The world looks over Great Britain and what they have seen is great – our products are seen by the world as cool and avant-garde. Yet does it matter that these great British brands are owned by Britons anymore?
Truthfully, I think not! Whilst we are perhaps one of the most creative and craftsman lead nations, we are not perhaps the most business brained. So the brands benefit from international funds as they do from global buyers.
Let me take you on a brief drive through the best of Britain. Our Motor industry and heritage is second to none on earth. Nobody has done it better, for longer with more flare and determination.
Virtually every first and second world nation on earth makes or has made cars in some way – yet when asked what is the finest car in the world, you like most with think and say Rolls Royce. The split from Bentley and the sales to VW and BMW created two diverse manufacturers with incredible products and Rolls Royce still are the finest cars in the world. Bentley itself has created some utterly incredible machines since the split, making some of the world’s best sports saloons, coupe’s and convertibles! These brands have become recession proof, they are what every millionaire and billionaire wants in their garage. Where would any premiership footballer be without a Bentley Continental?
Then we take a step down the ladder and here we stand with two of the world’s finest and most accomplished luxury brands. Jaguar and Land Rover. Could anyone have thought in the early days of the SS100 and swallow sidecars that one of the world’s most avant-garde manufacturers of the executive express and sports cars would thrive in a recession. What of Land Rover. Every global car maker wants a Range Rover in the fleet – yet nobody and I mean nobody does it like Land Rover! From the unusual Evoque to the crushingly splendid Range Rover, there is a Land Rover product for everyone! These are the off road machines that lead and I mean lead the world in style, class and ability. The defender, one of the world’s oldest production vehicles still leads the world in off road ability – thus was and is the quality of its design.
We hold the world in our hands with our sports cars… Every boy (and many girls) wants an Aston Martin. Personally I want about 5 of them from a DB5, V8 Vantage, Vanquish, Rapide and a Lagonda. Whilst I am looking at sports cars – we have the Morgan Motor Company, producing hand build BRITISH cars for 100 years. Cars powered by everything from a 1600cc Escort engine through to a 5 Litre BMW engine and many dozens of powerplants in between. Let us look at Lotus – Colin Chapman’s famed producer of lightweight sporting cars, the Elise one of the true drives of my generation. Affordable, accomplished and unashamedly British.
These are hand built, uniquely styled cars are just the tip of the British ice berg when it comes to cars. Yearly another small company will pop up building another bespoke car – hoping to ride the crest of a wave and sell like the greats. TVR, Bristol and Marcos all brands of the recent past that will make a comeback and show the world again that if you want bespoke, come to Britain.
If like me you live near to Oxford, you will of course be well used to seeing the rather special family of cars that have grown from what was the Rover plant at Cowley… The MINI! What was once one small car is now a family of perhaps not so small cars and what was seen as an entry to BMW has become a global brand in its own right! Whilst it is not as small and cute as the original ’59 mini the new MINI range shows a flare and quality that other brands envy.
MG once a proud manufacturer in its own right, swallowed into British Leyland and then badge engineered out of existence in Rover to be left by BMW with just the one MG-F / MG-TF in later years is back producing cars! I’ve not driven one yet but they hare back, such is the power of the brand. Rover is returning, again under Chinese ownership as the Rowe again producing cars for a global market.
What I am saying is that the world wants British. No matter how we moan and groan about it – without the foreign investment, the foreign owners these brands would not have had the money to develop these class and world beating cars. Money talks, yet it is people that buy cars and the people want British!
Be proud of the Great British Motor industry, it is one of the most diverse and successful on earth… When you look at a car, remember that cars built in Britain provide jobs for British workers and jobs provide money, which is the key to ending this long deep and bitter recession.
Now, having owned both a Jaguar and a Land Rover in the last few years – who is going to give me an Aston Martin?
