Jodi_the_g
Member
Registered: 7th Aug 01
Location: Washington D.C
User status: Offline
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Just on the news now 6000 jobs lost.
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Colin
Member
Registered: 4th Apr 02
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Yup heard earlier.....dont BMW own them now????
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CorsAsh
Member
Registered: 19th Apr 02
Location: Munich
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Heard earlier today, slow lingering death springs to mind...
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richard_syko
Banned
Registered: 17th Dec 03
Location: Newport, Wales
User status: Offline
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Oh well
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Stuckey
Member
Registered: 5th Jun 02
Location: Plumstead, Greater London
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i thought our goverment or a chinese business gave em a loan?
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Robin
Premium Member
Registered: 7th Jan 04
Location: Northants Drives: Clio 182 Cup
User status: Offline
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what a loss that is
shame really, cos the 200/25/ZR was such an awesome car
(we need a sarcasm smiley)
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richard_syko
Banned
Registered: 17th Dec 03
Location: Newport, Wales
User status: Offline
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They where only wortha fiver when BMW bought em
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Colin
Member
Registered: 4th Apr 02
User status: Offline
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They sell shit cars anyway - is it really a great loss!!!??
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CorsAsh
Member
Registered: 19th Apr 02
Location: Munich
User status: Offline
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Owned by Phoenix consortium apparently...
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richard_syko
Banned
Registered: 17th Dec 03
Location: Newport, Wales
User status: Offline
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richard_syko
Banned
Registered: 17th Dec 03
Location: Newport, Wales
User status: Offline
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Jodi_the_g
Member
Registered: 7th Aug 01
Location: Washington D.C
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Colin
Yup heard earlier.....dont BMW own them now????
nope they sold them for £1 about 3 years back but sold range rover and kept mini leaving them with MG and Rover.
Might go and look at the dealerships as i imgiane they will be dirty cheap now. No point having a franachise of cars that ain't bad anymore
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Nath
Member
Registered: 3rd Apr 02
Location: MK
User status: Offline
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MG ZR's will be cheap then.
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TNM
Member
Registered: 5th Apr 04
Location: Nottingham Drives: VW Tiguan
User status: Offline
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they havent gone bust!
The suppliers have stoped supplying them and they have stopped production.
HSMC is still looking into buying them. Rover / MG have over 60 people in china at the mo working on a deal.
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TNM
Member
Registered: 5th Apr 04
Location: Nottingham Drives: VW Tiguan
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Jodi_the_g
quote:
Originally posted by Colin
Yup heard earlier.....dont BMW own them now????
nope they sold them for £1 about 3 years back but sold range rover and kept mini leaving them with MG and Rover.
Might go and look at the dealerships as i imgiane they will be dirty cheap now. No point having a franachise of cars that ain't bad anymore
and they sold Land Rover not range rover. Land Rover is the brand Range Rover is a model 
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Colin
Member
Registered: 4th Apr 02
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Nath
MG ZR's will be cheap then.
As cheap as they look
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TNM
Member
Registered: 5th Apr 04
Location: Nottingham Drives: VW Tiguan
User status: Offline
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UK's Blair vows to support Rover
Rover's sales were weak in March
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair says his government will do "whatever we can" to save struggling UK car maker MG Rover.
The firm's 6,000 workers are waiting for news from vital talks in China aimed at securing the firm's future and their jobs with Chinese investment.
MG Rover, which has a plant in Longbridge in the West Midlands, and the UK government are locked in talks with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.
Industry data showed total MG Rover sales fell 17% in March on a year-ago.
Commitments
Mr Blair made his pledge in parliament, which is wrapping up its business at the start of the general election campaign.
They have not invested anything like the money which is needed in new products
Professor Peter Cook, Nottingham Business School
What are Rover's future prospects?
Auto parts firms set to crash?
Meanwhile, workers are still waiting to learn whether the government will make a £100m bridging loan to Rover, a possibility that emerged at the weekend.
Rover's directors gave "extensive personal commitments" on Tuesday to keep the SAIC deal on track.
They are thought to have agreed to put up several million pounds of their own money to guarantee interest payments on the government's loan.
But according to the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in China, Rover chairman John Towers has said he is not keen to discuss the situation "until the clouds have lifted".
If SAIC walks away from a deal, there is a high risk that MG Rover could be forced into administration.
Sales slide
News of the drop in sales added to the car-maker's woes, with MG Rover's market share falling to 2.9% in March from 3.2% at the same point last year.
According to the UK's Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) 6,608 Rover cars were registered in March, down from the 9,247 sold in the same month of 2004 - a drop of 28.5%.
ROVER TIMELINE
May 2000: BMW sells Rover to Phoenix Venture Holdings for a symbolic £10, saving thousands of jobs
November 2001: Rover says it will spend £300m on building a new medium-sized car
November 2003: Rover stops production for three days to clear a backlog of stock
October 2004: Rover reports a £77m loss for 2003, down from a £95m loss in 2002
November 2004: Rover says it is in talks with China's Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation about a £1bn joint venture
February 2005: Gordon Brown discusses Rover with Chinese leaders as concerns grow the deal may be at risk
April 2005: The government is reported to have offered a £100m bridging loan to Rover amid fears that the Chinese deal may collapse
However, sales of MG branded cars rose to 5,937 last month from 5,810 in March 2004.
Despite the fall, Rover said it had not fared too badly as UK car sales industry-wide were down 5.1%.
'Wasteland'
In addition to Rover's Longbridge employees, dozens of West Midlands engineering firms also depend, at least partly, on supplying the firm, which is Britain's last surviving mass car maker.
Tony Parr, managing director of engineering firm AP Smith which produces engine parts for Rover, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that his company would probably have to cut some jobs if the deal failed.
Mr Parr's firm relies on Rover for 15-20% of its business, and he believes that the Longbridge area could become a "wasteland" if the deal falls through.
SAIC is thought to be keen on a deal with Rover. However, talks ran into difficulties on Monday over fears about Rover's finances, which are reported to have deteriorated in recent months.
Mark O'Neill, Shanghai business correspondent for the South China Morning Post, said that SAIC was eager to snap up passenger car brands.
"[SAIC] is in the embarrassing position of being China's biggest car producer, but it has no passenger car brands of its own so they're very keen to acquire brands and buying brands is quicker than developing your own," he told the Today programme.
"The problem is whether MG Rover is the right [firm] to buy and how serious its financial situation is."
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Colin
Member
Registered: 4th Apr 02
User status: Offline
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Who owns Land Rover now then???
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TNM
Member
Registered: 5th Apr 04
Location: Nottingham Drives: VW Tiguan
User status: Offline
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Q&A: Rover's fight for survival
MG Rover, the last British-owned volume car maker, is facing a serious threat of closure less than five years after its fortunes were seemingly secured.
The company, which employs 6,000 staff in the West Midlands, is trying to negotiate a rescue deal with a Chinese company to ensure its survival.
However, the proposed deal is now hanging by a thread.
BBC News looks at the future for Rover.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Critics argue Rover lacks the scale to compete effectively
Wasn't Rover's future secured five years ago?
Sadly not.
In 2000 it seemed as if Rover had been given a new lease of life when former owner BMW sold it to a consortium of local businessmen - Phoenix Venture Holdings.
Under its new ownership, Rover has made some progress, substantially reducing its losses from about £800m in 1999 to £77m in 2003.
However, it is a long way away from its stated aim of becoming a profitable business.
The main reason for this is that it is not selling enough cars.
What's happening to sales?
Rover needs to sell about 180,000 cars a year to break-even.
However, sales are actually falling. It sold 116,000 vehicles in 2003, down from 145,000 the previous year.
At the moment Rover is like a spotty-faced kid - it is too big to be small and too small to be big
Professor Peter Cook, Nottingham Business School
Many believe that Rover simply does not have the financial muscle to compete in the fiercely competitive global car market.
Critics claim that its cars are old-fashioned and lack distinctive features, while it is being let down by its inability to regularly launch new models.
It is developing a new medium sized car - which will cost about £300m- but this won't be finished until the end of 2006.
"They have not invested anything like the money which is needed in new products," says Peter Cook, KPMG automotive professor at the Nottingham Business School.
Professor Cook says Rover has an identity crisis and must downsize its operations to about 50,000 vehicles a year.
"At the moment Rover is like a spotty-faced kid. It is too big to be small and too small to be big," he says.
With sales falling, Rover bosses have been criticised for awarding themselves large salaries and pension payments of about £13m.
Executives led by chairman John Towers defended the payouts, arguing that leading executives had put their own money into Rover and saved it from extinction.
Why is Rover turning to China?
Rover is trying to seal a deal with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), one of China's largest car firms, to establish a joint venture production company.
Rover is hoping for a lift from Shanghai Automotive
According to reports, about £1bn could be invested in the new company, with SAIC taking a 75% stake in the business.
With significant financial backing, Rover hopes to be able to launch a series of new models in Europe as well as expand its network of dealerships.
In return, the Chinese company would get a foothold in the European car market, access to research and development expertise plus the Rover and MG brand names.
Is the deal done and dusted?
No. Far from it.
The Chinese company is reported to be increasingly worried about Rover's financial position.
It has sought guarantees that Rover has enough money to continue trading over the next year and to fund its share of the joint venture business.
Several newspapers have claimed that Rover could run out of money within the next month. Rover has denied this.
Fearing the deal may collapse, the British government has intervened, offering Rover a £100m loan to guarantee its finances until the deal is completed.
The loan must be paid back in full within six months and the Department of Trade & Industry is reportedly seeking assurances that Rover will be able to do this.
The Chinese are also reported to be worried about Rover's pension liabilities and the cost of funding possible redundancies.
What happens to Rover if the deal collapses?
Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt has said that the Chinese tie-up is Rover's "only hope" for long-term survival.
The future of 6,000 staff working at Rover's Longbridge plant may depend on securing the deal.
Its survival is also crucial for some 20,000 people working for companies that supply parts and components.
The government is desperate to secure some kind of agreement before next month's general election.
"If they [SAIC] walk away there does not seem to be much then for Rover to do," says Professor Cook.
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Nath
Member
Registered: 3rd Apr 02
Location: MK
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Colin
quote:
Originally posted by Nath
MG ZR's will be cheap then.
As cheap as they look
They look alright IMO.
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TNM
Member
Registered: 5th Apr 04
Location: Nottingham Drives: VW Tiguan
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Colin
Who owns Land Rover now then???
Ford group as of 5 years ago.
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Colin
Member
Registered: 4th Apr 02
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by Nath
quote:
Originally posted by Colin
quote:
Originally posted by Nath
MG ZR's will be cheap then.
As cheap as they look
They look alright IMO.
Rover 25 with a Combat kit & alloys
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CorsAsh
Member
Registered: 19th Apr 02
Location: Munich
User status: Offline
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Ford own:
Land Rover
Jag
Aston Martin
Mazda
just to name a few
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TNM
Member
Registered: 5th Apr 04
Location: Nottingham Drives: VW Tiguan
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by CorsAsh
Ford own:
Land Rover
Jag
Aston Martin
Mazda
just to name a few
Lincoln, mercury and volvo as well 
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Sam
Moderator
Premium Member
Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by CorsAsh
Ford own:
Land Rover
Jag
Aston Martin
Mazda
just to name a few
So Ford own Mazda? I did wonder when the Mazda 121 looked amazingly like a Ford Fiesta a few years ago...
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