Bristol Cars has gone into administration

[sigma]

Not really no, nobody mentioned hatchbacks or making city cars.

 

[Joshy]

Bristol is a small niche luxury car company. Their cars are built by hand to order for a small client base. They aren't going to diversify into building family hatchbacks or stick a Bristol grille onto a Toyota iQ. The only backup plan they could have was a huge pile of cash to see them through when their normal market goes through a dry spell like it is now. They aren't big enough to go begging for a hand out from the government like Jaguar-Land Rover. Like I said before, I'd rather they go out gracefully. Bristol's employees and directors probably feel the same - like Sid Lovesy, for instance, who started out with the company as an electrician in 1945 and was still working in 2008, but as a director, at the grand old age of 89. I doubt he'd want to see the Bristol badge on a mass produced piece of junk.

Some companies like Bristol just have their time and should be allowed to pass into history and remembered for what they stood for. I hope someone will step in to keep the restoration and servicing side of the company going to keep these cars on the road.

I don't think anybody is suggesting that they did anything as drastic as you are suggesting, but companies have to evolve and develop over the years.

Look at Rolls Royce/Bentley. It is widely believed that during the 80s and 90s that the two companies where kept afloat by the Sultan of Brunei and his habit of constantly adding to his fleet of bespoke cars. The two companies effectively 'died' and were reborn and evolved to make a product that people actually want to own.

I've heard people moan about a Conti GT being nothing more than a phaeton in a posh frock and say that it isn't a proper Bentley because of the plastic grille but they are seemingly forgetting that the GT has been HUGELY successful with the just the Coupe GT comfortably outselling every other crewe built Bentley before it added together. They also seem to forget that the car is still impressive and still sticks closely the Company's ethos AND puts money into the coffers to help produce the 'Grand' Bentleys such as the Arrange and Mulssane. Cars that the purists would prefer they stuck to but are almost certainly not viable to stick with 100%.

Putting your fingers in your years and pretending that it is still 1971 is going to get you shut down sooner or later. That's why I struggle to muster any sympathy just like you'd struggle to muster sympathy if it stood in the middle lane of the M25 with my fingers in my ears and my eyes closed. I'm going to get hit sooner or later.

 

[JRS]

The only way Bristol could have done better financially is if they'd been able to sell cars in America. But that would have meant a) finding a new engine design that could get past the California hippy brigade, b) spending money that they didn't have on a massive expansion and re-tooling of the factory and c) somehow convincing wealthy Americans that their very expensive new car didn't need 22inch blingin' rims, chintzy chrome grilles and gills, and a dashboard packed to the rafters with electronic frippery. Never going to happen.

 

[GeezerButler]

Thread revival - Bristol saved \0/

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=23534

 

[JRS]

Thread revival - Bristol saved \0/

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=23534

Going to go ahead and be cautiously optimistic, though this....

Bristol....will be revived to help showcase for its new owner's eco-friendly technology - Frazer-Nash showed an electric sports car concept back in 2009 called the Namir.

....doesn't inspire confidence that Bristol will remain in any way like it once was. Hopefully they keep at least the Series 6 re-manufacturing plan going, even if this is the end of the line for the Blenheim and Fighter.

 

[PMKeates]

I feel my opinion that old Bristol is dead has been vindicated. If they diversify and leverage the brand, there is a viable business model. Seems the new investors think so too.