Why am I'm being put in mind of a grandpa Simpson soliloquy? 
Where did the British car industry go wrong?
- Thread starter fillyboy
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Whoops forgot one on the Herald. Coming back from London. Leisure. Some sort of outrigger broke that kept the back axle straight had to drive back rather slowly due to rear wheel steering. Cheap hefty piece of metal and easy to replace. MOT would have spotted problems with that. This is the sort of thing it was introduced to spot.
Stag - similar problem on the front. Far too much steering lock, too much haste on full lock bent it. Replaced both on mine to even out tyre wear.
Lotus Europa. Passed it's MOT and went to London, work. Rushing through back streets to get on the M1 before it jammed up at the start. A rather long arm each rear wheel suspension swung on. One for each wheel and as hefty as a typical box chassis member. Excellent for maintaining optimum wheel alignment for handling. One snapped at the pivot and the car went all over the place. Had to come back on a transporter but company took pity and paid for that. Mentioned to the MOT man next year and he apologised. He didn't look too closely at it as he saw fresh grease - rare to see people make use of grease nipples. They rusted from the inside out and it had just about rusted through so not obvious.
Stag - similar problem on the front. Far too much steering lock, too much haste on full lock bent it. Replaced both on mine to even out tyre wear.
Lotus Europa. Passed it's MOT and went to London, work. Rushing through back streets to get on the M1 before it jammed up at the start. A rather long arm each rear wheel suspension swung on. One for each wheel and as hefty as a typical box chassis member. Excellent for maintaining optimum wheel alignment for handling. One snapped at the pivot and the car went all over the place. Had to come back on a transporter but company took pity and paid for that. Mentioned to the MOT man next year and he apologised. He didn't look too closely at it as he saw fresh grease - rare to see people make use of grease nipples. They rusted from the inside out and it had just about rusted through so not obvious.
I can remember minis conking out in the wet -also metros....they did eventually put in a plastic cover to protect it.
these days modern engines are full of plastic mouldings covering stuff up.
It was the advent of OHC engines that put the distributor at the top of the engine and into the warm, dry area.
OHC engines had always been around but the 1970's saw them becoming more common on mainstream cars.
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Old British cars should come with WD40 and Bradex Easystart.
British companies are run by hopeless accountants and sales reps that trump engineers, although Issigonis was so stubborn he was prepared to loose vehicle sales rather than fit wind up windows on the Minis.
British companies are run by hopeless accountants and sales reps that trump engineers, although Issigonis was so stubborn he was prepared to loose vehicle sales rather than fit wind up windows on the Minis.
Super cheap anyway they could do it for the masses loads of which sold out of the UK
Not sure what that's about. Maybe to stop us tinkering. They might just as well put a big "DO NOT TOUCH" sign on top of engines these days. Even if the cover is removed, it's difficult to know what most of the components are for on today's cars.
D
durhamplumber
You start off saying cars were reliable then go onto say you welded bodged patched them up.....not that great then....Fanyying on repairing cars might be your thing but it aint everyones.Maybe pre 1960 cars were more reliable ..probably only had a few moving parts and v few miles.LOL I've never read so much crap on any subject before, Leaves me wondering how I got into several in the morning, started it without any problem, went to work and same going back home also seeing hundreds do it going back home. This even before MOT's. Wanted to go some where say London from B'ham well go and then come back. Spend a couple of weeks holiday driving all over the place in Europe - no problem but spare fan belt, plugs and points and capacitor just in case. Never used them but did have a radiator leak coming back from London. Fixed with an egg. Friends had all sorts and no problems either. Maybe one difference to some people - able to service and replace parts that need it. I'm not a mechanic but it isn't exactly rocket science. In fact it was way way easier than it is these days. I know lots of people who have had sensor failures etc on "modern" cars. All makes.
Leyland did do something stupid as electronics went in even when there was very very little of it. They didn't use fibreglass circuit boards so soldered joints were iffy. Easily fixed in most cases by running a soldering iron over the joints but a totally stupid penny pinching thing to do.
When the MOT's arrived I found that I might buy a car with a valid one but it would fail on the next, usually rot. It was easy for some one to get an MOT to sell a car. Probably still is. No problem, get the stick welder out and fix it. Later as earning a bit more I mostly bought 3 year old cars. Exhaust would usually go during the first winter. Didn't take long to find what was need to find a replacement that wouldn't just get through 1 winter. The OE ones would usually last 3 years. A lot of the replacement junk that was around would only go through 1 winter. Usually fitted new plugs and leads and serviced it myself. Looked at brake pads etc and changed if needed.
One trick all along was to learn to be able to get an idea of what the real mileage of the car was and if it had been reasonably looked after. This still goes on. Take a Citreon Xantia. The makers put a tell tail in the ECU and found mileage readings on that were well over what was seen on the dash. Later gear was available to set mileage on all cars to what ever was required. I'd be amazed if it still isn't around. Service history really matters. I sold a Passat once with 98k on it. The dealer rolled back a bit and put a warrantee on it. The engine blew up on that not long after a timing belt change. I wont buy a Volkswagon again - substandard replacement parts. They were sold as genuine Volkswagon. They changed to a chain not long after the model I had so knew there was a problem.This one had a Audi engine in it as well.
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As a kid we used to travel from the North to the South West for holidays, four adults and me in a Mini no opening windows in the back AFAIK and sliders in the front, roof rack piled high with luggage, Grandad puffing on his pipe, still great times thoughMinis lost sales due to the fact you couldn't wind down the front windows
According to this lot there was no way you could have got there. We used to go in the same direction from the midlands in a variety of cars all Brit. Rain wasn't that unusual at times so would try the other coast sometimes. No way a mini would run in the wet - according to some.One bloke even thinks rot can't be repaired with a welder. Since the steel that is used these days has changed may well be true now but the things have always been welded together. My worst job in that area was rewelding the floor back in on a 911 - at least I managed to own one and several other rather interesting cars. All on shoe string.
That was one car I never owned, I liked my bigger cars, with a proper boot space, but I vaguely remember them having a hinged rear window where the rear edge opened an inch or two.
I always carried lots of tools with me and still carry a few and a few emergency spares.
He's just rambling, bless him.
Was not the wolsley hornet a mini with a bigger boot
Yes, and the Riley Elf. Basically same car and classic example of badge engineering.
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