NATIONALISATION AND PROPAGANDA
SIR,-Mr. John Parker implies that if a motor firm is nationalised it makes greater efforts to find out exactly what the foreigners require. I would merely observe that, despite the efforts of Renault, France has made no great showing in the export markets of the world and it will probably turn out that Citroen is ihe company that has found out most closely tile customers' needs. Volkswagen's success has not been the result of intensive market research. It came about through an ingenious design coupled with the fact that the car had the most complete testing and development in the war as the German jeep. It then sold very cheaply and made its way on its attractive price. Despite all that, my recent observations in Germany make me believe that Opel is now gaining rapidly on Volkswagen and will soon overtake it.
Every manufacturer is making efforts all the time to find out what the customer wants and then to design his product to that specification at the price that the public would pay. This must mean that some companies will expand and others contract.
If we had a nationalised motor industry, I suppose that if Fords were ahead of Birming- ham they would be told to hold back any future House of Commons, SW1
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