British Leyland

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they're not paid for running the company, they're not paid for setting the policy and ethos, they're not paid for setting the employment and personnel practices. They're not paid for deciding how much the company should invest in improvements, training or machinery, and how much it should distribute to shareholders.

Who do you think is?
 
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I wonder who Brig thinks is paid for running the company, setting the policy and ethos, setting the employment and personnel practices. and for deciding how much the company should invest in improvements, training or machinery, and how much it should distribute to shareholders.

It certainly isn't the assembly-line drones, or the warehousemen, or the canteen workers.

Can Brig guess who it is?
 
BL cars were dire, in terms of being rushed into production before the designs were fully completed, shoddy build quality and reliability. Thinking back to when I was first driving in my teens and had an Austin Allegro :oops: it seemed normal to have something break almost weekly. A steering rack retaining bracket shearing off in a Motorway contraflow was the final straw.

Sad really when you consider the once proud heritage of Austin, Rover, Morris, Wolseley, Triumph etc. all gone. Only the marques that were sold off to other manufacturers continue such as Jaguar, Mini, MG, & Land Rover.

Some feel that bringing several manufacturers together under one BL badge was the problem. If so, how come the Germans managed it extremely successfully under 'Auto Union' or Audi as it's known today and symbolised by the rings of the individual companies in their logo....Hmmm....I think securespark's post probably explains.

Really ???

Most unreliable car I ever owned was a VW Golf… 3 batteries in 18 months. Oil pump loose on engine block (who ever thought putting the oil pump external to the engine block is a good idea). Steering column flexed then sheared off it's mountings - the clutch pedal was hinged on the column…

The only BL car that gave me problems was a metro - guess what - the badly french made distributer would not maintain the right gap.

Biggest problem with british industry is the management is to easily lead by the money grabbing city and the short termism of planning for the future - if a product won't show a profit inside the tax year then it's a poor bet to the city.
Seen it to many times - glad I'm out of it now.
 
You're the first one to pull someone up, if they are not crystal clear on what they have written. And your post could be interpreted in at least two very different ways.
Fair enough.
I shall rewrite it for you.

they're not paid for running the company, they're not paid for setting the policy and ethos, they're not paid for setting the employment and personnel practices. They're not paid for deciding how much the company should invest in improvements, training or machinery, and how much it should distribute to shareholders.
...and nor do they get paid while they are on strike - unlike, during all this strife, the management who do continue to be paid.
 
I wonder who Brig thinks is paid for running the company, setting the policy and ethos, setting the employment and personnel practices. and for deciding how much the company should invest in improvements, training or machinery, and how much it should distribute to shareholders.

It certainly isn't the assembly-line drones, or the warehousemen, or the canteen workers.

Can Brig guess who it is?


When a business has a militant, trade union bound workforce, who is it that has to try and keep the business going, try and maintain production, try and guess how many strike days are likely in the future in order to make investment decisions.

Can JohnD guess who it is?
 
I understand that over many years BMC/BL/ARG/Rover had many handouts from HM Govt but either there was not enough of it, or money was wasted. To me, development of new models was a big problem. Every story sounds the same. The cars began life on the drawing board as a futuristic sketch penned by one designer and plans were made for new running gear etc... by the time the car was pre-production, the job of design had been handed over to someone else, the styling toned right down and the new engines and gearboxes ditched in favour of adapting existing stuff. Witness the A series - made its first appearance in the 1950's and bowed out in 2000.
You may moan about companies like VAG part-sharing, but BL was the master at it.
BL's parts bin was even raided by other manufacturers, Lotus for example.

As for reliability, legend has it that Montegos left the factory with fluorescent dye in the oil so leaks could be traced. Allegros had a tendency to lose rear wheels. SD1s lost rear doors. And, of course, ferric oxide was BLs worst enemy.

BL even made a film about quality:
https://www.aronline.co.uk/videos/video-the-quality-connection/
 
Current colleague used to work at "The Rover", on the "track of tears" (their name for the production line).

Shop floor had no time or respect for anyone in shirt and tie (even visiting customers), let alone management.
They were very well paid, relative to what they did / didn't produce.
They had no pride in their work, and no consequence from poor-quality work.
Quality control was poor, and the product was inferior to foreign competitors' offerings.
Union was all-too-ready to call the workforce out (poor relationship with "management").

While it is all too easy to blame the management, the unions didn't want to work with the management at all; they wanted to wag the dog.
 
I wonder who Brig thinks is paid for running the company, setting the policy and ethos, setting the employment and personnel practices. and for deciding how much the company should invest in improvements, training or machinery, and how much it should distribute to shareholders.

It certainly isn't the assembly-line drones, or the warehousemen, or the canteen workers.

Can Brig guess who it is?

Apparently he can't.
 
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