Divided by a Common Language.(Column)(Kevin A. Wilson)(Column)

Byline: Kevin A. Wilson

British cars are on my mind of late because my first assignment after vacationing in the U.K. was driving the U.S.-model Lotus Exige (patience, gentle reader, the story is coming next week). The combined effect was to remind me how much fun I've had in British cars over the years, and that I had once written about how and why the mass-market British auto industry died.

In that March 8, 1993 cover story for AutoWeek, several parallels were drawn to then-current events in Detroit. With 20/20 hindsight, we can see the alarm lights were flashing. One source was GM vice chairman Bob Lutz, who in '93 was a vice president at Chrysler. He had watched the British industry collapse from various perches at BMW, Opel and Ford of Europe. Another source was West Coast import impresario Kjell Qvale, who got burned trying to build the Jensen-Healey sports car.

The late Alex Trotman, then president of Ford Motor Co., had kicked off the whole story by opining that the success of the Austin Mini had actually planted the seeds for the British industry's demise. I remember the shock of learning that the Mini, introduced in 1959, didn't turn a profit for its manufacturer until 1982. Little wonder, then, that a successor was so long arriving. Trotman argued the British government propped up unprofitable operations to the ultimate detriment of both the weak and the strong players.

Trotman, who died in April, was raised and educated in Scotland, so our conversation began with pleasantries about his familiar accent. I'd never been to my mother's native Scotland, so Trotman encouraged me to go. Circumstances didn't permit it until October this year, when an autumn driving tour there looked like just the thing to celebrate 25 years of marriage to my favorite co-pilot.

It might have been fun to drive a Scottish-built car, but there hasn't been such a thing since the demise of the Hillman Imp in the 1970s. Built near Glasgow, the ...