bizarre twist to MG-Rover demise.

bxbodger · Post by **bxbodger** » 20 Jun 2005, 20:11

Have a read of this story-
http://www.autoindustry.co.uk/news/indu ... 3r7o76ipr6
How on earth can you sell the rights to your top asset "by mistake" ??

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 20 Jun 2005, 20:40

I expect its just in a long list in a schedule and as the thing runs to pages those responsible just didn't bother to check it.
After all these are the same people who claim that there remuneration was in line with other top motor industry executives - which is probably the cae but the real question is 'Were they top motor industry executives?'
In any event the TF is so old now its hardly worth the bother of making it is it - it must be nearly as far past its sell by date as the MGB was when it was finally put out of its misery.
Jeremy
Jeremy

drpau · Post by **drpau** » 21 Jun 2005, 03:02

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by jeremy

I expect its just in a long list in a schedule and as the thing runs to pages those responsible just didn't bother to check it.
After all these are the same people who claim that there remuneration was in line with other top motor industry executives - which is probably the cae but the real question is 'Were they top motor industry executives?'
In any event the TF is so old now its hardly worth the bother of making it is it - it must be nearly as far past its sell by date as the MGB was when it was finally put out of its misery.
Jeremy
Jeremy
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
But how could you not check something as important as that. I think the whole thing is a damn shame.
The CityRover was a big mistake and the engineers working on the project though as much- they were not given the $ to be able to smarten up the interiors etc. The SV, again, was a mistake,- just pouring money down the bog when it was needed in other places. Analysts reckon that it should have been sold for £130000 and not the £60-£80000 - which lost them a load of £ on each sold (all 7 of them!)- those carbon fibre bodies aint cheap you know!
You cant dispute that they made good reliable cars at Longbridge (Ok there were HGF probs)- they had to make do with what they had for a long time and still managed to make the cars look pretty good. [V]
Check out what was the proposed 75 coupe- nice motor or what....(Hope this is OK size wise - dont think it matters as its an external image or does it ? [:I][:o)])
Regarding those in charge...I thought the whole idea of being a major company director was not necessarily that you know what you are doing, but you surround yourself with people who do and then delegate. Did they not even have the sense to do that? It seems from what Peter Stevens has said (designer of Mclaren F1 and TF/SV) that John Towers was very effective *when* he was ther- but most of the time was playing golf! [:(!]
Pictures size no more than 500x375 only please

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 21 Jun 2005, 03:05

That reminds me of the 800 coupes of old (the back end at least), not bad looking cars really.

Post by **Richard Green** » 21 Jun 2005, 03:19

the later 800 series is quite a nice looking car and still is "with the Honda engine" as was the E type jaguar/triumph spit fire "what a lovely name" but its all gone to the dogs, the British have been sold out to other countries and thatcher was the demise, but one cant just blame her/it because the blairs have had the chance to turn it round and also failed, now we eat out at chinese rest homes and act dumb like the government want us to, so just take your dole check and thank heavens we still have that "for now".

Post by **Richard Green** » 21 Jun 2005, 03:27

if the E type jaguar were and still are such a big hit " why dont they build them now " im sure new engines will fit, is that a so called guaranteed sell ploy ( if it has the looks ) and the sell potential why not take a lesson from it.

gardenpeas · Post by **gardenpeas** » 21 Jun 2005, 03:34

www.eagleetypes.co.uk lots of cash needed
enjoy

drpau · Post by **drpau** » 21 Jun 2005, 04:44

Those E-types are tasty, the most expensive was only 95k - Ill have that on wednesday (when I win the lotto!). It had only done 4300 miles from new and was one of the last built.
Sorry about the picture size [:I]
here are a couple of links instead....
http://www.rsportscars.com/foto/05/75coupe04_05.jpg
http://leblogautomobile.blogs.com/photo ... ront_2.jpg
http://int.codigomotor.com.ar/arsite/va ... pe_550.jpg
http://www.mgoc.at/BMR_1104_1743.jpg
Makes me laugh on ebay, people saying their 600 diesel "..has a honda engine, not a Rover one.." when in fact all Rovers of that era (and Honda Accords etc) had the Rover L series in them.
You can get 800s and 600s for buttons these days, someone mentioned at auction the other day an 02 reg MG ZS (the rover 400 looking one) 58k, went for £1950 [:0] how cheap is that!!! How gutted would you be if you bought one for top dollar 6 months ago.[:(!]

Post by **Richard Green** » 21 Jun 2005, 12:56

I know what you mean gardenpeas but that's selective sales, perhaps if the jaguar/ford group made them on the line they would be affordable, its just a shame that so many nice looking cars went to the wall to SAVE money when all they did was kill the company "something definitely not right there" but deep Down the reason for the sell out is Korea they make them for pennies using cheap nasty metal and slave labour one car in mind is the city rover.

bxbodger · Post by **bxbodger** » 21 Jun 2005, 15:20

Korea, I think you'll find, is the new Japan- the cars aren't cheap'n'nasty metal, or built by slave labour. In fact, they are pretty good now and according to Glass's have better residuals than many European brands.http://www.autoindustry.co.uk/news/indu ... bztce10d4p
As a good reasonably priced modern sports car, now about a Hyundai coupe- even Clarkson liked it, and as he said, only badge snobbery would put you off!!!
And in about 10 years it'll be the Chinese who become the new Korea.......

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 21 Jun 2005, 15:58

Mr Clarkson wasn't quite so complimentary about Kia's offerings especially their diesels and their people carriers. Kia and Hyundai are the same company for all intents and purposes and they certainly share their engineering.
The problem that they both have is that production line labour in Korea costs the same roughly as it does here so if they want to make their cars more cheaply its the materials that get cut back on.

Post by **Richard Green** » 21 Jun 2005, 16:18

I watched that show and agree with you ( the Hyundai coupe ) even I like it, only problem with it here in the UK is the cost, you can buy them at half the cost as long as its not in the UK due to high import tax/vat/fuel costs to mention but a few pitfalls of our economy.

ghostrider · Post by **ghostrider** » 21 Jun 2005, 17:03

I am not too surprised at the F**** up with the TF, the whole thing with SAIC stank from the outset, hardened cynics like me thought that there was something not quite right with the way negotiations were going, the delays were probably just whilst SAIC made sure that it already had everything it needed, why get saddled with the debts and problems of the whole organisation if you have already bought the only bit worth saving.
In any case anyone who has done business with the Chinese would have put their last cent on SAIC out manoeuvring the Phoenix management, the Chinese are some of the sharpest business people in the world, the Rover team were probably too busy shredding incriminating documents, and getting themselves into a position of total deniability to spot such glaring mistakes.
As a final anectdote, as a noise control engineer I did some work at Cowley back in the early 80's. In the 6 weeks I was there I never saw the production line run; We were also very nearly responsible for another strike due to our van casting shadows over the sun-bathing area set up by the line workers, they threatened to call an all out strike if we did not move our van, at first I thought it was some sort of joke but the guy who told us was a shop steward and he made it abundantly clear he was not joking. We did a few nights there and most of the time the workers were kipped up on mattresses that majically appeared when the night shift turned in.
I know the management was crap but just like the British Motorcycle industry in the end what happened was as inevitble as day following night and the abuse I'll get for this post, but I was there and experienced it first hand RIP Rover
________
Roor Bongs

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 21 Jun 2005, 17:12

Chinese plied Rover managers with alcohol, says ex-director
By Barrie Clement
13 June 2005
Senior management of the collapsed MG Rover company were naive, profligate and allowed themselves to be plied with alcohol during failed rescue talks with representatives of Shanghai Automotive, according to a director
Of course the overpaid Rover Executives never thought anything like this might happen - or is it normal practice and does it confirm my impression that all 50's and 60's British car rear suspension was designed after lunch which is why just about everything had leaf springs.
jeremy

bxbodger · Post by **bxbodger** » 21 Jun 2005, 17:34

Except for the hydrolastic ones...........they put the alcohol into the system, creating the worlds best riding cheap'n simple mass produced suspension system- maybe Alex Moulton was teetotal, god knows how he sold it to BMC!!!!
I had lots of Red Robbo BL cars- I do wonder what they were up to sometimes, I'm sure I told the story on here before of the R series engined Maestro I had where the manifold studs didn't line up with the manifold-it was whacked into place with a Birmingham spanner.....
Strangely though, out of all the cars I've had, I remember the Red Robbo era ones with most affection- talk about rose tinted specs!!!