Dash cam from the 1980's

[xvivalve]

The second is better without the music and slightly clearer, but both have some out of focus spotting opportunities.

It is shocking how few imported vehicles there are on the streets as late as 1982!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlRbfCxkhmw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvolPs7D7dE

[sprint95m]

Once upon a time the scrap yards would have had just a small corner for the foreign cars.





Ian.

[Galileo]

Indeed, all British and European made cars hardly any Japanese ones. Ironic that now the car seen on the road most likely to be British made is a Nissan or Honda and Ford are all foreign imports!

[cliftyhanger]

Shows how badly the UK industry cocked up. From complete dominance (partly protected by import duties) to diddly squat in about 20 years.
Still, we all own a slice of history...

[trackerjack]

Shows how badly the UK industry cocked up. From complete dominance (partly protected by import duties) to diddly squat in about 20 years.
Still, we all own a slice of history...

Yes and al that time we were "protected" by being members of the EU or whatever it was called at the time

The facts are though that in truth our home grown cars were not all that good unless they were upmarket ones. A Marina for instance should never have gone into production in the first place.

[xvivalve]

The facts are though that in truth our home grown cars were not all that good unless they were upmarket ones. A Marina for instance should never have gone into production in the first place.

To be fair, neither were the Renault 5, Toyota Corolla, Datsun Sunny, FIAT 124...motoring for the masses was just low quality world wide.

[cliftyhanger]

But at least the "foreign" cars would start on a damp day
I agree with TJ, the British offerings, especially BL, were way behind the imported cars.

[Galileo]

Shows how badly the UK industry cocked up. From complete dominance (partly protected by import duties) to diddly squat in about 20 years.
Still, we all own a slice of history...

Yes and al that time we were "protected" by being members of the EU or whatever it was called at the time

The facts are though that in truth our home grown cars were not all that good unless they were upmarket ones. A Marina for instance should never have gone into production in the first place.

Don't forget that we had not been in the EU for that long in car lead times by 1980. There are a lot of reasons for the decline in the British car industry and I'm not going for the usual union route either but the mistakes of the Ryder report, the desire by Tony Benn for a single global manufacturer the size of Ford and GM by amalgamating existing companies, the forced merger of BMC and BL that was much to the detriment of the then profitable BL, the insistence on factories being built in unemployment blacksports e.g. Speke. Triumph in the late 60s and early 70s was profitable and forward looking, they knew that the European market was key to them hence the Malines factory, and that the commonwealth and US market was a falling market. And of course by 1980s British cars in the main lacked innovation due to the little cash for R&D, underinvestment in the right factories and new factories in the wrong place, poor build quality and the constant berating in the media. I could go on, and I really shouldn't!

The Marina was a dog's dinner of a stopgap gar to prop up terrible management decisions! Still, I know some people love them so every dog (without dinner) has their day...

[tony g]

I think Marina TC's are cool, even with trunions

Tony

[GTS290N]

I counted 18 foreign cars, I don't think I double-counted any on his return trip (I only watched the second link).
It's so sad that today I probably couldn't recognise 80% of cars from the past few years on.

[tony g]

Majority of the foreign cars were french with the occasional beetle thrown in

Tony

[Carledo]

Kidderminster still looks much the same today as it did then!

I'm not getting involved in the "who killed the British motor industry" debate, except to point out that we joined the EEC in 1973 and the industry nosedived after that. Coincidence?

Steve

[trackerjack]

Kidderminster still looks much the same today as it did then!

I'm not getting involved in the "who killed the British motor industry" debate, except to point out that we joined the EEC in 1973 and the industry nosedived after that. Coincidence?

Steve

Shame on you Steve! fancy suggesting that the EEC were not useful to us!!! I am a toolmaker and as soon as we joined the Portugese smashed our business and the French buggered up our apples and my turkey dinner now came from France!...………...arghhh I have fallen off me damn soap box and am slushing around in a butter mountain. Never mind though my kitchen has been beautifully built by a Polish gentleman.

[Galileo]

So this topic got political, moved to OFF TOPIC, where my last post got deleted, and then half the thread has been resurrected over here and remains with the anti-EU stuff. And you wonder why some people are put off the forums...