Cartman
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Post by Cartman on May 9, 2021 20:33:23 GMT
There's a long list of these, even if you just confine it to British names. From the British Leyland group there are Austin, Morris, Riley, Wolseley, Standard, Triumph. Austin and Morris were the mass market makes, the last Morris was the Ital, I think the last Austin was the Metro. Riley and Wolseley were originally independent makes, which were swallowed up by the BMC combine and became badge engineered Austin's. The Riley name was killed off immediately as soon as Leyland took over in the late 60s, Wolseley lingered on a bit longer and it's final car was a variant of the Princess in 75.
Standard was killed off by its parent company, Triumph in the early 60s, and Triumph itself was axed by Leyland in 84, when the Acclaim was dropped.
Rootes/Chrysler were the other outfit who went in for badge engineered cars, their makes were Hillman, Humber, Singer and Sunbeam. Singers were basically upmarket versions of Hillman s, while Humber were the large luxury cars and Sunbeams were the sports car end of the range. They all ended up as variations on the Hunter, with the Vogue, Sceptre, Rapier etc.
Other long gone firms were Armstrong Siddeley and Alvis, who made some interesting sports/luxury cars.
If you bring in Trucks and buses the list is even longer, Seddon, Atkinson, Guy, Karrier, Commer, were all British truck makers, and Crossley, AEC, Daimler were others.
Sad that these have gone
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on May 9, 2021 20:41:50 GMT
Good point Carty.
A similar thing happened to the aero industry after the war(s).
Think of Sopwith, Avro, Hawker, Boulton Paul, Bristol, Handley Page etc.
The various governments had a big hand in this I think.
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on May 9, 2021 21:01:59 GMT
True in some cases, in others it was bad decisions. On the trucks and buses, two examples of this were Guy and Crossley. Guy were independent and introduced an advanced bus design called the Wulfrunian, which was an attempt to combine a front engine with an entrance next to the driver for one man operation. It had a lot of untried features like disc brakes and air suspension, but was a disaster and was very unreliable. This tipped them into financial trouble and they were bought out by Jaguar in 1962 or 3.
Crossley were based in Manchester and had a big captive audience and customer with Manchester corporation, I just about remember Manchester's last few Crossley buses, withdrawn in the late 60s. Their problem came from a new engine design. There was a surge in orders for buses just after the war, and they designed a new diesel engine for their new bus, the DD42. Unfortunately, they copied the design from the Swiss manufacturers, Saurer, without permission. When Saurer found out, they demanded royalty payments, which Crossley didn't want to pay, therefore they altered the design of the cylinder head so it no longer infringed Saurers design, which meant it didn't run properly any more!
As a result, orders dried up and they had to be bought out by AEC, and their buses had to be re-engined.
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Post by D.C. Burtonshaw on May 10, 2021 16:29:01 GMT
Some good points raised above and thanks for this Cartman. I can think of maybe a few others but also worth a mention is Foden who made trucks formed in 1887 but became defunct in 2006.
And ERF (formed by the son of the above mentioned Foden company's founder) who were formed in 1933 but close in July 2007 after German owners MAN took them over in 2000.
Another truck maker also British, - Thornycroft - who lasted from 1896 to 1977. Famous for the Mighty Antar heavy truck, produced in the 50's and 60's with the main buyer being the British Army although I believe a few were also sold for civilian use on Oilfields and other uses abroad.
Then there was Scammell, based at Watford Herts, who were around from 1921 to 1988 when closed by DAF but one time part of the British Leyland empire. They made the Scarab and Townsman 3 wheel trucks mentioned on another thread and the Constructor, and many other heavy trucks, often again used by the Forces.
As for cars, there were the luxury cars makers Jensen, who ceased making cars 1976, had a brief revival in 1983 by employees, again in 1999 with new modernised sports car but that didn't last long either.
Welsh based car maker, who made some exclusive GT cars - Gilbern but only lasted from 1959 to 1973. They often used Ford engines towards the end, Essex V6's, but earlier cars used smaller BMC and Ford engines.
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on May 10, 2021 18:40:22 GMT
Albion was another truck maker who became part of Leyland, they also made a few buses, the Nimbus, which was a small midi bus, Halifax had quite a few of them, and the Lowlander which was a low height version of the Leyland PD3. They had more success with their trucks, Ripponden and district had quite a big fleet of them in their parcels service.
Seddons were another bus and truck firm, based in Oldham, who merged with Atkinson. They were also more successful with their trucks, their biggest seller on the bus side was the Pennine RU, which Lancashire United had some of, but they weren't keen on.
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on May 10, 2021 19:18:53 GMT
FODEN was another truck I think?
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Post by Dirty Epic on May 11, 2021 11:06:23 GMT
FODEN was another truck I think? Foden and ERF IIRC were a split amongst the family members until ultimately both marques ended up in common ownership and receivership by the 1990's/2000's.
I think Foden as a marque was around albeit re-engineered DAF's until about 2010, sadly.
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Bojan Scores
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Post by Bojan Scores on May 11, 2021 17:40:18 GMT
From a motorcycle angle we’ll soon see a return of BSA in the Uk. The rights to the company were bought by an Indian concern called Mahindra. R&D looks to be setting up around the Banbury area and recruiting for high profile posts is already underway. Manufacture of a range of petrol and electric bikes is set to return to Birmingham, although I’ve seen this changed to Coventry. I hope the new Beesa’s are faithful to their history and will be affordable ‘bikes of the people’ like the modern Royal Enfield Interceptor.
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Bojan Scores
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Post by Bojan Scores on May 11, 2021 17:59:07 GMT
I think Reliant who were from Tamworth in Staffordshire are worth a mention. They didn’t have the numbers of other manufacturers both were eccentric enough to stand out or stick in the memory. Myself and my brother are looking to buy a Rialto or a later Robin for a road trip to Gibraltar. The second hand prices are certainly a bit tasty for something utilitarian, but as we know on this forum any old junk can be qualified as classic if it’s old enough.
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Bojan Scores
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Post by Bojan Scores on May 11, 2021 18:45:05 GMT
Just staying with the motorcycle manufacturers, if you consider that in 1960 (for example), you had BSA, Triumph, Norton, Ariel, Velocette, Royal Enfield, Matchless and AJS as your big bike factories. Then you’d have Villiers engined tiddlers like James, Francis Barnet, Greeves and Norman (to mention just a few). Oddities like Panther from West Yorkshire or DOT in Manchester were still about too. Roll on to say, 1975 and it’s virtually all gone. Triumph are hanging by their fingertips in their co-operative, Norton were reduced to a tiny rump playing around with the rotary engines ‘aquired’ from BSA and that’s really it for the large manufacturers. It all just fell off a cliff in just over a decade, primarily due to Japanese motorcycles but also for other reasons you could fill a book with.
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