Did this early example of globalization portend the future?
The car was a wreck when I found it. It was British Racing Green and had been left to rot under a spruce tree.
The exterior was a foul blend of pine sap and bird droppings. It was complete but hadn’t been driven since the late 60’s. This was in 1972 and I was looking for a project and a drivable car. I convinced my uncle, a Yale trained mechanical engineer, to help me rebuild it.
He owned a 1935 Alvis Speed 20 and was game to take on the challenge of the Mini. Its official designation was Mini Morris 850 and In those days you could actually go to a dealership and purchase parts. He lived in Darien, Connecticut, and we towed the car to his house.
There had been a Mini dealer several miles down the road. They didn’t have any whole cars left but they had many of the underpinning parts: bushings, rubber bits, grommets, etc. It also turned out that my uncle lived across the road from one of the best English parts stores in the state. You could order almost anything from pistons and rings to floor mats and trim pieces.
Less than three decades later and most were gone. Either in receivership or swallowed up in another pointless, debasing merger. Labor disputes with management and the government, quality issues, supplier problems, unattractive new products and competition all played a part.
Looking back now from quite a distance we can call this process what it was, globalization. We have seen something similar in this country and for some of the same reasons during the Great Recession. With the U.S. economy on the ropes and falling sales in most segments combined with labor and pension issues, competition and products the consumer didn’t want and wouldn’t buy. Ultimately the process produces a leaner company better able to survive the current vicissitudes. Yet most would rather sign on for a castor oil drip than undergo this restructuring.
England lost ownership of many of its storied marques. Jaguar and Land Rover went to Tata Group of India, Rolls-Royce to BMW and venerable Bentley to Volkswagen, the dissolution of the empire not by war but by economics.
There is one car perhaps more than any other that embodies the many facets of globalization. Of all the vehicles the UK has produced through the years none speaks more clearly to our story than the Mini (see sidebar). Designed by Sir Alec Issigonis and launched by BMC (British Motor Corp) in 1959 it captured a nation’s heart. If any car can be said to have driven the “swinging sixties” it was the Mini. Peter Sellers, The Beatles, Twiggy, James Garner, Steve McQueen, all were owners. It had a starring role in the 1969 film the ‘Italian Job’ with Michael Caine. The Mini’s impact is still both visceral and immediate today.
