Lucas - Prince of darkness (prince of darkness)
12/22/2017
Lucas was a kind of equivalent to Bosch in the UK. Virtually all cars on the island are fitted with Lucas electrical components. Lucas was once a proud company, but with the decline of the British car industry, Lucas also became less important and was merged with the American Varity Corporation in 1996, eventually surviving as a brand name that, funnily enough, is now owned by ZF Friedrichshafen.
Because Lucas components were so widely used in British vehicles and did not always offer the necessary reliability, Lucas also gained a bad reputation. This was reinforced by a number of jokes. Want some examples?
Lucas invented the short circuit. Or, if Lucas had manufactured weapons, there would never have been a war. Or, Lucas as the manufacturer of the three-position switch - off, flickering, on. And so on. The saying "Lucas, Prince of Darkness" arose because the lights literally went out from time to time in many cars with Lucas electrics.
In fact, Lucas probably manufactured a number of electrical components that were neither convincing in terms of design nor material quality. In addition, quality control was probably not always up to scratch. However, there were also many high-quality Lucas products, such as the very reliable electrical components used in pre-war Rolls-Royce cars. Lucas also took over the famous brake company Girling. And some of the defects associated with Lucas were probably also related to the Lucas customers who specified and installed them. But they were probably also too resistant to change and did not tackle problems with the required consistency. Even interesting developments and innovations could not prevent the decline.
