Death of the UK Car Industry - Part 3: Austin-Rover
Ruairidh MacVeigh Ruairidh MacVeigh
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 Published On May 6, 2023

Hello, and welcome to Part 3 of my 4 part series on the death of the British Car Industry, focusing on the politics, society, economics and decisions made over the course of a 70 year period that led from Britain being one of the largest car-making countries in the world to having no home-based indigenous car brands left.

Part 3 takes us through the end of British Leyland and the period of Austin-Rover, where following the arrival of chairman Sir Michael Edwardes onto the scene in 1976, order began to be restored as he put down the militant trade unions and set the company on course for a bright future despite having to undertake major trimming of the firm's assets, although the future may not have been as bright as he'd hoped, as through the hostile motions of the sitting government, and a continued failure to release cars that would take the market by storm, Austin-Rover's tenure during the 1980s was one of harsh and often misled downsizing as the business was prepared for privatisation.

Chapters:
0:00 - Preamble
0:45 - Enter Sir Michael Edwardes
2:16 - The Winter of Discontent
5:38 - Fighting the Trade Unions
9:54 - Edwardes vs. Red Robbo
11:22 - Cutbacks and Promises
14:40 - Turning Japanese
17:40 - Lined up for Privatisation
21:56 - The Breakup Begins
26:57 - Rise of the Rover Group
29:37 - The Sell-off

All video content and images in this production have been provided with permission wherever possible. While I endeavour to ensure that all accreditations properly name the original creator, some of my sources do not list them as they are usually provided by other, unrelated YouTubers. Therefore, if I have mistakenly put the accreditation of 'Unknown', and you are aware of the original creator, please send me a personal message at my Gmail (this is more effective than comments as I am often unable to read all of them): [email protected]

The views and opinions expressed in this video are my personal appraisal and are not the views and opinions of any of these individuals or bodies who have kindly supplied me with footage and images.

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Thanks again, everyone, and enjoy! :D

References:
- AROnline (and their respective sources)
- Wikipedia (and its respective references)

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