Having purchased loads of engine parts for my Omega I was suprised that none were made in the United Kingdom. They were made in the good old USA, France, Italy, Austria, Greece and Belgium. Manufacturing has certainly disappeared from these shores.

I think this is generally down to the fact that many things are so much cheaper to manufacture abroad theses days I don't think its so much down to the quality of British made products but down to the price of materials, labour, transportation costs, fuel prices, taxation etc. - something else to blame TB for!!

tunnie wrote on 16. Aug 2006 at 14:23:


German car built in Germany actualy.......yanks had little to do with it.

johnny.dee wrote on 16. Aug 2006 at 12:04:


Parts made in Greece?? i'm really curious to know which part is made there?
I don't think that the british goverment had a negative impact on the engineering companies. It is the need for cheap parts that drives sourcing to low cost producers due to competition pressure. My view is that in the next 10 years the UK will be more of a engineering research/development  area rather than manufacturing.

The Opel rear wheel drive boys did it.

Uk manufacturing is not supported the same way as it is in other EU countries where tax breaks etc are available. There is little support here for R and D either.

Labour laws mean its easy to hire and fire here.....try getting rid of people in Germany or Italy!

We are turning into a services nation.....

omegaV6CD wrote on 16. Aug 2006 at 14:43:


Part number 90511731 (Vauxhalls part number) cant remember what was in there.

The decline of UK manufacturing is definitely a factor but it is only part of the picture. The rest is down to globalisation. I do contract work for the Diesel division in Delphi, they have factories virtually all over the planet and each one specialised in different items.

Of the two factories I work for in the UK, one makes nothing else other than Diesel fuel pumps, and the other makes Diesel injectors and oil/fuel filters. Delphi have other UK factories, as well as factories in South America, France, Germany, Spain, India, etc, but again each factory specialises in usually just one type of item.

This works out more efficient than having factories in the UK making parts for UK-made cars, then having the same factories in Germany making the same parts but for German made cars, etc.

For example, as we all know the V6 is made in Luton, and nowhere else. This allows the factory to develop a high level of skill, and the engines are then sent all over the world to GM factories including Saab.

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OK read that as hire and make redundent......dead easy here,.....very easy to scale your work force to match your requriements, try doing that else where you start to fall over social points etc.