated with British Leyland.
1983 was one of the most important years for British Leyland. It was there last throw of the dice. Mounting losses and a bad reputatio
n were affecting the company in a big way and were in grave danger. David Bache, the chief designer at British Leyland at the time and the man who was credited with designing the successful Rover SD1, had designed a small hatchback, designed to be economical and value for money with a simple design. Here the Austin Maestro was born. The Maestro was a car much heckled and slagged off (any direct replacement for the Allegro after its problems was bound to be slated). However slowly but surely it picked up a good following. Early models used the A series Austin engine - back from the 70's used in the Allegro and Maxi. As ever the early versions were stuck with the bad build quality, leaks and rust problems. However the Maestro really did sell well despite having a bad reputation and saved thousands of jobs in the British Motor industry. BL capitalised by adding an MG Maestro range in there with the Austin range and built some sporty based Maestros, all with Maestro shells but with initially the MG 1600 (1.6 litre engine), then the 2 litre injection Maestro came and the limited edition (only 505 made) MG Maestro Turbo. The Maestro Turbo could out accelerate a number of porches (0-60 in just 6 secs!). The Montego was also launched which was based on the Maestro and was more a company style car. This was also successful with good powerful engines in. British Leyland was split up by the Conservative government in th 80's in a last effort to save the car industry and was sold off to private companies, enabling companies like Jaguar to break free of the mismanagement it suffered at the hands of BL and become a force once again. Austin, MG, Rover and Morris became the AustinRover Group. The Maestro and Montego ranges carried on until 1995 (1988 onwards was known only as the Maestro and Montego as the Austin name was in my opinion wrongfully dropped). In the early 90's Rover, Austin, Morris and MG bacame known as the ROver Group. 1994 saw the disasterous sale of th
e Rover Group to BMW where Rover suffered the style of mismanagement as it suffered at BL. In 1999 the British Motor industry was reborn as the Phoenix Comsortium rescued Rover from the hands of BMW and became 100% British again. They now produce the successful Rover 25, 45 and 75 and are recovering in a big way under the excellent management of John Towers. 1999/2000 also saw the shock reammergeance of the Austin Maestro. A number of flat pack Maestros, supplied by Rover were due to go to Bulgaria but ended up in a garage in England and were assembled and became the cheapest new car in this country, available both in car and van variations for only 4995-00 on the road! They were slightly basic trim models and were based on the much tweaked A series engine (remember that from the 70's in the Allegro/Maxi and the 80's in the Metro!!!!). There is a big waiting list for these motors though and are selling very quickly showing that the Maestro and AustinRover never died.....It was merely on loan.
What will happen now to the British Motor industry, only time will tell. Rover definitely seem to be recovering and with sales rising are looking to be running in profit now John Towers has returned to the Rover helm - If the Maestro can make a comeback so can the entire British Car insudtry!

Summary: