After clearing out the attic I came across this book called 'By Car to India' written by Major Forbes-Leith. It's about his trip from Leeds to India in 1924 in a 14hp Wolseley. The book itself seems to date from the late 1920's I would think judging by some of the terminology used, although as Persia changed to Iran after WW2 possibly the 1940's.
Anyway there's one paragraph that made me smile:
'On our way down (from Beirut) we counted four hundred cars coming up to the hills, but alas, only one car in that four hundred was British. In the city of Beyrouth (Beirut) there are over three thousand cars, and, sad to relate, less than a dozen are of British manufacture. Why cannot we, who produce the world's best cars, make an effort to compete in this market, where foreign and inferior makes predominate? Yet, so far as I could see, we are not attempting to compete, and one native gentlemen I met actually asked me if we made motor-cars in England, and was quite incredulous when I told him that British cars were without equal'.
Interesting, after 90 years I am not sure much has changed in our insular attitudes. Wasn't it our reluctance to recognise Japanese competition that effectively almost killed our motorcycle industry?
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Its why Rover is now where it is.
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Love those old books! I collect them, because in the 1960's I ran a bus company that did London to Katmandu 3 times a year. In those days the majority of the cars were Mercs or VW's. Mercs because they didn't break down and VW's because the rear engine was great for sandy patches and being aircooled didn't boil. Peugeots had a strong following and Iranian made 2 CV's. I remember a lot of Pakistani families used to travel between UK and Pakistan in Ford Transits loaded to the gunwales, though. For some reason these always seemed to be painted orange!
My buses were all Leylands, service for which was available in most of the countries enroute, so at least the Brits had penetrated that far, but like your author not too many British vehicles to be seen more than 40 years on. I remember a NZ mountaineering expedition of some form or other which we "rescued" at the Amritsar border between India and Pakistan whose diesel LandRover had blown up and they had been waiting 6 weeks to get spares for it!
You're right about the Japanese bikes killing off the British motorcycle industry. I was selling bikes in UK when the first Hondas appeared in 1962. The Japanese brilliant stroke of genius was to fit electric starters! Then the affordable Cub and the "you meet the nicest people...." campaign. After that there was no holding them. The Japs learnt from their mistakes as well whereas the BSA's and Norton's just compounded them by convincing themselves they were right and the Japs were wrong, digging their heels in and by making the same old leaky outmoded junk with a new paint job hoping the Japs would go away. Of course they didn't....they focussed on marketing bikes which fixed everything which was wrong with British ones, obvious but brilliant.
Their perhaps bigger task was overcoming British resistance to Japanese products ("built on a bowl of rice a day was a common comment"). We had to remember that many of our contemporaries had served or knew someone who had, in the Far East and been horrifically tortured in Jap POW camps in WW2.
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Yes, the reliability and performance of many foreign vehicles is without question but surely one of the main reasons behind the demise of these industries is the British public's attitude towards owning foreign cars. Let's face it, over the years there have been quite a few unreliable and dubious French and Italian motors around but plenty of people in those countries seem willing to buy them if only out of national loyalty to their companies. In addition to that their governments have seemed more ready to prop them up whereas HMG decided this wasn't a good idea long ago. Perhaps if more of us had bought British cars and bikes there'd have been more money for R&D, new manufacturing technology, new models etc. which I believe was ultimately the main reason for the demise of those industries. Rover was badly in need of new models but couldn't fund them, this created the uncertainty which in turn affected demand which reduced the revenue available to develop the new models required for survival and progress.
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" Perhaps if more of us had bought British cars and bikes "
We did, both cars and bikes, and paid for it. My old Anglia 105E, which I think was made here, was seven years old, and most unreliable, as were my Austin A30, A40, A55, Morris Minor etc. I had a seven year old Nissan Micra which still had original exhaust, battery, and never went wrong. My old BSA 350 was not reliable, but was at least repairable. So many Triumphs, BSAs, used to break down . 'I think the timing's slipped, mate', and so on. The Honda's didn't, although several of my BMWs broke down.
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suggest you check out
www.oxford2oxford.co.uk
a couple who drive a morris oxford last year to india....and beyond
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>>>>>a couple who drive a morris oxford last year to india....and beyond
no shortage of Hindustan Ambassador parts!
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" Perhaps if more of us had bought British cars and bikes " We did, both cars and bikes, and paid for it.
That's it, in a nutshell. It does no service whatsoever either to Britain or the British car industry simply to buy British "out of loyalty". If British products don't measure up to what you want, the best thing you can do for Britain is to buy a foreign product that does. That is the only way of delivering the message to the manufacturers.
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" Perhaps if more of us had bought British cars and bikes "
I we had they would still be turning out Marinas and Allagros
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Perhaps if more of us had bought British cars and bikes there'd have been more money for R&D, new manufacturing technology, new models etc.
Lots of people bought Minis. But BMC/BLMC/BL made little or no money on them, which was one of the reasons that they couldn't fund new models.
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The buying British part was just one element of the equation. I believe for example the French and Italian governments have tended to bale out their car industry over many years and the fact that many Fiats etc. were horrid didn't stop people buying them in large numbers. The Rover 75 is far from horrid yet people here still won't buy it in numbers and if we won't buy cars made here who will? The problems of BL were down to far more than dodgy cars, it was also largely due to some the dodgy people who built them or rather kept going on strike. Rover was a far different company from BL and IMO all it needed to have a chance was to bring new models on line. Having not owned a UK made car for some years I obviously haven't been losing sleep about the fortunes of the likes of Rover but then so many people here seem to bemoan its demise whilst at the same time refusing to buy the cars. You can't have it both ways.
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