Opinion on the British Motor Industry

Currently, the automobile industry in the UK is probably in better condition than ever. Japanese manufacturers such as Honda and Nissan are choosing to build cars for the European markets in England. The Nissan plant at Sunderland is the most efficient Nissan plant in the world. British styling centres are responsible for ground-breaking new concepts, while electronic engineering in the UK is some of the most successful in the world. A number of tiny companies produce one-off sports cars with names like Lister and Marcos to an increasing market segment, despite ever-stricter legislation. The Lotus Engineering group has expanded far beyond sports cars, and thanks to stable financial backing has provided assistance to off-road vehicle makers and luxury saloon divisions. And the Morgan works, still family owned, produces hand-built articles of 'modernised' 1930s style, with a four-year waiting list.

But the masses are mobilised by 'eurocars', Jap economy cars, and the global-cars assembled in England to a 'world' design. Where once the streets whined and roared to the sounds of Minis, 1100s and Mk II Cortinas, now there is the soft hum of multi-cam, multi-badge hump-shaped saloons and hatches. The average age of the English car may be older, but the majority are new.

Many of the cars launched are dubbed 'eurobland' - the computers give back the same shapes and dimensions, the engines are tuned for smooth, continuous performance, the electronics for consistent reliability, the interior for neutral comfort. Even the outside fitments are restricted for compliance with directives of 30 countries.

In a previous age, cars with such a 'parts bin' and conservative-engineered background cropped up as the Hillman Hunter and Morris Marina. The only difference is that now we call them the Ford Mondeo and Opel Vectra. Of course they are better cars. But each 'facelift' brings with it small refinements, the engineering always the predictable.

The British Motor Industry, then, underwent a radical change sometime around the late 70s - in other words, during the lifespan of the Princess. Suddenly there was no longer any advantage in British design. Every car maker was moving to front wheel drive, cars from Europe had more performance, and cars from Japan were more reliable as well as significantly cheaper. As the Japanese went head-to-head with the Europeans (and won) the now-conglomerate English manufacturers were hopelessly outclassed, outgunned and outwitted. Outclassed because traditional marques were now only badges. There was no added value, no additional luxury. The veneer was broken by the water leaking through the gaps. They were outgunned because the once-clever designs of the 50's were clattering through the 70's; performance was down, unreliability was up. And they were outwitted because the once-strong labour force had been cheated by successive unionist dumbing-down and corporate ramping-up. We see this right through to this day with BMW's annoyance over the (now Rover) Longbridge plant 'dragging its heels'. This may be due to a start-to-finish approach, rather than being a mere 'screwdriver plant', however, Productivity is the keyword, and if the bosses aren't satisified, nobody's happy.

The Allegro and the Princess followed hard on the heels of the highly successful 1100/1300 and 1800 range. But they were cars nobody wanted. They may well have represented improvements, and perhaps broken new ground, but they stood to be un-emotive, unloved, a sign of the Brits' growing distrust in themselves. They cost more to design and produce than they could possibly sell for in the face of mounting Euro-Nese competition. Other traditional makers like Ford nutted out a global policy that brought cars like the Granada, Cortina and later the Mondeo. The development was across a range of successful disciplines. Later, acquisition of Jaguar gave the final jewel - developing largely unaffected, it has become once again a class leader in quality and design.

British Leyland, which at one point had Jaguar along with Triumph, MG, Austin/Morris, Riley, Wolseley and Rover, somehow missed out on the benefits of harnessed design expertise. Every single name except Rover died a grim death - and even Rover had to be propped up by Honda to get through the '80s.

My opinion is that the Princess 2 highlights the crunch point of this dilemma, the point of no return. The trouble-plagued Princess had been effectively re-launched with a new engine design with modern principles, all the extras that had distinguished the most plush model were extended down to the standard level. There was an effort to improve the apparent quality without blowing out the budget.

It failed. The market wanted a liftback or hatchback, the Princess and Allegro retained a boot. The market wanted reliability, the reputation got worse. The market expected performance; yet even the new engine gave slow, harsh performance by the class standards. Finally the assembly suffered at the hands of underpaid workers. The price was knocked down, the market for the cars entirely different from that planned. A great car had been struggling to get out.

The new cars - Maestro replacing the Allegro, facelfited Ambassador (for a year) replacing the Princess, then the more conventional Montego - came too late and disappointed. Perhaps they are the end of an era, or perhaps the Princess was the confused-identity personified during Leyland's darkest hours...

Back to the Front Page