As a British person we tend to tell everyone we do that and people believe it. However it’s not necessarily true. We produced a ridiculously large amount of crap to the point we nearly killed our manufacturing industry.

If there’s anything to aspire to its Hewlett Packard’s test and measurement and computing offerings between 1960 and 1990.

I cannot resist the urge of sharing this wonderful sequence (also made in UK :) ): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1EBfxjSFAxQ

That show is just so good. “Have you tried turning it off an on again?” is close to a universal joke.

"Are you from the past?"

I was considering posting that. I'm glad you did :)

My mom had an MGB in the late 60/early 70s. While she loved that car she didn’t love it’s reliability.

Those Brompton folding bikes are pretty well made, though pricey even with the deflated pound.

I've still got a 1971 MGB. Apart from problems with the electrics - batteries go flat in winter, it's pretty easy to fix most things by hitting it with a hammer.

I've been considering buying one. How much cost do you think you spend per year on matinence?

I have a family member that had a long flirtation with MGBs and MGCs. The short answer is "as much as you're able to".

ugh, I want to pull the trigger so bad, but I don't drive at all now, but a fun manual would make going to trader joes regularly easy

If you believe that, I've got a vintage Allegro to sell you.

My dad had one of those, it had so many faults they gave him a new one after a year. I wrote off the new one a few days later.

You got lucky.

Perhaps that was the case with e.g. vintage sports cars from the 50s and 60s. But I don't think the British manufacturing industry has been doing well ever since. I would love to be wrong, though.

Sometimes it still is, Rolls-Royce (Engines and Turbines) are still the Topline.

According the uk official national statistics manufacturing product sales for 2019 was £396 billions.

Stats for all the EU at https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/prodcom/data/excel-files-n... years 1995 to 2019.

I meant in terms of quality.

Ever watched formula 1?

I'll bet you're thinking of British Leyland, which behaved a bit like Boeing currently does. But much, much worse, and at every level.

British companies that are aware they can fail produce quality just fine. It's a fairly simple tale.

Maybe it’ll be adopted better than the Sinclair QL, you know that cheap British 16bit micro of the future... /s

I can’t stop laughing at this. No /s?

British jokes have the highest quality