British brands are owned by other automotive groups: Jaguar, and Land Rover belongs to Ford Automotive Group. Rolls-Royce is owned by BMW group, and VW is owner of Bentley. They could be shouted down every moment, and that would be end of British car industry.



your opinion ??

The British Motor Industry is like every other industry in the UK died or on its last legs !

That sums it up really !

A real shame because most UK cars aren't even made in the UK no more only some Vauxhalls, Land Rovers and Jaguars but for how long ?

The British car industry died along time ago with British Leyand.

British Car Industry can be the next google hoax... Like
"French military victories"

Yeah, the french never won anything. Ever. miserable french...

The British cars arent going to be shut down, dont worry. It will be a while until that happens.

The British car industry died along time ago with British Leyand.

I think Lucas electronics had a lot to do with this. Leyland was becoming known for a lack of dependability, and most of the problems were electrical

Kudos to bosses, drift, and heretic! LMAO!

"Lord Lucas, Prince of Darkness"

BmwF4n; it is difficult for anyone with decades of perspective to take this question seriously.

"Lord Lucas, Prince of Darkness".LMAO, that one always gets a good laugh.

Not many people know that Land Rovers attempted to market a computer. Why did they stop? They could not find a way to get it to leak oil!

A Land Rover doesn´t leak oil, it marks it´s territory. Did you hear about the man whose Land Rover didn't leak oil? The factory took it backand worked on it until it did.

Did you hear the one about the guy that peeked into a Land Rover and asked the owner "How can you tell one switch from another at night? They all look the same. " - "He replied, "It does not matter which one you use, nothing happens !"

The Lucas motto: "Get home before dark."

Lucas is the patent holder for the short circuit.

Lucas - Inventor of the first intermittent wiper.

Lucas - Inventor of the self-dimming headlamp.

The three position Lucas switch - Dim, Flicker and Off.

The Original Anti-Theft Device - Lucas Electrics.

Lucas is an acronym for Loose Unsoldered Connections and Splices

Lucas systems actually uses AC current; it just has a random frequency.

"I have had a Lucas pacemaker for years and have never had any trou..."

If Lucas made guns, wars would not start.

A friend of mine told everybody he never had any electric problems with his Lucas equipment. Today he lives in the countryside, in a large manor with lots of friendly servants around him an an occasional ice cold shower...

Back in the 70's, Lucas decided to diversify its product line and began manufacturing vacuum cleaners. It was the only product they offered which did not suck.

Q: Why do the British drink warm beer? A: Because Lucas makes their refrigerators

Alexander Graham Bell invented the Telephone.Thomas Edison invented the Light Bulb. Joseph Lucas invented the Short Circuit.

Recommended procedure before taking on a repair of Lucas equipment: Check the position of the stars,kill a chicken and walk three times clockwise around your car chanting:" Oh mighty Prince of Darkness protect your unworthy servant.."

It's common knowledge that all Lucas electonics work by keeping the smoke inside the wires. If you let the smoke get out, then it won't work. Have you inadvertantly let the smoke out of the wires on your classic British car? This, then, is the solution to your problem!

http://www.mez.co.uk/smoke2.jpg

Here is presented for your perusal one Lucas Replacement Wiring Harness Smoke kit, P/N 530433, along with the very rare Churchill Tool 18G548BS adapter tube and metering valve. These kits were supplied surreptitiously to Lucas factory technicians as a trouble-shooting and repair aid for the rectification of chronic electrical problems on a plethora of British cars. The smoke is metered, through the fuse box, into the circuit which has released it's original smoke until the leak is located and repaired. The affected circuit is then rectified and the replacement smoke re-introduced. An advantage over the cheap repro smoke kits currently available is the exceptionally rare Churchill metering valve and fuse box adapter. It enables the intrepid and highly skilled British Car Technician to meter the precise amount of genuine Lucas smoke required by the circuit.

Unlike the cheap, far-eastern replacement DIYsmoke offered by the "usual suppliers", this kit includes a filter to ensure that all the smoke is of consistent size, It has been our experience in our shop that the reproduction Tiawanese smoke is often "lumpy", which will cause excessive resistance in our finely-engineered British harnesses and components. This is often the cause of failure in the repro electrical parts currently available, causing much consternation and misplaced cursing of the big three suppliers.

These kits have long been the secret weapon of the "Ultimate Authorities" in the trade, and this may be the last one available. Be forewarned, though, that it is not applicable to any British vehicle built after the discontinuing of bullet connectors, so you Range Rover types are still on your own...

This Genuine Factory Authorised kit contains enough smoke to recharge the entire window circuit on a 420 Jaguar, and my dear friend and advisor George Wolf of British Auto Specialty assures me that he can replace ALL the smoke in a W&F Barrett All-Weather Invalid Car(147 CC) with enough left over to test a whole box of Wind-Tone horns for escaped smoke. How much more of an endorsement do you need?

More, you say? Well, I once let the smoke out of the overdrive wiring on my friend Roger Hankey's TR3B, and was able to drive over 200 miles home from The Roadster Factory Summer Party by carefully introducing smoke into the failed circuit WITHOUT even properly repairing the leak. Another friend, Richard Stephenson, was able to repair the cooling fan circuit of his Series 1 E-type by merely replacing a fuse and injecting a small quantity of smoke back into the wires. So there!

Back to topic...

I wouldn't say the British car industry is dead. It's struggling to survive but there's still a few British cars around (especially a lot in GB).

Even though Jaguar, Rolls-Royce, Mini, Aston Martin... are not technically Englsih anymore, it still seems like they are. I mean when you think of Aston (until a couple of months ago) you never thought American car maker did you?

However there still are some small companies that are managing to live on: Lotus, TVR, Mosler, Catheram, Ascari, Capro (it looks like they have a promising future), McLaren, Noble, Morgan, Ultima etc ...

So com'on, don't tell me there is nothing coming out of Britain anymore. Because there is, and some of it is actually pretty good.

All that Bossesjoe, and you never once mentioned the British Leyland revolutionary oil recycling system.....It is a pan that goes underneath the car at night to catch all the leaking oil, and a funnel to pore it back in first thing in the morning:smt120

All that Bossesjoe, and you never once mentioned the British Leyland revolutionary oil recycling system.....It is a pan that goes underneath the car at night to catch all the leaking oil, and a funnel to pore it back in first thing in the morning:smt120That reminds me of my friend Adam's MGB. We always used to hang out at our friend Matt's house but Adam's MGB would always leak out oil all over the driveway. Adam was finally banned from parking in the driveway until he came up with a solution and decided to keep a pan and a funnel in his car at all times. Whenever he parked in someones driveway he would just slip the plan under the sweet spot and collect oil to put back in his car. Up until then you could usually tell how long it had been since Adam left if he wasn't there by feeling the temperature of the oil pool.

Anyway, before people get the idea that I'm a British car bashing nutcase I'll say that I love British cars. My old scoutmaster and the man that taught me how to fly a plane has two Jaguar E-types, three MGBs, one Triumph TR3, one Triumph Spitfire, one Triumph TR5, one MG Midget, one Jaguar XJS, and a Lotus Esprit. He's the king of all British car nuts, regularly takes me to British car shows, and taught me much about those old engines. The only jokes I make are out of fun because I know how much of a PITA these cars can be.

The british car industry was only killed of due to margret thatcher. If you know who see is, she is the biach that became president and hated cars. Either way, due to the crappy american management of ford, we have Aston back now. Also Jaguar and Land rover are being sold off as we speak.

Yep, ford are looking to sell of Landy anf Jag. Full story here
http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/225990/

As for Lotus, they might as well be independent. Proton own lotus, and it ends there. You only ever hear about Lotus helping Proton, its like a Son bossing his dad around.

theres still TVR, Caterham, Bristol and Morgan.
Plus we have 4 great upcoming companies, Farbio, Caparom Noble and Invicta. Theres also radical who happen to have the record for the Nurburgring.

So really, there is still some amazing Sports cars coming Britan, but as for making family and reasonabling priced car, theres none at all right now


But i admit thee brit car industry did just fall to pieces, all because of British leyland. They were such a stupid company. Thinking they could manage every british car company under one roof. I'm very sad that this saw the demise of companies like Morris, Triumph cars, and Austin Healey

Either way, due to the crappy american management of ford, we have Aston back now.Haha, you think Ford killed it's British companies? I think you better look back at the cars and reputation that Jaguar and Aston Martin had before they were revamped by Ford.

^^yeah i know, thats how they lost money and were taken over, but Ford had nothing to do with the wave of great astons today, thats down Dr Bez, the current Manager, who is such a great manager, and also a decent driver. Even if he crashed the V8 vantage N24 on the nurburgring

Either way, due to the crappy american management of ford, we have Aston back now. Also Jaguar and Land rover are being sold off as we speak.

Ford was the best thing that happened to jaguar, land rover (well, maybe not, they still make very unreliable automobiles), and volvo. Ford turned Jaguar from making unreliable cars into some of the most reliable cars.

I'll say that they need some help in the design department though.

Ford needs to sell off jaguar, but keep land rover for awhile longer, if i remember correctly land rover is still profitable.

However there still are some small companies that are managing to live on: Lotus, TVR, Mosler, Catheram, Ascari, Capro (it looks like they have a promising future), McLaren, Noble, Morgan, Ultima etc ...

isnt lotus owned by proton, and tvr's owned by a russian businessman and how about marcos thats still british isnt it?

The british car industry was only killed of due to margret thatcher. If you know who see is, she is the biach that became president and hated cars.

A, she wasn't President, she was Prime Minister. And B, she didn't kill off the car industry in Britian, the companies and mostly the unions did that. It was the combination of British cars being notoriously unreliable so sales slumped and the Unions being downright obstructive.

As production got modernised and less people were needed the unions went on strike to stop the laying the off of workers and they went on strike for simply over the top pay rises. These strikes which were happening with increasing regularity just put more and more financial pressure on the British car companies causing them to become staid cumbersome companies compared to their more lithe compatriots on the continent. These very strikes also made manufacturing in general not cost effective in Britian. Look at America now, GM and Ford have also been severely affected by over zealous unions.

The unions liked to portray themselves the saviours of British industry but in the end their lack of will to compromise killed the very industry they wanted to protect.

isnt lotus owned by proton, and tvr's owned by a russian businessman and how about marcos thats still british isnt it?

Yes, but for some reason I have difficulty to admit that TVR is Russian and that Lotus is Malaysian!

Besides, Proton are not very involved with Lotus...

Ford was the best thing that happened to jaguar, land rover (well, maybe not, they still make very unreliable automobiles), and volvo. Ford turned Jaguar from making unreliable cars into some of the most reliable cars.

I'll say that they need some help in the design department though.

Ford needs to sell off jaguar, but keep land rover for awhile longer, if i remember correctly land rover is still profitable.

Ford are considering selling Jaguar and Land Rover off as a group, and have asked banks to investigate buyers, actually.

There might be a British car industry once more at the end of this.

Originally from Road and track

Ford has hired Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley to seek buyers for the struggling automaker's Premier Automotive Group (PAG), according to a story in trade publication Automotive News Europe.
PAG includes Jaguar and Land Rover, and also Sweden's Volvo.
In a related story, the Dow Jones Newswires reported that Fiat Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo said his company isn't currently negotiating to buy Ford's Jaguar and Land Rover. The Italian car company's CEO was responding to press reports which suggested that resurgent, Turin-based Fiat had discussed such a deal with Ford. However, he did not disclose whether Fiat was previously in talks with Ford.

Ford was the best thing that happened to jaguar, land rover (well, maybe not, they still make very unreliable automobiles), and volvo. Ford turned Jaguar from making unreliable cars into some of the most reliable cars.

I'll say that they need some help in the design department though.

Ford needs to sell off jaguar, but keep land rover for awhile longer, if i remember correctly land rover is still profitable.
Jaguar, jaguar, have you seen the XK, the guy who designs Jaguars also designs astons today. Then the new XF, i mean, what a stunner. No help needed there.

A, she wasn't President, she was Prime Minister. And B, she didn't kill off the car industry in Britian, the companies and mostly the unions did that. It was the combination of British cars being notoriously unreliable so sales slumped and the Unions being downright obstructive.
do'h, why do i keep doing that. Prime minister, why not just make me overlord, so much easier.:-k
It was sort of a mixture of things that destroyed the brit industry, but the main fact was british leyland couldn't control all those companies, i remeber watching somthing on it, and a few previous workers running leyland admitted they couldn't control everything going on.

Even though British marques are now owned by foreign companies, its no doubt they still make some great cars once in a while. What about Aston Martin, aren't they now back under Prodrive? Is Prodrive Brit in the first place?!

our car industry is pretty crap nowadays, i have to say. it's nowhere near as vast as it used to be; we used to have on of the biggest and most diverse car industry, now we're just average. although, as much as people don't like me saying this, the less industry there is in a country, most of the time it's for the better rather than the worse. i'll explain.

there are three sectors of work; primary (mostly agricultural work, mining and so on; gathering the raw materials) secondary (manufacturing; for example car making, electrical product making and so on) and tertiary (providing a service to the population for example a hospital, dentistor travel agency). there is also a quarternary sector of work (office work), but that's more or less part of the tertiary sector.

the significance of the less work in the secondary (and primary, but that doesn't count on this topic) sectors, is that the less work there is in the primary and secondary sectors, and the more in the tertiary sectors, the more developed a country is. for example, South Africa. most of the work done there is in the primary sector, little in the secondary sector and even less in the tertiary sector. in the UK, very little work is done in the primary sector, a little more in the secondary sector and most in the tertiary sector.

this'll explain it a bit more detailed, and gives pie charts to show work sectors in a few different countries:
http://www.geography.learnontheinternet.co.uk/topics/empstruct.html

so yeah, it's a shame, but in the long-term is overall better (it hurts me to say that, but it's the truth), as it shows the country is becoming increasingly developed; overall a hugely good thing.

The British Motor Industry is like every other industry in the UK died or on its last legs !

That sums it up really !

A real shame because most UK cars aren't even made in the UK no more only some Vauxhalls, Land Rovers and Jaguars but for how long ?

most, if not all, Jaguar's and Land Rover's are made in the UK... :-k


Yep, ford are looking to sell of Landy anf Jag. Full story here
http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/225990/ (http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/225990/)

As for Lotus, they might as well be independent. Proton own lotus, and it ends there. You only ever hear about Lotus helping Proton, its like a Son bossing his dad around.

So really, there is still some amazing Sports cars coming Britan, but as for making family and reasonabling priced car, theres none at all right now

damn, that's bad... i'm in the middle of my application process to Jaguar-Land Rover to work as an engineer, i had a maths test last Friday. they said i'll get to know if i pass onto the next stage in 7-10 days :-k. i hope Jaguar-Land Rover don't balls up now and go bust due to lack of funding :(.

haha yeah. but i'm sure Proton give Lotus funds. where the hell do Proton get the money from to fund Lotus, though?!

there are Vauxhall's...