By Edward Niedermeyer
April 7, 2008 -
The Financial Times reports that the UK is following former colony Australia's lead in ordering a government investigation into its flagging auto manufacturing industry. Minister for Business and Enterprise Affairs Baroness Shriti Vadera has put former Ford man Richard Parry-Jones in charge of the 10-member committee charged with tackling the twin challenges of competition from low-cost manufacturing centers and emerging low-carbon technologies. The committee will make recommendations to the government, which has vowed to use "all levers of government, both regulatory and fiscal" to address Britain's moribund auto industry. Once home of a thriving auto industry, with dozens of brands and world-class products, Britain has seen nearly every one of its domestic brands swallowed up by companies from countries like Germany, the United States, India, China and Indonesia. Although nobody expects Britain's car industry to return to its 1960's zenith, here's hoping the Parry-Jones committee comes up with solutions which are a little more inventive than simply writing checks to Toyota.
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POWERED
April 7th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Is that a mid fifties Morris Minor?
April 7th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Hey I can save the UK govt millions and tell them what happened :
Union workforces that held the manufacturers to ransom. Designers who thought they knew what the customers wanted better than the actual customers did. Vehicles that rusted and fell apart the second they drove off the sales forecourt. Cheaper and better made imports. A government that said selling off to foreign ownership would bring investment into the country. And a trade arrangement that meant manufacturing could be moved to lower wage countries with no downside.
If that sounds a lot like Detroit circa 2008, I think the outcome will ultimately be the same.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
mikey
Is that a mid fifties Morris Minor?
Give the man a cee-gar!!
April 7th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Britain still has a motor industry?
The UK government needs to read
Whatever Happened to the British Motorcycle Industry by Burt Hopwood. Come to think of it, Detroit folks could probably use a quick read of that book as well.
I do wish them well (as a much avowed Brit car/bike enthusiast with a Austin Healey Sprite and new Triumph Bonneville in the garage).
April 7th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Sitting: Dude. Word.
Don’t forget the Lucas, Prince of Darkness, Electrical Systems.
I still want an XK150.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
sitting@home
don’t forget the usual one technological leap forward cobbled together with the same old ancient crap (gearboxs, drivetrains, engines) that they had keep on using because they had spent the budget.
April 7th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Simple solution…
Highlight current British labour law.
Press ‘delete’.
Highlight Texas labor law (and don’t forget the right-to-work areas).
Press ‘control+c’.
Go back to British labour law.
Press ‘control+v’.
Problem solved.
April 7th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
mikey — good to see someone else remembers the Morris Minor. When I was a kid in western Kansas we had an eccentric but lovable neighbor named Charley Morris. He bought a Morris Minor for his wife to drive. The little car was quite a curiosity. I guess it was the similarity in name that prompted the purchase, because the nearest Morris dealer must have been at least 300 miles away. Kids were fascinated by the “flipper” turn indicators that popped out of the B pillar. If that car was still being made today, they could sell advertising space on the turn signals to Viagra.
April 8th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Yes I remember them well.We had our share in Canada,winter was not kind to them.
April 8th, 2008 at 5:56 am
I guess the question is, why now? Why not 30 years ago?
Unfortunately, with RPJ heading up this project they’ll end up with an overpriced downmarket BMW wanna be.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I’m trying to think of one aspect of the UK that political involvement has helped…
I’ll have to come back to you…