Do We Need To Know When And Where Our Car Was Built?

Wednesday, 5. March 2014

There is a motor journalist who frequently bangs on about things that are of little or no importance causing the little hairs on the back of my neck to bristle. Not because they are all of no importance but often because I disagree with his views. I don’t want to give him any publicity through my blog or newsletter by mentioning his name but it’s Mike Rutherford.

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This time he is banging on about car manufacturers not telling buyers of their cars when and where their cars were ‘made’. He says that it is wrong for ‘German’ manufacturers not to tell you that the car you are buying was made on a certain date in South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Hungary or anywhere else.

He suggests that like a low-fat yoghurt cars should come with a tamper proof sticker showing its place of birth and date of birth. Good grief – what a doughnut. First of all does he think with the cost of stocking cars that they will be sitting around for any length of time before they are sold.

The days of Mercedes changing their design once every 5 years are gone. I have had notice today that Volvo are about to stop taking orders on 2014 and a half model year cars to replace with 2015 model year cars that will be available from April. I don’t know what Mr Rutherford thinks will be revealed but few cars sit around in stock for more than weeks, a couple of months at the most.

As for where the car was ‘manufactured’, firstly it wasn’t, it was assembled, mainly on fully automated production lines on equipment that was made by just one company to an exact design from the manufacturer and shipped around the world to wherever they can get the car assembled as cheaply as possible.

When it comes to the manufacturing process the car will be fitted with brakes made by Bosch, windscreens made by Pilkington, Tyres made by Goodyear, Lights made by Lucas and I have a customer in the UK who makes dashboards for about 5 different manufacturers.

So who gives a damn about where the cars are ‘manufactured’? Are you going to roll up to your Mercedes dealer to find that the brand new C Class that you are about to buy was built 3 months ago in Brazil and say ‘Don’t want that, have you one that was made in Germany yesterday please? Silly man! By Graham Hill

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Worldwide Increase In Number Of Cars On The Road.

Saturday, 24. September 2011

Noticed a bit more of a jam on the way into work in the morning or maybe a little more difficulty parking in the local car park at the weekend? Probably not as the UK car parc (the number of cars on our roads) has reduced a little over the past couple of years as we have been hit by recession but the reason I mention it is that the number of cars on the Read more »

Graham Hill Reviews New Senna Movie

Wednesday, 8. June 2011

Defending champion Ayrton Senna won a second c...

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This is a first in the 6 or more years that I’ve been sending out newsletters, it’s Graham Hill’s film review. Yep, you read it correctly I’m reviewing a film for all you petrol heads and F1 fans. The film is about triple world champion Senna, the name of the film. It has been incredibly made and puts Senna in a somewhat different light to the animal I seem to Read more »

More Money Than Sense Gadget Of The Week

Saturday, 28. August 2010

Carnauba wax
Image via Wikipedia

This week our gadget of the week should be called dopy gadget of the week or more money than sense gadget of the week. It’s in fact a polish for your car, priced at, wait for it, £275 for a 270ml pot or a pound a millilitre! The polish is Raceglaze’s Signature Black Label Wax which contains a high content of carnauba, apparently one of the most prized car care products – bit of an understatement that one! But the best is Read more »

Most UK Manufactured Vehicles Exported

Sunday, 7. September 2008

I came across an interesting piece of information from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders that showed we produced 574,257 cars and 82,256 commercial vehicles in the UK in the first 3 months of this year, most of which were destined for abroad. Considering that most people think that we don’t produce vehicles in this country any more and think that all Mercedes are made in Germany (many are made in India and Brazil) that looked like some amazing statistics. By Graham Hill

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