[acrorat]

You and Yours (BBC Radio 4), with significant mentions of our babies, is now available on iPlayer.

In a You & Yours special, Julian Worricker hears about the rising popularity of the small car or "supermini".

As fuel prices hit record highs, people are downsizing to smaller cars which are greener and, with better fuel consumption, cost less to run. What does the rise of the small car mean for manufacturers competing in this sector? And how do the finances of the small car stack up for the motorist?

The British car industry is booming even in the downturn as eighty percent of the cars made in the UK are exported but will consumers in China and the US ever be interested in smaller cars? And can manufacturers make enough of a profit on superminis?

 

[trevor3839]

It's good that the UK is producing cars for export…..Just a shame none of them are British.Triumph,, MG, Austin Morris etc all gone,And Mini, Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, Rolls Royce all doing well but unfortunatelyrun into the ground, starved of investment and then sold off for peanuts for the Germans etcto return to profits..OK Rant over……….sorry…..

 

[Deks]

trevor3839 wrote:It's good that the UK is producing cars for export…..Just a shame none of them are British.Triumph,, MG, Austin Morris etc all gone,And Mini, Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, Rolls Royce all doing well but unfortunatelyrun into the ground, starved of investment and then sold off for peanuts for the Germans etcto return to profits..OK Rant over……….sorry…..Agree, but we do have some good profitable small car makers like Noble, Morgan and Ginettasadly not mainstream but does go to show we do have designers and engineers still alive and kicking in the UK, as you say though just a shame managers and unions could manage to co-operate and work to gether to keep the british car makers thriving like they once used to

 

[trevor3839]

It was mainly Ford and BL cars in the 60's as imports had a large tax put on them.But you are very right we have some of the best engineers in the world, especially when it come toformula1 etc.Next time you watch a good old carry on film just look at the cars in the background…90% British.

 

[Paul_S]

Sadly, times have moved on. Still, an interesting initial post