It is difficult not to notice how few of our contract hire and lease cars are British. Where did it all go wrong and what happened to the 1,000,000 workers that were once employed in the UK car manufacturing industry?

It would perhaps be too simplistic to just say that the car industry was destroyed by the unions, although they certainly played a very major role in its collapse, which is ironic really when you consider the number of jobs and families that depended on the car industry for their livelihood. Poor management also played its part as did the governments of the day.

Whilst foreign car makers were getting their act together in terms of build quality, reliability and service, the British car manufacturing industry was slowly imploding. In the 1970’s the industry was effectively in the control of the unions. To avoid industrial action cars were allowed to go out to dealerships in a faulty condition, as finding fault with too many cars coming off the production line resulted in further walkouts.

1974 was probably a low point for the car industry, indeed for the country, with an extraordinary 2,922 industrial disputes across the country. The government had to enter into discussion with the union leaders on a whole variety of subjects, if they took action without consultation with the unions; they did so at their peril. The unions were becoming more powerful than the government. There was however a shock waiting for them, in the form of Margaret Thatcher.

It seems strange now looking back, that no one amongst the union leadership appeared ask themselves the following question; why will the public continue to buy British cars, when the quality is poor, the residual values are terrible, delivery is unreliable, the service is indifferent and maintenance is costly? Well the answer was they won’t and they didn’t; foreign manufacturers started to get the upper hand, some would say it was handed to them on a plate. British vehicles abroad, particularly in the US, went from being seen as prestige cars, to being a serious liability which were to be avoided.

Although there is nothing new about car leasing in the UK it was previously very difficult for lease car companies to achieve what is basically the crux of contract hire; to offer a client fully budgeted costs over a two or three year term. How could they achieve that when British cars had just a one year warranty and were constantly going wrong?

Things are very different today British cars once again have a good reputation but how has that been achieved? Essentially through foreign ownership; imagine telling someone in the 1940’s that Rolls Royce would one day be owned by Germany’s BMW or that Bentley would be in the hands of Volkswagen, what would they have thought? Lotus was very British but it is now part of Malaysia’s Proton and Aston Martin that was even more British and supplier of cars to Royalty is controlled by an Islamic group, Investment Dar. Even Land Rover and Jaguar are owned by the Indian group Tata.

There is the Bristol, a company hardly anyone has heard that is a thoroughly British car manufacturer and they have been manufacturing cars since 1946. They produce the Fighter a true Super Car by any measure and a league apart from the more run of the mill Ferrari or Lamborghini. Interestingly their cars can only be bought from their one showroom in Kensington West London, they do not advertise and will not allow motoring journalists to test their cars and yet they have survived.

Some observers say it was inevitable that many of these British manufacturers would be taken over in today’s global business market but far fewer few of the manufacturers in other European countries have been taken over in the same way.

A very positive result of these takeovers is that British jobs have been preserved, not only jobs with the manufacturers but also with the many suppliers to the motor industry and realistically there was no other way these companies were going to survive.

What is the future for the British car industry? Will it regain its market share and become a dominant player once again, with more of our car leasing clients opting for British contract hire cars? Realistically that is very unlikely, they lost market share to manufacturers like Nissan; BMW and Audi, which are very powerful competitors and they will do whatever is necessary to retain their share of the car leasing market.

Should you have any queries or questions with regard to Commercial Fleet Management, or vehicle Hire Purchase, please do not hesitate to contact us. Bowater Price plc 01494 536 536. www.bowaterprice.com.

 

I have always disliked the job of buying a car. It made no difference if it was a new car purchase or a used car purchase. Of course, I had a good time walking around the car lot on a Sunday afternoon and looking at the new or used cars. However, when it came to meeting with the salesman and making a deal on a car or truck in person I always disliked it. Then I found cars for sale online. I soon realized that there were lots of things to like about these Internet car auctions.

The first advantage is the number of cars and trucks. There are thousands and thousands of chances to buy used cars and also a good selection of new cars to choose from. Perhaps you are desiring a certain type and color and you can’t get one at your local dealer. You can go to an Internet auction and be sure to browse many cars of the type and color in the market for. vehicle auctions can have a larger selection than you are likely to locate at your nearby car or truck dealer.

A real benefit of Internet vehicle auctions is the rock bottom of your automobile. You can end up with very sweet savings if you look for them. In fact, you may easily end up with some amazingly advantageous savings when you look to buy repo cars Whether they are run of the mill used automobiles or used vehicles from lender repo you will find yourself shelling out considerably less of your hard earned money than you would expect to outside an online auction. You may want to look into repo vehicles since the creditors only need to rid themselves of the cars and can’t afford to expect blue book value. I’ve been on the receiving end of some incredible bargains on repossessed automobiles.

The only real drawback of online car auctions is that most of the cars will not be close enough for you to visit. You can modify your query using a postal code, but you will also reduce the number of available cars. If you have a lot of friends throughout the country you could be able to make a deal to have your buddy check out a auto in their location on your behalf. You may be able to acquire unbiased value determinations and vehicle histories before you commit to bidding on that intended car.

Any time you are in the market for a used or new car you may want to shop at automobile auctions during your shopping process. In the event you do not decide to purchase with one of the Internet auctions you will at least look at what is out there and you can compare with the cars your neighborhood vehicle dealerships or newspapers have for sale.

Want to save some money? Ever wonder if you could do a car stereo installation yourself? Yes, you can do it yourself! Go ahead, spend that money on your hardware! Don’t spend it on labor. Besides, doing a car stereo installation yourself can be a very rewarding experience, not to mention you can learn a lot from it too. Nothing beats the feeling of seeing your “creation” in action, running smoothly and perfectly.

But be very careful, you really won’t want to damage your expensive hardware. Well, most car audio hardware are no-brainers to install, you’d find that most of the time the parts have specially shaped sockets and slots etc. and would only fit where it’s supposed to be installed. Still, it’s best to proceed methodically.

In a car stereo installation, you have to determine what kind of rig you’re going to put into your vehicle. If you’re a beginner, it’s best you do a car stereo installation if it’s just a simple system. You may want to leave the complicated stuff to the professionals, like installing delicate equipment like LCD panels, motorized parts etc. especially if it requires the creation of custom panels and such.

Head units are one of the easiest to do in a car stereo installation. Fortunately, most units follow the same size standards (DIN). In many cars, once the factory radio is removed the aftermarket radio will fit in the hole. In many other cars, a kit is needed if the factory hole is too big, or not deep enough. In some cases the dash has to be cut. Any car stereo store should have kits required for installation.

There are two types of mounting in a car stereo installation. ISO mounting is when the radio can be screwed to existing factory radio brackets, such as in most Japanese cars. Ring mounting is when an aftermarket radio comes with a metal ring that gets mounted to the factory radio hole or aftermarket kit via bendable tabs. In many cars, dash and trim rings have to be filed to enlarge the radio hole. Once the ring is installed, the radio slides in and is held by snaps. In most cases, special tools are required to remove the radio.

Speakers are very critical in a car stereo installation. No matter how expensive your speakers are, if they are not properly installed, the sound will not be up to par.

In a simple car stereo installation, you’ll probably be using speakers that fit into a factory location. Just make sure there are no gaps or holes. Sometimes building a wood or fiberglass baffle helps reduce holes and gives you much better sound. But always be careful when using power tools around speakers. Car stereo installation warranties usually don’t cover holes in speakers.

For unconventional speaker locations, sometimes metal has to be cut. You might want to leave this to the professionals, tools like plasma cutters and pneumatics drills are required. But if you’re going to insist, a pair of metal snips (left and right cut) will do.

A car stereo installation has to put up with vibrations and other noise sources in its environment. Even though it is impossible to eliminate these completely, there are products that will greatly decrease the noise and rattling, particularly on non-luxury cars. Liners, sprays and adhesive strips and even carpeting applied onto the panels can make a world of difference.