If the Alpine was a money loser, the Tiger must have been worse!!! Also, with
the end of the Audax, all economy of scale would be lost for the Alpine,
forcing the price up or if the price was held, increasing the loss on each
car. Even though Rootes/Chrysler used as many "off the shelf" parts from
their suppliers as they could, there were still a number of special Rootes
Audax/Alpine parts. When the 100,000 or so Hillman parts were not ordered,
the 10,000 Alpine parts would become much more expensive on a per piece basis.
Little things, like door handles and window cranks could suddenly go from 50
cents to $5 when volume fell from 420,000 (4 doors on each Minx) to just
20,000 (only 2 doors on an Alpine) per year. Multiply this by alot of parts on
the Alpine and suddenly it would become a very expensive car.
Also, as I mentioned before, Chrysler USA was big into stock car racing where
name and brand recognition was very high. So there HAD to be racing/rallying
Hillmans to improve the sales of the regular cars. In reality, Rootes
strategy of racing and rallying the Rapier and Alpine was not good business.
They should have followed Alexander Engineering's lead and produced a hopped
up Hillman back in the fifties for Rallying. Chrysler did this later by
producing the "Hillman GT" in 1970-71 as a follow on to the London to Sydney
victory (as a by the way, Hillman Hunter sales jumped notably after this win).
The Hillman "Tiger" of a few years later was also based on the very
successful Hillman Avenger Rally cars (again, Avenger wins translated into
higher sales).
This concept left no room for the Sunbeam Alpine-a racing victory by the
Alpine did not sell any Hillmans. Even in the USA where the Hillman Minx was
sold as a Sunbeam Minx, Alpine victories had no effect on sales of the Minx.
Looking over the British car industry of the post-war era, all of the British
owned companies (that is-not Ford or Vauxhall) that built sports cars were run
by a somewhat dictitorial "owner", Leonard Lord at BMC, Sir John Black at
Triumph, William Lyon at Jaguar and Lord Rootes at Rootes. Each of these
could order the company to do something that was not profitable-just because
they wanted it. It is sad that unique, interesting and fun cars are usually
not profitable. The result is that all of the dealer showrooms are filled
with look alike 4 door sedans!!!
Jan
SloMoIV@aol.com wrote:
In a message dated 3/5/01 6:26:14 PM Pacific Standard Time,
the_blues@worldnet.att.net writes:
<< Speaking of Alpines and "doner" production cars, why did Rootes stop
production of the Alpine? >>
As others have posted, the end of the Audax line could of had something to do
with it but, according to Graham Robson, in his "Complete Story" book, it was
a business decision based on the Alpine's 'performance.'
Page 143:
"Following the final Chrysler takeover, a group of us motoring writers
met the new Rootes/Chrysler chief executive, Gilbert Hunt. In the middle of
an affable with him, I mentioned the Alpine, commented that its marketing
seemed to be running down, but suggested that at least it must have made some
money for Rootes in the past?
"Hunt, a businessman rather than an enthusiast, looked at me, raised an
eyebrow, pursed his lips, and made one short, and rather chilling comment:
'Not according to the figures I see, it hasn't.'
"I knew then...the Alpine's days were numbered."
Dick Sanders
Seattle
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