Sir Michael in Metroland — hopes in new car

Press, 25 September 1980, Page 17

Sir Michael in Metroland — hopes in new car

FRANK PAGE, the' “Observer” motoring correspondent, sets the scene on British Leyland’s new hatchback in the context of the company’s struggle for survival.

If was a memorable week of hype — even by the extravagant standards of the car industry. British Leyland took hundreds of motor traders and their wives on a luxury cruise to the Isle of Man, where they tried out the new Mini Metro and found it good. B.L. “leaked” the result of Department of Transport and. Automobile Asso-

ciation fuel consumption tests which suggest that the Metro, will be Europe’s most economical car to run. And Clive Jenkins’s white-collar union, the A.S.T.M.S. obligingly demanded a free Metro for every worker they represent in their latest pay deal with Shell.

The Metro has hardly been off the front pages. As for the motoring correspondents, they have been displaying their usual judicious attitude of unqualified ecstasy. Confronted with this firework display of salesmanship, it hasn’t been too easy for the average discriminating car-buyer to recognise that Leyland really do seem to have an attractive and competitive machine to sell. -The success. of the

Metro is vital for both the State-owned motor industry and its 18,000 dealers/ throughout the country! After the first week of dealer presentations, many people from the manufacturing and selling sides of the business are sleeping more easily. They are sure they have a winner. B.L.’s Metro bandwaggon is about to roll

against a background of catastrophic losses for the company. Sir Michael ■. Edwardes, the- company’sbullish chairman, put a brave face on the halfyear B.L. results, which showed a loss of £158.6 million. But he spoke sombrely of a tight position for the last British-owned car . company over the next 18 months. With no hope of any

early improvement in the company’s trading results, B.L. will be pressing the Industry Minister (Sir Keith Joseph) for a substantial sum when it presents the next stage of its recovery plan next month. If the Metro flops, some elements of B.L. could survive. The demand for its more specialised vehicles, such as the Land-

Rover, is still strong. But the volume car business is the life-blood of any motor manufacturer. Since he took control, Sir Michael has stressed the need for a flow of new and innovative cars to make the group fit to face the rough competition from Ford, Renault, Volkswagen, Fiat and, of course, the Japanese. The obvious recent parallel is with the VWAudi group. Ten years ago, this was struggling to survive, and losing the same large sums. Its ancient Beetle was fading fast, and the many halfhearted attempts to replace it- had all struggled vainly to make an impact on the market. Then came a change of management and a crash programme of ■new models: Passat, Golf, Polo and Sirocco. Now the VW group is one of the strongest in the world, and expanding rapidly in the United States, the crock of gold that every car-maker seeks. B.L. needs the Metro to take a large slice of the domestic market. The Metro must also do well in Europe. The. £285 million, investment, in it has paid for. .up-to-date production facilities at Longbridge in Birmingham which are capable of turning out 6500 cars a week by next spring, when the car will be launched on the Continent. The Metro is really the turning point in B.L.’s history. On its success

depend three essentials for the future: cash for B.L.’s future product development; the re-establish-ment of public confidence in B.L. products; and — probably most important of all — the belief among Ministers, who are B.L.’s ultimate saviours, that the group justifies further injections of public money.

Those three essentials will affect the future of B.L.’s work-force of 145,000 and of the British motor components industry, including such giants as Lucas, G.K.N., Automotive Products and Sir Michael’s old company Chloride. The livelihood of about 400,000 industrial workers throughout the country is interlocked with the success or failure df J the new car.

Some industry experts think the Metro is going to score - most heavily against the Japanese competition. Despite enthusiasm from those who are desperate for its success, the more objective

commentators reckon it will sell to the less sophisticated motorist, who is not impressed by the high standards of performance and handling found in most European small

cars, and is prepared to accept the slacker standards of the Japanese imports. “It is a good late 'Seventies car, rather than a good Eighties one,” said one expert tester. But the Metro does have two strong selling-points. First, it provides very good interior space within modest exterior dimensions. Most of those who have driven the car remark on how roomy it is and what excellent luggage capacity it provides. Second, it is very economical on petrol. The figures put the new car among the most fuelefficient available. Nobody drives anywhere at a steady'3o miles an hour, but it is good to know

that the Metro will actually return more than 80 miles to the gallon at that speed. The only car to match it is the little Daihatsu Charade — from Japan, of course —’ which

has a high fifth gear. More pertinently, all the Metro models should do comfortably better than 40 m.p.g. in day-to-day motoring and will do 50 m.p.g. plus when driven carefully. Since the real cost of petrol has increased by 35 per cent in the past seven years, and seems likely to cre~p even further ahead of the general cost of living, that could be the major factor in the Metro’s success.

So it is going to be the best car in the B.L. massproduction range, and it could well be the first step on a path to recovery that would match the revival -of Volkswagen’s fortunes.

The next step will be the introduction of the Bounty, the replacement for the Triumph Dolomite. It will consist of the mechanical components of Honda’s recently launched Ballade saloon with a Brit-ish-built body. That will

give B.L. a modern front-wheel-drive medium car, to be built at Cowley, Oxford. The launch date for the Bounty will be about this time next year.

Dealers sleeping more easily

Economical, and good interior