[Themaintainers] Talk: Dominic Brownell "Repair and Reuse in the Mass Consumption of Cars in Britain 1960-1993" Maintenance Philosophy Technology SIG (10th September 2026 18-1915 UTC+1)

[mark young]

Dear all,

We’re pleased to announce the next session of the SPT Maintenance and
Philosophy of Technology SIG on Thursday 10th September. In this session,
we’re excited to welcome Dominic Brownell from the University of
Hertfordshire, who’ll be presenting his research on DIY repair practices
which emerged around British cars in the latter half of the twentieth
century. If you'd like a zoom link for this talk, send me a quick email at
mark at markthomasyoung.net

Best,
Mark

Mark Thomas Young
Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Oslo
https://uio.academia.edu/MarkThomasYoung

*Repair and Reuse in the Mass Consumption of Cars in Britain 1960-1993*

Dominic Brownell (University of Hertfordshire)

Thursday 10th September 2026

*Abstract:* For this talk, I will be presenting a case study from my PhD
dissertation, “Repair and Reuse in the Mass Consumption of Cars in Britain,
1960-1994" and discussing the ways in which repair advice for the Morris
Marina, a small family car produced by British Leyland between 1971-1980,
attempted to instruct car users on circumventing manufacturer-imposed
limitations to improve the performance, safety, and reliability of their
vehicles. This research project examines car repair advice printed in
enthusiast magazines of the era to explore the relationship between design
and repair in cars produced by British Leyland for the domestic market over
the latter half of the twentieth century. Publishers of repair advice for
British Leyland vehicles during this era were acutely aware of the
limitations of British car production relative to other car cultures.
Through a combination of extensive parts reuse, lack of standardisation,
and extreme quality control issues, cars manufactured for the domestic
market lagged behind their European and American contemporaries in
aesthetics, reliability, and safety features. At the same time, taxes on
luxury goods, alongside ‘gentleman’s agreements’ between industry bodies to
restrict imports, prevented the importing of foreign cars to meet domestic
demand. In Britain, thrift-centric ‘practical’ car magazines served not
only as a means of disseminating expert advice on car repairs to an
audience of enthusiasts, but also as a mediated forum in which these
enthusiasts could disseminate user-to-user repair advice on how to make car
repairs easier or more comfortable to perform at home. For the contributors
of these magazines, repair and reuse served not only as a way for users to
restore the functionality of their vehicles but also offered ways in which
car users could utilise scrap components and aftermarket parts to
circumvent the limitations of the original designs, limit reliance on
professional repair services, and emulate the aspirational car consumption
enjoyed by drivers in other countries.

(In order to avoid confusion regarding the timing of the talks - the
following table clarifies when the talks begin in different locations:
New York:         13:00
San Francisco: 10:00
London:            18:00
Amsterdam:      19:00
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