As someone who has worked in multiple bike shops, and also broken their own Specialized bike and had to deal with their warranty department, I'm never giving them any of my money again.
This seems a very strange observation to make about London. It actually has the lowest rate of car ownership of the cities in the UK.
In my experience the primary mode of travel is public transport (or it was before Covid-19 at any rate), with people occasionally using their cars for trips outside London and perhaps larger shopping trips. Though this clearly varies by Burrough, with those on the outskirts of Greater London being more car focused than those near the centre.
It was an observation about the UK.
Admittedly this was 15 years ago but still, never had a bad experience with them.
Modern bikes, with all their bells and whistles, which are light years better than their counterparts from 20 years ago, simply wouldn’t exist had this R&D not occurred.
Also their triathlon bikes have multiple unique features