Global Cars?
I don't think there are any parallels between the American and
British Motor Industries, for most of it's life ours was years
behind in every way and several American manufacturers were making
better cars than Rolls-Royce at one time. However the war,
communists left behind in the factories when everyone else was
fighting, and the Post War Labour government probably knocked the
biggest nails in the coffin that had been our Motor Industry. We
weren't competitive with the Americans, but we were the world's
biggest exporter till 1955. Unfortunately they forced the car
companies to re-locate to areas of low employment and the transport
problems made us less competitive still. To add to that the unions
became more and more troublesome and made our cars less reliable and
even less competitive. By the late sixties both Lord Stokes and
Michael Edwardes had told Harold Wilson they needed to make 50,000
redundant to save BL. Wilson would not allow a single one because he
was owned by the unions and terrified of them.
Britain had exported over a million cars by 1950 and BAC had made
about 500 cars of which some were exported.
I don't know much about the American situation, but get the impression
that the US Giants are ploughing their own furrow and perhaps ignoring
the inroads into their market made by foreign invaders.
Ash
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