British Leyland

[Seafarer1966]

Talking of damp HT electrics I well remember putting condoms on the distributor cap of a Renault 5 to keep it dry.

 

[Bodgedbuild]

The old Rover 200 with the Honda running gear lasted well, the one linked has been saved, it has nearly 400,000 miles under its belt!
https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/ne...eads-rescue-ancient-vintage-rover-4521537.amp

 

[Seafarer1966]

Next big rainstorm, wait till it's dark, wind down all the windows, switch off the lights, heater and wipers and go for a drive. Stop at every traffic lights and throw a twenty quid note out of the window. It's not exactly the same, but it's really close to the 'owning a Leyland car' experience.

I thankyou.....and goodnight......

 

[Seafarer1966]

The old Rover 200 with the Honda running gear lasted well, the one linked has been saved, it has nearly 400,000 miles under its belt!
https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/ne...eads-rescue-ancient-vintage-rover-4521537.amp

I had a K reg 214. Probably the worst car I have ever owned. The difference between the car in the newspaper article and my 214 is that the former's engine was built by a highly trained and skilled Japanese workforce to Japanese production standards. The 214 engine was built by a drooling, gibbering muppet at Longbridge.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Next big rainstorm, wait till it's dark, wind down all the windows, switch off the lights, heater and wipers and go for a drive. Stop at every traffic lights and throw a twenty quid note out of the window. It's not exactly the same, but it's really close to the 'owning a Leyland car' experience.

I thankyou.....and goodnight......

I will admit to avoiding BL for most of my life, due to bias, but many cars were poorly designed back then. It was always a case of choosing the best of a bad bunch. I had leaky Vauxhalls, Fords where the inner wings would be so weak as to try to kiss in the middle, all would need lots of filler after a few years, all needed lots of regular attention to keep them reliable. The only car I had back then which proved reliable, was a SAAB.

Quality and reliability began to improve through the 90's. now its quite rare to see a rusty vehicle, even in the scrap yards, things have improved so much. Now they go in the scrap yard not because they are worn out, rather that the cost of repairs makes them simply uneconomic.

 

[Seafarer1966]

The headteacher of my grammar school always drove Saabs. They were considered a luxury car back in the 70's. Beautifully made and very reliable. They didn't go rusty because as also with Volvos, Sweden has large reserves of iron ore and produces high grade steel. A lot of cars until twenty years ago....not just Leylands and Fords....but Fiats, Lancias etc. used panels produced from melted down scrap.

Things went wrong for Saab when they were taken over by General Motors.

 

[dontbelieveawordofit]

The headteacher of my grammar school always drove Saabs. They were considered a luxury car back in the 70's. Beautifully made and very reliable. They didn't go rusty because as also with Volvos, Sweden has large reserves of iron ore and produces high grade steel. A lot of cars until twenty years ago....not just Leylands and Fords....but Fiats, Lancias etc. used panels produced from melted down scrap.

Things went wrong for Saab when they were taken over by General Motors.

saab refused to bow to gm pressure to build crap . when their backs were turned saab continued to plow money into quality and gm pulled the plug.
who owns vauxhall now? peugeot isn’t it.
the irony.

 

[mointainwalker]

Things went wrong for Saab when they were taken over by General Motors.

That's not really true. They had been scraping along on the edge of financial disaster for a long time beforehand.

 

[Stivino]

A lot of cars until twenty years ago....not just Leylands and Fords....but Fiats, Lancias etc. used panels produced from melted down scrap.

They still do and have done for a very long time. Recycled steel is every bit as good good as "new" steel.
Steel, aluminium and many other metals can be recycled many times and produce a very high quality product.
I can remember the urban myth from fifty years ago that American cars were cr@p because they were made from recycled tin cans.

 

[dontbelieveawordofit]

That's not really true. They had been scraping along on the edge of financial disaster for a long time beforehand.

like many other manufacturers. but gm blocked a chinese buyout iirc that put the final nail in.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The best steel, I heard suggested, is the steel from ships built around the time of WWI. I read that they recover steel from sunken ships of around that time, simply for the quality of the steel which is not recycled.

They still do and have done for a very long time. Recycled steel is every bit as good good as "new" steel.
Steel, aluminium and many other metals can be recycled many times and produce a very high quality product.
I can remember the urban myth from fifty years ago that American cars were cr@p because they were made from recycled tin cans.

So what has changed between the 60's and 70's steel and the modern steel which doesn't start rusting the moment a car comes out of the show room?

 

[Stivino]

So what has changed between the 60's and 70's steel and the modern steel which doesn't start rusting the moment a car comes out of the show room?

That has more to do with the coating and protection given to the steel that the quality of the steel itself.

 

[mointainwalker]

I read that they recover steel from sunken ships of around that time, simply for the quality of the steel which is not recycled.

I have read that it is particularly valuable as it was produced before the era of atmospheric atomic-bomb tests and is therefore uncontaminated by radiation.There are apparently numerous applications where this is of great importance and worth great expense.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I have read that it is particularly valuable as it was produced before the era of atmospheric atomic-bomb tests and is therefore uncontaminated by radiation.There are apparently numerous applications where this is of great importance and worth great expense.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel

Thanks, yes - that was what I must have heard or rather misheard..

 

[Seafarer1966]

In the 70's and the early 80's Fiat and Lancia had a deal with the Soviet Union to buy shiploads of scrap metal from them. Italian steelworks then processed the scrap into body panels. That's why Fiats and Lancias particularly were notorious for being rot-boxes (and that came from an Italian pensioner I know who worked for many years at the Taranto steelworks in Southern Italy).