Why are there no British owned car brands anymore?

Worth watching.

youtube.com/watch?v=LSYD4a3RzW4

I always found this a great video, but ultimately flawed. He's right on the Japanese taking over the world, but he's completely wrong about their designs being copies and them losing it. Last I checked, Toyota was still the best seller in the world, and Honda is literally up there in North America

I think he mean't how they're not making cars as cool as the 80's 90's were.

Also the British literally let Japan take over since they were too busy on strike and listening to union's BS.

>union's BS.
We have found the retard.

t. Union leader

Bristol

TopGear did a segment on manufacturers and had a whole segment of how British cars got shitty a few decades ago and how Americans got their shit in a knot when Japanese vehicles rose hard in the mid 70s. worth watching

This is partially true. They were still making cool cars, but they were making fewer of them and keeping them mostly Japan exclusive. Take the 8th gen Civic type R for example. The Japanese one was amazing, yet yurop got a shit one, and North America got told to eat a dick.

Good thing is, they're starting to make more cool cars now. I mean fuck, we have a New NSX, a gtr, GT 86/BRZ, a new Supra on its way, Lexus LC and the like, LFA, STi, 370Z, etc. Only if Mitsubishi could stop inhaling dicks for a moment and release a Evo, eclipse, and a few other cool cars.

Let's also not forget that the economy really fucked them over at the turn of the century. Honda was close to being bought out iirc. Shit, they lost money on every Integra they sold. There's no way anyone is going to do that anymore

>They were still making cool cars, but they were making fewer of them and keeping them mostly Japan exclusive.

This happen because of shitty EU legislations, fuck i'd love to have a Jap-Spec S660.

Lotus

Well, mostly because british-leyland bought all of the major British brands, (Jaguar, Land Rover, Austin, etc) and then tanked them into the ground faster than a skydiver with a piano strapped to his back.

Owned by Geely now

Didn't Geely also buy out Volvo and Holden?

Just like to point out one of the strangest production car moves around
Rover 75 was designed:
Transverse Front-engine, front-wheel-drive
They wanted to compete in the performance segment and engineered the car to be:
Longitudinal Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive

Wild

(but still british poo unfortunately)

Volvo yes, I don't think GM have found a buyer for Holden yet.

The V8 was actually a very good car just let down by the fact they couldn't afford to license a decent engine resulting in a pitiful 260hp from 4.6L with shockingly bad MPG.

Oh god was that engine a dog. The number of striped spark plug threads that came with was unbelievable.

It's a shame. They've got mostly sub par reliability, but are usually really fun to drive. My first car was a used 98' Rover 214si. Fucking beast acceleration for a car with only 104hp in a 1.4 K-series engine.

Jaguar Land Rover would still be British owned if Britain still owned India.

>unions
>union
Most German auto workers are in trade unions.

>Jap-Spec S660
A European version would undoubtedly be a lot better. The S660 has an anemic kei-car engine. When the Copen came to Europe it got a bigger engine, but it was still an underpowered shitbox.

Why would GM sell Holden? more importantly who would even want to buy them? the Holden factories in Australia are being shut-down and all that's left are a few engineers who probably don't hold enough patents if any at all to be worth buying. at this point Holden just exist to make GM Vehicles easier to approach and more familiar to Australians but since some of them actually put Chevy badges on their Holdens anyway its likely the Chevy brand would be right at home in Australia vs other countries. Ford doesn't have this problem because all their divisions are called "Ford" so when they dissolved Ford of AU Falcon factories and merged Australian;s Ford performance division in the global ford plan nobody really has to bat an eye. when GM dissolves a brand its much more noticeable.

Is it true that Aston Martin is now owned by fucking italians? This is shit, they don't know how to build proper bloody cars

>Why would GM sell Holden?
It is hemorrhaging money, they are stopping all production in October this year.

> more importantly who would even want to buy them?
That has been the issue. GM has been destroying the brand for the past few years.

>Is it true that Aston Martin is now owned by fucking italians?

No, an Italian investment Firm owns a minority stake in the company. The controlling stake is still with Prodrive.

Not much.

>Britain still owned India.

In your dream, bongs

All that means is that England was a good parent.

62.5%.

if i were bmw id jump on holden and use it for a vw equivalent to bmw

because of the degeneracy of the british people in the 2nd half of the 20th century.

shared this to the lads during our morning shit in the streets, thanks mate

>put all your eggs in one basket
>basket breaks
>no eggs left

>Why would GM sell Holden?
Poor sales in australia. Because aussies are buying other cars including chinese-made cars that are less costly.

>Aussies buying Chinese cars
Not really. If anything Falcodores got rekt by crossovers, not niche Chinese shit.

Just watch. Australia will become an economic satellite of China since TPP is without the usa and the chinese have their own variant of TPP to lock in partners to accept their copied patents/copyrights products.

...

>Be British government
>Get a call from BMW
>"Hallo, Rover is going to shit and we need money from you so we can keep it alive and the factories in your country open"
>"OY M8, WE DON'T GIVE A FUCK YOU CHEEKY WANKER"
>Rover dies

unions were way too powerful, and were on strike all the time, resulting in cost cuts, which resulted in quality cuts, and then they all merged into one mega conglomerate that faced the GM problem if internal competition and cannibalization.

This. There are a HELL of a lot of small car companies still british-owned.

Otherwise, the commonwealth means we still technically own Jaguar Land Rover, because we own India.

Yes that's a free market for you, not like the US where the government keeps bailing out car companies left right and center. Ford and GM wouldn't be around without massive loans and bailouts.

Ford didn't get bailed out like Government Motors

They got a $5.9 billion "loan" from the US Government the same week GM applied for C11, in addition to the $17.4 billion they "borrowed" from the fed in 2002. Unlike GM Ford have not made any attempt to repay the money. All in Ford currently owe $23.6 billion to the US tax payer.

Meanwhile obama took government motors and went against shareholder wishes.

FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGED

Because successive labour and conservative governments have driven manufacturing industries into the ground, including the car industry.

Now mass produced British cars won't happen unless foreign backed, or heavily subsidised.

However you want to put it, Ford got a massive bail out to keep Americans in work after the mismanagement of the financial sector by the "hands off" republican approach. Were the GM shareholders' wishes for the company to fail and for them to end up with worthless stock? That was the alternative.

I am an Indian and posts like these make me cringe so hard.

>Why are there no British owned car brands anymore?

Because their company management was greedy and sold out to other corps in return for golden parachutes and other manager bonuses. Many times, corporations have been betrayed by their board of directors for under the table benefits.

>Because Brits...
Reading comprehension helps. Brits+union means everything goes to hell.

Unions killed the US and UK car industries

Then please sell Land Rover and Jaguar to bongs in a fraction of the price.