MG Rover going bust (again)

Back in the early seventies, VW found themselves in
the very same predicament. Beetle sales collapsed
virtually overnight, especially in the US. Over a preiod
of three years and making crap like the 411, Variant
and K70, VW found themselves without enough
money to pay its workforce. It all looked like the end
of the road for VW - it really was that bad.
VW merged with Audi who had just got out of bed
with Mercedes and designed the Audi 80. VW did a
quick nose job (grille and lights), added a hatchback
and had the first Passat which sold quite well. They
then copied the Fiat 128 to the last detail, got
Giugiaro in to style the car, added an Audi 80 engine
and had the Mark 1 Golf.
Within 18 months, VW went from being a bit of a joke
making phut-phut air cooled cars nobody wanted
anymore to huge success.

It only takes one car to change the mould - who
would have bought a Subaru before the Impreza?
Exactly.

the Rover 25, which was the Rover 200 was a
damned good car 8 years ago. Rover (and BMW's)
big, big mistake was to price it to compete witrh the
Mondeo. Had they priced it just below the
Escort/Focus/Astra they would probably have sold
three times as many.
MGR can make the cars - all they need is strong
management with a grip on reality.

Looks like the government are trying to speed things Up & Hide bad news in with the pope & Charles wedding & hope Voters forget their cockup.

Pat Hewitt going to longbridge to offer support..... Just like she did last night ? probably taking the Grim reaper to offer assistance

apparently Tony spent 30 mins on the phone to the Chinese PM begging him to save Rover.

Is it the Chinese PM's duty to save Rover, or Tony's, or should Govts in general keep out of the business world?

We are also told that Gordon did the same thing on his last visit there.

Has Tony restored Britain's prestige on the world's stage after years of decline?

I don't believe this....it's all changing again.

The government is now offering £40m to suppliers who'll support MG Rover through a period of time!!!!!

What is going on!!!!!

It's just being announced now.

Oh well, yet another nail in the coffin of manufacturing in Britain. How do the big three in France manage to keep making profit despite the global slowdown in car production? Don't say it's because the cars are better - the new Megane looks as if it was designed with a spade, and the 407 is just cohesively wrong from every angle - the 75 is much better. I'm really feeling depressed tonight, especially for the workers and their families - after all this whole mess isn't their fault, they have been given hope time and time again, finally the government and more importantly the buying public have dropped them like a stone. The french big three survive because their country and citizens support them - go to france and a large number of the popuation drive a french car. Come to Britain and everyone drives something foreign. Oh well. Welcome to Britian - the country of managers and buerocrats. Engineering is doomed here.

Von Paulus wrote: I'm surprised that anyone finds this even vaguely amusing.

I don't find it in the slightest bit amusing, but I do find it appropriate.

I dont find the rover situation amusing at all, I have family and friends that work there, as you will have guessed from my posts.

I'm surprised that anyone finds this even vaguely
amusing.

stephenperry wrote: Nigel wrote: Maybe we could raffle horsey ? nah, thats the booby prize  *groan*

By your standards, that's pants

Horsetan wrote: stephenperry wrote: Horsetan wrote: OK! Bring on the Asset Strippers dah, da da daaaa, dee dee dee deeee, dah da daaaa, da dad a da da (the striptease music) Rover: Going for a Thong... *groan*

rofl :-D