Rev up for British business

ThE uK imports 810,000 cars from Germany every year and half of the 2.6 million cars made in the uK last year were made by German companies.

In fact, we actually made only about 1.6 million, and only a limited number of BMW Minis were uK-made. Most of the more expensive models come from Austria and holland.

For example, BMW assembles a few hundred Rolls-Royce-badged cars in the uK, and VW assembles several thousand Bentley cars in Crewe, both with parts imported from Germany.

In fact, almost every car made in the uK includes a large part by value of imported components. This is true of the ‘uK-made’ Vauxhall Astra.

Most of the engines for Nissan’s Quashquai, Juke and Note models are imported from France and assembled in Sunderland (mostly for export). The Micra is now imported.

honda ‘ makes’ the Accord in Swindon but again much by value is imported.

Only Tata of India, which owns Jaguar Land Rover, really makes cars in the uK, although these include German transmission systems.

BMW sealed the fate of the uK motor industry when it bought out Rover Group 20 years ago. At first it made a truly brilliant car, the Rover 75, only then to realise that it had created a major competitor to its vital BMW 3 series.

So BMW had to kill off Rover, give away everything except the Mini project in Oxford and dump Land Rover on Jaguar who made a hash of that. Those who acquired it finally destroyed what was left of the company five years later.

The value of the 810,000 cars imported from Germany probably exceeds the value of the entire output of cars assembled in Britain, and this has helped to ensure a balance of trade deficit with the Eu of about £100 billion a year.

This can be corrected only be applying high purchase taxes on cars, especially high-powered racing cars which are totally unsuitable to our grossly overcrowded roads.

We need to make 2.6 million cars in Britain, with most components made here as well, just to stop importing so many to the detriment of our horrifying balance of payments deficit. Maybe outside the Eu we can start to make things again.

It’s not surprising that German car bosses are begging to be allowed to continue trading with us.

We need them to buy from us as much as we buy from them.

PETER R. FRENCH, Bournemouth, Dorset.