Why do British Folk Diss the British Car Industry

[Stelvio1]

Really perplexes me??

Evora versus Cayman
Jag versus BMW/Audi/Merc
Discovery/RR versus the foreign 4x brigade

Put a post on here about any of the above and the hordes descend slagging off the Brit option - WHY??

Each of the above mentioned plucky Brits is so superior to Johnny Foreigner's offerings

With my hard earned I have bought 2 of the above Brits and have been well pleased for it!! - cash

FWIW the engine in my business partner's 997 expired today at 26k miles - didn't realise Porkers did that?

[davepoth]

The Evora isn't a match for the Cayman - the philosophy behind it is all wrong. The Evora is very good at being an Evora though, it's just that not many people want an Evora.

As to JLR products, I think they come off very favourably around here.

[deeen]

The Discovery (Disco 3, I believe) is officially the least reliable car in Britain. It may be the most accomplished 4wd in the world, but that's not much help if you need two to give a reasonable chance of having one working at any one time.

The competition you mentioned seem to have more chance of functioning as everyday cars, albeit with slightly less "toy" potential.

So the answer to your question: maybe the truth hurts?

Re-reading your post, depends what you men by "superior", I suppose.

Edited by deeen on Monday 18th March 22:28

[E30M3SE]

Stelvio1 said:

the engine in my business partner's 997 expired today at 26k miles - didn't realise Porkers did that?

There's a sticky in the Porsche forum, have a read if you've got some time to kill.

[k-ink]

I've never knocked Lotus. In fact I bought a new one years ago.

But I think a lot of the other main stream cars we make are crap. Just dull white goods with no proper rust protection. Rather like the 1970's, just with ipod adaptors, turbos and more chav tat bolted on.

With reagrd to the higher end cars they do not seem to have great reputations for reliability - Jaguar, Range Rover etc. To be fair the Germans are not exactly known to be bullet proof either, so maybe that is unfair.

At least we still have Aston. Oh wait...

[Rich_W]

Stelvio1 said:

Really perplexes me??

Jag versus BMW/Audi/Merc

Each of the above mentioned plucky Brits is so superior to Johnny Foreigner's offerings

I don't consider any Jag to be better than the German equivilents. For example the M5/E63/RS6 are better than XFR. Jag may sell less units so there's an exclusivity thing there. But, and here's the kicker, no one I know, old or young, aspires to a Jag. Not even an XKR.

[Fittster]

k-ink said:

With reagrd to the higher end cars they do not seem to have great reputations for reliability - Jaguar, Range Rover etc. To be fair the Germans are not exactly known to be bullet proof either, so maybe that is unfair.

For the last 10+ years Jag has been very high in various reliability surveys.

I don't think people are really that bothered about reliability. Honda and Lexus have always crushed pretty much everything from Germany but it's not done them much favor in the sales stakes.

Image is all to Brits.

[Big News]

Rich_W said:

But, and here's the kicker, no one I know, old or young, aspires to a Jag. Not even an XKR.

I do. And few of my uni friends (who are by no means proper petrolheads) would rather have an XF over a 5er/A6.

[deeen]

Big News said:

I do. And few of my uni friends (who are by no means proper petrolheads) would rather have an XF over a 5er/A6.

I've had 11 Jags, and, having had an XF as a courtesy car for a day, I can promise you that I will never own an XF.

On the other hand, if your Uni friends are not petrolheads, you could make a killing with a re-badged Insignia.

Edited by deeen on Monday 18th March 22:46

[williamp]

http://autos.jdpower.com/ratings/quality-press-rel...

1st in quality, lexus. 2nd jaguar & porsche

M-b 9th, bmw 10th, audi 17th.

So the quality if jaguar, if not perhaps land rover has great quality...

Now we'll be saying they no longer have charachter, an are sterile and effecient. And the press will always mention the E-type in a jaguar article, even if ts about the new range of umbrellas...

[k-ink]

Fittster said:

Image is all to Brits.

That opinion is probably why loads of flash looking (yet unreliable) Range Rovers are sold. Possibly why so many unreliable German barges are forgiven and bought too. A friend of mine had a new shape XJR engine need replacing at vast cost. So he traded it in and bought another XJR. He clearly couldn't throw his money away fast enough.

But on the flip side the most reliable car I have owned was a Lexus. I bought it despite having a dull image. It was a well made tool for a job. Personally I'd be scared of owning a top end German car outside of warranty, as I am realistic what will happen (been there, done that). A flash car and nice badge are tempting to have of course, but it also has to work. So not all Brits are obsessed with image. But yes, it is a minority who buy an expensive reliable car from Japan.

[DaveH23]

Jaguar is probably one of my favourite manufacturers.

Having never owned one i cant comment on how they drive but I realy like them both new and old models and find myself regularly browsing the clasifieds looking at them.

One day :-)

[Stelvio1]

E30M3SE said:

Stelvio1 said:

the engine in my business partner's 997 expired today at 26k miles - didn't realise Porkers did that?

There's a sticky in the Porsche forum, have a read if you've got some time to kill.

Just passed this over to my partner - he intends having a rather frank discussion with Porsche

[Aidancky]

We make sh**t cars

[kVA]

Aidancky said:

We make sh**t cars

I think 'we're st at making cars' is more accurate: We have always had some of the best engineers in the World and have consistently led the industry in terms of innovation and creative thinking... Unfortunately, the great unwashed prefer dull, but reliable, engineering, with a bit of bling and marketing hype to salve their egos and help them justify paying too much for too little...

Now, if only we could put the bloody things together properly, so that the advanced technology works and keeps on working, we'd be invincible!!!

If you don't believe me, take the sat nav system in a Discovery / RRS / Range Rover... Bought from Denso and is a simplified version of the exact same system used in a Lexus of a previous year (or two)... Lexus, No. 1 JD Power for reliability - Discovery 3 absolute bottom - with the sat nav system being cited in more complaints than any other single component / system! How does that work then? (Or not, in the case of the Land Rover )

[ging84]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_...

take a look at the stats here
UK vehicle production peaked in 1963, half a century ago when we produced over 10% of all the worlds cars and were the 2nd/3rd largest producer at that time around the same as Germany. Where they went from strength to strength we produced st cars and literally destroyed our own industry.

Jaguar Land Rover and Mini do now produce some good cars under British brands in Britain, but they are still foreign owned, so it has taken outside investment and influence to get these up and running.
It's a good sign of things being able to be turned around, but until we are producing the majority of the cars we see on our own roads along with exporting all over the world, we have to say the industry is still a shadow of what it was, and a pitiful excuse for what it should have become

[juansolo]

davepoth said:

The Evora isn't a match for the Cayman - the philosophy behind it is all wrong. The Evora is very good at being an Evora though, it's just that not many people want an Evora.

As to JLR products, I think they come off very favourably around here.

^This on both counts.

We make cars with great character (Morgan), with great chassis (Lotus, not British any more), great track cars (Caterham, Ginetta), and huge bonkersness (Ariel). None of which are pandering to the mass market. They have their customers, but just not many as the market for them just isn't that big. Say what you will about Porsche it's a proper robot built mass market manufacturer. They're a million miles away from any of the above.

For the overseas owned larger British brands. JLR are doing very well from what I can tell and are making truly desirable cars. Astons are about the most beautiful cars on the road and have their market. So it's not all doom and gloom. We just don't make anything particularly boring any more. *shrugs* I don't really miss that.

Stelvio1 said:

E30M3SE said:

Stelvio1 said:

the engine in my business partner's 997 expired today at 26k miles - didn't realise Porkers did that?

There's a sticky in the Porsche forum, have a read if you've got some time to kill.

Just passed this over to my partner - he intends having a rather frank discussion with Porsche

Porsche making bullet proof engines is a myth, though the marketing machine that is Porsche these days, would have you believe that they are. I'd also say that they're not the sword of Damocles that some forums would have you believe. But it's certainly something to be aware of.

Edited by juansolo on Sunday 24th March 11:50

[talksthetalk]

Why do British Folk Diss the British Car Industry?
The late 1970s and early 1980s.

[mercfunder]

Rich_W said:

But, and here's the kicker, no one I know, old or young, aspires to a Jag. Not even an XKR.

Who aspires to owning an Audi or BMW?

[mercfunder]

Rich_W said:

But, and here's the kicker, no one I know, old or young, aspires to a Jag. Not even an XKR.

Who aspires to owning most of the German brands? Probably 90% of Audi,BMs and Mercs are lease cars nowadays.