British Leyland insanity options 1968-86
- Thread starter The History Man
- Start date
To be honest I'm trying to think of something insane that BL didn't do. So far the only thing I can think of is keeping the ancient Morris Minor in production until the Metro is introduced, or trying to develop a competitor for the Italian Supercars.
The Minor might have had a renaissance in sales (if renaissance is the right word) if it had remained in production into the 1980s. The Mini did. In which case it would have been an (unintentionally) sane decision. Is it true that the Marina was the Minor's chassis with a new body? If it is true, would putting the Minor back into production instead of the Morris Ital (the "facelifted" Marina) have been sane or insane?
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FWIW when FIAT cars were hand built by robots . . .
. . . BL cars were hand built by Roberts.
The Moggie never had the cool factor of the Mini though. While the Mini was the car driven by Peter Sellers and the Beatles the Moggie was driven by the District Nurse, the Vicars wife and your Gran as well as every other driving instructor.
Perhaps the most insane option would have been if BL built the Trabant under licence!
After making the Morris Marina? You'd figure the lesson would only need to be learned once....
Hey they sold a million of those Marina's. Not bad for what was meant to be a temporary stopgap. They just kept making them long after they should have been replaced by a proper rival to the Cortina.
Don't knock the Marina too much - it was a good car to learn on.
It was a full sized car, so you didn't have the problems of learning in a small car and then struggling with driving a big car.
The unresponsive steering ingrained a need for thinking ahead[1] while driving.
The unexciting performance and poor steering dissuaded at least one young and inexperienced driver from experimenting with excessive speed.
It lowered expectations, so the driver would be content with a car they could afford.
[1] quite a long way ahead really
Giant Man Eating Rabbits
Banned
Agreed
Not to be sniffed at when it was continually in the top 10 in sales in the 70's . . . as well as the Allegro.
They could have somehow talked the government into nationalizing and consolidating the rest of the British auto industry as well. Goodbye Aston Martin Lagonda, Lotus Group, and Vauxhall Motors.
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And if they talked the Government into nationalizing Ford UK the Yanks would probably have invaded. (To save us from Godless Communism of course nothing to do with pressure from Detroit)
How about BL give the SD 1 design to GM in the US for a small amount, but with no profit agreement. GM loves the design, but not the quality of the sample cars they import, so they retool it and produce a high quality car that sells really, really well in the US. Since they failed to make a deal on the profits BL sees not even 1 cent.
I recall only seeing two or three Marinas up close, as very few were sold in the US. The two were probably the worst finished cars I have ever seen. I believe that even the Yugos I've seen appeared to have better fit and finish than the Marinas.
In defense of the of the fit and finish of the Marinas, my recollection of the Marinas may have been colored by the fact that when I saw the Marinas they both were rust buckets eaten alive by winter road salt. Their being rusted out really isn't much of a defense of the Marinas, though, as the Marinas had rusted out in about 2 or 3 years of use. The paint on the Marinas also looked terrible--oxidized and flaking.
In defense of the of the fit and finish of the Marinas, my recollection of the Marinas may have been colored by the fact that when I saw the Marinas they both were rust buckets eaten alive by winter road salt. Their being rusted out really isn't much of a defense of the Marinas, though, as the Marinas had rusted out in about 2 or 3 years of use. The paint on the Marinas also looked terrible--oxidized and flaking.
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Had a go at it once: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/british-leyland-survives-and-thrives.504942/
Not sure how realistic it was