Britain’s Car Industry

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30396, 21 March 1964, Page 4

Britain’s Car Industry

The Car Makers. By Graham Turner. Eyre and Spottiswoode. 262 pp. In his foreword, Mr Turner says he has written this book because for a very long time he has been interested in the car trade. This interest shows through Mr Turner's writing time and time again, communicating itself to the reader. Mr Turner also says ■he wanted to achieve a panoramic view of an important and complex industry. He has succeeded in this aim. As he goes through the volume, the reader cannot help but wonder at the fantastic complexity of the car industry, and perhaps almost despair at the equal complexity of the industry’s problems. A section on history and organisation traces the growth of the industry from handproduction to mass-produc-tion from 1896 to 1939. Throughout the war of course, activity was almost completely at a standstill as far as cars were concerned. Then came the post-war carhungry mass-markets. In this era the major problems have either been or stemmed from labour. After the war, the firms concentrated on production at the expense of product quality and labour relations, and, says Mr Turner, “. . . the policy of production first and last has brought its own bitter dividends.” The failure to take labour relations seriously, only now being rectified in many cases, has been disastrous for the industry as a whole. The difficulties of production alone, as detailed by Mr Turner, are enough to make the mind of the layman

boggle. For example, the Rootes Group can put 8000 specimens of its light-car range side by side without any two being exactly alike, and Vauxhall estimates there are 1800 posible variations on the Victor, including 512 different kinds of carpet. The section on the men who make cars is, in itself, a masterly thesis on the effect of the industrial colossus on

the working man. The picture that emerges is not a very pleasant one. The modern car worker is well paid, but is hungry for money to a nearhysterical degree in many cases. He wants the money to increase his standard of living and, some admit, rise to a middle class. This classconsciousness is very strong. Why are there so many strikes among these highlypaid workers? Mr Turner concludes much of the trouble is In labour-manage-ment relations, and the length of time complaints take to get to the top in many companies. Another cause is the mental attitude created by a monotonous job in which a man might repeat the same action hundreds of times a day, day after day. No thought and concentration is necessary, and an atmosphere and frame of mind ripe for trouble soon develop. Similarly, workers feel their lives are being run by the inexorable progress of the production line.

On the thorny subject of car quality, Mr Turner refers to banners bearing “Quality is Your Life” and similar slogans which are common in British factories. The workers, he says, regard these as hypocrisy on the part of the management, which, they feel is prepared to let quality fall away when demand is heavy, and quick production is wanted.

Inspection methods come under very heavy fire; indeed, it is said that inspection can often be a farce. Rigidly enforced and honest inspection holds up production, and all too often faults are let through in order to keep production high. The men at the top of the industry, in Rootes, 8.M.C., Ford, Vauxhall StandardTriumph and Jaguar, are reviewed in a third section of the book, as are the European giants, Volkswagen, Fiat, and Renault. The main feature that emerges from the survey of future markets for British cars is that a great deal depends on whether or not Britain joins the E.E.C. The car makers, and the accessory makers, are all fully in favour of it. Some say the industry may toe in a bad way if Britain does not join. Many companies are already establishing themselves within the Six by opening factories and plants in Europe.

Mr Turner is now with the 8.8. C. He took a first in modern history in 1953, and worked on the “Scotsman" for three years before becoming a feature writer and general reporter on the “Sunday Times.” “The Car Makers” is well written, and it is a most important work in these days when the car is doing and has done so much to radically change our civilisation—how radically is perhaps not fully realised.