VotW (?) – British Leyland / BMC Day 2021 at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon

An interesting article from The Yuma Sun …. Stan Gourley is a man who obviously loves cars, particularly his 1970 Triumph TR6. The car sits in his garage, partially restored. “You know,” Gourley said, looking at his jasmine yellow car, “it’s really sad to think that in 20 or 30 years this TR-6 would probably be a Chevrolet Camaro or a Pontiac GTO or an Oldsmobile 442.” Gourley, a man who knows British sports cars, explains that he thinks what happened to the British Leyland Co. back in the ’70s and what is occurring to General Motors now is too similar to be ignored. “They were a giant company that dominated the market for British cars in the ’60s and ’70s, but then they had real labor problems, the government nationalized the companies, then guaranteed billions of dollars in bailout […]

Our video this week is a little something different. It is a internal corporate video from British Leyland on the importance of quality in building a car. Some may laugh at this now, but it is obvious that the powers that be at British Leyland knew the had a problem and had to do something to address it. “The Quality Connection” is just such an attempt. If nothing else, view this 24 minute video for all the period cars you will see. And try, just try, not to imagine Eric Idle, John Cleese, or any other of the Monty Python bunch coming out to stop the video as “too serious” or something. It really does look almost like a comedy sketch to us these days, but then history and perspective can do that. Staff

When John Egan arrived at Jaguar Cars in April 1980, newly appointed as Chief Executive, the company’s very survival was in grave doubt. In fact, the situation looked utterly hopeless. Not only was the once-proud Jaguar company a part of the catastrophic BL Cars but he was greeted at the gates by the workforce – on strike! The odds against saving Jaguar were immense. Quality was appalling, the workforce bitter, the management disillusioned and it was hemorrhaging money. The Labour Government had introduced the ‘closed shop’, giving the unions and their militant shop stewards immense power. This book tells the story of how John Egan gradually overcame the odds and, piece by piece, rebuilt this once great company, winning over the workforce, the suppliers, the overseas dealers and, most important of all, the customers. Working initially with BL Chairman Michael […]