50 Years Of British Leyland

Saved by a government bailout in 1975, BL’s final decade was a mix of occasional optimism and long overdue reform against a background of continual decline.

- Jack Grover

A deadly cocktail of internal and external problems, compounded by some bafflingly bad management, marketing and engineering decisions, had led British Leyland to bankruptcy and effective government ownership in December 1974. Lord Ryder, head of the National Enterprise Board had made his study into the business, its fa300iling and its future. But while his diagnosis was correct his proposed treatment was not.

SITUATION NORMAL

In fact, BL largely carried on in exactly the state that led it to collapse in the first place, only with a steady supply of money from the government to prop it up. The long-awaited new sports car finally arrived in January 1975 in the shape of the Triumph TR7 (the same platform would, it was hoped, also provide a replacement for the ageing MGB). Delays in starting production and low productivity at the Speke factory meant that the new car was initially offered only in North America, with its UK launch being postponed twice due to insufficient production volume. Endless strikes and production slow-downs at Speke and sales which never reached their predicted levels meant that planned variants of the TR7 were either greatly delayed or never arrived. Even greater hubris surrounded the Rover SD1 of 1976. A replacement for the Rover P6 and the Triumph 2000 ranges, the SD1 seemed to be a real sea-change in BL’s fortunes. It garnered hugely positive publicity when it was launched, thanks to its striking looks, strong performance, advanced design and huge value for money when compared against European rivals. It was named European Car of the Year for 1977. But strikes led to many customers cancelling their orders and the factory could never work efficiently enough to meet demand. The SD1s which were delivered were soon found to be riddled with electrical faults, fragile interiors and badly-applied paint, so the model proved to be another dead duck from a commercial standpoint.