Gloom For British Motor Industry Lifts With Boom For Vauxhall Commercial Vehicles

The British motor manufacturing industry has been in steady decline since the 1980s. In a country with such an illustrious motoring heritage, it is nothing short of criminal that there are currently no major car manufacturers which are British owned and run. Once proudly British marques such as Bentley and Rolls Royce are now owned by Volkwagen and BMW respectively. BMW also owns the Mini franchise and most recently, Indian conglomerate Tata snapped up the Jaguar, Rover and Land Rover franchises in a multi-billion pound deal.

The recent demise of the Rover motor company exemplified the problem as a combination of mis-management and poor financial planning. For years British manufacturers have been falling behind their foreign rivals and this became evident with the closure of Rover’s Longbridge plant in April 2005. Some may argue that Government intervention could and should and have prevented the fall of this once successful car maker. One could cite the example of the French Government-subsidised car industry as the way forward. Manufacturers such as Renault and Citroen receive Government funding in their operations, helping them, particularly Citreon, to undercut competitor prices significantly.

The recent Northern Rock crisis illustrates that Government intervention can help to stimulate recovery and could, in the case of Rover have prevented the loss of thousands of jobs. It’s not all doom and gloom however. In the commercial vehicles market, Vauxhall’s British manufacturing operations are booming. Last year, the company recorded record sales of their British produced models, the Vauxhall Astravan and Vivaro.

Plants in Ellesmere Port in Cheshire and at the company’s base in Luton produce over 100,000 light commercial vehicles (LCV) a year, which find homes all over Europe. In 2007, 50,000 Vauxhall Commercial Vehicles were sold here in the UK, of which 60% were manufactured here in Britain.

The Luton plant recently celebrated the 500,000th Vivaro model rolling off the production line. All in all, 2007 was a great year for Vauxhall Commercial as it scooped a host of accolades, including the much-coveted, Green Fleet manufacturer award. Select Vehicle Leasing are specialists in vehicle financing and can make funding Vehicles from Select Vehicle Leasing easy and affordable. They have a range of Van Leasing Solutions to suit all budgets and needs.

Back to Main Blog Page