21 replies to this topic

[Cooperman]

The company I had did a lot of work for BLMC at Cowley and Longbridge and I got to know a lot of their senior managers.

Some were strong and honest individuals, but others were weak bribe-takers who just turned up to get their inflated salaries. They were bad at their jobs and the trades unions were obstructive and foolish.

They were more interested in keeping plants going, even producing model ranges which really only competed with themselves. Once it became ARG or Austin-Rover they had, for example, the Rover 2000/2200/3500 which had, as its nearest competitor the Triumph 2000/2500/2500TC. Both nice cars but very similar. Then the Spitfire's nearest competitor was the Sprite/Midget and the GT6 had the MGB-GT as its nearest rival. And they all had different engines.

But if some rationalisation was suggested, the Unions would call a strike and the management would back down, knowing that the Labour Gov't would put more cash in to keep their union friends happy.

It was doomed from a long way back.

It's not surprising that FoMoCo did their 'due diligence' then walked away in despair. Who in their right minds would want to have bought that pile of s**t.

[CityEPete]

I'd imagine Fiesta sold better than Metros because they drove and looked 10 years younger?

[Spider]

I'd imagine Fiesta sold better than Metros because they drove and looked 10 years younger?

 

Planning and designs for the vehicle that eventually fell in to the Metro's slot started in 1974 !

 

In all fairness, in a few ways, it was a trend setter.

[CityEPete]

I'm not so sure, cars like the Fiat 127 had already been around for a long time even by the design date.

[Spider]

Yes, there were a few cars already well about long before the Metro hit the streets, that has a similar appearance and hatchbacks, but there's other things the metro had that were new and revolutionary at the time.

 

Have a read of Graham Robson's book 'Metro'.

 

for one example, in AA tests, the HLE Metro did better than a Diesel VW Golf for fuel economy figures.

[r3k1355]

Two different classes of cars though so not entirely comparable or un-expected.

 

The Metro still ran the A-series, by then 30 years old.

Can you imagine Ford booting out the new Focus with a bloody CVH engine in it?

[Cooperman]

What was interesting was the way the various manufacturers treated their approved suppliers.

Ford expected top-line service, but were prepared to pay a commercial rate for the work/products so that the suppliers could make a fair profit and be there in the following years to continue to give the same good service. Bills were paid on-time every time and if a supplier had a problem the Ford cost engineers would help the supplier to overcome any difficulties. Then along came the Japanese with their UK operations and their client/supplier relations were very refreshing and it was a true 'partnership'.

 

Then we have ARG, Rover, or whatever they were calling themselves. I well recall the point at which I decided I no longer wanted to be an approved supplier to them. I was at Longbridge with one of their 'Engineering Procurement Executives' and was asked to give a price for some specialised work. I quoted the same rate as the almost identical work we did for Ford and Vauxhall. The 'Procurement Executive' told me it was far too expensive and suggested a lower price. I pointed out that at his price I would be making absolutely no profit at all. His response was that he felt that I should do the work at no profit for the privilege of working for the only British manufacturer (yes, he actually said that!). I said that I could not do so and he said that in that case we would not be able to reach agreement. I replied that we would reach a full agreement - ARG would not pay a fair commercial rate for a job and I was not an 'effing charity'. Total agreement  . Then I left never to return. Add to that the fact the it was always difficult to get paid and it was taking 6 months from invoice to receive payment. With that attitude to their suppliers failure was virtually guaranteed. It couldn't last, and it didn't. Ford did the right thing in walking away after seeing the details of how things were.

Edited by Cooperman, 10 April 2017 - 12:44 PM.