Listen to this WJR Auto Report

There was a time when the British auto industry was among the world's most powerful. But how things have changed. Whether you blame exchange rates, bad management or short-sighted unions, the British car business is today a shell of its former self, and about to get even smaller as MG Rover shutters the last, large-scale, British-owned auto assembly plant. Plans to sell the operation to the Chinese collapsed last week. So, but for a couple, small specialty operations, like Morgan, there are no more British car makers. None operating on their own, that is. Jaguar survives, but as a subsidiary of Ford, which has cut back much of its British production base. About the only real success story these days is Bentley, that classic English luxury brand. Its Continental GT, a $150,000 sports coupe, is so popular, it has a 10-month backlog of orders. Bentley is now owned by Volkswagen, by the way, but at least it maintains a British production base.