If you were one of the millions glued to last night’s climax of BBC drama Life on Mars, you will undoubtedly have pondered one of the central questions raised by the series.
If you were one of the millions glued to last night’s climax of BBC drama Life on Mars, you will undoubtedly have pondered one of the central questions raised by the series: how different is the UK now from the country of the 1970s?
It’s an entertaining exercise, particularly when it comes to the UK’s engineering base. For example, one of the notable features of the 1970s recreated by the BBC was the regular appearance of British-made cars on the streets of Manchester, of Allegros, Rovers and a host of marques now consigned to the history books.
Ah yes, the days when Britain had a car industry, flagship of the UK’s much lamented manufacturing base. It’s strange that the British car industry of the 70s can induce misty-eyed nostalgia in some people.
It was hardly the nation’s finest hour. A combination of a struggling economy, poor products and volatile labour relations made British Leyland a symbol of a former industrial superpower that seemed to have lost its way.
Far from achieving its grand ambitions of competing on the global stage, BL found itself unable to compete in its own back yard.
British buyers by the thousands turned their backs on cars made in this country as they realised that imported vehicles were quite simply superior products.
A common response to the decline of the 70s car industry, like that of other aspects of the UK manufacturing base, is that ‘the government should have done something to stop it.’
It was, however, the consumers of the UK, not its government, who sealed the fate of the Life On Mars era models. They just weren’t good enough, and no amount of government subsidy was ever going to paper over that particular crack.
Fortunately times have changed, and it cannot be stated too often that the British car industry is alive and kicking. Manufacturers from around the world choose to build their cars and carry out major R&D work in the UK. There is a thriving specialist automotive sector, particularly in the motorsport industry. There may be some things worth hankering for from the 1970s. The British car industry isn’t one of them.
Andrew Lee
Editor
I fully agree with your comments. I was a toolmaker apprentice at Cowley in Oxford between 1976-1980. I worked in the body plant known as Pressed Steel Fisher and saw the excesses of union power, poor management and a very poor work ethic by some but not all.
The models were awful and I recall they brought in a Japanese car and dismantled it and assumed because of its high quality they must be making a huge loss on it. How naive! It says it all really.
All that said the training we received and support was second to none.
British motor manufacturers failed because of the management culture prevalent in the UK. The people running these engineering companies were never really interested in the technical design, manufacture & operations issues that had to be overcome. Their idea of management was to administer rather than lead. BL and its later incarnations were headed by people with no ability to innovate their way out of a problem. Whilst the Japanese perfected their ‘lean’ approach to manufacturing and the Germans focussed on design to secure their own up-market niches, the British complacently slid along a gradual, downward spiral to failure. Original thought is not common amongst the managers and directors of British industry. With the rise of the Indian & Chinese economies, the fate that befell every volume British motor manufacturer might yet happen to the last engineering sector in which British manufacturers do well and employ hundreds of thousands…aerospace beware!
When I started with BMC in 1959 they had 49% of the home market. It was all lost, partly due to the stupid management not employing the best designers and production engineers (after Issigonis left) and partly by communist union leaders who were determined to ruin the industry.
I went to only one union meeting outside the factory gates at lunchtime, just to see what was going on and when a show of hands was asked for (and I didn’t put up my hand) I got a kick in the back by a militant who told me ‘put up your hand’.
Isn’t it strange that we still like to go back to the 1970s? The car industry was probably behind the times in the 70s. But to give the engineers of the 60/70s their due, they made Concorde fly with not much more than a slide rule and a drawing board. No CAD/Simulation software then, just hard work and brain power. Then engineers just made what they were told to do.
Many of those 1970’s cars let people down, badly in some cases (my brother in law’s Allegro in Malaysia for example). Reliability came from elsewhere, and people stopped buying British.
Now we need reliability AND economy/less carbon emission, which is not always available in the same car.
One of the best cars I had was a 1989 (for thirteen years) Ford Escort diesel. It still had one huge problem with the engine at just over three years old, and another was corrosion. The engine was more economical than the later electronically controlled new ones. All it needed was the EGR (exhaust recalculation) which was apparently standard in USA, plus a redesigned block which would not crack. Ford did not even tell me it could be “stitched”, after which it last well for another ten years.
I would like to make two comments: The problem with the current ‘British’ car industry is that it is all foreign owned, and therefore vulnerable. To prove my point, Ford no longer make cars at Dagenham, Vauxhall no longer make cars at Luton (correct me if I’m wrong), and Peugeot have closed the Ryton plant. Who’s next?
In the 1970’s Renault was probably more of a basket case than Leyland (and the products were nothing special), but the French (government and people) managed to find ways of adequately supporting the business so that Renault has now effectively taken over Nissan!
My recollection of seventies cars is that British cars were no worse than the rest. Toyota was the most unreliable. Citroen, Renault and Fiats were rust buckets. Their respective governments stuck with them, though our spineless government chose to walk away. How very sad. Just think what a modern Triumph TR12 might look like or a Marina Sports Turbo with all wheel drive…….
I have a slightly different view in that I do feel that some of the designs were remarkably good and have been overlooked somewhat in the history books (e.g. Triumph Stag, Rover SD1)
Undoubtedly, these cars were ruined by the militant unions and poor quality control which was prevalent throughout industry in the 1970s.
I have more interest than most in the argument because I run a 1971 Triumph Stag. This was plagued by overheating problems when launched, such that it was withdrawn from the USA market after multiple warranty claims. This ruined the cars reputation unfairly. Basically, the cars that are running around now with the original engines in are all sorted as the quality problems have been addressed by their owners.
Personally, when I flushed out the thirty year old engine block of my stag I recovered a large mug full of casting sand!
Design was OK. It was quality and cost-cutting management that ruined many industries back then.
To simply dismiss past UK car manufacturers and actively welcome their demise concerns me. I totally agree that the ’70s were a disaster in many ways but, once again, why are we not debating what went wrong? Lack of investment by government was not on this occasion lacking, but awful decisions by the manufacturers themselves appear to have been the main reason why such a large sector of manufacturing has gone forever. I’ll bet the senior managers didn’t lose out on their hefty “golden handshakes” and pensions when the companies in question folded beneath them. If the Germans and French can still make volume cars (with similar costs to ours) that their citizens (and those of other countries) are happy to buy, then why can’t the British anymore? Perhaps employment laws should be looked at, for example, as it appears very easy to “pull the plug” on a UK site nowadays and very difficult to do the same thing to a French or German site?
Alistair Brodie
I am so sick of the ‘those seventies cars’ comments by people who wouldnt be able to change a tyre, or were of an age when they were probably more interested in growing another tooth.
As this was a period when I was in my early teens, and cars were becoming more important, let’s just get a few facts clear shall we?
As an example, the Cortinas.
The Mark 3 introduced acrylic paint, claimed some years later by Audi as their innovation. They offered an affordable range from rubber mat floors to soundproofed and carpetted, with solid safety cells designed in. At a time when a car would need a major check if you were planning to drive more than 200 miles, it also offered reliability.
One vehicle was recorded as being used continuously for over a million miles without major overhaul at the time.
This car was designed to replace the Ford Corsair, and was the top selling fleet vehicle for much of the early 70s.
And for those who do not realise what ‘lead time’ is, the Mark 3 was a design started in 1967.
What killed it wasn’t a mechanical problem, there was a massive recession much worse than this one now caused by rocketting oil prices and unrest in the Middle East. Sound familiar?
Jingoistic attitudes to foreign makes were rife, even to those cars built in this country, which was madness.
Let’s take a parallel from military history; those who were in Whitehall in the late thirties were of the opinion that those ‘Japs ‘would never be able to fly a plane because their mothers carried them swaddled on their backs as infants(?)
Well, they watched us with interest in the 1930s, and when the Royal Navy attacked the Italian fleet at Toranto, they took notes and attacked Pearl Harbour as a result.
Despite this, those who decide such things still felt there was no threat, and south of Hong Kong we lost two battleships, one of which was brand new, and a lot of men as a result, not to mention running away from an empire we never regained.
The parallel with the motor industry is there for all to see.
I had Austin Cambridges, (4 door MGB as it was the same underneath), Vauxhall Victor FDs (a GM tank with a RUBBISH engine) and all of them were expensive to maintain, and just made of inferior materials, with no idea of weight saving. Some accountant felt that the saving of a few pence on ignition parts would make such a difference to the product and it usually did, showing itself as yet another car in a lay-by with its bonnet up.
There were improvements each year, and today our roads are filled with mini living rooms on wheels, driven without any real understanding by people who don’t realise that without ABS they would not be able to drive an older car without crashing. Cars were driven by the driver and not the other way round as it is now.
I could add a chapter on just about any manufacturer, not because I can access Wikapedia, but because I lived it.
So let’s try another concept shall we, write interesting things, rather than pick on those who went before, let’s correct the problems that were there then and now.
And finally I offer the obvious: my Cortina convertible is one of only 20 to 30 original vehicles left of its type, which makes it quite exclusive and its value increases. It is fitted with a 240 BHP Cosworth unleaded engine and weighs 1000kg which is 240 BHP to the ton, and is good for in excess of 150mph if I wanted.
I do not need to buy my credibility with some shiny Euro box that needs a computer to service it and the car is eco friendly because it was made in 1972.
Do the math.
Hiiiii
Ah yes, the days when Britain had a car industry, flagship of the UK’s much lamented manufacturing base. It’s strange that the British car industry of the 70s can induce misty-eyed nostalgia in some people.
joseph
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