Rover . . .

[anarchy-inc]

The more I hear about the £100 million that the government wants to loan Rover the more it makes me sick. Why is the taxpayer having to shell out cash to help a failing car company? It's not like we would be loosing much, I mean think about it, this is Rover we are talking about here. My biggest fear is that they will fail eventually anyway and the money will be written off as a bad debt. If the Chinese want's rover so bad, let them have it.

I know that it will be sad for the 6000 employees but they can and will be re-trained.

 

[Satch]

Election looming + marginal constituencies?

What more do we need to know, apart from the fact that Rover was so crap BMW thought it a good deal to sell it for £10 and take a write down of Euro 500m to be rid of it.

 

[SilverSaloon]

Election looming + marginal constituencies?

What more do we need to know, apart from the fact that Rover was so crap BMW thought it a good deal to sell it for £10 and take a write down of Euro 500m to be rid of it.

reasonable cars tho, but very much in the legue of dawoos and kias nowadays.... bring back the age of the 800 Sterling etc

 

[Satch]

Sadly it has never had a hope as a stand alone company. The Pheonix Consortium just put off the evil day and made a shedload of money for a small number of people in the process but the problem is that Rover is still trying to sell old, old cars.

Thought that the Chinese will need to put in about £1bn to make it work and the £100M is supposed to be a 6 month loan, so maybe not that bad a deal to keep things afloat for a bit.

 

[Thmsshaun]

The more I hear about the £100 million that the government wants to loan Rover the more it makes me sick. Why is the taxpayer having to shell out cash to help a failing car company?


I know that it will be sad for the 6000 employees but they can and will be re-trained.

Just keeping on these two key points. Thinking on the maths side of it.

6000 Eployees would be Unemployed anyway Tax payer will be paying anyway. So a £100Million pound would only be the same as this anyway yes maybe not pound for pound but retraining costs as well.. and with the loan the government get to keep it good unemployment figures too.

As for the car company it is trying to compete in a league it just isnt in.
They should cut down on the range and just go for the niche market. Get in to the good old MG sports cars.

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Unless they can develop new models fast, they are doomed, the current 25 (was the Rover 200) is based on the acient Honda Civic and has been around since 1997!!!

Imagine the w202 still being produced now!

 

[LazyBob]

It's high time Rover just gave up. They've never made a good car, some good engines (but they were US V8s or Honda fours/sixes).
Those 75 things are an abhoration, everytime I see one I just want to plough into it, especially the estates.
Rover City aka Tata aka Rover 100 aka Mini Metro, although at least they had the decency to call one of them a Metrocity built in India and shipped to the UK.
If they get the deal with SAC in China it'll be less than three years before Longbridge production stops altogether and the whole workforce will be unemployed anyways and all Rover/SAC/Brilliance cars will be built in China and shipped back to the UK (if they don't rot on the journey over).

When I bought my Evo in 99 it cost 14,000 pounds new (in Japan). When I was there there was a Ford garage selling new Fiestas for less then 3000 pounds. I was gobsmacked. By the time the Evo was 'road legal' the taxes had bumped it up to nearer 27,000.
The real deal the government could do with Rover is not to tax the cars they build in the UK so that there is a UK built alternative to the asian cheap cars folk buy these days, but that'll be anti-european and not allowed no doubt.

I just checked the price for Ford Focus' in Japan, a Focus 2000 Ghia in Japan is 11,500 quid (with no discount) when the cheapest you can get them here is 14,500. How does that work?... Oh I know, you must save three grand by sending them half way round the world...or is it that we are all mugs?

[rant over, but blood still boiling]

 

[Shude]

6000 Eployees would be Unemployed anyway Tax payer will be paying anyway.

If they were all unemployed for a year it'd still only come to £16m in JSA!

Imagine the w202 still being produced now!

Imagine the R170 still being produced now! Oh it is...*cough*ossfire*cough*

 

[Thmsshaun]

Its the same story for my AMG rims in terms of shipping them round the world. The actual cost of 4 rims in USA was only about £550 the cheapest over here £1100. Work that out!!

God only knows how LDV have managed to turn there fortunes around.

 

[Shude]

God only knows how LDV have managed to turn there fortunes around.

because they don't make junk like this:

I have seen people driving those things! It's a rover 200 from yonks ago on stilts with unpainted bumpers! What kind of decision-making process do you go through that leaves that car as the best choice? Seriously? It's a joke!

Here are some more pics

That cloth interior is classic!

 

[KillerHERTZ]

oooo lava lamp

 

[peterchurch]

Don't forget it's not the first time the government came to help... Didn't Peter Mandleson structure loans so that BMW would take it? Only to be foiled by a managment buyout? It will be a shame to see the company go but at the end of the day thats the managers fault... and its what business is all about let them sink and invest the 100 Million in venture cap for new companies in birmingham that promise to employ the old rover workers ...

Christ its not that hard

 

[sportyreptile]

The only cool Rover was the P5B Coupe with the V8, my uncle had one. Looked liked the car the Queen Mother would ride around in but went like stink when you floored it. A very old car mind.

 

[SilverSaloon]

The only cool Rover was the P5B Coupe with the V8, my uncle had one. Looked liked the car the Queen Mother would ride around in but went like stink when you floored it. A very old car mind.

i had a 1996 Rover 400 Saloon (newer shape). it was a nice enough car, but they are still basically producing the same car which was based on a Honda Civic anyway.

what they should do is scrap the rover brand, concentrate on the MG variants. The MGF (TF i think now) is pretty good and should stay, same with the 75 sporty one.

the rest should go i think..... lets the image down too much, but then they only have 2 cars

i suppose they have no money to design any new models so have to facelift the old cars, but they still are the same shape and hence people think that the latest Rover 45 is the same as a 1996 Rover 400....

 

[DITTRICH]

Why don't they just give each employee £16,666 and close it down?
£100m / 6,000 . That gives them about 8 months to find another job before the money runs out. The Chinese are just trying to screw a better deal out of Tony and Gordon.
Les

 

[jonnyc]

The only cool Rover was the P5B Coupe with the V8, my uncle had one. Looked liked the car the Queen Mother would ride around in but went like stink when you floored it. A very old car mind.

I enjoyed 2 years motoring in my Rover SD1 2000. Felt like a king in the luxury seats and super long dashboard. Shame I couldn't afford to run a 3500 V8.

 

[Benzowner]

Rover is effectively the last knockings of the monster that was BL, and I will not be saddened to see it go. After all, someone will probably buy the name and start up again, as Triumph Motorcycles did, and be successful That said, Rovers main problem is they do not have the money to carry out research and development on a new car. Most car manufacturers pay countless millions to develop a new car before it is brought onto the market and Rovers inability to do this is the reason they still produce the 75, 45 & 25. The 75 was developed effectively with BMW support and the other two are updates on older cars. IMO in order for the company to survive, they should take a leaf out of Morgan Cars book, significantly reduce the work force and concentrate on creating a niche market, easier said than done I know.

 

[nickg]

The directors have lined their own pockets to the tune of millions into their pension scheme. I don't blame them, I would do the same, given the opportunity.
I do not, however, want my (taxpayers') money dropped in to a private company to bail them out of the sh*t.
I feel sorry for the employees - but thats life. If the business cannot be competitive, it should be allowed to fold.
If new mangt came in with a viable business plan, then support in the form of a secured loan or other investment would possibly be appropriate. But that is what banks and investors are for.
Blair's money is just for buying votes.

 

[glojo]

I personally feel that the SD was the death knell of Rover. The V8 was a nice engine but boy was it thirsty.

The trade unions are going to try and embarrass the sitting government as we are facing a general election. Imagine the outcry if Rover is forced to close.

By the same token the Chinese are going to milk this for all its worth. That 'loan' might increase and the repayment might never happen. Egg on face is not as nice as Egg Foo Yong!!

Who here has heard of Nortel?

The one large employer in Torbay, they employed thousands of local people and paid them very nicely. I am not to sure of the exact numbers but we are talking of at least 4000 people, they were made redundant overnight. Torbay does not have the population of large cities so this ffected a large proportion of the community.

No help from the government, no national publicity, no incoming aid, just unemployment or work in the tourist trade at mainly the minimum wage. Oh, I forgot to mention, no Labour MP to help pull strings.

I wish the employee's of Rover good luck and a happy future.

John

 

[Satch]

All production at MG Rover's Birmingham factory has stopped after a large number of component suppliers withheld delivery in protest at the struggling British carmaker's failure to pay.

Getting good now. If I were the Chinese would let it go down, let the Company Liquidator take all the flak for sacking masses of people and buy the wreckage for a song. Oh yes and a bung from a panicking pre election Government.

What a bunch of complte tossers this Goverment is: stiched up. They are trying to get plonkers from the DTI to cut a deal when a bunch of Western Investment bankers is acting for the Chinese company and they can smell blood in the water better than sharks.