Japanese automakers to dominate Britain in wake of Rover's demise?
The
Japan Times reports that automakers Toyota, Nissan and Honda will most likely manufacture over fifty percent of
the U.K.'s vehicles starting this year. This, following the collapse of British-owned MG Rover back in 2005.Nissan Motor Co., the first Japanese automaker to enter Britain back in 1986, is expected to lead, with Toyota a close second. (Pictured is a Nissan Almera) Certain analysts praise the automakers from the Land of the Rising Sun, finding their influence on the domestic industry to be beneficial.
"When looking at the Japanese carmakers it was like looking at an MBA program for best practice in manufacturing," said professor Garel Rhys of Cadriff University. "The Japanese showed that you could make good cars in the United Kingdom and they gave confidence to other vehicle manufacturers. The message went out that there were no problems with British quality."
[Source: The Japan Times]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nick 9:24AM (4/15/2006)
Aside from the small-niche manufacturers like Morgan and TVR, are there any British-owned marques manufacturing in Britain? Land Rover is owned by Ford, Lotus and Vauxhall are owned by GM, Rover is now owned by the Chinese, and the Germans own Bentley and Rolls...
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Gardiner Westbound 9:50AM (4/15/2006)
British cars from the least costly to the most expensive were quality and reliability nightmares. Pulled into the abyss by powerful unions, British manufacturers couldn't compete until PM Margaret Thatcher changed union coddling labor laws. The Japanese were at the right place at the right time to take advantage.
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Richard Warren 10:36AM (4/15/2006)
#1 Oh, come on-- British cars were great, what's wrong with you?
My Morris Minor ran flawlessly-- until it rained
Same car had wonderful electrics until it was the Prince of Darkness decided to take it as part of his kingdom
Same car same Prince, starter drive, but it hand cranked really well, and they even included the crank
My TR-6 was a beautiful car, which driven on Sunday, went back to the hanger for various adjustments Monday.
Oh yes, the Prince of Darkness took residence in this vehicle also. The top was perfection, so long as it was down, if you needed it to protect you, it still stayed down. The most amazing feature of this car (you'd pay extra for it now) was the self lubricating driveway feature, man when you had an oil slick on your driveway, the neighbors knew you owned a CAR!
So poor reilability and quality? Oh, pleassssssssssssse
Funny thing? I liked both cars and they were fun to drive. Folks talking about reliability these days, don't have a clue.
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Arnie 2:33PM (4/15/2006)
TVR is not British owned. The owner is a Russian teenager, Nikolay Smolensky.
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Yaroukh 2:45PM (4/15/2006)
#1: Lotus is owned by Proton
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david campbell 6:40PM (4/16/2006)
im a worker from rover. how dare anyone say the workforce was poor in any way. try working under threats of if campbell gone home i will f*****g sack him, when i was doing my job? or you are nothing but a f*****g kid or im not f*****g paying him, it was illegal stoppage of payments, this is the abuse i suffered as a steward doing my job. every body i worked with gave 110% blame bad managment
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Mo 2:45PM (4/30/2006)
Marketing is the key to all what happened.. had rover sustained the Mini and kept range rover (the profitable side of it's operation) it would have then survived. Lower prices .. create attractive packages like ones done by Fiat.. target students or new employees. That is how. not put up price and pitch against merc and audi ..need agressive design too japs are learning it now after charles gusin from Reno introduced it. TVR should have gone out to international markets and made publick aware of brand I believe it's the best design but as usuall marketting is zero
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