Which Honda, Nissan and Toyota models are made in Britain?

It is good that cars are still being built in Britain. Just a pity that the companies are not British, which would be better for our economy.

I have always been saddened by the transfer of heavy manufacturing away from the UK. If the car is fully made here it will start with iron ore extracted here, smelted here using limestone and coal from the UK, bent into shape here, and – generally – have components made here. The windscreen glass will be made here and the tyres will be manufactured here. Even the plastic parts can be made here and make good use of recycled material. In my book, “assembly” is not the same as “manufacturing”: it is not enough to know that this model or that one are “made” here but whether the engines are made here or whether they are shipped in from some other part of the world. Even if the panels and windscreens are fabricated here, the materials might be suplied in sheet form or in pre-formed modules imported from somewhere else. I think we’ve lost it for ever now. We won’t get it back because the infrastructure has gone – the quarries, mines and blast furnaces have been shut down for good, the railways today could not possibly cope with the mineral traffic, and saddest of all, the skills have been lost. We must not overlook, however, the all-important by-product of importing manufactured goods – we export our carbon footprint in return!

“Just a pity that the companies are not British, which would be better for our economy.”

British car companies have a history of being foreign owned.
Vauxhall has been owned by General Motors (American) since 1925.
Ford – Ford of Britain is a subsidiary of Ford of Europe, which itself is a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company (American).
Rootes Group was bought by Chrysler (American) in 1967, and then bought by Peugeot (French) in 1978.
Jaguar was bought by Ford in 1989, and then sold to Tata (Indian) in 2008.
Rover sold to BMW (German) in 1994 by British Aerospace. When the Rover Group was split in 2000, Land Rover was sold onto Ford, and then to Tata in 2008.
Aston Martin – Ford took full control in 1991. Taken over by a American/Kuwati consortium in 2007.

As a long term Land Rover owner I like the fact that it is designed and built in the UK but it is noticeable that innovation has improved under the ownership of Tata. They are investing more in new models and upgrades that in the past. Having owned many makes of cars over 40 years of motoring I care more about the design and quality of the car rather than where it is made. Being designed and built in the UK cannot compensate for poor design or manufacture.

The nostalgia expressed by a number of contributors to this discussion is really based on the lack of choice in the past. It is the advent of the shipping container that has made it economic to both import and export products that means we can now buy finished products and components (in the case of cars) from where it is best to make them. If you accept that people can choose the cars they want to buy then just because something is wholly made in the UK does not of itself add to quality or design.

Finally, the point concerning “ownership” is a little simplistic. If you think the owners are the shareholders then just because a company is listed on a national stock exchange doesn’t tell you much and where a company id headquartered is probably related to the tax regime.

There is no going back.

Don’t you mean assembled in Britain?
I think, but could be wrong because I’m out of the automotive sector now, that it’s still the case that much less than 50% of the components are actually made in Britain. Plus of course upon sale the profits go back to the foreign owners of these car companies.

Perhaps a good analogy is that in years gone by Rover use to sell kits of parts to Iran for local assembly, Land Rover use to do the same in South Africa, and there were other examples.
But did that make these vehicles Iranian or South African made?
I think not.

Still good of course that UK employment benefits even if it’s only assembly of essentially foreign cars, but not as good as a 100% British owned car company using components the majority of which manufactured in the UK, like it use to be in days gone by.

“Near Tyneside”.
No. On Wearside.

I’m currently watching a programme about British cars, “Cars that made Britain great” introduced by people who know nothing about them but are more than willing to give expert comment. (Like Clarkson on Rover) They can’t even get the names right – the Landrover Defender was introduced in 1991 but this programme has backdated it to 1948 and i’m waiting for the “Robin Reliant” to appear….
I too am sad that the motor industry went but I recall seeing a film shot inside British Leyland in the 70’s which clearly (unintentionally) showed antique equipment and pre war tooling . Conversely, when Nissan set up the plant on Wearside they invested 900m pounds over nine years to 1995 before making their first profit in that year of 10m pounds. No British company would do this because our banks don’t do long money anymore – they would have had the place into receivership long before nine years. Goodness only knows th he total investment in this plant to date but I bet it exceeds the total ever put into the entire British motor industry.
The workers in this plant turn out around two thousand cars a day and it’s said to be the most productive in Europe. Along with the Toyota plant in Burnaston and the Honda plant it is staffed by the same awful trade union members that brought the British motor industry down…….