UK car production on the up

According to the SMMT, UK vehicle production was up 2.1% at the end of September on a year-to-date basis, at 1.29 million.

This means full year production is likely to be not far off the highs achieved in the early Seventies and then again in the first few years of this decade. Thats a remarkable achievement considering that the last few years have seen the closure of Peugeot's plant at Ryton, Vauxhall's Luton works, and the final car assembly end of Ford's Dagenham operation - not to mention the demise of MG Rover.

It is a little remarked upon fact that Britain has lost almost an entire car industry in the last twenty or so years but gained almost an entire new one as well. The old 'Big Four' volume manufacturers - Leyland, Ford, Chrysler/Rootes and Vauxhall, have with the exception of Vauxhall largely disappeared in terms of UK production. What we have in their place are new Japanese plants run by Honda, Toyota and Nissan, as well as revived, previously niche-bound but now massively expanded prestige operations such as Bentley, Aston, Rolls, Land Rover and MINI - only Jaguar isn't really living up to its potential, and even that may change once the new XF hits the market.

One by-product of this shift is that not only is the industry almost as big as it's ever been, but the average value of the cars being made is probably a lot higher. Notwithstanding the possible rationalisation of Land Rover's and Jaguar's production facilities after Ford has sold these off, I think we will now hold on to most of what is left of the British industry.

Great spots 10 - '57' reg MG TF

Driving south from central Birmingham to the M42 earlier this evening, I spotted a bright yellow MG TF with a '57' registration plate. I know there were quite a few unsold MGs and Rovers that were registered well after MG Rover went down, but my guess is that this car was something to do with the planned relaunch of small scale Longbridge production of the TF. I noticed that the TF badge was centrally located on the rear panel, which I don't think was the case with the pre-2005 examples, but apart from that, this car looked pretty much standard.

Personally, I've always thought the TF looks pretty good, especially the frontal styling, which I think gives the car a much better face than the original F's round headlamps. It's worth remembering that while the F was introduced over ten years ago, the TF update was a much heavier revamp than it appeared - for example, the main side panels are a single piece item, and the TF achieved good crash test ratings, especially for pedestrian safety. I think from the point of view of looks and the basic layout and mechanicals, the car has aged very well - it's the interior that needs most work if any relaunched TF is going to be a success.

New Austin Healeys on the way?

Nanjing Automobile (that's the company that bought Longbridge and what was left of MG Rover) announced today that was linking up with Healey Automotive Consultants, owner of the famous Healey brand, and its technical partner HFI in order to "collaborate with each other on the future development of the Healey and Austin Healey brands and sports cars bearing (the) name".

Now anyone with even a drop of petrol in their veins will have heard of the famous Austin Healey models from the sixties but I doubt that there's much real magic left in the badge these days for anyone under about fifty. It's also unclear what sorts of cars will emerge from the collaboration. But it's still immensely heartening to see a development that may just produce some UK car-making jobs and some new British cars, and which provides a bit more evidence that Nanjing appreciates the British car-making story it bought into when it acquired MG Rover and its stable of brands.