ON this, the eve of The British Motor Show long weekend (Thursday 18 – Sunday 21 August), there’s no better time to reflect on the state of our vehicle-producing nation and its surviving group of UK-born-and-bred manufacturers.
Officially, of all the makers here now (including the Japanese), five qualify as “mainstream” players, seven fall into “major premium and sports car” territory, and 60-plus produce “specialist” cars.
Of the survivors, I consider Aston Martin, Bentley, Jaguar, Land Rover, McLaren, MINI, Rolls-Royce and Vauxhall to be the big boys. But more stats, facts and rankings from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders put Aston, Bentley, McLaren and Rolls in the same second-tier, low-volume league as what I think of as the little guys – a group comprising the likes of Caterham,…
