Are there any reliable cars that are made in the UK?

Nephilim Wolf

I'm just very curious to know are there any reliable\very reliable cars that are made in the UK apart from prestige brands\makes like Bentley, Rolls Royce, Aston Martin and possibly Jaguar. I'm not looking to buy a UK car at all, as I'm very very happy with my VW Golf. I'm also curious to know where the old Rover P4's, Rover P5's and Rover P6's reliable or where they really bad and unreliable?

3rdDegree

Even when I was a child, I recall Rovers being considered unreliable. That was quite a while ago! Were the original Mini's made in the UK?

Maxav

Nissan

Made in Sunderland:):)

Nephilim Wolf

3rdDegree wrote: »

Even when I was a child, I recall Rovers being considered unreliable. That was quite a while ago! Were the original Mini's made in the UK?

Thanks for that 3rdDegree.:) The original Mini's where indeed made in the UK, and most of them were made in British Leyland factories. The new ones are BMW engineered, and I'm sure they great and very reliable, but they lack the character of the original Mini's that were made back in the day.

Maxav wrote: »

Nissan

Made in Sunderland

Nissan's are great cars as well, but I'm not so sure about the latest ones though, because they migh have Renault engines. What I really meant was cars that were originally made in the UK like Rolls Royce, Bentley Jaguar, MG, Rover, Vauxhall, Triumph, Aston Martin, Austin etc.

My ZT was made in the UK, I have it almost a year now and perfectly reliable except for the battery dieing on Stephens morning. Not what you want to hear though I imagine.

Nephilim Wolf

RoverJames wrote: »

My ZT was made in the UK, I have it almost a year now and perfectly reliable except for the battery dieing on Stephens morning. Not what you want to hear though I imagine.

I never heard of a ZT before. I actually would like to hear of any British reliable cars, but like I said they have to be British cars, and not Toyata's, Nissan's, Mazada's that are manufactored in the UK. Does anybody know if Rolls Royce's, Bentley's and Aston Martin's are indeed extremely reliable cars? I just thought I'd ask, because I heard they are very reliable from what I read, but could be wrong.

Maxav

Seriously the Juke, Note and Qashqai are made in Sunderland.
The Honda CR-V and Civic are made in Swindon.
Toyota make the Auris and Avensis in Burnaston.
BMW make the Mini in Oxford and Ford make the Transit in Southampton, now how many of the above would fit your criteria of being reliable is open to interpretation particularly with Toyota's recent problems but most of the rest should qualify.

Nephilim Wolf

Maxav wrote: »

Seriously the Juke, Note and Qashqai are made in Sunderland.
The Honda CR-V and Civic are made in Swindon.
Toyota make the Auris and Avensis in Burnaston.
BMW make the Mini in Oxford and Ford make the Transit in Southampton, now how many of the above would fit your criteria of being reliable is open to interpretation particularly with Toyota's recent problems but most of the rest should qualify.

Sorry Maxav, but I think some people ar getting a bit confused here. I didn't mean Japanese cars that are made in the UK, but UK built cars like Vauxhall, Rover, MG, Land Rover, Aston Martin, Morgan etc.;)

Nephilim Wolf

Nephilim Wolf wrote: »

I never heard of a ZT before. ....: ught I'd ask, because I heard they are very reliable from what I read, but could be wrong. .

It's a rover 75 with an mg badge.

Maxav

Nephilim Wolf wrote: »

Thanks for that 3rdDegree.:)
Nissan's are great cars as well, but I'm not so sure about the latest ones though, because they migh have Renault engines. What I really meant was cars that were originally made in the UK like Rolls Royce, Bentley Jaguar, MG, Rover, Vauxhall, Triumph, Aston Martin, Austin etc.

Sorry, I was typing my second post as you were clarifying your question, Here's a link to all the manufacturers in UK, Scroll about half way down and there's a list of all those still in production.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry_in_the_United_Kingdom

Nephilim Wolf

RoverJames wrote: »

It's a rover 75 with an mg badge.

I always thought those Rover's/MG's looked a bit like a Jaguar, mainly because of the lights at the back and the overall shape. How reliable is it, and how long have you had it? Have you had any major problems with it?

Maxav wrote: »

Sorry, I was typing my second post as you were clarifying your question, Here's a link to all the manufacturers in UK, Scroll about half way down and there's a list of all those still in production.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry_in_the_United_Kingdom

Thanks for that interesting link.:D

Nephilim Wolf

Nephilim Wolf wrote: »

I always thought those Rover's/MG's looked a bit like a Jaguar, mainly because of the lights at the back and the overall shape. How reliable is it, and how long have you had it? Have you had any major problems with it?

......

RoverJames wrote: »

.......... I have it almost a year now and perfectly reliable except for the battery dieing on Stephens morning. ................

Pdfile

caterhams are alright.... and erhm.... lotus's are Ok....


Relations had both above, bare the usual clutch and tyre expenses... they alright... but they are a car to trash on the weekend and nothing less imho.

corktina

Vauxh*ll As*ra seems your only choice. (censored to protect the sensibilites of my firends who dont like to hear me swear)

Richard

corktina wrote: »

Vauxh*ll As*ra seems your only choice. (censored to protect the sensibilites of my firends who dont like to hear me swear)

But that's just an Opal Astra elsewhere, nothing particularly British about it, apart from the name.

Vicxas

I thought the running joke was that all british cars are awfully unreliable and poorly built.

Terrontress

London Black Cab. I think they make them in Coventry. They must be pretty reliable, given the job they do.

The problem with the British car industry was trade unions. British cars were as good as or better than all other nations' car industries until the 60s. Then you had strikes, flying pickets, union appeasement etc and the whole thing turned to dust. Strikes being called because someone was asked to do a different job as there was nothing for them to do on their nominated task.

The cars were unreliable, they looked awful compared with continental imports and money was being lost hand over fist. Decent companies such as Jensen went down the tube due to labour issues. And all the workers lost their jobs anyway.

Even successful models such as the Metro are quite embarrassing in retrospect. Especially when compared to the VW Polo, Renault 5 or Peugeot 205. Or the Maestro when compared to a Golf. The Austin Maxi! What was that about?

The only good British owned, British manufactured car since the late 60s that I can think of has been the Rover SD1.

Terrontress

Richard wrote: »

But that's just an Opal Astra elsewhere, nothing particularly British about it, apart from the name.

And Vauxhall's range of vans, once world leaders as Bedford, are just rebadged Renaults - also available as Nissan.

alanmcqueen

This site provides very useful ratings for vehicle reliability:

http://www.reliabilityindex.com/what-is

corktina

Richard wrote: »

But that's just an Opel Astra elsewhere, nothing particularly British about it, apart from the name.

i think the people at Ellesmere Port would think of it as a Vauxhall primarily seeing as its a Vauxhall plant and always was and therefore very British.

The Britsh car industry was once the worlds best and it was only really when you got to the late seventies that imports started to get a real toehold and Britsh quality (particularly British Leyland and its other guises) started to slip.Union intransigence and short-sightedness has a lot to do with this.

Ironic that the biggest British manufactureres are now Toyota, Nissan and Honda.

Matt Simis

Richard wrote: »

But that's just an Opal Astra elsewhere, nothing particularly British about it, apart from the name.

Who cares? The question was made in the UK, not wholly owned by British people. There are loads of cars made in the UK and many of them score well on reliability as per that list earlier.

PS: Its "Opel" not Opal. Its not a stone.

johnos1984

Terrontress wrote: »

London Black Cab. I think they make them in Coventry. They must be pretty reliable, given the job they do.

LTI are now gone to China

Dempsey

My Honda Civic is British built, zero reliability issues in its 14 years of use.

kona

If you go to england there are still loads of British marques driving around, despite the newest probably being 6 or 7 years old at this stage. If you belived the ****e pedalled here about them, youd swear they didnt make it off the assembly line without either rusting or suffering head gasket failure.

partyatmygaff

I don't think it really matters where the car is physically assembled. It's where the car was originally designed that really matters. All car manufacturers use much the same extremely expensive CNC machining processes to make their parts and robot assembly to assemble the car and weld together its chassis e.t.c.

A Honda or Nissan assembled in the UK isn't a British car. It was designed in Japan and is a Japanese car.

Mister Jingles

It might not be a car but isn't the Transit made in the UK ?

Anan1

Matt Simis wrote: »

Who cares? The question was made in the UK, not wholly owned by British people.

No, the OP ruled out UK-built Nissans, among others. I think what the OP means is cars that were originally British and are still built in the UK - ie Jaguar would qualify, in spite of being Indian-owned.

Terrontress

johnos1984 wrote: »

LTI are now gone to China

I think it's owned by Geely but do they manufacture over there? The design of the TX was certainly undertaken while under British ownership.

From what I can ascertain, the largest British owned British based motor manufacturer is JCB!

robbie_998

Honda.

Yes some in ireland are from Japan and some in ireland are from Britain

but mine is British and its perfect

in ireland ALL hondas are imported but are originally registered in ireland

kona

partyatmygaff wrote: »

I don't think it really matters where the car is physically assembled. It's where the car was originally designed that really matters. All car manufacturers use much the same extremely expensive CNC machining processes to make their parts and robot assembly to assemble the car and weld together its chassis e.t.c.

A Honda or Nissan assembled in the UK isn't a British car. It was designed in Japan and is a Japanese car.

No matter what manufacturing methods you employ, you still have humans running quality control, humans inputting the G codes into the CnC machines, there are tasks that a robot simply cannot do as there is no way of guaranteeing a part will be always in the same place and lined up. To be fair CnC has been around awhile at this stage, Im sure Rover employed it on some of its cars?
Another point on robots, FIAT (insert stupid witty rename here) used robots to construct some of the worst heaps of **** car bodies the world has seen. They also used robots to construct the FIRE engines used in the Punto and the Seicento (oh yea the ones the suffer HGF every 200miles if claims are to believed). Incidentally the FIRE engines are excellent, as with most italian engines.

Another thing to look at is, engineering is certainly a global industry, but back in the 60s it wasnt. Havning a go at britain having **** engineers is laughable tbh.

SpannerMonkey

Nephilim Wolf wrote: »

I'm just very curious to know are there any reliable\very reliable cars that are made in the UK apart from prestige brands\makes like Bentley, Rolls Royce, Aston Martin and possibly Jaguar. I'm not looking to buy a UK car at all, as I'm very very happy with my VW Golf. I'm also curious to know where the old Rover P4's, Rover P5's and Rover P6's reliable or where they really bad and unreliable?

NO

partyatmygaff

kona wrote: »

No matter what manufacturing methods you employ, you still have humans running quality control, humans inputting the G codes into the CnC machines, there are tasks that a robot simply cannot do as there is no way of guaranteeing a part will be always in the same place and lined up. To be fair CnC has been around awhile at this stage, Im sure Rover employed it on some of its cars?

It doesn't matter who's running the machinery. A part is designed and from that design G code is generated. I'd imagine this is all done in the same department and then distributed to all the production factories around the world. You can have the world's best quality control team but they won't make badly designed parts any better.

Another point on robots, FIAT (insert stupid witty rename here) used robots to construct some of the worst heaps of **** car bodies the world has seen. They also used robots to construct the FIRE engines used in the Punto and the Seicento (oh yea the ones the suffer HGF every 200miles if claims are to believed). Incidentally the FIRE engines are excellent, as with most italian engines.

You seem to be missing the point. It doesn't matter if they use robots or not. My point on robotic control and CNC is that assembly factories do not play a massive role in the overall reliability of a car. It's the design that dictates whether or not a car will be reliable.

Put it this way. If I had the money to go out and buy a 5 axis CNC machine and start making my own engine would it be better than a handmade engine designed and fabricated by the head of engineering at VAG?

partyatmygaff

partyatmygaff wrote: »

...........

Put it this way. If I had the money to go out and buy a 5 axis CNC machine and start making my own engine would it be better than a handmade engine designed and fabricated by the head of engineering at VAG?

It might well be, the head of engineering at VAG could be from a production background, just because they are the head of engineering it doesn't mean they are from an engineering background

kona

partyatmygaff wrote: »

It doesn't matter who's running the machinery. A part is designed and from that design G code is generated. I'd imagine this is all done in the same department and then distributed to all the production factories around the world. You can have the world's best quality control team but they won't make badly designed parts any better.

You seem to be missing the point. It doesn't matter if they use robots or not. My point on robotic control and CNC is that assembly factories do not play a massive role in the overall reliability of a car. It's the design that dictates whether or not a car will be reliable.

QC wouldnt let parts outside tolerance into the market. So yea they would have a fairly big say in what ****e comes out of a factory.

To be fair, alot of reliability faults are not design flaws but just ****e quality parts.

partyatmygaff wrote: »

Put it this way. If I had the money to go out and buy a 5 axis CNC machine and start making my own engine would it be better than a handmade engine designed and fabricated by the head of engineering at VAG?

Judging by what "Engineering" has gone to, Id imagine the Head of Engineering in VAG would struggle to do a head gasket by himself. But Im pretty sure hed have no problem analysing graphs and know how to make the cars cheaper.

partyatmygaff

kona wrote: »

QC wouldnt let parts outside tolerance into the market. So yea they would have a fairly big say in what ****e comes out of a factory.

Who sets these tolerances? The engineers who design the car, that's who. QC just ensures that parts meet the design specifications. They are not the ones to blame if a car is unreliable.

dr.fuzzenstein

Pdfile wrote: »

caterhams are alright.... and erhm.... lotus's are Ok....


Relations had both above, bare the usual clutch and tyre expenses... they alright... but they are a car to trash on the weekend and nothing less imho.

Lotus?
Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious!

Vicxas

Really, I heard the Elise is pretty harmless...

kona

partyatmygaff wrote: »

Who sets these tolerances? The engineers who design the car, that's who. QC just ensures that parts meet the design specifications. They are not the ones to blame if a car is unreliable.

Yes, I understand the engineers and designers set the tolerance, but if you have a **** QC, what happens??

Ever head of monday morning and friday afternoon cars? I wouldnt go around fooling myself that Jap or german cars are more reliable than British cars. Cars are built to a price unless you are spending silly money on a lambo or a ferrari.

When cars are built to a price, tolerances are pushed out.

partyatmygaff

kona wrote: »

Yes, I understand the engineers and designers set the tolerance, but if you have a **** QC, what happens??

How hard is it to put a part in a machine and get a reading? It's not exactly a delicate process. Parts are checked against specification and they are either GO or NO GO. It's not the people checking for quality who are at fault, it's the people who decide what is acceptable who are at fault.

Ever head of monday morning and friday afternoon cars? I wouldnt go around fooling myself that Jap or german cars are more reliable than British cars. Cars are built to a price unless you are spending silly money on a lambo or a ferrari.

I never said one car is more reliable than the other. All I said is that who designed the car and not who oversaw the assembly of the car is more than likely the one to blame for poor reliability.

When cars are built to a price, tolerances are pushed out.

I'm aware. But most companies would attempt to improve their practices and machinery to ensure their parts meet tolerances rather than just endlessly widening part tolerances.

dr.fuzzenstein

Vicxas wrote: »

Really, I heard the Elise is pretty harmless...

Still would have one, and a Focus to know I have something that will run every day.:D

kona

partyatmygaff wrote: »

How hard is it to put a part in a machine and get a reading? It's not exactly a delicate process. Parts are checked against specification and they are either GO or NO GO. It's not the people checking for quality who are at fault, it's the people who decide what is acceptable who are at fault.

Yup I understand Go and NO GO guages, and I totally understand what your getting at and in a perfect world your right, the engineers would be at fault.

The British Engineers were not at fault it was the ****e build quality and lazy workforce.

partyatmygaff wrote: »

I never said one car is more reliable than the other. All I said is that who designed the car and not who oversaw the assembly of the car is more than likely the one to blame for poor reliability.


I'm aware. But most companies would attempt to improve their practices and machinery to ensure their parts meet tolerances rather than just endlessly widening part tolerances.

Companies will do whatever will improve their bottom line. Pushing out a tolerance may improve productivity by a few percent and the consequences of this may be acceptable to allow them to do so.

I think Ill have to agree to disagree with you, Britain has a tradition of world class engineers. Look at the list of innovations and inventions that the British engineerd? They feckin built half the world.

corktina

Vicxas wrote: »

Really, I heard the Elise is pretty harmless...

its a breathed on Vauxhall of course (or is that Opel)

mountain

Freelander 2,

i have over 145km on mine, and had no problems so far,
very happy with it,

partyatmygaff

kona wrote: »

Yup I understand Go and NO GO guages, and I totally understand what your getting at and in a perfect world your right, the engineers would be at fault.

The British Engineers were not at fault it was the ****e build quality and lazy workforce.




Companies will do whatever will improve their bottom line. Pushing out a tolerance may improve productivity by a few percent and the consequences of this may be acceptable to allow them to do so.

I think Ill have to agree to disagree with you, Britain has a tradition of world class engineers. Look at the list of innovations and inventions that the British engineerd? They feckin built half the world.

I've nothing against the standard of their Engineers in general... Just their cars

Rickwellwood

While getting my own car NCT'd recently for another 2 years thank god (17 yr old mazda 626 - not built in the UK) an immaculate 1983 Triumph Acclaim was on the test bay and it passed.

I spoke to the owner as it really was in mint condition and she said it was incredibly reliable just wear items needing replacing but nothing major - and it is her daily driver here in Galway area

Terrontress

Rickwellwood wrote: »

While getting my own car NCT'd recently for another 2 years thank god (17 yr old mazda 626 - not built in the UK) an immaculate 1983 Triumph Acclaim was on the test bay and it passed.

I spoke to the owner as it really was in mint condition and she said it was incredibly reliable just wear items needing replacing but nothing major - and it is her daily driver here in Galway area

Yeah, but wasn't the Acclaim a re-badged Honda Accord?

When I was in Japan I saw a mk1 Land Rover Discovery badged as a Honda.

Arthur Daley

Are there any reliable cars that are made in the UK?

The case for the defence, built in Derby.



I rest my case, your honour.

Nephilim Wolf

Rickwellwood wrote: »

While getting my own car NCT'd recently for another 2 years thank god (17 yr old mazda 626 - not built in the UK) an immaculate 1983 Triumph Acclaim was on the test bay and it passed.

I spoke to the owner as it really was in mint condition and she said it was incredibly reliable just wear items needing replacing but nothing major - and it is her daily driver here in Galway area

I seen some pictures of it and it looks like a cross between a Honda and some British car. But it's great that it's so reliable. She obviously looks after very well.

Terrontress wrote: »

London Black Cab. I think they make them in Coventry. They must be pretty reliable, given the job they do.

The problem with the British car industry was trade unions. British cars were as good as or better than all other nations' car industries until the 60s. Then you had strikes, flying pickets, union appeasement etc and the whole thing turned to dust. Strikes being called because someone was asked to do a different job as there was nothing for them to do on their nominated task.

The cars were unreliable, they looked awful compared with continental imports and money was being lost hand over fist. Decent companies such as Jensen went down the tube due to labour issues. And all the workers lost their jobs anyway.

Even successful models such as the Metro are quite embarrassing in retrospect. Especially when compared to the VW Polo, Renault 5 or Peugeot 205. Or the Maestro when compared to a Golf. The Austin Maxi! What was that about?

The only good British owned, British manufactured car since the late 60s that I can think of has been the Rover SD1.

I remeber both the Austin Metro's, the Austin Maestro's and Austin Maxi back in the day.

Anan1 wrote: »

No, the OP ruled out UK-built Nissans, among others. I think what the OP means is cars that were originally British and are still built in the UK - ie Jaguar would qualify, in spite of being Indian-owned.

Thats exactly what I meant.:) Does anyone now of anybody who owns a vintage Rolls Royce or Bentely from the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's? Because I would love to know if they are as reliable from what I read in books.

Anan1

Nephilim Wolf wrote: »

Thats exactly what I meant.:) Does anyone now of anybody who owns a vintage Rolls Royce or Bentely from the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's? Because I would love to know if they are as reliable from what I read in books.

With that old a car it has little to do with how it was built and everything to do with how it's been cared for.

Nephilim Wolf

Anan1 wrote: »

With that old a car it has little to do with how it was built and everything to do with how it's been cared for.

Thats true enough.

Collibosher

Terrontress wrote: »

Yeah, but wasn't the Acclaim a re-badged Honda Accord?

Honda Ballade, and used the Civic engine apparently.


Growing up in the UK, I remember a friends father having a succession of British Leyland's finest as company cars.

I always remember him saying that each time he got a new one it was worse than the last one

I last one I remember him having was a Montego, after which he had VW's.