I get the Hearty food co. cheese and tomato pizzas for about 50p or so from Tesco. I just use them as a base, plonk on all my own fresh ingredients and shove it in the halogen oven. Om nom nom!
Made in Britain?
- Thread starter Ice Tea
- Start date
I do support British companies where possible. I have quite a few shoes and coats made in Britain. Sadly it's hard to find much else. But where I see the label it does make me more inclined to buy it. It's to support a Briotish company and jobs here, rather than the quality.
Caporegime
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I work in the food manufacturing sector and the German machines we have are some of the most unreliable pieces of junk ever. Astronomical call out costs to fix anything and the prices of some of the kit makes your eyes water. I have seen much better reliability of the English kit we have not only in the product itself but the support after.
I think German quality has fallen significantly in recent years as they have to cut costs, just like we had to, to compete against Chinese goods. I've been able to directly compare the quality of old and new German cars from Volkswagen:
1994 VW Corrado VR6 (bought in 2011 and still own it)
2003 VW Golf V6 (bought it when it was 6 months old)
2009 VW Golf GTI (bought it when it was 2 years old, so was fairly new at the time)
The Corrado is built like a big meccano set. It's old now and has had a few issues along the way due to being 26 years old. But that's to be expected and you can tell the build quality by the weight and solidity of everything. I'm not surprised it's still going strong today. The 2003 Golf V6 was the pinnacle of their quality. It was not quite as hefty as the Corrado but the fit and finish was fantastic. I never had any issues with that car and regret selling it for the GTI.
The 2009 GTI was frankly a bit of a disaster. While it was a lovely place to sit I had no end of problems with it and eventually the engine died at around 75k miles. I had numerous problems and the car just felt light and thin compared to the other two VW's. I could tell the quality had taken a dip despite it looking intially like a better car. It was built to a certain cost and designed to last a certain number of years and no more. I've also had two 2002/2003 Audi's and they were very similar to the 2003 Golf in terms of build quality.
Soldato
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My German MTB is top notch, proper good quality.
Soldato
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- Rollergirl
China is not a third world country and will never be a first world country.
Quite a lot of it is still 3rd world, especially rural areas. It's only the major cities which are somewhat modern and quality of life for most isn't great.
The cars themselves yes, they do not build them as robust as they used to. But German aftermarket parts are still good. But most people won't tolorate low quality in that market.
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Soldato
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We must be going on different definitions of 3rd world. China is a 2nd world country and always will be.
When my pro-ject phono amplifier finally gave out, I searched and found a UK manufacturer for its replacement. Edwards Audio. I could have bought a cheaper Chinese amp on Ebay or Amazon and saved a bundle however not this time. It is excellent and high quality, passes the weight test, sounds great as well.
They were RHA ones
Sounds quite similar to my experience with RHA.
To be fair, the sound quality is pretty good, and they were quick enough with the warranty replacement, but they shouldn't really be breaking in under a year anyway.
The Anker (Chinese) wireless ones I bought after were only ~£13 more than the basic wired RHA ones, have better sound quality, and are still going strong after the RHA ones failed
Same experience for me, they sounded great and they replaced them without issue but after the 3rd set I just couldn't be bothered anymore.
They're the only set of wired headphones I've ever had break on me so it's not like I have a habit of killing them off either.
I had a 2004 MGTF as my first car. I absolutely loved it, but it was terrible in so many ways. The oil pump failed at high speed on the motorway after 60,000 miles (serviced without fail) which caused a con rod to escape the crank case on to the road! Windscreen wiper linkage broke whilst driving in heavy rain. Starter motor seized whilst driving causing a complete loss of power whilst in the outside lane of the A46 in rush hour.
I would buy it back in an instant if I had a massive garage. It was quintessentially British to be able to have a car which you could always moan was not quite working properly or broken down.
Soldato
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I see Tesco have British flagged carrots, grown in Spain.
So if those shoes fell apart after a week of usage, would you then buy 52 pairs merely because it was British?
/devil's advocate
Soldato
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Bagged in Britain. Expect to see more of this to appease the stupid.
The UK has some fantastic manufacturing businesses. But it’s mostly business-to-business rather than business-to-consumer.
There’s a company in Hampshire that makes the badges and labels for a lot of the automotive industry (among other things), including JLR and McLaren.
There’s a company in Buckinghamshire that developed the cold-chain packaging which keeps the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine below -70° during transport.
In these instances ‘Made in Britain’ is definitely a positive, but generally it’s not something I look for when buying ‘stuff’.
There’s a company in Hampshire that makes the badges and labels for a lot of the automotive industry (among other things), including JLR and McLaren.
There’s a company in Buckinghamshire that developed the cold-chain packaging which keeps the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine below -70° during transport.
In these instances ‘Made in Britain’ is definitely a positive, but generally it’s not something I look for when buying ‘stuff’.
But are they inherently better because they're made in Britain?
Is anything inherently better because it's made anywhere in particular?
Of course not, but certain places do have a reputation/track record at being better for certain products (e.g. Japan for electronics, Germany for cars, etc.).
Not sure where Britain stands in the league tables for stickers to go on cars and fancy ice packs.
Just because it has a "Made in Britain" sticker on it, means nothing..
I used to work at a place where things would be 99% made in China, the last part of the construction was done in the factory in the UK and then had a "Made in Britain" sticker stuck to it...
I used to work at a place where things would be 99% made in China, the last part of the construction was done in the factory in the UK and then had a "Made in Britain" sticker stuck to it...