Having driven a number of the cars that were made the comments about them were rubbish not the cars. The Roots group did much the same as Mini with the Hillman Imp. In some ways a better car than the Mini. In my view one of the better brands of the time was Triumph who went when some were merged. Rover at the expensive end of things. Triumph fitted in between but some of the cheaper end used a leaf spring across the axle for the rear suspension that type approval killed off. The Yanks did a terrible job of that arrangement. My first car was a Triumph Herald - an old one when bought. Ran it for for a few years often flat out when possible and a friend bought it off me and also used it for a few years.
I saw a Rover for sale in Switzerland around this time. The price was unbelievably high so no wonder exports were low. I used to bum around europe in old brit cars for a summer holiday sleeping in them or a youth hostel. When Nissan ran Rover a friend of mine asked a German who ran a bmw why he didn't buy a Rover - couldn't afford one. A Merc would have been cheaper.
All made a range of various priced cars earlier but mr average couldn't afford them so problems came when they tried to sell to slightly richer masses. A person I knew a little had a part time job at a butchers. He cut the end off one of his finger on purpose - enough compensation to buy a Mini.
he had women falling all over him.The so called better foreign cars that came in from Europe were eventually pole axed to some extent by the Japanese - Uk an easy target as they drove on the same side of the road and a population unlike others that wasn't bothered about buying imports. The brit cars had been given bad press for some time but people still bought them and had few problems with them. The Japs also set the state of the game - mostly Toyota. Far more for the money spent.
And yes a lot of Brit management in these companies wasn't very good. I was selected for an interview from 1000's for a job at Leyland. Having been interviewed by an old Batman and his pet boy blunder I don't think I would have gone there. I was used to manager that were more professional. When ever I applied for another job the company I worked for made my job more exciting so wouldn't have gone anyway. That used to infuriate me and it took a while to realise why this happened - references. Leyland did offer me a job but turned it down.
