What makes a "British" car?

[Prufrock]

Originally Posted by cheshired5

Oh, well if Henry said it, it must be true ..... and you have the gall to suggest I'm naive?

Back on topic, my point was that Ford isn't, wasn't, never has been and never will be British.
This is fact and I have no idea why you're challenging it.

Ok.

Why don't you make a contribution.

Make a post giving your definition of British within the context of the OPs question ?

Jon.

[cheshired5]

Originally Posted by Prufrock

Ok.

Why don't you make a contribution.

Make a post giving your definition of British within the context of the OPs question ?

Because regardless of how British-ness is defined, any suggestion would be anomalous.
British built will include foreign marques and British marques will include being either foreign built or having foreign major components or foreign designed or foreign owned etc.

In short, the thread poses a simple question to which there is no simple answer.

[ITSv40]

Even that most quintessential British marque, Rolls-Royce used foreign parts and designs.

The mechanical brake servo fitted in 1907 was a Hispano Suiza design manufactured and used under licence - incidentally it remained in production and was fitted to all R-R models until 1965. Also General Motors automatic gearboxes were fitted from 1946.

Henry Royce's mantra was: take someone else's design and make it better.

[Marty Dolomite]

Triumphs from the 1960s and early 1970s?

[Prufrock]

Originally Posted by Marty Dolomite

Triumphs from the 1960s and early 1970s?

They were pretty much 100% British, British built by British workers with British components made by British firms and workers. My Mother had a Stag engined Triumph estate car back in the day, very nice it was too.

A friend of hers had a Vitesse convertible.

Jon.

N.B someone might object to designed by an Italian !

[Dippydog]

I suppose really the closest we'll have come was the BL[or whatever they were calling themselves on any given day]with their A,B and C series engines etc.Of course Ford have always been American,but from their setting up shop in Manchester[and later Dagenham etc]we sort of adopted them as British.Same with Vauxhall although they were British at the start-then partly,then wholly American owned and now of course French owned.It is interesting to see how since the takeover of Vauxhall by PSA that all their adverts feature the line "Great British Brand Since 1903" Renault 4s were at one time made in Ireland,Citroens were built in Slough and a MkIII Cortina I used to drive was built in Belgium from parts supplied by Britain basically you pays your money and takes your choice.Oh and of course Volvos own P1800 was in the early stages built in Britain by Jensen,but quality was iffy to say the least hence Volvo moving production back to Sweden and adding the "S" to the model name.

[Prufrock]

British Leyland (BLMC) was formed 50 years ago and pretty much defunct 20 years later.

Jon.

[Dippydog]

You'll get no argument on that from me Prufrock,and nearly as many reasons for it going wrong as there were marques under the BLMC banner.

[Prufrock]

Originally Posted by Dippydog

You'll get no argument on that from me Prufrock,and nearly as many reasons for it going wrong as there were marques under the BLMC banner.

There'll always be detractors - sadly.

Jon.

[Dippydog]

Quick summary from memory I've had a mini,Rover P6,2 SD1s and an Ambassador from their "stable" The P6 was the better built the SD1s were good cars but lacked build quality,the Ambassador was a lot better than people gave it credit for and the mini was well a mini[although I still think the Imp was a better car] Rootes group cars could be considered contenders under the "British car" heading until taken over by first Chrysler and then Peugeot[?]