The demise of the British car industry

[Poi E]

Ahh, the venerable K11.

 

[DownwardDog]

I think overall reliability and potential longevity probably peaked in the late 1990s with Japanese cars. Now, cars only need to last the length of a couple of finance deals before recycling. No point in over-engineering things anymore. Sure, cars are more reliable overall, though. When did you last see someone spraying some points on a frozen morning?

Just before Xmas I flipped a '97 R33 GTR that had just come off the boat from Japan and the build quality on that thing was incredible. Even the fuse box cover felt like it would stop a bullet.

 

[SpookyFrank]

One of the reasons I'm loathe to part with my 2001 Micra, it (touch wood) just keeps on running.......the bodywork is finally starting to age, though

Lots of old micras still on the roads, they just don't seem to die. My dad sold his 2001 micra a few years back and bought a Citroen instead. The Citroen, being French, died shortly after but the micra is still going strong

 

[Chz]

Ahh, the venerable K11.

K12s are also pretty damned durable, though perhaps slightly less indestructable. Then they shifted production to India with the joint Suzuki venture and...

 

[Poi E]

I've only driven fast Jap cars, not European stuff, but the most fun I have had in a car was in a K10 Micra with twin carbs whacked on it. Stupid, huh?

 

[Slo-mo]

Meanwhile, public transport has increased in cost massively in relative terms, deregulated schools mean people driving halfway across cities to drop off their kids in the morning, people can't afford to live near their work/relatives (and don't stay at the same employer long term so can't plan their lives and housing around this), generation rent upping sticks every 12 months moving from one area to another and so on, all one big fucking inefficient free market mess.

Yes.

Also,one trend that started in the late 80s, continued into the 90s and 00s was firms moving out of towns and then expecting employees to pick up the tab of getting there. Over the last decade we've probably seen that trend slow a little- new business premises tend to be in towns again, and bus companies have finally started serving some of the out of town business parks as well. Even so, that genie is hard to put back it its bottle and it's amazing how many job adverts state 'own transport essential due to location', then offer a pitance of a salary for the employee to pay for said transport.

By the way, London was probably one of the very few places this didn't happen, possibly because being a City law firm, a Harley Street doctors, a West End media company has a certain cache you don't get being based in a business park in rural Hertfordshire, and one of the places firms *did* move to, Canary Wharf, has very good public transport.