Britain's Second Largest Car Company - The Rootes Group (Reworked)

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Күн бұрын

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This is a reworked and reuploaded version of the original video.
Hello all! :D
Once the umbrella group that held the names of many of Britain's most distinguished car marques, the Rootes Group, in its early years, was a model of efficiency thanks to the partnership of the eponymous Rootes brothers, who helped to make the firm the second largest in the UK.
Sadly, the firm struggled during the post-war era, and while most fingers point to the infamous Hillman Imp as the model that broke the company, it was in fact a catalogue of bad timing and decisions, both within and external to the builder, that led to its long and painful demise.
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The views and opinions expressed in this video are my personal appraisal and are not the views and opinions of any of these individuals or bodies who have kindly supplied me with footage and images.
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References:
AROnline (and their respective sources)
Roger Carr - Curbside Classic (and his respective sources)
Wikipedia (and its respective references)

Пікірлер: 149

@EdgyNumber1 3 ай бұрын

Haha!! I was at Tile Hill College as part of a design foundation year for Coventry University and my design tutor was a young designer for Rootes group back in the day. Billy Rootes would call for something to be designed one particular way then disappear elsewhere to let him get on with it. Then Reggie Rootes would turn up, glance over, and tell my tutor to design it the way he wanted it. Then he'd disappear. Later on Billy would turn up again, have a terse word with my tutor then tell him to design it the original way. He enjoyed the job a lot but the brothers could be a nightmare if they were left to wander the drawing office!!

@theinventor3986 5 ай бұрын

I grew up near Linnwood in the 1970s and knew people who worked there. According to them it was their own unions who destroyed Rootes, but clearly Government interference played its part. They said everyone would be working away and out of nowhere the reps whistles would go off because unions in another factory in England somewhere were in an argument with management over something trivial and everybody had to walk out. He said it may have just been a few days or even a single day, but it was getting so ridiculous that many people who had experienced the unions destroying the shipping industry in Glasgow, were starting to look for other jobs years before the layoffs or closures.

@judgedread-q4t 5 ай бұрын

Some of the shop stewards from the UK emigrated here to Australia, having crippled industry at home they then tried doing exactly the same abroad.

@Spookieham 5 ай бұрын

@@judgedread-q4t They were successful then as they killed car manufacturers in Australia also

@judgedread-q4t 5 ай бұрын

@@Spookieham Only partly their fault by then, market change more to blame.

@postwar46 5 ай бұрын

Agree: and then there was the 'honeymoon strike' which crippled BLSP, though this was purported to not be union backed !!! Non - the - less production of every Rootes model was thwarted because the body panels were not being produced. I knew an operative who was employed at the Rootes assembly plant at Fishermans Bend in Melbourne. He recorded that the Rootes family were very good employers. The union movement was very militant at the time, and it makes you wonder where the flame came from to ignite the woes of the whole car manufacturing sector in the UK ?

@SuperOldShows 4 ай бұрын

Years ago I worked with a guy from Birmingham and he said exactly the same thing about BL and Longbridge. Most of the workers just wanted to do their jobs but they were coerced into striking by aggressive union members. Of course, blame also lies with management and government decisions.

@DaveSCameron 3 ай бұрын

3:00 The Hillman Wizard 😂😂😂, sounds, and looks, a far cry from the first Hillman vehicle I remember as a child which was the Imp!😂😂😂 Cheers again Rory fantastic job as ever ☘️📚

@davidfarrow5620 4 ай бұрын

I had Hillman Hunter in the early 1970’s. A very good family car. I think its decline was partly caused by unregulated unions causing so many strikes

@ChuckKirchner-se6ib 5 ай бұрын

As the former owner of both a 1964 Super Minx and a Vogue, I can honestly say they were two of the best cars I've ever owned. That being said, neither fared well when it came to winter road salting, and thus met their demise. I also had a DODGE Cricket (NOT Plymouth), and a Horizon. My mum also had a Horizon, and all were really good cars.

@Luke-PlanesTrainsDogsnCars 4 ай бұрын

6:05 The Hillman / Rootes Group Australia cars were assembled in Port Melbourne, The Harrisfield plant, near Dandenong was never built.

@davedear929 5 ай бұрын

Living in Coventry i remember all this happening but this video added a lot more information to me many thanks.... Dave from Coventry.

@DaveSCameron 3 ай бұрын

It’s a sensational channel isn’t it, I have been privileged to have caught up with it early on and his knowledge of our history seemingly has no limits and I’m sure you’re aware of his other channel too. Best wishes from Liverpool.☘️📚🙏

@inglepropnoosegarm7801 5 ай бұрын

When I was young we had a Hillman Imp, but not for long. On two occasions, whilst traveling about fifty miles to visit relatives, with four of us in the car, its engine exploded at exactly the same place on a long hill, filling the car with steam. It was replaced rapidly thereafter with a Cortina, which itself didn't last (its bouncy ride made my Mum feel sick, and it had a habit of ceasing to run when wet!) before my Dad found a second-hand Rover 2000 TC that we all loved which remained with us for years until it eventually rotted away.

@philhealey4443 5 ай бұрын

I'm with you on the reluctant Cortina. Ours was utter rubbish in the damp and as kids we were often pushing the bloody thing. I've never had a Ford.

@rogerisleofman 5 ай бұрын

My father's company, Southern Bros (Engineers) Ltd was the major supplier of seat frames for Rootes Group vehicles, including fully trimmed seats for the Alpine. He told me that every prototype had to be driven up to the Roots brothers residence, if they couldn't get their feet easily under the front seat when sitting in the back (of saloons, obviously) then they went back for redesign.

@drstevenrey 2 ай бұрын

Snuffing the beetle. Not that I can not understand the notion, but it shows how little taste these big wigs actually had. The shape of the beetle was just cute and they didn't see that.

@abberationify 4 ай бұрын

I did my apprenticeship at a Rootes Group main dealer from the mid 1960's and dealt with a lot of the models covered in this video. In my opinion the start of the rot was the government "strongarming" the company to build a factory to build cars in a plant 300 miles from it's main operations, just for political expediency. The final nail in the coffin was the takeover by Chrysler Corp. From the start cost cutting was the name of the game , and by the early 70's things got really bad. I well remember inspecting new Avengers and Hillman Hunters that had absolutely no corrosion protection on them underneath at all, just lightly painted floorpans, sills and underwings, so corrosion started from day one. Interior finishing was cut back to the bare minimum on the base models, to the point that a passenger front seat looked like it would become an optional extra, and cheap, thin rubber matting added to the air of something very unappealing to buyers. Sadly, all part of the demise of the British motor industry, that through a number of different factors, killed off Rootes Group and many other marques as well!

@dcanmore 5 ай бұрын

Humber marque lasted until 1976. Reliant Motors was the second largest *'British-owned'* car company, Rootes was entirely owned by Chrysler at this time. The Government loan of 1975 was strictly for the creation of a small modern hatchback to be made at Linwood, this was the Chrysler-Sunbeam.

@DKS225 5 ай бұрын

And also The Reliant Robin was the second largest consumer of Fibreglass bodies after The Chevrolet Corvette.

@dcanmore 5 ай бұрын

@@DKS225 yup, it was indeed.

@gwheregwhizz 5 ай бұрын

Reliant had good industrial relations, produced vehicles with long lives and clever engineering, never had millions pumped in from the taxpayer and performed miracles on a small budget. Throughout that era, it was a well run business.

@drstevenrey 4 ай бұрын

In my eyes the Imp was cute and smart. My first car was a Mini, but I always was eying for an Imp.

@MrDunky48 4 ай бұрын

I can clearly remember hiring a Hillman Imp from Charters of Aldershot in around 1965/6. I paid £4 .10 shillings for Friday to Monday with no mileage charge. I was 18 years old. I drove it from Surrey to Yorkshire and back for a family wedding. It had 50 miles on the clock when I collected it. The two oddest things were the speed at which the engine picked up revs and how sensitive this rear engined car was to side winds.

@malcolmwhite6588 4 ай бұрын

I’m curious Mr dunky how do you mean it was odd which the engine picked up revs- can you explain more?

@malcolmwhite6588 4 ай бұрын

The “STD” brand! I imagine the models started from the germ of an idea that then , I bet you , spread like wildfire and the cars had quite an infectious charm😂

@MrDunky48 4 ай бұрын

@@malcolmwhite6588 it was just a feeling I had, long ago, that compared with other cars I had driven, the engine revved very freely. My comparison would have been Ford Pops and Morris Minors

@scofab 5 ай бұрын

Thank you once again and regards.

@edwardburek1717 5 ай бұрын

Once again, your timing is impeccable - I have just watched a video uploaded by Periscope Films about the 1960 East African Safari Rally, which featured the works Rootes team and their Hillman Minx cars very heavily. The demise of the Rootes group must be one of the biggest hard-luck stories in modern history, just mainly because they were denied permission to expand the Ryton factory. Mind you, even though it's now a huge logistics park, I can categorically say that the site is plenty big enough, having walked along its perimeter a fair few times. Regarding the Hillman Wizard, that was a real clunker, despite the vast marketing campaign. (I know - the marketing material serves as exhibits in the Coventry Transport Museum.) Let's not forget the positive legacy of the Rootes cars - the Humber Super Snipe, the Sunbeam Alpine and Tiger, and the Hillman Avenger - the only reason for getting EA's WRC game.

@anthonystevens8683 5 ай бұрын

I spent quite some time in Coventry and have fond memories of the Hunter and the Minx, I was also a fan of the Avenger and later the Alpine and Sunbeam that did very well in rally's with the help of Lotus. I felt that the Tagora failure was a shame as it showed promise but with the company in decline and competing against more established cars of the class I guess it added to its failure. I remember driving past the huge Ryton factory many times and also remember the seeing the pile of bricks later where it once stood. It's an industrial estate now. Many thanks for sharing.

@o8thman812 5 ай бұрын

Owned several great cars in my 66yrs, with a coupla shockers on that list too... The one I miss the most for many reasons is the Hillman Hustler...

@andrewrussell4707 4 ай бұрын

Something that I was told about, but have never been able to get confirmation it actually happened. I understand all the bile being vented about 'bolshy unions' and lazy workers, and I'm sure there is some truth in reputation that was given to all British car manufacturers. I was told that there was a real problem with the logistics and throughput of parts for the Hillman Imp, and if the Production Management envisaged there was an issue with a lack of availability of parts, they would provoke a disturbance that would very quickly be escalated to some sort of 'down with tools and walk out' on the assembly line, which would be classed as an unofficial strike. The benefit to the Rootes company was that no wages were paid to the striking assembly-line workers, whereas without a strike, they would have needed to pay for workers to stand idle [we call this 'overheads'] It sounds a very cynical action, but I have been told [by many, many people] there was very little love lost between the assembly line worker and the administration staff supervising the build of the car.

@hmao4466 5 ай бұрын

Awesome content...

@miscbits6399 5 ай бұрын

To quote Jeremy Clarkeson's conclusion in "Who killed the British car" : "It was ALL of them wot dun it"

@BlackPill-pu4vi 5 ай бұрын

Somehow, Jeremy's bit of specious handwaving to make the question go away doesn't cut it. British management adopted predatory practices and labor could only react. Labor has never been in a position to dictate policy at the top. It can only react to protect its dwindling share. The hidden mortal sin was to put the shareholders above the workers who build the car, the vendors who make the parts, and the customers who buy the car. Shareholders uber alles created policies which robbed from the producers and gave to the rentier class. What killed the British car industry eventually became Reaganomics; the wholesale offshoring of productive jobs and wealth was the result. Same as what Thatcher did when she sold off the U.K's industrial base.

@_Ben4810 5 ай бұрын

Jezza Clarkson...the expensive private school-educated toff who somehow played his own part in making it fashionable to slag-off every facet of the British car industry...

@miscbits6399 5 ай бұрын

@@_Ben4810 By the time he got into the action, British cars had gone from 40% to 2% of the New Zealand car market in a period of 18 months (when Japanese car import duty was reduced to the same as British cars) and at the same time Land Rover went from 98% of the Australian 4WD market to less than 1% Quite frankly, the 1970s-90s British car market deserved the opprobium. It was clearly a management problem as Toyota and Nissan were able to turn out high quality products with a British workforce

@BlackPill-pu4vi 5 ай бұрын

@@miscbits6399 And that's how to prove it was a management problem. Same British workforce under Japanese management got the job done. It also sheds an embarrassing light on the advanced rot in Britain's institutional culture and its inability to supply competent managers.

@TheManFrayBentos 4 ай бұрын

@@BlackPill-pu4vi It wasn't quite the same workforce. When Nissan and others were hiring, they went to great lengths to filter out troublemakers.

@gregorylenton8200 5 ай бұрын

my such memories of these cars...thanks

@LadySophieofHougunManor7325 5 ай бұрын

Fantastic video as always your knowledge is awesome ❤ your channel loads long may the awesomeness continue 🥂

@Spookieham 5 ай бұрын

My Uncle worked at Linwood until it closed. He never had a full time job after that it utterly decimated the area.

@DavinaTheWeena 5 ай бұрын

We had 3 Hunters, 1974 & 1976 Hillmans but by 1978 was a Chrysler

@DKS225 5 ай бұрын

All the while The Imp had already done 600 miles before they were even put on sale.

@simontaylor2319 Ай бұрын

I think the Peugeot 403 in the East African rally was shown ny mistake..... our 1st Peugeot

@Ballterra 5 ай бұрын

As a Aussie Chrysler tragic with strong connections to the UK (family 🇬🇧) this is a very interesting video I was always lead to believe the Imp was the Rootes group downfall though funnily enough my Uncle had one in the mid 70’s and used to go from Bolton Lancashire England to my Grans house in Kinbuck Perthshire Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 every summer fully loaded and never missed a beat. Ah the memories aye 😁 0:10

@o8thman812 5 ай бұрын

Did you know the initial purpose of the Chrysler/ Simca 180 (what became the Aussie Centura) was to be a new generation Humber V6 for 1970. Millions were even spent developing the V6 before the whole concept was unceremoniously dumped. At the same time Simca were struggling with their own relevance so the stillborn Humber project was passed onto them for final development... albeit as a 4cyl... I'm sure if the Humber V6 project had gone into production it would of been a huge success for the ailing company...

@miscbits6399 5 ай бұрын

@@o8thman812 Simca is a blast from the past. We had a 1956 Simca 90A Aronde for many years in the 1960s-70s (Alongside a 1971 Triumph 2000 Mk2 which was far less reliable, and a Mk1 Cortina which was passable)

@nigelgoodwin6954 4 ай бұрын

Excellent. Very informative. Thanks

@gerardleahy6946 5 ай бұрын

I remember many of the models you spoke of. The name Chrysler was a by word for unreliability. My late uncle had an Avenger and it broke his heart. I heard of the engines seizing in Alpines and Solaras and the Tagora was probably one of the worst cars ever built.

@kbtred51 5 ай бұрын

Our Tagora was one of our best ever cars, resembled the Lagonda when they came out.

@hunchanchoc8418 5 ай бұрын

@@kbtred51 I agree about the Lagonda vibes. It looked quite classy in dark colours.

@GetInGarage 5 ай бұрын

another excellent video.

@Rosscoff2000 4 ай бұрын

This is a genuine question... Why do more and more KZbin narrators adopt the unnaturally drawn out vowels at the end of sentences ("six-tees", "liabili-tees", "Coven-treee"? It really grates for me. I find it fatiguing to listen to, and often give up listening to things that otherwise are very good. This video is a good example of what I mean.

@bazza945 5 ай бұрын

I loved my 1964 Hillman Imp, but it was helpful I had a well paying job to keep it running.

@nicks4934 5 ай бұрын

My grandfather was a Hillman Hunter fan

@darrensmith6999 5 ай бұрын

Superb !!! Thank You (:

@JenniferinIllinois 5 ай бұрын

Mismanagement in the British automotive industry? What? 😉

@peterfinucane8122 5 ай бұрын

Who knew?

@RichardFraser-y9t 5 ай бұрын

Never !

@ruskinyruskiny1611 5 ай бұрын

With such great politicians you wonder why.

@LadySophieofHougunManor7325 5 ай бұрын

Like everything else U.K. based went tits up 😂

@robertely686 5 ай бұрын

It's a lot harder to sell things when your imperialist project fails and you don't have world wide monopolies and captive markets!

@OldSonyMan 5 ай бұрын

how dare you accuse the Tagora of being "Low end" !

@bibliotek42 5 ай бұрын

Very sad. They had some really nice cars.

@maurykendall 5 ай бұрын

Poor Rootes. They had failure thrust upon them.

@geoffreylee5199 5 ай бұрын

My Grandfather stated with them in early 1920s, ended in 1964. He helped turn them into Chrysler UK then Europe. The Rootes brothers started their sons in mid management. My uncle had a Rootes dealership and was killed in an Imp, they were poorly designed/built. Moving cars from England to Scotland to do mid assembly, then back to England . A money loser from Day One. He shook his head as they expired, saying NorthAmerican car makers could have owned the UK motor industry.

@miscbits6399 5 ай бұрын

Imps weren't the only poor design from that POV. A friend of mine described the Ford Anglia as "made of crushed card board" - from the wheelchair she was confined to as a result of the _parked_ Anglia she was sitting in being hit by a drunk driver at no more than 30mph. Meantime a Mini would just concertina if hit from behind (back seat passengers frequently didn't survive)

@brianjames3849 4 ай бұрын

I had 2 hillman imps ,the unusual thing was the engine in the boot for that era . However they were very fast and economical , overall they were very good cars. The unions have a lot to answer for the downfall of our once great car industry, shame on them, we now haveto rely on foreign crap that are designed for a 7 to 10 year lifespan

@drstevenrey 4 ай бұрын

Building a factory where many are jobless is such a waste of time and money. As I do and did since 1978 is this: Here is work, move your effing arse.

@ivertranes2516 5 ай бұрын

How odd, as an American, to see the Horizon without a Chrysler badge. Over here, they were sold as Plymouth Horizons and Dodge Omnis, and were wildly successful.

@kbtred51 5 ай бұрын

They were in Europe too, European Car of the Year award winner.

@hunchanchoc8418 5 ай бұрын

@@kbtred51 Goodness knows why, with their horrendously tappety engines, and dangerously low-geared steering. Very roomy and comfy though.

@lesklower7281 5 ай бұрын

So many things destroyed the British motor Industry and the major thing was unreliability because compared to the Japanese brands slowly selling cars and been so much more reliable than the British built vehicles and of course the Japanese brands are still around today like Nissan formerly Datsun Mazda Mitsubishi and of course the biggest and best Toyota

@waynesutherland-rs6ct 5 ай бұрын

my first car was a hillman mien,wonderful times and very reliable

@tomhoward4905 5 ай бұрын

I think part of the charm is that it’s quite simple, go here, shoot this, solve this puzzle, repeat. Nothing silly to age the gameplay!

@simonf8902 5 ай бұрын

Chrysler. A great business partner indeed. 😂

@rustyscott5616 5 ай бұрын

G'day Rory. Going to question your pronunciation of distributor. As you say : distri-butor. Or, as I would say : distrib-utor. As always, enjoy your work. Cheers Rusty.

@rustyscott5616 5 ай бұрын

Or one word without the pause?

@volvor730 5 ай бұрын

That's how the Poms say it.

@CharlieFlemingOriginal 5 ай бұрын

I'm 40, so didn't really see the collapse of the British Car industry... Only the dregs of Rover Group. It still however, angers and frustrates me. I hate bad management so much. Management is a SKILL, more than just a name plate on a door, salary, and power trip.

@DaveSCameron 3 ай бұрын

Another Great British tragedy…

@icooper5236 5 ай бұрын

The imp should have been better than the mini. They made the mistake of not building it at Ryton but letting the sweaties build it

@anthonyeverett1391 5 ай бұрын

The Hillman imp should have been an air cooled engine.

@TEntireSpectrum 5 ай бұрын

Well, look on the 'bright' side .. at least we won't need to spend money expanding British vehicle museums in the future!

@grolfe3210 5 ай бұрын

Partly also was that the British car buyer went from being fiercely patriotic in the 60s where it was just not done to buy a "foreign car" to realising that many UK cars were not up to it and opting for an overseas brand. Peugeot got very lucky and grabbed the car being developed and made it their 308, which was popular along with all the Pug range.

@Mancozeb100 5 ай бұрын

That was the Peugeot 309, originally to be the Talbot Arizona. The 308 was a purely Peugeot car.

@grolfe3210 5 ай бұрын

@@Mancozeb100 Sorry yes you are right. I remember now, which is why there seems to have been about three updates of the 308!

@Mancozeb100 5 ай бұрын

@@grolfe3210👍

@simonf8902 5 ай бұрын

Rootes after Chrysler. : Rooted perhaps ?

@fredburley9512 5 ай бұрын

Another distressing tale of bad choices and mismanagement in UK industry. What were the benefits of owning a Hillman Imp? That you could cut the roof off and use it as a skip, maybe? A vile motor. That thing of shipping the cars to Scotland to have their engines fitted was just beyond ridiculous, though it was good of the government to consider the potential unemployment in the ship building area of Glasgow, why didn't they just build the whole car there? The lack of sense with those people. Interesting stuff but sad and confused in the end. 👍

@drstevenrey 5 ай бұрын

Good cars, lazy workforce, bad location, government bailouts, recessions (every few days) and fuel crisis's (every few months), in short, British car industry 101.

@robertely686 5 ай бұрын

Really? Nothing to do with the decline of the empire with the loss of the captive markets and monopolies? Or the increase industrial output of the former colonies who could now prosper and build their own cars and industries? Nothing to do with the company owners? Or the management? Or capitalism? And their designs were good?!

@jimtaylor294 5 ай бұрын

^ Spare us your diatribe boyo; you've peddled that pish once too often 🥱

@jimtaylor294 5 ай бұрын

@drstevenrey Not just the UK though; Alfa Romeo's history under government ownership [for example] was almost comically bad. Fiat also had extreme issues with militant unions, including communist terrorist attacks on their facilities and staff.

@drstevenrey 5 ай бұрын

@timtaylor294: I wholeheartedly agree but Alfa Romeo is still there, Fiat is still there and even Japan had trouble with the unions. But everybody managed somehow, except Britain who crashed and lost absolutely all industry outright. No matter 4 wheels, 2 wheels or wings, all gone.

@AnonNomad 5 ай бұрын

@@drstevenrey The Italian automotive industry is largely all legacy badges owned by Stellantis. France, Germany and Italy were (and sometimes still are) fiercely protective of their automotive industries due to the post-WW2 vacuum and allowed unchecked mergers and aquisitions to produce monopolistic corporations like Volkswagen, Fiat and Renault. These entities were and are huge in a way that British Leyland could never dream of, in the 60's and 70's they bought and founded private banks, airlines, electronics manufacturers and retail outlets. The enviroment and thinking that allowed these corporations to thrive simply does not exist in the UK, for better or for ill.

@Rom3_29 5 ай бұрын

Chrysler seems to be next in line to disappear. It has only rebranded Ram pickup, one minivan model left and newer mediocre Dodge Charger model. It is operating on fumes. American Fiat isn’t doing well either.

@miscbits6399 5 ай бұрын

Chrysler is a brand of Stellantis (Fiat) these days and has been for about a decade. In essence it HAS failed already

@Neil-Aspinall 5 ай бұрын

The Unions destroyed the UK car manufacturers.

@jimtaylor294 5 ай бұрын

The go-to example of how government meddling, Trade Unions' being themselves, and incompetent foriegn owners can turn a reasonably successful company into rubble and memories.

@robertely686 5 ай бұрын

The British car market was always dependant on imperialism and empire. They had captive markets and monopolies to rely on. Without the monopolies they'd either have to use innovation and take risks, or just take part in a managed decline whilst blaming it on foreigners or workers.

@kevinbarry71 5 ай бұрын

Get real. The company was on a slide to oblivion long before any of these things took place. The UK had far too many, and far too small and undercapitalized automobile companies. And they weren't managed terribly well. Some of them were managed terribly. most of them were chasing a very small domestic market. If they couldn't export to the colonies they didn't generally export. While the government didn't help things, by the time they got involved the writing was well and truly on the wall. So put the blame where it belongs

@jimtaylor294 5 ай бұрын

^ Complete rubbish. Anyone versed with the subject knows the three factors I cited are a matter of fact; the only area for debate being the proportions that each one played in it. Cute attempt at shilling for daddy government, innane trade unions and foreign corperations though I guess 🥱 (nobody in their right mind calls Chrysler anything other than a hapless cavalcade of ineptitude, that's been bailed out multiple times by multiple countries' governments)

@kevinbarry71 5 ай бұрын

@@jimtaylor294 I see your prejudices are not going to be disturbed. If the companies had their shit together none of that would've mattered. By the time Chrysler got involved it was well past the point of no return.

@miscbits6399 5 ай бұрын

@@robertely686 Yup. As soon as the monopolies were pierced in Australia and New Zealand, British car sales simply collapsed overnight, not helped by British makers refusing to acknowledge that the Japanese were eating their lunch

@martinneumann7783 5 ай бұрын

Like No. 500! 😊

@Lucky_zeven 4 ай бұрын

Anglo french std?😂😂 4:13

@drstevenrey 19 күн бұрын

Trained as an accountant by the admiralty. So the admiralty is good with money, not their money, the tax payers money albeit. I feel the admiralty is not capable to train accountants to remain afloat, pun fully intended.

@Margarinetaylorgrease 5 ай бұрын

We had an empire you know😂

@robertely686 5 ай бұрын

Exactly! That's how we sold so many cars and airplanes in the first place. It helps when you have a captive market, monopolies and have destroyed the economies of your competitors.