Vauxhall Boss Warns Over Uk Car-Making Future

[stormymonday_2011]

The future of car making in the UK could be in danger if the industry fails to develop a British-based supply chain, the boss of Vauxhall has said.

Nick Reilly, chief executive of General Motors in Europe, said a lack of home-based parts manufacturers was the most critical issue facing the industry.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13179589

Read it and weep.

So having effectively done everything possible to destroy the UK industrial base over the past 30 years we can now expect lectures from the executives of multinationals slagging us off for not having a machine tool or parts industry any more. What a crock of shite.

Edited April 24, 2011 by stormymonday_2011

[onesmallstep]

no, no you've got it all wrong, lame ducks, only the fittest survive to prosper and expand, oh and we all end up working for the retail economy, that was the plan anyway, good old Maggie. Some people used to insist she was the greatest prime minister we ever had, I think they've all died or shutup now.

Still at least we know that plan didn't work just in time for them not to make the same mistakes with the banks and bail them out.

[scrappycocco]

He needs some excuse for not selling any cars, the only vauxhall round here is a chavved up 15 year old corsa. They always seems to be following someone else's vision IMO before it was ford now all futuristic trying to be like honda, what is the point. Why don't they realise their position in the market and sell accordingly i.e. "affordable" practical cars for families and old people.

[chris25]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13179589

Read it and weep.

So having effectively done everything possible to destroy the UK industrial base over the past 30 years we can now expect lectures from the executives of multinationals slagging us off for not having a machine tool or parts industry any more. What a crock of shite.

The sad thing is in the UK manufacturing statistics when say Toyota build a car in the UK the final value of the car forms the statistic makeup. So the statistics make our industry look a lot better than it actually is.

But when actually calculated, building a Toyota car leads to leakage of money out of the UK. If say British componentry only makes up 15% of the car, then 85% of the componentry cost is going abroad. Then when Toyota actually make a profit the money goes abroad. So effectively everytime I buy a Toyota most of my money is going abroad.

Perhaps there is one buck to the trend being Jaguar Land Rover. Their cars are pretty much as British as you can get in the modern world. British designed, with British engines, with British body panels from British Steel. But of course they are owned by the Indians, who receive all the profits from JLR's success.

I remember reading how even in their dying days MG Rover brought £2 billion per annum into the UK economy per year. And thats money that stayed in the UK and supported British jobs. Since their demise the automotive parts industry has virtually been destroyed.

[mattyfc]

This article is total crap and the BBC should be ashamed to publish it. I for one have had enough of the negative spin put on to any economic news by the Guardian and its state sponsored bully boy twin the BBC.

Nick Reilly is simply pointing out the biggest weakness of Car manufacturing in the UK. He is quite correct to do this and hopefully more effort will be put in to correcting it.

However the key part of the article is:

Car manufacturing at GM Europe's plants in Luton and Cheshire has since been secured for the medium term.

It was confirmed in March that the Luton plant would build the new Vivaro van, produced jointly with Renault.

Why would GM be planning to keep / expand UK production of their vehicles if “Vauxhall boss warns over UK car-making future”. This is a total contradiction, did the BBC even bother to read the content of the article or were they to busy talking down the economy to damage the government who dared to cut their budget by £350m a lot of which has been cut from BBC online.

Car production was up 14.8% y/y in March, was this mentioned in the BBC article?

Hopefully the author of this article will be sacked first and the BBC will at least attempt to produce impartial news content in the future.

[South Lorne]

This article is total crap and the BBC should be ashamed to publish it. I for one have had enough of the negative spin put on to any economic news by the Guardian and its state sponsored bully boy twin the BBC.

Nick Reilly is simply pointing out the biggest weakness of Car manufacturing in the UK. He is quite correct to do this and hopefully more effort will be put in to correcting it.

However the key part of the article is:

Why would GM be planning to keep / expand UK production of their vehicles if “Vauxhall boss warns over UK car-making future”. This is a total contradiction, did the BBC even bother to read the content of the article or were they to busy talking down the economy to damage the government who dared to cut their budget by £350m a lot of which has been cut from BBC online.

Car production was up 14.8% y/y in March, was this mentioned in the BBC article?

Hopefully the author of this article will be sacked first and the BBC will at least attempt to produce impartial news content in the future.

...the future of this country would be enhanced if the BBC was shut down....like now....

[LetsGetReadyToTumble]

no, no you've got it all wrong, lame ducks, only the fittest survive to prosper and expand, oh and we all end up working for the retail economy, that was the plan anyway, good old Maggie. Some people used to insist she was the greatest prime minister we ever had, I think they've all died or shutup now.

Still at least we know that plan didn't work just in time for them not to make the same mistakes with the banks and bail them out.

It was the 70s that wrecked the industrial infrastructure and we are still feeling the effects today. Labour and the Unions were out to 'bring industry to its knees', a quote from the main union leader at British Leyland in a BBC radio interview some years later.

Thatcher had to run the country in the wake of this destruction.

It is Labour and the Unions who are to blame.

Anyway, more to the point, I've bought UK made vehicles and cars produced in the East, and the later are far better built. I predict all car manufacture will end up in Japan and Korea and possibly China as well (or at least run by Eastern companies).

Edited April 24, 2011 by LetsGetReadyToTumble

[interestrateripoff]

Still at least Liebour invested heavily in UK industry, I mean what else could they have blown a couple of hundred billion in investment on?

[South Lorne]

Still at least Liebour invested heavily in UK industry, I mean what else could they have blown a couple of hundred billion in investment on?

...Labour always 'invest' in waste....

[newbonic]

It was the 70s that wrecked the industrial infrastructure and we are still feeling the effects today. Labour and the Unions were out to 'bring industry to its knees', a quote from the main union leader at British Leyland in a BBC radio interview some years later.

Thatcher had to run the country in the wake of this destruction.

It is Labour and the Unions who are to blame.

....

While it's true that BL in the days of Red Robbo were being seriously damaged by ultra bolshy unions, the management weren't much better on the whole. I know a guy who was a consultant to BL in the early/mid 80s (he was an expert in computerised stock control) and he told me 'I know the unions are a real pain in the a***, but the management were the biggest bunch of w*****s I've ever had to work with.' He was very scathing about them.

The stunt that finally killed BL off was when they ratted on their partners Honda in the 90s to get into bed with BMW, who acquired all the 4wd technology they needed for the likes of the X5 and then spat out the husk, which finally expired in 2005. If they hadn't have done that they could have lived on as a viable Honda subsidiary.

edit for typo

Edited April 24, 2011 by newbonic

[We’re all in this together]

It was the 70s that wrecked the industrial infrastructure and we are still feeling the effects today. Labour and the Unions were out to 'bring industry to its knees', a quote from the main union leader at British Leyland in a BBC radio interview some years later.

Thatcher had to run the country in the wake of this destruction.

It is Labour and the Unions who are to blame.

Anyway, more to the point, I've bought UK made vehicles and cars produced in the East, and the later are far better built. I predict all car manufacture will end up in Japan and Korea and possibly China as well (or at least run by Eastern companies).

All wealth comes out of the ground. Thatcher's loathing of the working classes drove her to attempt the destruction of both their homes and their livelihood, while squandering the heaven sent opportunity presented by North Sea oil. When she came to power, most of our GDP was in manufacturing, engineering and mining. By the time her own party booted her out most of it was from banking. Under Thatcher Britain went into the red in manufactured goods for the first time since the Industrial Revolution, and has stayed there. Her own Secretary of State for Industry said he didn't understand why everyone went on about manufacturing when you can run a modern economy based on banking and financial services. It is simplistic to blame the unions, it has also been said that management gets the unions it deserves. Management had become so feeble and amateurish that militants stepped into the gap with their own short sighted agenda. Contrast with Germany, which has strong unions and a strong manufacturing sector, and strong management.

[awaytogo]

no, no you've got it all wrong, lame ducks, only the fittest survive to prosper and expand, oh and we all end up working for the retail economy, that was the plan anyway, good old Maggie. Some people used to insist she was the greatest prime minister we ever had, I think they've all died or shutup now.

Still at least we know that plan didn't work just in time for them not to make the same mistakes with the banks and bail them out.

yep

Magie put all the might into destroying the steel and mining industry as there was more money for her friends if our self suficiency was destroyed here and the industrys moved abroad, and its just snowballed since then, we are a very vulnerable country as far as manufacturing is concerned and i cannot se an end to it.

Whats the future hold?

[White Craw]

The stunt that finally killed BL off was when they ratted on their partners Honda in the 90s to get into bed with BMW, who acquired all the 4wd technology they needed for the likes of the X5 and then spat out the husk, which finally expired in 2005. If they hadn't have done that they could have lived on as a viable Honda subsidiary.

Yes, the Rover 200/400 (late 80s to early 90s) and 400/45 (early 90s on) were essentially BL-built Hondas, some with BL and Peugeot (diesel) engines; they weren't too bad.

[MarkG]

Yes, the Rover 200/400 (late 80s to early 90s) and 400/45 (early 90s on) were essentially BL-built Hondas, some with BL and Peugeot (diesel) engines; they weren't too bad.

So long as you didn't buy the ones with Rover engines. Or, in other words, so long as you bought the ones that were just rebadged Hondas.

[MarkG]

All wealth comes out of the ground.

Uh, no it doesn't.

Contrast with Germany, which has strong unions and a strong manufacturing sector, and strong management.

How many German manufacturing company unions are run by communists whose primary goal is to destroy the government in order to bring about a glorious workers' utopia (that they will run, obviously)?

[White Craw]

So long as you didn't buy the ones with Rover engines. Or, in other words, so long as you bought the ones that were just rebadged Hondas.

Well I had a 214Si (Rover K series 1.4 petrol engine), bought with 10000 miles and used it for 70000 miles with the only major fault a water pump. I know this car covered at least the same mileage for its later owners and was finally scrapped only because of accident damage.

[alexw]

All wealth comes out of the ground. Thatcher's loathing of the working classes drove her to attempt the destruction of both their homes and their livelihood, while squandering the heaven sent opportunity presented by North Sea oil. When she came to power, most of our GDP was in manufacturing, engineering and mining. By the time her own party booted her out most of it was from banking. Under Thatcher Britain went into the red in manufactured goods for the first time since the Industrial Revolution, and has stayed there. Her own Secretary of State for Industry said he didn't understand why everyone went on about manufacturing when you can run a modern economy based on banking and financial services. It is simplistic to blame the unions, it has also been said that management gets the unions it deserves. Management had become so feeble and amateurish that militants stepped into the gap with their own short sighted agenda. Contrast with Germany, which has strong unions and a strong manufacturing sector, and strong management.

Watch the 'Mayfair Set' for a real eyeopener on what happened.

[MarkG]

Well I had a 214Si (Rover K series 1.4 petrol engine), bought with 10000 miles and used it for 70000 miles with the only major fault a water pump. I know this car covered at least the same mileage for its later owners and was finally scrapped only because of accident damage.

You must have been extremely lucky. Mine got through three head gaskets and two cylinder heads in 20000 miles before I got rid of it, and the local garage had a queue of them waiting for repairs because it was such a common problem.

[Bruce Banner]

Still at least Liebour invested heavily in UK industry, I mean what else could they have blown a couple of hundred billion in investment on?

One of the first things NuLabour did, when they came to power, was to destroy the UK car industry and with it, the UK machine tool industry.

Cars had always been more expensive here that elsewhere, Blair called it a rip off and forced the industry to lower prices in-line with other European countries. Exit the UK motor industry.

[efdemin]

On the bright side, the sort of components that only Japan can make probably require a high level of skill & quality. There are few countries that can do that work (Germany is obviously one) but the UK is not too far down the line.

Maybe we might see a geographical diversification of manufacturing and the UK will win some work from this?

[Ruffneck]

Still at least Liebour invested heavily in UK industry, I mean what else could they have blown a couple of hundred billion in investment on?

Higher quality printing presses , i heard they borrowed the technology off Robert Mugabe.

[The Knimbies who say No]

So long as you didn't buy the ones with Rover engines. Or, in other words, so long as you bought the ones that were just rebadged Hondas.

The 620/Accord were decent cars, in original or rebadged form, if a bit rust-prone.

[Ruffneck]

I remember reading a story about a guy that started up a sneaker shoe manufacturing factory in the USA making high end running shoes.

As aforementioned by the Vauxhall chief he had supply chain issues.Had to import the eyes from Asia , the laces , then it started becoming difficult finding people to repair the shoe manufacturing equipment when it broke , parts were hard to come by for those machines etc.

It is very hard to repair a damaged supply chain.Thats why over 90% of silicon chip manufacturing is done in Asia now , it became uneconomic to have to import all the chemicals , transistors etc into the USA.

[awaytogo]

, then it started becoming difficult finding people to repair the shoe manufacturing equipment when it broke , parts were hard to come by for those machines etc.

It is very hard to repair a damaged supply chain.Thats why over 90% of silicon chip manufacturing is done in Asia now , it became uneconomic to have to import all the chemicals , transistors etc into the USA.

You've hit on the nail there, we had the skills and the the supplys at one time, now even if we did have a manfacturing resurgance we would have a skills shortage which can be changed but most of the components and materials would have to come from abroad.

Even now our metal materials are being snapped up by china.

[Eddie_79]

How many German manufacturing company unions are run by communists whose primary goal is to destroy the government in order to bring about a glorious workers' utopia (that they will run, obviously)?

Which is a good reason to try to remove the communists from the unions, or reduce the power of the unions, rather than destroy manufacturing altogether. Unfortunately Maggie took the simple option and threw the baby out with the bathwater. But don't worry, she and her successors have replaced the old baby with a cuckoo the financial industry, so all is well.