Keeping Dead Industries Alive....

[Less]

Originally Posted by Eric

the Lucas "Prince of Darkness" electrics.

Mid 80's a subsidiary of Lucas very large factory and car park, had a policy that anyone turning up to do business with them driving a foreign car could not park in the factory grounds.

One of the Japanese car Companies was in negotiation for supplies of parts for a large contract.

They naturally turned up in their own motor vehicles, with no uncertain words the guy on the gate told them where they could go with their foreign imports, they did, straight back to their own plant to find someone they could actually work with.


The Japanese plant is still going the large factory is now closed!

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Less

Mid 80's a subsidiary of Lucas very large factory and car park, had a policy that anyone turning up to do business with them driving a foreign car could not park in the factory grounds.

One of the Japanese car Companies was in negotiation for supplies of parts for a large contract.

They naturally turned up in their own motor vehicles, with no uncertain words the guy on the gate told them where they could go with their foreign imports, they did, straight back to their own plant to find someone they could actually work with.


The Japanese plant is still going the large factory is now closed!

The good old jobsworth on the gate Less

[jaysay]

Anybody remember the Spectrum computer, I use the word computer in very lose terms, the programs came on a tape and you had to load it through a portable tape player, those were the days

[Less]

Originally Posted by jaysay

The good old jobsworth on the gate Less

He vas only carrying out orders!

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Less

He vas only carrying out orders!

Ya and ir was more than his jobsworth to disobey

[cmonstanley]

Originally Posted by GEaston

Stanley - you can't seriously be suggesting that British Leyland produced something that people wanted to buy are you?

Striking and high cost of product was certainly part of the problem but the death of the UK car industry was that we produced absolute crap (Princess, Maxi, Rover SD1, the list is long). Compared to Audi, BMW, or any Japanese brand we were a joke. That industry had to go.

With the unions gone and massive private investment (you might want to read that last sentence again....) what emerged in it's place is the same skilled labour force producing quality cars for foreign owners like the giant Nissan plant at Sunderland. The rest were taken over - Tata owns Landrover/Range Rover, VW bought Bentley, BMW took Rolls Royce or closed (British Leyland, MG, TVR). 80% of UK car production on behalf of the now foreign owners is exported from the UK.

By any measure (jobs, suppliers, inward investment, product quality) this is progress. BBC News - UK car exports hit record despite European market slump

Car producing capital of Europe no less Britain now producing MORE cars than Germany: How the UK has become the car production capital of Europe | Mail Online

but remember them days the majority of people couldnt afford bmws audis .if you go to the dealership holdings giant car parks they are full to capacity with thousands of cars.if the car companies were that well off they wouldnt have asked for state assistance ie ford fiat etc.

[Eric]

Originally Posted by cmonstanley

f the car companies were that well off they wouldnt have asked for state assistance ie ford fiat etc.

If you are talking Ford in the US, it might be worth noting that they were the only one of the Big Three that didn't ask for a govt. bailout.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by cmonstanley

but remember them days the majority of people couldnt afford bmws audis .if you go to the dealership holdings giant car parks they are full to capacity with thousands of cars.if the car companies were that well off they wouldnt have asked for state assistance ie ford fiat etc.

How the hell can you remember them days, you can't remember to give answers to questions you were asked on here yesterday, never mind them days being over 30 years ago

[maxthecollie]

Originally Posted by jaysay

Anybody remember the Spectrum computer, I use the word computer in very lose terms, the programs came on a tape and you had to load it through a portable tape player, those were the days

Yep used to have a zx spectrum and used to get magazines to make your own programmes. Beep 1 comma 2

[Restless]

My first computer ! <3

I have a friend that has kept all his computer stuff cluttering his house. He says when he gets chance to bundle it, I can have his spectrum stuff.... waiting

Still play spectrum games once in a while on xbox1... emulators

[DtheP47]

Originally Posted by Eric

By the way, last year I rode one of the new Triumphs .... fantastic bike. Gone are the quirky Amal carbs and the Lucas "Prince of Darkness" electrics.

Only assembled in the UK Dr E..parts sourced from all over...cost of aquisition again

[gpick24]

My first computer - Sord M5 - What a complete pile of dog doo, and a vectrex console. Loved the Vectrex.

[cmonstanley]

Originally Posted by Eric

If you are talking Ford in the US, it might be worth noting that they were the only one of the Big Three that didn't ask for a govt. bailout.

they only got 5.9 billion dollars in low interest loans from the us goverment in 2009 which kinda resembles a bail out.

[GEaston]

American car companies took over where British Leyland left off. US car industry is though rather unique. In the pre-war period there were three principal manufacturers of cars: USA, Japan and Germany. Two of those were carpet bombed or nuked taking competition out of he market altogether. Free of competition and stoked by demand at home ridiculous creations with large fins came out of Detroit and that city became the 4th largest in the USA.

USA didn't need to create good cars to sell them, and that legacy is kept alive by govt today. Daimler Benz thought they could take on the problem, solve the issues in production and sort out quality and it nearly bankrupted them. Expensive and rare mistake for the Germans.

USA govt bailed the American car industry because the political price of not doing so was too great. Remember they do all have guns and as was demonstrated by Katrina it took only 24 hrs for the complete degeneration of society in a crisis. Detroit was already a car crash so closing this terrible industry was not a realistic option for Bush although he must have hated having to bail them out (went against everything he stood for).

Point made about Triumph bikes was an interesting one but its not the same company. Triumph went to the wall for making a bad product that no one bought. The name was then bought about 20 years later and newco started producing bikes unrelated to the old (but was able to ride on nostalgia, that many people have for the past with new and unrelated product).

[Eric]

Originally Posted by GEaston

Point made about Triumph bikes was an interesting one but its not the same company. Triumph went to the wall for making a bad product that no one bought. The name was then bought about 20 years later and newco started producing bikes unrelated to the old (but was able to ride on nostalgia, that many people have for the past with new and unrelated product).

I'm aware of this ... but Triumph is a British enterprise. An intelligent one too. Cashing in on an iconic brand. And it's still a damned fine bike. And do try to be less condescending. Most folks on here know shlt from shinola.