Hi Paul:
Sorry, but long before I owned an MG it was common knowledge amongst auto
enthusiasts that the TR7 was c**p and as ugly as a board fence. It
represented everything that was wrong with British industry.
This car had lots of company. The failure of the British motorcycle
industry at the same time was due to exactly the same reasons. A kind of
national arrogance, unwillingness to commit to forward planning, sloppy
construction, building to a price (low), general inability to recognize and
react to superior competition, and complete disinterest on the part of
stockholders saw the world's largest and most successful motorcycle industy
disappear in the space of a decade. It was merely a harbinger of the death
of the British auto industry which was among the world's largest just a
three decades before.
How could names like Austin, Morris, MG, Sunbeam, Triumph completely
disappear without a massive national outcry? Imagine the reaction in the
US if Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge, Lincoln, Cadillac and Chrysler simply
disappeared as automobile marques in a few short years - to be replaced by
Japanese, Korean and European vehicles. Imagine the response in the US if
BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Honda and Toyota simply bought every American
nameplate and replaced them with clones of their own products. It happened
in Britain.
John McEwen
>There has been a lot of good vs. bad discussion about the TR7 the last
>few days, most centering on whether or not the car was any better or
>worse than its contemporaries. Well, I think that the key to why the
>car is so universally hated by MG enthusiasts is not related to the car
>itself, but to the politics it represented. If you were an MG nut in
>the US back in the 70s, you saw the MGB-GT discontinued to make room for
>the TR7. You saw interesting cars like the GT V-8 kept out of the US
>market by a Triumph-favoring BL management. You even saw your
>Triumph-loving friends bemoaning the demise of the TR6, only to be
>replaced by this... wedgie thing.
>
>Whether or not there is truth to the TR7 being the root of MG's
>misfortunes during the 1970s is irrelevant. The main issue is that the
>TR7 was the most visible manifestation of the idiotic BL management at
>the time it was introduced. It's no wonder that the car leaves a bad
>taste in the MG enthusiast's mouth!
>
>(Dissenting views welcome!)
>
>Cheers, Paul Kile
>
>
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