EXPORT OR DIE
After WW2 Britain was, quite simply, broke. British industry was rushing to gain essential export currency, and the motor industry was at the forefront of that great push. They were encouraged by the government because steel, which was in short supply, was rationed to those manufacturers who were exporting at least 50% of their output (increased to 75% in 1949).
The largest market, and probably the only one booming, was the USA, so car makers were particularly keen to grab a slice of that ever-increasing pie and the all-important US dollars. While some just offered British cars unchanged to meet overseas needs, a handful were innovating and coming up with new designs specifically with the US in mind, some of them it must be said being a lot more successful than others.
Austin had come out of the war in a fairly healthy state due to its military contracts, and was one of the first to get back into peacetime manufacturing. The Austin A40 Devon and two-door Dorset were launched in the UK and North America in 1947, Austin’s chief Leonard Lord having travelled to Canada and the US twice earlier that year to investigate those markets. Sales in both countries started well, but as Colin Peck reported in his book The Last Real Austins: 1946-1959: ‘Despite US sales of the A40 peaking at 10,000 units in 1948, Austin’s advances into America were not proving profitable, Lord stating in 1949 that Austin was actually selling cars in the US at less than the cost of production.
‘Things went a little better for Austin in Canada,’ Peck continued, ‘where
