SWMBO management?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Actually bits of them were not too bad. The Midget engine wasn't bad. The MBG engine wasn't too bad. Ceraily no worse than any other makes including germn - of teh period. If you want a really bad engine, try the old air coolled VW Bettele engine. You might have to regrind a morris crank after 70k miles, but you had to line bore the VW block as well...

The gearboxes and backl axles were also not bad.

What let them down mainly was poor fittings and rusty bodywork. And an extaordinary front shock absorber arrangement.

Contrast with the triumph Hearld/sopitfire front suspension, whch was univeraslly used my most kit cars as beinginfintley better. Sadly the rear suspension on those was as bad as - yes - the VW beetle!

What actually happened is that Briotain failed to keep pace with European stanrads in engine longevity, top speed and cossroision prrtofing, and far east standards in reliabiliy and gadget provision.

Thats why Rover used a Honda engine ultimately in their smaller range. The old rover engines were direct descendent of the A35 (A series) and the original morris oxford (B series) engines. Never been changed.

If BMC had bitten the bullet, and simply concentrated on one or two GOOD designs, and sacked the workforce and opened up one new factory, they might have made it.

>

[The Natural Philosopher]

Odd. I thought that waht vaccum cleaners did, was suck up dust..

Oh silly me. They are fashion statements aren't they?

:-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

At te start of their life, teh Midgets and MGB were excellent cars. By the end of thier life the later VW and far east stuff, and even Opel/vauxhall were doing far better than BL.

The cavalier became the de facto cortina relacement, and more or less held the top rep spot until the mondeo finally won out - no one really liked sierras. Sure a passat was a better motor - but look at the price in those days!

Likewise a toyota corrola or datsun lasted longer, but weren;t available in volume n teh 70's and early 80's .

[The Natural Philosopher]

Compared with simply emptying the bag in my little cylinder, and shaking it out, a lot.

Since eben a dyson needss emptying its just more servicing to do.

Cars these days sell because they need less servoicing.

Whats wrong with an engine that you have to take the head off and decoke every 20,000 miles? That needs its points adjusting every 5000, and its carburettor replacing or ovberghauling, its big ends replacing every

30k, and its main bearings and timing chain every 60K?

Everything.

[usenet]

I don't think we (or many) people clean cookers, washing machines, tumble driers or any other similar appliances 'regularly'. I certainly don't expect to have to take the oven linings out and run them through a cleaning cycle of some sort at monthly intervals. This seems to be what you're suggesting is necessary for the Dyson.

In this modern age where appliances (and cars) are needing less and less regular attention it seems that the Dyson has gone the other way a bit. In addition the advertising for the Dyson tries to suggest that it's much *less* hassle to use and maintain than an ordinary vacuum cleaner and that appears not to be so.

[Dave Liquorice]

Yes but there is dust and dust. House dust (principally dead skin cells) isn't particulary fine and doesn't set like fine plaster dust, which is very fine, does.

We have a DC04, very pleased with it apart from the size of the cansister. Starting from empty it's full by the time you've vacumed the whole house. Washing the filter every 6 months isn't a problem and every vacum I've had as required the beater bar to be dethreaded every so often.

[Dave Plowman]

Both the A and B Series are Austin designs - the A Series first in the A30 and the B Series first in the A40 Devon - both from the '40s, when Austin and Morris were still separate companies. Only after BMC was formed in IIRC '52 did Morris start using Austin parts.

The current K Series Rover engine which has been around for about 15 years has *nothing* to do with Honda - it was an in-house design, and a pretty good one too - although now perhaps outclassed.

They'd have needed decent management first. Stokes was an accountant with no vision beyond a fast buck and stuffing the workforce. Typical of the management of the era.

If you really want to find out about him and his tricks, read up about the history of Albion - his first major takeover, which had an extremely hardworking and loyal workforce. Didn't stop him just near closing it down, though.

[Dave Plowman]

Well, I was talking about Morris Minors and Austin A35s as they were what Huge mentioned, and they were BMC products of the '50s, not BL from the '70s.

Of course BL got outclassed by foreign makes - as did Ford and Vauxhall, and the Hillman group just disappeared without trace.

To blame this *all* on the British workforce, as many do, is plain rubbish. It was mainly down to the City, as in so much else, simply wanting a quick buck.

[Lurch]

I didn't say monthly, if it needs cleaning monthly then clean it monthly. If it needs cleaning bi-annually, clean it bi-annually, simple really.

It's down to personal preference, if you don't like it, don't buy it. It isn't designed to need more maintenance, it depends how you use it. You don't believe advertising statements do you? Some people like them and know how to look after them, some people don't. I think you could apply that rule to anything really.

The end.

SJW A.C.S. Ltd.

[PoP]

Vacuum cleaners have filter bags which are supposed to let the air thru, but trap the dust.

These filters have a pre-defined filtration size. If the dust particles are smaller than that size then they whizz straight thru, invariably producing a sort of smoke made of dust.

I imagine you need some sort of scrubber for very fine dust, however I have no knowledge of scrubbers (cue follow on comments about loose women ;)).

PoP

Sending email to my published email address isn't guaranteed to reach me.

[PoP]

I had several Cortinas - a Mk 3 at the beginning of my driving career, and several Mk 4's when I joined the company car set.

Never got a Sierra, I went for the Cavalier CD (and later SRi) instead, still on the company car fleet.

I remember I got a mailing from Rover in the late 80's which claimed that if I took a test drive in a Mondeo then I would get a free CD of my choice. I thought "what the heck, for £10's worth of CD I'll drive a Sinclair C5 round the car park if I have to".

I drove the Mondeo Countryman, which was a big car. As this coincided with the start of my family I got one - and found it quite a pleasure to drive for the 2 years I had it. British Leyland junk it may have been, but I was quite pleased with it (however, being a company car I didn't actually have to pay for it).

Changed it for a Mondeo, then left HP. Got a Rover 214, too small for my right foot, but I had it 3 years before I got the Freelander.

I have to say that Rovers quality has improved substantially since the British Leyland days - I've been inside several of their plants.

PoP

Sending email to my published email address isn't guaranteed to reach me.

[Parish]

LOL. No wonder Rover went down the pan; giving you free gifts to test drive a *Ford* ;-)

ITYM Montego.

[PoP]

Damn. Who's been switching these kyetpos around? ;)

PoP

Sending email to my published email address isn't guaranteed to reach me.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Mmm. However the old A30 engine wasa a sidevalve. Not sure what the A40 devon used.

The A series as used in midgets/minis etc was born somehat later - it was certainly used in the later morris minors, but I am not sure whether the A35 had the side or OHV engine.

[The Natural Philosopher]

It ws a combination of poor management, poor union intelligence, and poor design and complacency.

No one ever made anything out of BMC/BL. Maybe one or two directors, but thats it.

>

[The Natural Philosopher]

The worst one of all

MUCH better. Almost driveable ;-)

The mondeo is a ford...you either mean a marina, or the other one whose name escapes me Montego? Not bad, but not that good..

Feelamder - almost gor waway from teh old BL parts bin. Not a bad car, but I decided it was roo small for a utlity, and too expensive for a shopping trolley.

Not the old defender that I have - 3 years old, alwytas leaked, been in for more warrantiesd than I have had chmpagne breakfasts. Still uses switches and door handles straight out of a 1970's marina..

The Discos and freelanders are much better. BUT the disco is to dear and teh feelander is too small...

[Tim S]

They're supposed to do that. It isn't a Defender/110/90/109/89 unless a) Water gets in everywhere; b) So does the force 8 gale outside; c) You need ear defenders to drive it.

I love 'em. But not for the comfort factor :-O

Aahh - Lucas, Prince of Darkness.

Freelanders are too close to the ground for their supposed class. Disco's not bad - pity no one ever drives them off road.

101 FC's are fun though. Try getting your wheel clamp on one of them, Mr B**tard Traffic Warden!

If I had infinite money, I'd go the whole hog and get a Rangey. Comfort and guts.

Tim

[Dave Plowman]

No it wasn't, unless I'm blind, as I've done a complete engine re-con on one. It was the original incarnation of the A series in 803cc form. And the whole car was near identical to the A35. Later used to replace the sidevalve unit in the Morris Minor MM in '53. The pre-war Austin 7 was side valve, but that bore no resemblance to the A Series - which if anything was loosely based on the Bedford wartime 'high speed' truck engine, as was the B Series.

The 1200cc version of the B Series which later became 1500 in the MG Magnette - the first car to use that version.

All OHV and all the A Series. If you look at the externals of a '47 A-Series it's near enough the same as the last Mini. A production run of

50 years. Of course there were many internal modifications throughout its life.

[Dave Plowman]

You *are* joking. BMC throughout much of the '50s and some of the '60s consistently paid large dividends - of around 20% - instead of investing in decent R&D. Then when their sales dried up - virtually overnight - due to not having modern competitive models, the City withdrew its money and caused - eventually - the formation of BL.

A poor workforce is invariably caused by poor management - who ever heard of a happy one causing trouble? And it wasn't about pay, but more autocratic management who treated their staff like chattels. This came from the top.