Yet more loses for Britain's car industry.

[Dinner]

Last year it was MG/Rover going bust (though a Chinese company has said they might restart limited production using Chinese made parts), then Peugot closed its UK factory, and now Vauxhall is slashing 1000 jobs. The UK car industry hasn't gotten a break in 30 years.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4774655.stm

[DaShi]

The UK has a car industry?

[Dinner]

Not any more. Or close to it.

[bipolarbear]

You fascists are ignoring the REAL issue here. The liberalconservative biased media which is clearly back by Big Oil and their Gas Guzzling counterparts (the car industry) are keeping the focus solely on them.

Nobody is focusing on the hell that the Horse and Buggy industry has had to go through in the past decade.

Ok, sorry I just really wanted to pretend I was an angsty teenager again. But yeah how does the UK have room fora car industry, aren't approximately as large as Oregon?

[VetLegion]

Nobody is focusing on the hell that the Horse and Buggy industry has had to go through in the past decade.

[Solly]

Au contraire - British car manufacturing is quite strong. See chart.

[CerberusIV]

The problem for the Ellesmere Port plant is that they make the Vauxhall/Opel Astra for sale throughout Europe. Ever driven an Astra? Mediocre is the best description I can think of.

GM sucks, whether it is in Europe or the USA.

[VetLegion]

Astra is very popular around here.

[Gangerolf]

Astra isn't bad. It's predecessor, the Kadett otoh . My uncle had one of those.

[Barnabas]

I dont know any british car.

[Kontiki]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
I dont know any british car.

You've never heard of Jaguar, Aston Martin, Rolls Royce, Bentley or Range Rover? Granted, none of those are British owned any more, but they're all traditionally British brands.

[Dauphin]

Amusingly, one reason being banded about is that the UK is suffering from it being too easy to sack workers. So the French and Germans get to keep their workers making their cars because they can't be sacked.

[snoopy369]

How are you supposed to grow in fat times and cut back in lean times if you can't sack workers? Don't those silly continentals realize that preventing the sacking of workers just limits the HIRING of workers, thus decreasing employment

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by bipolarbear
Nobody is focusing on the hell that the Horse and Buggy industry has had to go through in the past decade.

Danny DeVito has...

You know, at one time there must've been dozens of companies making buggy whips. And I'll bet the last company around was the one that made the best goddamn buggy whip you ever saw. Now how would you have liked to have been a stockholder in that company? You invested in a business and this business is dead. Lets have the intelligence, lets have the DECENCY to sign the death certificate, collect the insurance, and invest in something with a future.

-- Lawrence Garfield (DD), Other People's Money

[CerberusIV]

Originally posted by Kontiki


You've never heard of Jaguar, Aston Martin, Rolls Royce, Bentley or Range Rover? Granted, none of those are British owned any more, but they're all traditionally British brands.

Some of those brands are also losing money, at least Jaguar and Aston Martin are costing Ford billions to prop up.

Astras aren't bad, it's just that the Ford Focus and some of the Japanese alternatives are rather better.

The one about it being cheaper to close factories in Britain has been around for a couple of decades. The decision is usually more about the cost of manufacturing in a particular country and whether the unions will agree a new deal or not.

The basic problem is that the car manufacturers in Europe have been making more cars than they can sell for several years.