• COMMENTA LOST OPPORTUNITY • As standards imposed by legislation
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or competitive technology become ever more demanding, so the cost of developing new vehicles becomes ever more daunting — and the expectations of the market become ever more difficult to satisfy. In a market dominated by such trends, it is not surprising that manufacturers have looked increasingly to co-operation and collaboration as a way of staying competitive, and justifying expensive development.
Instead of co-operation between totally independent companies, General Motors opted for a grouping of its own various subsidiaries and affiliates to form the GM World Truck Organisation. The first flowering of this particular union was to be the so-called 'World Van' — a basic design which could be built with local variations. In Britain, the World Van concept would have provided a replacement for the ageing Bedford CF.
Alas, the concept has been shelved by GM after considerable time and money had been spent. The result is that Bedford will not get a totally new van to replace the CF when it should have done. With the British company already suffering from cutbacks in an effort to stem losses, that spells bad news. While it probably will get a new van to build, that van will equally probably be another Japanese design translated into British with compromises. While that may make short-term economic sense, that is not a route to follow if a manufacturer is to make genuine steps forward in the design and performance of his vehicles. At the end of the day, that's bad news for the customer.