Those companies where bankrupt long before the government became involved.

@@khankrum1 the government never got involved that was the whole problem Maggie and her cronies fucked over British industry to make some filthy bankers in London rich. The French, Italians and the Germans never let that happen

@@MrJimheeren Our manufacturing industry was doomed before Thatcher came to office.

The British car industry was a basket case by the time Thatcher was in office. The Unions, weak managements and Wilson and Callaghan governments sealed its demise.

@@MrJimheeren Absolute bullshit , Britain was well and truly bankrupt before Thatcher became Prime Minister , in fact she was voted in after the the Great Post War Socialist Welfare state experiment had spectactually failed and destroyed the manufacturing base because of Union anachy and financial Labor Party financial ignorance , at that time Britain had to turn to the IMF to survive and comply with its agenda to get the money which they blame on Thatcher .

SUPER SNIPE TOP CLASS LUXURY LIMO'4LITER 6POT SUPERB WALNUT AND LEATHER/ STYLEOUTSTANDING ENVIED FLAGSHIP USED BY MANY MPS

My father worked at Linwood and the Unions had everybody out at the drop of a hat, I could write a book with the stories he told me

@@williamcampbell6887 Your confirming what many have forgotten that Unions had a massive influence upon industry in this country. Rootes Group failed as did many others in the automotive industry. My Dad enjoyed his time working for Sir Reginald and always said what a good employer he was. I certainly got behind the wheel of some cars at an early age. Good times.

Some say 'God bless the Labour party politicians and the trades unions.'

My mother absolutely *loved* her 1974 Imp. She travelled many thousands of miles in "Inga".

You have to take into account the social stratification of British society, where being 'in trade' (ie: working with your hands, or managing those who did) was seen as declasse and 'ungentlemanly'. Given that the executive management of most companies was draw from the privately-educated upper classes - who lived on investments and rents - it's really no wonder that they had no clue (or desire) as to running an industrial concern effectively. What British industry needed, was a figure like Henry Kaiser.

God save “chuck” simple question

My Dad's first car was also an Imp when we emigrated to Australia in 1966. My first car was his 1969 Hillman Avenger. My most fun car was a 1995 Talbot Samba Rallye. All good cars in their way, and it's a shame the companies were ruined by unions and politics.

There is a book......Apex to Imp........the Apex a Fiat 500 like alternative, to the mock Corvair, with similar problems..........we are not the only chumps, we are just in a smaller market, the lumps of chumpisness just float higher in the water.

Malcom, thanks for posting! I enjoyed reading that.

I had one too PLU 141E and you are right about the heating. The heater was under the bonnet and the engine was in the rear. I used to tow a trailer tent with mine and used to go everywhere in it.

@@stephenrandall3551 The Imp always felt more like a car than the Mini being more like a traditional 3 box shape. Driving at a steady 55 Mph - we are talking early 1970s - on the motorway from Scotland to Cornwall I could average over 50 Mpg so very economical. You could store quite a lot in that deep space behind the rear seat - easily accessible from the opening rear window. The steering of course was very light. They certainly had plenty of character!

@@malcolmmckenzie9027 We used to fold the back seat down and put a duvet on it and the two kids used to lay there when we went on long trips.

@@stephenrandall3551 When I was a kid in the early 1960s I used to stand behind and between the 2 front seats of my parents car for most of our long annual holiday journeys south. In defence I don’t think seat belts were compulsory and cars, roads and life seemed slower and less complicated and restrictive. We wouldn’t do or get away with that now. Still we survived to tell the tale!

Linwood had a press shop, body assembly, paint shop and car assembly plant. Engine blocks were sent to Ryton machined and assembled in Ryton. If Ryton had any problems, like industrial disputes Linwood closed within days (no engine blocks). If there were transport problems, even severe winters, Linwood closed within days (no engine blocks). The Company decided to build the machining plant on an area which was destined for this purpose, ideally situated next to car assembly. look at the video 8:17. You will see the field destined for this in the centre. The buildings at the top of the picture housed Car assembly. At 8:26 (top right) you can see the bridge over which the units were conveyed from the Paint shop on the other side of the dual carraigeway. The Paint shop, body shop and press shop are out of the picture. The Unions went against this saying that they wanted to protect jobs in Ryton. The expansion was cancelled. Car manufacture thrives on efficiency. The Unions opposed efficiency improvements at Linwood. There were many projects on efficiency improvement opposed by the Unions at Linwood. Management allowed the unions to block many projects. Linwood could have been a very efficient facility without Union stupidity. Weak management and Union interference were the primary factors in the closure of Linwood.

You can still see the fading painted Talbot sign painted on the railway bridge at the Ferguslie roundabout.

My uncle had a 49 super snipe he sold it the guy to whom he sold got speeding ticket almost straight away doing 90 mph hilarious

Omitted that bought it for $55, sold for 135... and realise they were pounds then. AUD2 shortly after to be what had been one pound. The great mystery of UK cars was the plunge from beauty to ugly, simple to mucky lines.

I went there several times for parts for my Fathers Humbers & my Singer & other Rootes cars

@@johnmurrell3175 You know what it was like then, a cross between a disorganised junk yard and a run down prisoner of war camp. Mind you, they had everything there though and somehow managed to know where everything was too. I used to know a couple of the fellas that worked there and I also used to regularly pick up their mail and parcels by van when I worked for Royal Mail.

@@trevordance5181 The good news is that being right next to the station it was easy to get to when the car was broken. I wonder what happened to the stock when the place closed down ? The site has now been built on though the entrance on Marlpit Lane still exists though it has been turned into a domestic garage .

@@johnmurrell3175 Yes, the site is all blocks of flats now. No idea what happened to all the stock or why indeed the company closed down.

@@johnmurrell3175 The business is still going in Coulsdon (which is in Surrey, whatever the current map may say) to a limited extent and is run by a prominent member of the Imp Club.

My mum had one of those in the early 80's

Vinyl

Minx, Hunter& Avenger may have been old style & simple engineering,but they were stylish & practical . Some models were even better value for money than Ford or early Japanese cars!

@@mikemartin2957 Agreed!

My dad had a 1963 Humber Sceptre in red. It was an awesome car.

Tiger had the US Ford V8. First the 260 later the 289. Later taken over by Chrysler but still with a Ford V8. Being from a Chrysler dealer the Ford engine had a longer warranty than a Ford V8 dealer.

Most early Hunters & Minxes were built at Ryton untill mid 1969, when Ryton was making way for Avenger production to build up stocks for Jan /Feb 1970 launch.

@@johnd8892 Never realized it was a Ford V8 - thanks for the info. My father used to drive a Ford Pilot with the V8 engine.

@@1951GL hope this is not suppressed. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nN-hopNk39Peiqs.html Around 3:00 the owner gives the Ford Chrysler upheaval.

@@johnd8892 Again, thanks for the link. Beautiful vehicle, right colour. And it explains the engine issue. My error was based on a Chrysler ad in an American motor mag which I read circa 1968 here in the UK. It clearly stated "the Sunbeam Tiger by Rootes of England - we supply the engine and running gear, plus the British sports car knack" which now seems a light touch to the truth! At the time I felt it was a more aesthetically attractive car than the AC Cobra - though that was another beast entirely!!

I forgot that issue. I had a bag of sand in mind 😂

Ivanostapuk The Avenger became the Volkswagen 1500?How incredible! Was it the Avenger with a Volkswagen engine? And was the model taken over by Volkswagen? Please reply - I can't wait to hear the answers!

@@nygelmiller5293at the time when Chrysler sold it's European division because of monetary issues, it did the same with it's Argentinian counterpart (Chrysler FEVRE). It sold it to VW which was looking to enter our market, as the beetle wasn't popular because of import taxes. VW did what it did best at that time "don't fix what ain't broken", so it kept on making the "avenger" but rebadged it and add a facelift (no new engine). Later VW latam paired with ford to make AUTOLATINA and made some strange cars like the pointer. Search for VW 1500, YT has plenty of commercials and videos about it.

Thank you very much for your reply!

We also got Avenger here in the US, as the Plymouth Cricket but was imported directly from Linwood. Because of that (production losses from all the strikes) and Nixon's tax on imports, and lousy quality, the Cricket was cancelled in 1975, and you cannot even find one for sale here! Even more scarce than the Austin Marina!

@@superadventure6297 Morris Marina!

Rushed development & I wonder if it had been built at Ryton; maybe it could have been more reliable? Imps were more at home in Rallycross!

I had a 1966 Hillman Imp as my first 4 wheel car after the Reliant Regal 3 wheeler I had at 16 years old. My Imp turned out to be a "cut and shut" so I then had my Mother's old Mini Traveller

Thats a big project!

There's loads on u-tube to choose from. All depressing.

The Coventry designed Chrysler 180 was intended to be the Humbers for the 70s ,they were to be available ( on the luxury spec) with a Rootes V6 similar to the Ford Essex V6 , and with the 4 round Lucas headlights ( same as the Sceptre), optional air con, auto transmission etc, however , costs,&Interference from Detroit ment that the project was given to Simca who fitted ghastly low powered 1812cc & 2 litre units & soft gearboxes ,fitted ugly Bosch/ Marchal oval headlights & generally made what was a promising British car to take on Triumph ,Austin/Morris,Ford Consul/Granada & even up comingToyota /Datsun, into a horrible & overpriced car that no one wanted .Resale prices were a pittance ,high running costs & rust were the cause of many being scrapped at 6,7,& 8 years old ! survivors today must surely be in single figures ; like it's replacement the Tagora from 1980.

@@mikemartin2957 Thanks for this insight, let's take the thing from first principles. Humber is classically a competitor to ROVER: Upper middleclass staid. CP: Upperclass "Staid" is Rolls, U-"Sporting" is Bentley. So the first solecism in these terms is the Arrow-Humber - WHAAT? A "little Humber" should always have been an own inhouse development, not a badge-engineered deformity such as the Arrow-Sceptre: 1st mistake (and BIG). The 180 was already not a reinvention of Humber, but an upwards-continuation of the Arrow-Humber débacle: 2nd mistake (and BTW far too American in appearance). Where this thing was built would have been quite rightly purely corporation politics - I assume (from an American viewpoint) the Ryton facilities were fully or adequately stretched, one just wanted to grow underused facilities (wherever). I take your points 100%, but I don't think the "Ryton-Granada" (a new "Humber Imperial"?) would have made an impact, just as the Spanish 180 never made an impact. It would all have been the same, V6 and headlights here or there. The actual and real competitor was already clear for all to see: The Mercedes model "W 123". Who can disavow that this was what the market wanted? My friend, don't look to corporate production decisions within Chrysler for your explanations, look to the market intelligence Chrysler got from from Europe.

OKTFG don't be pessimistic, the firm got taken over by Peugeot, who saw the Linwood plant finally established, and in profit.But presumably someone else at Peugeot decided to close Linwood, to close down a competitor to Peugeot itself.Thanks, Peugeot!

@@nygelmiller5293 yep ...a yard sale

Yep, the sell off started around Thatchers rise... all that money from North Sea gas should of gone into growing UK Wind and Wave turbine production, installation and maintenance at home and abroad. We could of been Kings of Renewables - instead we where sold down the river by our very own governments. Asset stripped and left to struggle. Apart from Morgan and Aerial do we even make any cars of our own?

@@cpcnw from Nygel Miller, things have DEFINATELY been "Challenged" in the car industry, but the "Greats" have survived! Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Lotus, TVR has come back - in WALES, and Aston Martin are building their first SUV in WALES, too!

If you want to see real idiots look at BSA.

Has your friend with the IMP put a 25 KG bag of sand in the front? Makes them superb. Engine WHICH IS SUPERB should have gone in the front!!! David and Lily Reading.

@@steamsearcher Nah, just drive it in reverse, then it'll be a front wheel drive 🤣

@@steamsearcher.......my father had a Renault 8, same layout, less inspiring car.....same fix.

And look at Chrysler - multi-time loser, that may yet disappear as a marque despite reported assurances to the contrary from the third foreign master in the past 20 or so years.

Yes, nationalisation, a Labour obsession, ruined so many industries.

Due to blind union strikes, as well as conflicts among ignorant British noblemen who messed around in the field of industries, stuck to their feudal mismanagement. Oh, I forgot to mention the strike-evoking Tories and Labour's money drain. There's a word for it that summarizes the whole misery adeqately: The word is 'England'. Americans, Germans and Japanese tried to give a hand. Which only extended the torture. So sorry that the Brits just can't organize. All midlands and northern trains will show you.

See also British Leyland, Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, British Aerospace, British Steel...

Too right, am ashamed of the UK.

It also applies to many companies in the US, as well as to the government, which have made scores of bad choices for years.

"The business of America is business." ..Coolidge (?)

Every post-war Western nation, and many others too, but rarely has it succeeded.

Well said John

"I'm from the government and I'm here to help. The worst thing any business can hear," (or something like that) Ronald Reagan.

@@GB-vn1tf Reagan was an idiot (and so was Maggie) plus the sentence was. The 10 worst words in the English language are I’m from the government and I’m here to help. Well the government didn’t help British industry and now most of it is gone forever. Every British carmaker is foreign owned (hell Jaguar is TATA and Mini is BMW, Vauxhall is owned by the French and Italians)

I can’t wait for some Poissey produced cars to hit the US!

I had a friend that had a rally spec Hilman Imp. Fast little car. He went on to be a test driver for Ferodo.

With all the style of a soviet zaprozhets.

Well, it had Coventry Climax engine remember.

He go a roote up into the hole ... That's what happened

It had some great points, but it was a fail, be it, bad ride height, water pump position, of filler cap, stuck on the front bumper. You cannot have a good car, with this many holes in its reality......you just have a great book mark in history. What the Imp was, was a shame, like the other rear engined book mark out of Ulster.

Definitely better than mini. Mini an obscenity on wheels.

@Mickey Finn From a technical standpoint, it was. The Imp was a better car, regardless of the Mini's iconic status.

@Mickey Finn You're welcome. While the initial quality problems doomed the Imp, it deserved a better fate. It ran circles around the Mini in every technical regard, from interior packaging to weight distribution.

You must have got one of the good cars. They were rare indeed. As l was told by a mechanic when l had mine, they were either good or bad. Mainly bad he said. That's what l got as did my sister. Still loved it though 😁

TALBOT PEUGOT THATS THE BACK DOOR DEAL BY MP'S THE PERKINS DIESELENGINE WAS STOLENITS NOW THE MAIN 4POT DIESEL ENGINE KEEPING AL EUROPEAN CARS MOVING ACHIEVED WIT VERY LITTLE EXPENDITURESPENT ON ITMOST O THE DEVELOPEMENT WORK ALSO WENT WITHE THEE NGINESOUNDS FAMILIAR///////ROLLS AND BENTLEYSIMILAR STORIES

My dad bought a new white Stiletto with a red stripe in 1968 after having had a couple of Imps. I passed my driving test in it. Very good for impressing teenyboppers and getting their knickers off as I recall. 😘

I had a 1974 Sceptre . Lovely car but always breaking down.

My Dad had and Imp and a Hillman 'Hunter' Safari. A solid car that could take some punishment!

Hahaha .. I had a 1967 Singer Chamois (imp) I actually loved it .. my girlfriends brother lived in St Agnes Cornwall we lived in Berkshire We would go to visit (a trip of 250 miles) and at no time did the heater ever blow hot .. LoL

What about the never ending company refusals to their workers?

As well as the unending bad management.

@@martintaper7997 Don't be such a socialist Marty. Company's that put the cash up deserve massive profits, I truly believe that.

@@Neil-Aspinall Don't be such a capitalist, Neily. Societies deserve to have put back a reasonable amount of wealth to the community which afforded them the ability to create that wealth, I truly believe that. Honestly, I'm sick of workers being bashed about as being greedy and corporations being worshipped as "can do no wrong" benefactors of society - neither are true.

...striked because the pies in the canteen were not hot enough, really!!!

My old man had one, fun revy little engine, but "cool" isn't a word I would use..

True about Sunbeam Motor Car Company: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pb-la5p_yNenqJc.html

Stay where ever you are and drive a Beetle - living proof that simple engineering is best!

Every year, pandemic permitting, the Imp Club get together for a camping weekend. The venue changes every time so the event travels around the country. We get around 200 Imps and variants on the showground with more dotted around the campsite. If you were hoping to never see an Imp again - sorry! There are still around 500 extant. One of them is mine :)

@@freima5987 Good for you! I drive a 67 650ss Norton which people are probably equally surprised to see outside of a museum. Each to his own...👍

Peugeot 206 the best car you’ve ever owned? Horrible little shit boxes they didn’t even bother to convert the wipers to r/h/d.

That's what happens when authoritarian 'planners' decide they know what's best - FA Hayek told us that in 'The Road to Serfdom'.

Pressed steel in Scotland built body shells for many different manufacturers for a long time, the Rover P5 and P6, the Volvo P1800 and for Volvo trucks under another name well into the 90's. Volvo are hell bent on quality, so why manufacture in Scotchland for so long then?? Pressed steel Scotland still built the body shells for Volvo P1800 even after assembly was halted at Jensen, and Jensen were the problem, not pressed steel in Scotland, otherwise Volvo would of ceased coachbuilding there. The quality and grade of the steel used is entirely up to the Customer. This constant Scotland bashing is nonsense, the Imp was entirely designed in Coventry, and many of its issues such as the pneumatic throttle and issues with cylinder heads were design teething problems in Coventry not just assembly and manufacturing in Linwood. We have built planes, trains, trucks, buses and heavy plant equipment in Scotland successfully for a long time, Rootes was on its way out and ran out of money to complete development properly. Buildinh the factory in Linwood probably did not help, but to blame the work force in Linwood for the demise of Rootes is a rotten excuse. The largest Double Decker bus coach building company in the World, Alexander, now Alexander Dennis who also own Plaxton is based in Falkirk in Scotland, so we have always had some automotive presence, but mostly heavy commercial after the 30's. The production line engineering is just as important as research and development as is training and development, so Rootes themselves are also to blame for the issues. Yes strike action and apathy among some work force in Linwood was probably a factor, but that was a problem all over the UK at the time. Also Scotland was building its own motor cars from the 1890's to the 1930's itself so to say we never built automobiles is rubbish too, some of them winning many UK races of the time such as Arrol Johnson, which is never mentioned. Albion, Argyll and Arrol Johnson were around before many other marques in the UK. Herbert Austin deliberately destroyed one of these manufacturers by taking them to court over an engine design in the 20's or 30's. I think it was Argyll and they won the case but the cost of fighting the case bankrupted them, which was exactly what Herbert was trying to do. Argyll built very high quality but expensive motor vehicles for the time, Albion went into heavy commercials and Arrol Johnson merged with Aster of Wembley which was a disaster for them. Arrol could not afford the development of a new engine. The Linwood factory was also used as a Political football during the Scottish independence referendum of 1979, so a lot of this is political nonsense as well. The attitude of some of the workforce in Scotland and the rest of the UK appeared to be rotten at this time though, so contributed to the demise of British manufacturing, but the UK class divisions and managerial incompetence compounded everything.

@@nk53nxg A cogent response, sir - thank-you.