The UK car Industry hits a 10 year manufacturing high.

[Bill M]

As the British car industry is often cited by some here as an example of where things can go wrong it is currently an example of what can happen under intelligent stewardship by the right people for the good of the nation.

http://www.motortrader.com/motor-tra...igh-21-01-2016

This report is very interesting...

http://thecarsoftomorrow.com.au/wp-c...lleJackson.pdf

[Express]

A tradition of multiple home grown manufacturers, a large population, a small geographic area and overseas markets and component suppliers just a short swim away means the UK is already well in front of Australia as a business model before the company doors open.

[Bill M]

Originally Posted by Express

A tradition of multiple home grown manufacturers, a large population, a small geographic area and overseas markets and component suppliers just a short swim away means the UK is already well in front of Australia as a business model before the company doors open.

One would accept those factors as a baseline anyway, if you read the second article then that is the main point in how a country comes together to formulate good policy that will set the pace in the succeeding decades in the broad view on manufacturing.

We can be more than just FIFO workers at remote mine-sites or agricultural producers at the mercy of fickle weather cycles.

Sure, this will bore some and generate the usual chest beatings from naysaying heads in the sand but there will be some who get it and think beyond the blinkers.

Off to check out the Ford 6 forums.

[Sprintey]

+1 on good long term policy. Cannot place enough emphasis on this.

That 2nd report is a good read, Bill. You get it. 77% is exported now after a disasterous early 2000's. Best quote for me, p9, "Not about picking winners - using government intervention to support existing strengths capable of delivering sustained growth."

Range Rover Sport, yes please, logical replacement of Territory.

[AUXRII]

Originally Posted by Bill M

We can be more than just FIFO workers at remote mine-sites or agricultural producers at the mercy of fickle weather cycles.

We could have been more than just FIFO workers at remote mine-sites or agricultural producers at the mercy of fickle weather cycles.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by AUXRII

We could have been more than just FIFO workers at remote mine-sites or agricultural producers at the mercy of fickle weather cycles.

You join up today and this is your first post ? Well done.

[mike_nofx]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

You join up today and this is your first post ? Well done.

Umm... maybe get ready for a thread about an old man saying his 8 is quicker than his 6T?

[Bill M]

Originally Posted by AUXRII

We could have been more than just FIFO workers at remote mine-sites or agricultural producers at the mercy of fickle weather cycles.

The mining "boom" by all accounts is over, for this cycle anyway, I work in the engineering prototyping part of the life sciences segment ( which relies on some car components manufacturers for parts )
There are very senior players who have a strong interest in manufacturing as well who are working behind the scenes, notice the change in commentary from Canberra lately?

Life sciences ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_life_sciences

[Boosted8]

Originally Posted by AUXRII

We could have been more than just FIFO workers at remote mine-sites or agricultural producers at the mercy of fickle weather cycles.

I don't know about you but I work in IT, which is a rapidly growing industry. It's a comfortable occupation and the pay is certainly adequate.

Move with the times or get left in the dust.

[Makovic]

Originally Posted by Boosted8

I don't know about you but I work in IT, which is a rapidly growing industry. It's a comfortable occupation and the pay is certainly adequate.

Move with the times or get left in the dust.

The topic is about how the Brits refused to move with the times and instead implemented a rigorous, coordinated and well thought out plan to save the nation's automotive manufacturing base.
Page 9 Heading Ricardo PDF:

Change came about through improved working relationships between Government & Industry & agreeing upon a long term strategy.

(1) The Brits refused to move with the times;
(2) They implemented a long term strategy;
(3) They turned around their faltering vehicle manufacturing industry.

What was/is Canberra's strategic plan?

See Troll posts to follow.

[csv8]

Motorcycles are doing ok,too, Norton and Triumph.

[98TLS]

Originally Posted by csv8

Motorcycles are doing ok,too, Norton and Triumph.

Indeed they are though had to laugh the other day,bloke over here in NZ finally took delivery of his new Norton Domi (one of 4 designated for NZ) only to have lord Lucas intervene on its first outing complete electrical meltdown resulting in a trailer ride home.

[MethodX]

Originally Posted by csv8

Motorcycles are doing ok,too, Norton and Triumph.

Shame

[98TLS]

Originally Posted by MethodX

Shame

Really...why?

[MethodX]

Originally Posted by 98TLS

Really...why?

They are English... I would prefer marques from the continent to prosper.

Who owns the English brands now? I know triumph has nothing to do with the old firm.
Who saved or restarted Norton?

[Sprintey]

Originally Posted by MethodX

They are English... I would prefer marques from the continent to prosper.

Who owns the English brands now? I know triumph has nothing to do with the old firm.
Who saved or restarted Norton?

Big headwinds on multiple fronts for the continent at present.

[Eaturbo]

Gez, they registered 2.5 million cars and made 1.5 million cars. That's low rego numbers considering we sold nearly half that number with no where near the population.

[Dr Terry]

Originally Posted by Eaturbo

Gez, they registered 2.5 million cars and made 1.5 million cars. That's low rego numbers considering we sold nearly half that number with no where near the population.

Aust's population is 24 mill, UK's population is 64 mill. That's 2.6 times the population.

Aust's gross vehicles sales for 2015 was 1.1 mill, UK's was 2.5 mill. That's 2.3 times the car sales.

That's not bad when you consider Aust has traditionally had a much higher rate of car ownership (per capita). On those figures they are on the improve by comparison to Aust.

As far a the UK industry is concerned, the big changes is who now owns the factories. During the 50s & 60s, most UK car makers were owned by the Poms themselves, e.g. BMC (Austin, Morris, MG, Wolseley, Riley, Triumph etc.), Rootes (Hillman, Humber, Sunbeam etc.), Rolls Royce, Bentley, Rover, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Jensen & could go on. All of these are either now foreign owned or gone to God.

AFAIK the largest Pommy owned car manufacturer currently is Morgan !

Ford UK is owned by Ford US & Vauxhall has been owned by GM (US) since the 1930s.

Dr Terry

[csv8]

98TLS..I remember The Prince of Darkness , very well!! My Triumph Trophy and Norton Commando all had a visit inthe 70's!!! Can they fix it in NZ??

[98TLS]

Originally Posted by csv8

98TLS..I remember The Prince of Darkness , very well!! My Triumph Trophy and Norton Commando all had a visit inthe 70's!!! Can they fix it in NZ??

yea they can fix it here mate...we have had electricity for awhile.

[new2ford]

Though to put it in perspective in the European industry, the production of Britain and France are each not that far ahead of Czech Republic and well below Czech and Slovak combined which, if they were still one country, would be the biggest centre of European production after the giant Germany. And they're all well below the world giants China, Germany, India, South Korea, USA and Japan.

Britain and France used to be leading car manufacturing countries but in the UK case it's more a case of recovery from near-obliteration. Not sure what's happening in France but when I was using the Via Carolina motoway over there it was full of trucks transporting Renaults westwards from where they were built in Romania to France!

The big bugbear with British manufacturing was quality. I'd be wondering whether that's been overcome. Their greatest achievement was innovation - their FWDs revolutionised the automotive world - but they should have had their designs built elsewhere. Now there's no longer a native British company of any size. They're simply an "overseas" plant for foreign majors who are presumably trying to enforce their quality standards to an international consistency as they do elsewhere.

[SumoDog68]

Originally Posted by new2ford

Though to put it in perspective in the European industry, the production of Britain and France are each not that far ahead of Czech Republic and well below Czech and Slovak combined which, if they were still one country, would be the biggest centre of European production after the giant Germany. And they're all well below the world giants China, Germany, India, South Korea, USA and Japan.

Britain and France used to be leading car manufacturing countries but in the UK case it's more a case of recovery from near-obliteration. Not sure what's happening in France but when I was using the Via Carolina motoway over there it was full of trucks transporting Renaults westwards from where they were built in Romania to France!

The big bugbear with British manufacturing was quality. I'd be wondering whether that's been overcome. Their greatest achievement was innovation - their FWDs revolutionised the automotive world - but they should have had their designs built elsewhere. Now there's no longer a native British company of any size. They're simply an "overseas" plant for foreign majors who are presumably trying to enforce their quality standards to an international consistency as they do elsewhere.

Spain produces more cars than Czechs and Slovaks combined :-) . They are no different to UK situation - manufacturing for major players rather than having native industry .

[new2ford]

Originally Posted by SumoDog68

Spain produces more cars than Czechs and Slovaks combined :-) .

Not on the last figures I saw, they'd been overtaken, but yes they're close together.

I guess there's still British innovation at work, mainly in Land Rover, that's one thing that's different from the other "slave-manufacturing" countries. The BMW Mini though is a travesty compared to the original - although possibly more reliable!

Many of those 70% of component parts that aren't manufactured in UK are manufactured in Czech Republic though. There's more to auto manufacturing than just the final product! The Czechs are the ones to watch.

France is a very protectionist country and they're shooting themselves in the foot more than gaining from that.

As for Australia, we're allowed to keep the R&D which is a good thing, but I'm not sure there's much we can learn from the UK experience as our manufacturing base was much smaller and now disappearing fast.

[csv8]

Mclaren is English owned???

[Dr Terry]

Originally Posted by csv8

Mclaren is English owned???

I believe that they are British owned, but what are their production numbers ? Aren't McLarens ultra expensive limited production type cars ? How do they compare to Morgan numbers-wise.

I'm only quoting from an English car mag from around 2014, maybe things have changed.

Dr Terry

[csv8]

98TLS.,I meant parts available in NZ or they have to come from UK?

[98TLS]

Originally Posted by csv8

98TLS.,I meant parts available in NZ or they have to come from UK?

yea i know mate just avin a laugh.Hopefully they can simply replace whats buggered here...methinks that would be better than hoping the oem crap that failed was better the second time round.

[danzvtil]

UK have low car ownership. Running a car there is very expensive. My ex's new bloke has just moved to aust from the UK, hes 36 with no car licence, because he simply didn't need it, they have higher population density and an actual public transport system even in a small village outside of Manchester where hes from.
The contrast is life in suburban Australia where you need to travel 15km across suburbs for a morning shift, but there are no busses until 6 am. He is now getting a license because transport here is a necessity.

[csv8]

MethodX...http://www.nortonmotorcycles.com/bikes/ John Bloor bought the Triumph company, and re-established Triumph.

[csv8]

Nursing graduates aren't getting jobs because of 457...