Das Auto: The Germans, Their Cars and Us Page #4

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Yes, it's Molly Weir. So, you're

a Morris Minor fan too, Molly?

Och aye, our Minor takes all the

family and our luggage in comfort.

It's very economical too,

but, you see, it's a Morris.

We might have had a big car industry

but size isn't everything.

The men running Britain's

car companies were getting old.

And by the jet-age 1950s,

their autocratic, amateur spirit

looked increasingly old-fashioned.

The English idea of

gentlemanly behaviour...

It involves a certain amount

of self-deprecation,

a certain bit of casualness,

we sort of distrust

seriousness and professionalism

in some ways

but not in our motor cars,

and the Germans

were able to provide us

with magnificent tokens of

professionalism and seriousness,

which our native manufacturers

could not.

They also worked rather better.

We did still make good cars like the

Morris Minor that I'm driving now,

but we didn't market them

as successfully as the Germans,

we didn't push them

aggressively enough overseas.

You know how many

Morris Minors we sold?

Over a million.

But do you know how many

Volkswagen Beetles the Germans sold?

20 million.

The real problem was that we were

blind to the expanding market

right on our doorstep -

Europe.

More than two thirds

of our car exports

STILL went to the

British Commonwealth.

One of the biggest mistakes

we ever made as a country

was to overestimate

the importance of our Empire.

In those crucial two decades

after the Second World War,

our politicians and

our businessmen thought

that we didn't really need

to worry about Europe

because Britain had wider horizons.

Our car-makers, they thought,

would always be able to rely

on the captive markets

of our old colonies.

To put it bluntly, we'd always

be able to flog them our dregs.

The Standard Vanguard

was designed for export.

Its naval name was meant to recall

the great days of Britain's Empire.

There was only one problem -

the suspension.

When the Vanguard's proud new

owners took it out for a spin,

the car began to fall apart.

Good evening.

The Suez Canal is a name

familiar to everyone.

I've come to talk to you tonight

about what's happened there

in the last few day

and what it means to us.

And Britain's Empire, too,

was on the brink of collapse.

In 1956, Britain made a desperate

bid to recapture the Suez Canal -

the vital artery

for Middle Eastern oil.

But when the operation backfired,

petrol prices went through the roof.

Sound the trumpets.

Beat the drums.

Wave the flags.

British flags...

for the fabulous twins - the Austin 7

and the Morris Mini Minor.

MUSIC:
"Say A Little Prayer"

by Burt Bacharach

As a result, designers for

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