- Jul 18, 2017
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Worth watching until the end. Notice how the UK was second from top and then disappears out of sight. I wonder why? https://para-rigger.posthaven.com/top-ten-car-producing-countries-1950-2019
Top ten car producing countries
- Thread starter Buckman
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- Jul 18, 2017
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- May 7, 2012
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Possibly we are less nationalistic than most and buy other peoples products more readily.
On top our home grown manufacturers mostly ended up in one totally useless conglomerate, the foreign owned ones found production elsewhere cheaper, and when it came to choosing a site to close our labour laws made it cheaper to sack staff here than in other countries.
On top our home grown manufacturers mostly ended up in one totally useless conglomerate, the foreign owned ones found production elsewhere cheaper, and when it came to choosing a site to close our labour laws made it cheaper to sack staff here than in other countries.
I think the notion of "buying foreign" really caught on in the 70s when British auto products proved hugely unreliable. (antiquated manufacturing methods, too much concern for share holders rather than investment, and bolshie unions) Japanes imports, although incredibly boring, proved also to be incredibly reliable.
In the 50s and early 60s the sight of a foreign manufactured car was a relative rarity confined mostly, if my memory serves me correctly, to Renaults (Dauphine) and Simcas. I don't really remember many German produced cars at all.
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- Nov 11, 2009
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Showing my age but anyone remember Wartburgs? The Peugot 504 was a fabulous car, and the first Skodas and Citroen Ami and Dyane.
The british cars had some very good design concepts but unreliability dogged them. All models from all countries shared a common attribute.....rust. First successful mass produced car to defeat it was the .......?
Today’s cars rarely excite me and the choice for many is which clone to have.
The british cars had some very good design concepts but unreliability dogged them. All models from all countries shared a common attribute.....rust. First successful mass produced car to defeat it was the .......?
Today’s cars rarely excite me and the choice for many is which clone to have.
- Jul 18, 2017
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Most definitely. My boss exported one to Rhodesia and used it for many years. Basically the old DKW two stroke engine. Do you remember the DKW forerunner of the Audi? He was using the incorrect mixture resulting in smoke billowing out from the car. The half shaft eventually went on it, but otherwise it was still in good nick 10 years later having travelling thousands of miles on rough terrain in Africa.
- Nov 11, 2009
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Cannot recall what the DKW looked like but I do remember Saab 2 strokes doing well in rallies.
- Jun 16, 2020
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After the fall of the Berlin wall I was on an a business trip to Germany and my host took us through to the East. So many west Germans wanted to make the trip they had even built a new road. Went across the border, saw the watch towers covered in graffiti, and through a wide area of no-mans land. No cultivated fields or farm animals at all. On the arrival at a small town which had not seen a lick of paint for 40 years or so the other thing to stand out was the cars. Many western visitors with new looking BMW's and Mercedes mixed with Wartburgs and Trabants.
John
- Jul 18, 2017
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- Nov 11, 2009
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What about it’s predecessor the Moskvitch.You forgot the Lada. LOL!
In the early 1990s I had a Skoda Estelle as a run about. I took it to the port area to see a Trident submarine depart. On completion I offered a colleague a lift back into town. There were two cars parked up. One the CEOs Daimler Jaguar and my Skoda. The colleague walked over to the passenger door of the DJ. Couldn’t believe that in my job I drove as he said “ a Commie car”.
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Don’t knock a ‘Trabbie’. Pal of mine had a customer who imported these curious little cars. Glass Reinforced Cardboard body panels and the simplest little two stroke engine. I remember one very cold winter with a lot of snow he had a trabbie parked in the open air for about a month as he was unwell. His 300Tdi Landie parked next to it. When he felt well enough to go out again he dug out the Landie which simply refused to start. I went over to help him out but it was having none of it. In desperation he got the keys to the trabbie which happily fired up first time and drove out of its snowdrift cocoon. He used it for a couple of weeks until he sorted the Landie but kept it and still uses it regularly.
The Lada, Polski Fiat and the FSO Polonez however from the same era were just dire.
The Lada, Polski Fiat and the FSO Polonez however from the same era were just dire.
Several later Austin Rover engines like the O-series and M-series were just developments of the B-series - the K-series was generally good but let down by the head gasket failure issues.
- Jun 16, 2020
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So do I, my brother had one also a good friend. So in our teens we would go around in it. The girls loved being in the dicky seats especially going through the Mersey Tunnel. I nearly bought the one off my friend but my now wife announced that she was pregnant.
3 windscreen wipers which turned on individually and needed synchronising , Also a right hand, 3 speed column change.
John
- Mar 14, 2005
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In the late 50's and early 60's most German manufacturers had their hands full to satisfy the needs of the local market and they didn't have the production capacity for much export. Because of lack of buying power of the average German they concentrated on small cars such as the Glas, NSU, Lloyd, Goliath, etc. Only expensive cars such as Mercedes and Porsche were exported in large numbers and these went mainly to North America, simply because the local market was not affluent enough to buy them. However, as people here in Europe were starting to earn more money, the small car manufacturers faded away. They didn't have the resources to develop proper family sized cars, so if they didn't close down of their own accord like Messerschmidt, Heinkel, Kleinschnittger, they were taken over, like Lloyd and Goliath, which went to Borgward, Glas which went to BMW and NSU which went to Auto Union, later Audi. By the early 70's it became obvious that only the largest would survive. Borgward was the first to go in 1963. The reason for its disappearance was for much the same reason as Jensen in the UK (towards the end, too many models for the size of company). BMW was the only company that successfully made the transition from the small car (Isetta) to volume production, but that was touch-and-go for quite a while in the early 60's.
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