1970 Mk 3 - Complete Knock Down Kits

[richardACS]

Theres a 1970 mk 3 I might be interested in buying but heritage do not have records on the CKD kits. I'm trying to find out in which countries British Leyland operated the CKD, can any of the knowledgable help? Following purchase abroad the car was immediately imported to the UK.

I wonder why someone would have imported a new car from abroad, would it have been cheaper/avoided purchase tax?

Thx in advance...

[mk1]

The records for all early 70's cars are pretty ropey.

I'll start off a list of CKD countries, it is probably not complete, but these are certainly some of the countries;

All countries names are correct at time of CKD kits being sent.

Argentina,
Belgium,
Ceylon,
Columbia,
Cuba,
Eire,
Ghana,
Holland,
Hong Honk
India,
Indonesia,
Italy,
Malaya,
Mexico,
New Zealand,
South Africa,
Spain,
The Philippines,

CKD Countries that may or may not have happened are;

Egypt,
Mauritius,
Nigeria,
Persia,
Thailand


Some info here;

https://mk1-performance-conversions.co.uk/pdf/bbmc.pdf

[Nick W]

My 59/60 was SA CKD and has a heritage cert, so other CKD should have them, but as Mark says later cars often don't have them available

[richardACS]

Thank you Mark, I'm suspecting Holland or Belgium - only because the owner worked in the docks...

Makes me weep to see the BMC link - our once great motor industry now consigned to a foot note in history! A time of great energy with the likes of Jaguar consistently breaking export records...

[richardACS]

My 59/60 was SA CKD and has a heritage cert, so other CKD should have them, but as Mark says later cars often don't have them available

Also interested to note that New Zealand operated the CKD scheme - I bought my 65 1275s from New Zealand, but the car was ordered new from the UK! Maybe it was because the car was ordered with all the special tuning bits (no heater though). Would love to find the original owner - either Weston Marshall or Marshall Weston to find out more. But of interest was that he expected the car to arrive all kitted out so he could go racing - it did not, the ST stuff arrived in seperate boxes to be fitted up.

The car was by all accounts uncompetative and he sold it on quite soon after. I wonder where all the ST items ended up - certainly nothing I could identify having remained

[mab01uk]

Makes me weep to see the BMC link - our once great motor industry now consigned to a foot note in history! A time of great energy with the likes of Jaguar consistently breaking export records...

Few of the UK's car companies may be British owned anymore but our motor industry is not consigned to a foot note in history!

Maybe if BL/Rover had been owned by BMW back in the day classic Mini sales would have far exceeded the 5.5million total over 40 years....although from a classic Mini enthusiasts point of view the downside would likely have been that a 'New' Issigonis Mini 9X hatchback would have replaced the classic Mini around 1969/70....

United Kingdom Car Exports
A decline in UK car production in the previous decade led to a decrease in export sales but from 2009 until 2018, there was strong growth in the export market, which reached its peak in 2016 when some 1.35 million vehicles were exported from the UK. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, exports started dropping again but are now recovering with long customer waiting lists as production is held back by worldwide shortages of microchips, which has meant car manufacturers have given priority to production of more profitable larger expensive cars like SUV's rather than cheaper, more basic small cars. eg. Sales of the Ford Fiesta have been declining in recent years, a problem exacerbated by the recent supply shortages that saw Ford temporarily pause orders for the model in 2022 and will end Fiesta production finally in June 2023....
Last year Jaguar Land Rover sold 487,065 vehicles in 160 countries, with more than 80% of their vehicles produced in the UK being sold abroad.

BMW revs up £500m plan to secure Mini production in Britain. (March 2023)
"BMW, the German car manufacturer, is applying the finishing touches to plans to invest hundreds of millions of pounds into its Oxford plant, securing future production of the iconic Mini in Britain. For the next MINI generation, Oxford will produce the majority of MINI models, the MINI Cooper three-door and five-door models, as well as the MINI Convertible - one of their most important vehicles and a worldwide bestseller. Roughly 200,000 Minis are built at Oxford each year, with about 80% destined for export markets to more than 110 countries. The plant employs about 4,000 people, making it easily one of the most significant in Britain.
Nissan and Ford have both announced new investments in their UK facilities in the last year, with the latter saying in December that it would spend £150m at its Halewood plant in Liverpool to expand production of electric vehicle parts."
https://news.sky.com/story/bmw-revs-up- ... n-12828679

[mab01uk]

Lots of information on CKD Mini production around the world in this article linked below on AROnline.

How many Minis were built? - Ian Nicholls (AROnline).
"Ian Nicholls unravels the production data to try and come up with a definitive number of Minis built. In terms of sheer volume, the original Alec Issigonis-designed Mini is the most successful British car of all time, with an official figure of around 5.3 million being produced between 1959 and 2000. Most of these were produced by the Longbridge plant, which manufactured the Mini throughout the little car’s lifetime. However, even the official figures differ. How many were manufactured by overseas plants and whether these were counted as CKD kits built by BMC/British Leyland at its British factories. What constituted a CKD kit and what constituted a car completely made from locally-sourced components?"
https://www.aronline.co.uk/cars/mini/es ... tion-many/

[mk1]

Sadly, the myth that we are as strong an exporting country as we were in days gone by is a total lie perpetrated by folks who are trying to make us believe we are still a great manufacturing nation, sadly this is not really the case.

Although we are still manufacturing a respectable number of cars compared to the numbers we made decades ago, this does not take into account how many are made by other countries who were considered backwards members of the 3rd world back in the 1960's & 70's. Once these new manufacturing countries are taken into account the figures look very different.

Watch the graphic below to get some impression as to how far we have slid down the car manufacturer rankings over time.

I take no pleasure in making this point, but the lie peddled by certain "interested groups" needs challenging!

https://www.facebook.com/factsweird/vid ... 9165236640

[Spider]

Outside of the range for MKIII but we did CKD in Australia for a brief time with the Mini and the Moke.

The decline in manufacturing I find very sad, the loss of skills across a broad spectrum I think is incalculable.

Had the UK not had the Car Industry it had in the 30's, in particular Morris and Roll Royce, it is a fact that today, you guys would be speaking German and we'd be speaking Japanese.

[Costafortune]

Any Mini in the UK not built here will be almost certainly Seneffe in Belgium. BL realised - as Ford and GM did - that you need a back up plan for when we had strikes. Only in BL's case, only slightly* ineffective.

That's why the 1976 Cortina/Taunus Mark 4 and Cavalier/Ascona were standardised and near enough the same for a few thousand RHD cars to be built on the double.

Seneffe built a LOT of Minis and Aggros.

Are you going to Blyton Richard?

[InnoCooperExport]

I know the CKD cars in Holland (or The Netherlands, if we're being particular as Holland is only a region in NL), were all assembled by a company in Amersfoort called J.J. Molenaar or just Molenaar. They also assembled MG's and other Austin and Morris offerings. I'm sure there will be people in NL who will know more, potentially chassis numbers. Maybe Kees (UHR850) will know?

[Kiwi Craig]

richard ACS, Mini's were assembled in NZ, but no Cooper's or S's. They were all imported built up, from firstly the UK, then quite a few came from Australia.

[richardACS]

Any Mini in the UK not built here will be almost certainly Seneffe in Belgium. BL realised - as Ford and GM did - that you need a back up plan for when we had strikes. Only in BL's case, only slightly* ineffective.

That's why the 1976 Cortina/Taunus Mark 4 and Cavalier/Ascona were standardised and near enough the same for a few thousand RHD cars to be built on the double.

Seneffe built a LOT of Minis and Aggros.

Are you going to Blyton Richard?

Unfortunately won't be going to Blyton, a childhood pal is arriving tomorrow from Aus and its the only day we can find to meet up. I've never been to Blyton having spent lincs track time at Cadwell. I'm however looking forward to seeing the Blyton track....

[richardACS]

richard ACS, Mini's were assembled in NZ, but no Cooper's or S's. They were all imported built up, from firstly the UK, then quite a few came from Australia.

Thanks for that info...