The vulgar Camaro owner is partly correct.
The demise of the British car industry was precipitated by the introduction
of the plastic coat hanger. The reason being that exhaust system components
for British cars were notoriously hard to come by back then. The only remedy
was to repair the damaged system with the wire from coat hangers and old
coffee cans. The high ferrite content of these repair items matched the
corrosion rate of British cars thus preventing additional galvanic corrosion.
The introduction of the plastic coated hanger upset this critical balance.
Once plastic coated hangers were used to repair British exhaust systems two
things happened that have plagued the reputation of British vehicles.
First, the rate of corrosion increased dramatically, causing the naive LBC
owner to think that inferior metal and manufacturing technique was used in
the building of his/her British vehicle. Potential customers began to shy
away from purchasing new British cars out of fear of premature rusting.
Second, by making repairs to areas close to the exhaust manifold the plastic
coating occasionally ignited casing the vehicle the vehicle to burn
uncontrollably. Again, this was incorrectly blamed on the design of the SU
carburetor which was suspected to leak and drain gas on the hot manifold
causing an impressive conflagration. Naturally the vast majority of drivers
are timid and unwilling to take the risk of such pyrotechnics.
So, you see that the vulgar Camaro owner is partly correct but for all the
wrong reasons. Don't be mislead by others who claim that the demise of the
British car industry was cased by such things as poor management, inferior
quality, labor unions etc. I hope that this furthers your understanding of
your British vehicle which is really more reliable than any Lexus or
Infinity.
Gary Bouffard
59 TR3A
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