In terms of the British car industry, I believe it was a combination of short sighted management and the unions which led to it's demise.
That companies like Honda and Nissan (plus Jaguar Land Rover now) have made a success of it shows that Britain is capable of decent mass production car manufacturing business.
In terms of shortsighted management, you just have to look at the British motorcycle industry, we were the market leaders until the Japanese came along and they were dismissed as not being a threat until it was too late. You can look at John Bloor's Triumph now to see what could have been achieved if not for shortsighted management.
It is sad but inevitable that Bristol have gone through as the niche market was getting smaller. Their current cars could never be described as beautiful (although the Fighter was good looking) so were going to have limited appeal.
I don't know who said this originally, but always thought there was an element of truth in it:
The French buy French cars, the Germans buy German cars and the Italians buy Italian cars, unfortunately for the British car industry, so do the British!
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