If every car sold in the UK was manufactured in the UK, how much money would this contribute to the economy?

Question

Unlike France and Germany, where they are patriotic and tend to buy cars manufactured by French and Germans respectively, we have a culture of buying cars manufactured in other countries. As well as the obvious tax implications - i.e. a BMW made in Germany will have VAT levied there, which will thus go into the German economy instead of ours - those involved in the manufacturing process and the car's production up to the point it leaves a foreign country will earn money and pay tax in that country. If all of the production of the car took place in the UK, ALL of that money would go into our economy. I suspect the figure is so astronomical that the lack of patriotism shown by buyers of foreign-built cars will be truly astounding - bordering on treason!!

The answers so far are from people who seem to be unaware that Peugeot, Renault, BMW, Honda, Toyota and many many more companies manufacture cars in the UK. They also seem unaware how seriously our economy suffers by so many people not sourcing British-made cars - thus, our education, health and public services suffer from lack of funds due to the huge drain abroad of revenue that could and should remain in the UK. I trust that all of those who are so anti British workmanship never moan when they ahve to wait in a hospital list - one of the reasons is so easy to remedy.

It is very interesting to see how so few people - only one actually - actually understood or even tried to answer the question. The question could easily be changed to read "How intelligent are most British people who answer questions on Yahoo! Theanswer would be "Not very". The answer could easily also be "That is why we have a Labour Government - the average British voter is too stupid to understand what the questions re, let alone answer them". I depsair. Bring back National Service - see another question.

Answer 1

It's because cars made in the UK are absolute nightmares.

Besides some top of the line makes, which most of the world can't afford, British cars suck.

Answer 2

Interesting to see someone criticising the quality of UK cars, by comparing the poor quality of his wife's Vauxhall Corsa (built in either Spain or Germany, but not the UK) with BMW and Honda engines (BMW 4-cylinder engines are built at Hams Hall near Birmingham, and Honda build a lot of engines for Civic and CR-V at Swindon).

I'm not sure how much would be contributed - very difficult to put a value on it, because I'd have to know the capacity constraints of every factory, and work out the possible losses of export earnings (the UK exported over 600,000 cars in the first half of 2006). Even if factory capacity could be increased, would we have the skilled workforce required? What would be the costs of the additional capacity?

If we had all bought UK-built cars, would MG Rover have survived, or would the decades of poor management have killed it eventually anyway? Remember BL didn't make money when we did all buy British cars.

What do those who currently buy cheaper imported cars spend the rest of their money on? If they bought a UK-built car, what would they not be able to spend money on? What effect would that have on the economy?

I'm guessing that it would take at least 6 months working 9-5 to put a decent figure on this.

For your information a BMW made in Germany will only have VAT levied on it in Germany if bought from a German dealer and kept in Germany. A BMW bought new in the UK will have VAT levied on it in the UK, paid to the UK government. If you bought a BMW from a dealer in Germany, but then imported the car to the UK, you could claim back the German VAT and pay the UK VAT instead.

Answer 3

Essex_Ron, you have an interesting discussion there.

Althought, the fact of the matter is that the majority of cars purchased are not UK manufactured cars as they just don't have the qualities of foreign made cars... VW and BMW engines run for 100'000's of miles, Honda engines also known to be bullet-proof, with engine failures rare. Build quality etc etc...

The UK car market just doesnt appear to have got there yet (if at all!). Oh, and over-inflated UK car prices (hence UK motorists looking elsewhere, importing cars from Germany, Japan and the like).

Note: My wife owns a Vauxhall Corsa (only 3 yrs old), and as I write this I'm waiting for AA Recovery to come out and hopefully fix a transmission issue/failure, which I have been told is common on these cars - need I say more! :(

Answer 4

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Answer 5

i agree with #1 answer pretty much.
if you take peugot diesel engines, they are pretty reliable.

the build quality of most german cars is pretty hot

hondas vtech engine doesnt break either.

people like reliable cars.
its the same with british bikes too.

i agree, it would be far better from a national point of view if we all bought british cars but what is a british car these days?

jag? american

rover? rip

a lot of the foreign cars are built in the uk by uk workers.
does that make them british cars?

Answer 6

I agree fully with answer # 1 - the prestige cars made in U.K.
are very good and well worth the money.

When it comes to economy cars - british made or assembled
it is not so good - shoddy workmanship!