By bizn_fun 
Many of the upmarket brands that still build cars in this country deliberately trade on their British identity. Think of Rolls Royce, Bentley, McLaren and Lotus. Even BMW-Mini, a mass market manufacturer, is more than willing to wave the Union Jack – or rather, have it painted on door mirrors and roofs.
If those cars were no longer built in Britain, it might well be perceived as a national humiliation. And for some, the decline of the auto industry would almost certainly be perceived as a symptom of a much wider loss.
“I do think people are [becoming] much more aware of where things are made,” argues Mr Fowler. “This isn’t necessarily a nationalistic thing, but more a sustainability thing. Do you want your car to have travelled halfway around the world to reach you?”
Ultimately, he says, there is already “a bit of a brain drain of talent, because the opportunities, bluntly, aren’t here in the UK.
“[But] the UK is a great place to make cars, we have incredible expertise, we have some of the best engineers and people who can build them better than anybody else.”