When the Sun Set on the British Auto Industry

As in the U.S., the U.K. car industry was once a robust industry that inspired national pride, dominating its home market and setting the bar for prestige and sophistication with brands like Bentley, Rolls Royce, and Jaguar.

At the industry’s peak in the 1960s, a million people made cars in the U.K. — five percent of the country’s total workforce — with suppliers and salesrooms swelling that number. British Leyland alone, which made the iconic Mini, employed nearly 200,000.

But in a scenario that should sound eerily familiar to watchers of the decline of the U.S. auto industry, the management of Great Britain’s largest carmakers proved slow to adapt to changing markets and were handcuffed by their workers as well. Output at overmanned plants was hit by constant labor disputes from the 1950s, making them unproductive and unprofitable. British firms lacked the flexibility to compete abroad even as European manufacturers began targeting the U.K. market with exports of right-hand drive models. And British vehicles often failed the technical standards set by export markets.

Article Source: http://moneywatch.bnet.com/economic-news/article/the-decline-of-the-uk-auto-industry/301224/