Miata Mailing List: February 1997, Message #226
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   From: (none)

Subject: Lucas and the Canadian Connection

   Date: (none)



>I suppose I'm the only one who's just recently heard that Lucas is known as

>"the Prince of Darkness"?



You really did have to own a British car to appreciate how truly awful

Lucas electrical components were.   You could absolutely rely on a Lucas

component installed in a British Leyland car to be absolutely unreliable.

The only components that could possibly be worse were those made by the

Indian subsidiary of the company.  However, at least in India they did not

have to worry too much about cold weather starts.  I had a Land Rover which

came with Lucas electrics, and that car did not know the meaning of the

word start in anything approaching cold weather.  



Oddly enough, there is a Canadian corporate connection to Lucas.  As some

of us may know, the Massey Harris Company (manufacturer of farm implements)

after getting approximately $200 million in various Canadian government

subsidies, moved lock, stock and barrel to the US a few years ago, along

the way changing its name to the Verity Corporation, getting out of farm

equipment entirely, and went into the brake assembly business.  Last year,

it was acquired by Lucas, which long ago had given up its automotive

electrical component subsidiary, and was also into brake assemblies.  So

the ghosts of Canadian tractors and combines have joined corporate forces

with the ghosts of innumerable non-starting non-functioning British cars

around the world.  



Absolutely no Miata content, I agree.