Politics and autos

[chuckn49]

It is my impression that, over all, British vehicles do not have a very good reputation when it comes to quality or workmanship. I realize that may be unfair and is purely subjective on my part. Nevertheless, many journals that I have read seem to be very critical of their reliability and that this is not a new phenonomen. Which is not, of course, to imply that they have never been reliable or well designed.
When one looks at the quality of British aircraft during the war, I think a very good case could be made for their design worthiness and their overall quality of workmanship. However, their navy, on the other hand, left much to be desired in many aspects. It had not really advanced much beyond the first one or two decades of the 20th century and was woefully inadequate to fighting a global war as it was really more of a coastal fleet than a true ocean going fleet, I think.
As to their respect for "engineering", Len Deighton seems to differ about that in his very well researched work on the early stages of the Second World War, "Blood, Tears, and Folly: An Objective Look at World War II", when he states, pretty unequivocally, that Germany was able to get a qualitative and quantitative jump on Europe as a whole and Britain in particular because of their superior educational system.
He maintains that the German respect for science and technology was not mirrored in the English educational system where a more classical education emphasizing the arts, was preferred. He goes so far as to say that the educational elites of Britain actually looked down on the physical sciences, particularly engineering and technology. The result was that Britain found itself able to design some fantastic equipment, such as radar, but due to its largely non-technical and generally uneducated workforce lacked the skills to mass produce it. Still, for an island nation largely abandoned by its usual allies in the early stages of the war, Britain did pretty well against a better equipped and trained German force.
I very much fear that my own country is following all too willingly that tradition of disparaging scientific and technological education in favor of more abstract, touchy-feely stuff like psychology, sociology, and, (gag!) law. Hence, we are more and more dependent on foreign nations for our technology at least on the manufacturing and maintenance end. It feels eerily similar to what Deighton describes as the situation in England before the war.

[The Basket]

Not sure about your comments about the Royal Navy. In both wars Royal Navy was bigger and far more capable than German Navy.

The British air defence system was light years ahead of most other countries...not only with Radar and Spitfire but command and control too.

Now...the issue is this. Britain made mistakes in all things. Britain had successes too. Now worse than any other nation. The political comes in when you take one of the bad stuff and make it the argument.

I go on the forum for my car and you do get the chap who comes on and says that the turbo just blew or that it is back to the dealer again. But my car is fine. So who do I listen too...my own experience or some guys who had problems....

[Torch]

The French had some decent ideas with the Traction Avant,DS and who can ever forget following a 2 CV around the curves and up hills in southern France.

[bigZ]

Britain has produced some truly iconic cars. But thats not to say they where the best engineered examples. Iconic is about passion.

So we can forgive if some of those classic Jags used Mini parts and every panel is unique to each car or RR traded on its build quality/bodywork but used the same chassis for decades. Or even if the simple genius of the Mini cost more to produce than what you paid for it.

Chuckn49 Britsh cars used to have a bad reputation in the 70's. Although I don't know from personal experience but watching 'Top Gear' American cars are almost allways slated for their build quality/handling and size.

BTW one of my favorite cars was British born and brought up American.... The AC Cobra.

[Kruska]

Originally Posted by bigZ

BTW one of my favorite cars was British born and brought up American.... The AC Cobra.

Oh yeeeeah....

CobraSS_front_stor.jpg

Regards
Kruska

[Messy1]

I never have owned a British car, but I do have some "limited" experience with a couple Italian cars. I did own 2 Fiat X19's in high school. First car was a total basket case. So rusty that the front suspension was rusted away from the body, we had to chain the front control arms together the haul it on the trailer to bring it home. It proved to far gone to do anything with.
Second one ran and drove, was in decent shape. It was a fun little car. only had it a month before I wrecked it. Hit a fire hydrant or plug head on! I had a permanent V in the front of the car.
But I would not say either of them would have been reliable cars. From the get go my dad and I were all ready planning on finding me something to drive in winter.

[Njaco]

Same here Messy, I owned a Fiat 124 and a Fiat 850. Both were rust buckets! But the 1969 Landrover 88 I owned for 10 years was fantastic!

[Messy1]

The X19 was definitely fun to drive.