What was the best period for the British motor industry

[JPB]

not forgetting the awful build quality

In reality, although some panel gaps were pretty random and the assembly workers were in the habit of leaving apple gowks behind the dashboards of Maxis (twice from the nine Dad & I have owned between us ), the build quality was a lot more pleasant in materials terms than that of today's cars where we find cheap ABS used in place of vinyl, carpet and card in trim panels, very little wood, none of it real in sub-£30k motors as far as I can tell, wiring that's invariably on its limit rather than being far heavier than was really needed and premature engine failures in at least three major brands caused by shipping cars across with the bare minimum of essential fluids present to save boat fare. OK, so if the delivery drivers took oil with them when going from local garages to Port o' Blyth to collect their stock then poured some in before thrashing the 'nads off the cars on their (often thirty mile +) trips to the showrooms, many such failures would simply not happen but if I had to get there & back asap for piece rates - which can fall quite legally below minimum wage if they don't break a few speed limits - then I'm not even sure whether I'd check and top up either, mechanical sympathy costs!

I believe that PDIs were key to a 1970s car's long term prospects, a good one would uncover and address many of the factory's inbuilt potential disasters but at least they shipped with sumps, transmissions and other places carrying sufficient of the relevant fluids and (for example) the Maxis, Dolomites and their contemporaries were nicely enough put together if you got a good one and another thing; modern motors creak and rattle annoyingly and randomly but in the '70s if anything was wrong it tended to make a much bigger noise and wouldn't take a dealership three bloody days to put right.


Progress? I see no evidence of that.

[rich.]

i remember my first japanese car, a mazda 323 frogeye.. ex driving instrustors car! it was like driving a brand new vwrolls in comparison to the extremely badly built & and always unreliable brit products id been used to.. it would accept no end of abuse & was always good on fuel. my brother was desperate for a car & managed to scrounge it after id got it tidy (some welding where the various dents had not been repaired properly) later on he sold it & scrounged my extremely tidy allegro which he ran for 11 months until it broke down..ype978t where are you now?

[tractorman]

John's stories remind me of the body-shop apprentice in the local BL garage who had got back early from his lunch break and wanted to get on with something. He saw the new Allegro that had had the driver's door resprayed and just needed the mirror refitting. The other lads returned and found the apprentice busy with a touch-up tin - the screwdriver has slipped and he was trying to hide the mistake. The garage did put a lot of effort in their PDIs - unlike the garages we bought the two Metros from - and the difference showed!

A year or two later (1980 or 81), I was working for a firm who had a showroom next to a Mazda agent's yard. There was a three or four year old 121 or 323 (I can't remember) in their yard that had wings so rusty you could put your hand through without getting it dirty! My nine year old Maxi was in much better condition!!

[TerryG]

Rich, If you are scared of spiders a mazda may not be the best choice
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26921734

[rich.]

mmmm incy wincy spider

[Richard Moss]

In reality, although some panel gaps were pretty random and the assembly workers were in the habit of leaving apple gowks behind the dashboards of Maxis (twice from the nine Dad & I have owned between us ), the build quality was a lot more pleasant in materials terms than that of today's cars where we find cheap ABS used in place of vinyl, carpet and card in trim panels, very little wood, none of it real in sub-£30k motors as far as I can tell, wiring that's invariably on its limit rather than being far heavier than was really needed............Progress? I see no evidence of that.

Agreed. Many of the components used today are of much lower quality than was the case a few years ago. I contrast my Jaguar S-type with the (much maligned) XJ40 and can honestly say that the fixtures and fittings in the BL Jag are of much higher quality pretty much all round. For example, failed plastic is the order of the day inside my 12 year old S-type but was almost unheard of in either of my 20 year old XJ40s. Likewise my 45 year old MG

Modern cars fit together better but the bits that are fitted are (generally) of lower quality than in times gone by.