Bryan;
Precisely why Triumphs are no longer being made. British Leyland
struggled to be competitive in an increasingly global market selling
hand-fitted cars built in antiquated factories using decades old
technology. Triumphs did not have a 'quality' image for the most part
when they were being built, however they were expensive to make given
the amount of labour that went into them.
Makes you wonder- if British Leyland could have made the quantum leap
into the 'modern age', would we now have a front-wheel-drive, unibody,
plastic dash, econobox sports car like the Mercury Capri? ( Only with
racier body styling?) Or would they be more like a BMW Z3- beautiful but
priced out of reach for the average guy?
Triumph, along with most British industry, had massive labour problems
and were always undercapitalized. The flight of capital from the UK in
the early 70's was huge. I believe that Britain at that time still had
top tax rates of about 90%.
Further still, if you think about what the U.S. regulations did for the
performance and looks for the cars exported to BL's largest market- not
exactly conducive to selling more cars.
The foregoing is just my opinion, not something I read in a book.
Jeff Johnson
'76 TR6
bought new in '76
from a dealer who now sells Subarus
"Stinocher, Bryan D." wrote:
>
> I have a question for the list.
>
> I have a TR250. From what I have learned, Triumph only made roughly 8600 of
> them in a one year period. In looking at the TR6, it looks like they only
> made 10-15K per year. I'm not sure of the other models, but my question is
> this: I have worked in automotive for over 10 years, with Honda for 5.5 of
> those. Typical yearly production numbers are 250--400K, depending on model
> of Honda. Same for Toyota, except for niche cars, of course. But even those
> run at roughly 3--9K/month. If Triumph was only making that many cars a year
> (and North America was supposedly their largest market, if I remember
> correctly), how could they do it? Given the investment, wages, materials,
> etc., how did they do it? Or were they running other things besides the TRs
> at the same time?
>
> Just curious. Obviously they stayed afloat for a long time, but just
> professional curiousity.
>
> Thanks.
> Bryan
> bdstinocher@sewsus.com
> 502-782-7397 xt. 2284
> 68 TR 250 CD 5853 L
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