12 replies to this topic

[zinzan]

I'm curious...lots of votes in the comments for various UK plants, particularly Longbridge and "anything run by British Leyland", the Delorean plant in Northern Ireland, etc.  I don't know a lot on British automotive labour history, but was it really that bad?

 

 

 

QOTD on Deadspin today...http://jalopnik.com/...tory-1595319470

 

Considering how much we talk about cars, we don't spend a lot of time talking about how cars are made. Maybe we should. A car is really only as good as the factory it came from and the workers who built it.

That's our question of the day: What's the worst car factory in history?

I'm sure a few American plants in the 1970s and 1980s deserve nominations, but The Economist gave the award to Ford's Halewood plant back in 2001:

Ford's factory at Halewood on Merseyside epitomised the ills of British manufacturing. The Ford Escorts it churned out were dodgy, its workers were bolshie and the place was a battleground of class warfare. Some said it was the worst car factory in the world.

Old Halewood's aisles were narrow and crowded and visitors tripped over piles of carelessly stacked widgets and bits of rusty metal... In the old days managers used to hide in their offices poring over printouts and emerge on the shopfloor only to shout at workers to get them to do their job better and faster, or even to do it at all, since work tended to interfere with smoking, sleeping, betting or discussing football. 

These days the plant cranks out Land Rovers. It's safe to say it's doing a lot better. 

Your turn: What car factory shouldn't have been building cars at all? The answer can be something from the past or something that's still around today. (Unfortunately.)

 

[mab01uk]

 

Note the strikers placard - "Mini Car - Mini Pay"

 

Lots of archive info on the disputes on AROnline:

http://www.aronline....gro-production/

 

Austin’s Miracle Maestro – all washed up?

http://www.aronline....-all-washed-up/

Edited by mab01uk, 25 June 2014 - 06:12 PM.

[Cooperman]

I don't know whether it was the worst factory (Cowley might well rival it), but it was certainly the worst company for paying their suppliers on time. They were supposed to pay in full within 30 days, but it was always more like 180 days (i.e. 6 months to pay their bills!).

[MrBounce]

I remember reading somewhere that the quality control at BL was absolutely shocking when the Marina was first introduced. One car was allegedly inspected and was found to have one front drum brake on one side and a disc set-up on the other. Not sure if that was a journalist's exaggeration, but if true it is horrifying!

[Tamworthbay]

I remember reading somewhere that the quality control at BL was absolutely shocking when the Marina was first introduced. One car was allegedly inspected and was found to have one front drum brake on one side and a disc set-up on the other. Not sure if that was a journalist's exaggeration, but if true it is horrifying!

typical of the lies about British quality control. In fact BL stand up well when compared to French or Italian cars of similar vintage. Just think about how many 70s French cars are about now and you will see what I mean. They weren't perfect but the real killer was appalling lack of design vision. When VW were leaping forward with the Golf, BL were peddling the Allegro and marina.

[Cooperman]

I remember reading somewhere that the quality control at BL was absolutely shocking when the Marina was first introduced. One car was allegedly inspected and was found to have one front drum brake on one side and a disc set-up on the other. Not sure if that was a journalist's exaggeration, but if true it is horrifying!

I'm surprised they even inspected it, let alone found the fault.

I believe that story is true, by the way.

Compared to Ford and Vauxhall, the entire Austin-Rover 'dis-organisation' (or whatever they were calling themselves that week) was a crock of crap. Outdated designs, poor quality, bad finish and no quality control worth talking about. They had the opportunity to up-date the original Mini and keep that market share, but they produced the Metro as a different model. It was not a bad concept, but the build quality was awful compared to Fiesta & Nova - its main competitors made in the UK.

I stopped dealing with then as a supplier as their business culture was so poor compared to the other companies, including the new-to-the-UK Nissan & Toyota.

They really didn't have a clue as to what the market wanted to buy. The Marina, introduced in 1970, was not as good a car as the Vauxhall Victor FB introduced in 1961 or the Mk.1 Cortina of 1962. The Marina 1.8TC was inferior to a 1960 Sunbeam Rapier as a 2-door coupe.

They really were a hopeless company.

[Dan]

I remember reading somewhere that the quality control at BL was absolutely shocking when the Marina was first introduced. One car was allegedly inspected and was found to have one front drum brake on one side and a disc set-up on the other. Not sure if that was a journalist's exaggeration, but if true it is horrifying!

Maybe so but consistent high quality in mass production is a very recent addition to customer expectations really. I vaguely remember a story from a friend of mine who formerly ran a dealership. He received either an Astra or maybe a Corsa (can't remember which) in the '80s that was a 3 door on one side and a 5 door on the other. How many inspections had that been through to get as far as the dealership? Even driven on and off a transporter by someone! And every single '80s Astra rusted in the same place in the middle of the bonnet in the shape of a hand print. The paint shop staff had to open the bonnet and prop it up before painting, and who can be bothered with gloves right? BL wasn't really that much different from many other firms at the time.

I do agree they had no idea what the market wanted though, and even less idea about their perceived position in that market. They made a lot of garbage and they always thought they were a premium brand and priced their product accordingly. Sadly the public didn't have the same opinion.

Edited by Dan, 25 June 2014 - 09:36 PM.

[mab01uk]

It didn't help that when they merged all these various British car companies together as BMC then BL but rather than consolidate the best designs of car and engine, gearbox, etc they continued to sell cars which competed against each other in the marketplace and even launched new models to do the same, like the Rover 2000 v Triumph 2000, MGB v Triumph Spitfire, while Triumph even designed a new V8 engine for the Stag instead of using the existing and far more reliable Rover V8, so remaining as rivals despite both now being part of the same company as BL !

[zinzan]

Jeep in the US has continued to have some issues themselves....pic of a 2012 Wrangler freshly shipped:

 

[Ethel]

I don't know that the models were that bad, it just took them so long to get them into production most were dated before they got anywhere near a dealership. I doubt there's a single person on the planet with experience broad enough to give an objective answer.

[blackbelt1990]

In the case of the marina with disks and drums, apparently the cars were built with whatever was at hand when parts ran out to keep the line moving. Probably linked to what's posted above about paying suppliers!

[vanpeebles]

I reckon the worst factory would have been the one at Speke.

[CMXCVIII]

It was an Allegro when I heard the story of the three door car with two on one side but strangely, although cameras were invented before cars, no one ever published a picture of any of these three-door marvels! 

 

I'll nominate Linwood for the UK's worst factory and Alfasud Pomigliano d'Arco as its European rival. The Rootes brothers were conned by the Government to build the Imp in Scotland as much as bullied into it, but Alfa were simply forced to head South to Naples. Both were for National employment reasons so both companies found themselves manufacturing beautifully clever, but complicated motor cars with a workforce that had no history or skill for motor engineering but a lot of history and skill in bolshie industrial bad relations! And cars are never made to a high standard when the production line stops frequently and only starts again some time later after the strike!

 

Bill Lyons on the other hand, was a clever old soul! When Jaguar needed to expand in the late 1950s he was happy to pay any price to purchase "The Daimler" [as it had been known before the First World War] from BSA. What he bought, as well as a couple of brilliant designs and a high quality rival brand of Jaguar, was factory space that was near to all his existing contacts and contracts in Coventry and, more than that, a proud and experienced skilled workforce, some of whom had started making "horseless carriages" when they were very young!