Rover Cars

[Martin R]

Having recently worked at Rover cars for 23 years and living 5 mins from the Rover plant at longbridge im gutted by the news tonight that they have virtually ceased trading. I have literally dozens of friends still there. The talk of a 200 million hole in there pension fund and the fact most of them will become unemployed in the near future is mind boggling. Im torn between anger at the 30 years of total mismanagment and lack of investment, and sorrow for the hard working men who deserve better. The manufacturing industry in this country is now dead IMO

[GCCK]

Tragic news.

 

Not unexpected though - without enough funds to develop new models, the Phoenix business plan was wholly dependent on finding a partner. VW, Proton, Brilliance and now SAIC looked and then shyed away.

 

The economy is a paradox - seemly growing yet anyone you speaks to expects it to get tighter. This kind of news could drive the economy backwards as the waiverers retrench instead of commit to expansion. And that's quite apart from the local trauma that Martin describes.

[Steve J]

I think the economy was only growing as people were borrowing like mad and running up debts. Now with the housing market slowing, people are not borrowing as much (or maybe evreyone has borrowed to their max) I think we'll see a real down-turn in the economy.

 

It's a shame as manufacturing was what we did best (especially around Brum), but where as competitors re-invested profits we stripped it out thinking the good times would always be there.

 

Similar thing happening to my company. No investment back into the business for 20 years, no profit for the last 10 years and about to go under. It's amasing that the majority of employees refuse to change the way the business is run because "that's not what we've been doing for the last 30 years", they won't accept the market has changed and they must change with it or cease trading.

 

Oh well, at least they're still paying me (if not listening), unlike those unlucky buggers at Rover.

[PeterField]

A bad day, especially for the midlands

 

Don't really know much about it but I reckon there could be a future for MG. Clearly to survive as MG Rover they need new model(s) as most are now pretty 'tired', but the amount of MG's (zr,zs,zt,mgf) that you see on the roads as new or near new cars the company must have been doing something sort of right. Yeah, I know they're only tweaked 25's etc but they're not bad cars and they're cheap. There's a lot of people who've bought since BMW's departure in order to try and support a British manufacturer. With the history Rover has it's a tragedy if they disappear

[PPPMAT]

Sad news but as has been said - not unexpected. They had little chance without big money being invested.

 

Manufacturing in this country has been on its knees for ages - we have to do everything by the book (dispose of waste, effluent etc) also we pay our workers a fair wage.

 

How can we compete with China etc who flush their crap down the nearest drain and pay their employees peanuts???

 

The gov't seem to think we can be a service industry country - I personally disagree

 

As a country we don't really 'do' anything anymore on any great scale

[Chorlton]

As a country we don't really 'do' anything anymore on any great scale

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Exactly, we are living on the accomplishments of the past once things move on sufficiently the whole country is going to go into decline as there will be nothing to keep people here.

[malbon]

They had the chance to turn it around when they overcame the problems the last time. The Z cars are a good range and they sell well but there must be something else going wrong. You would have thought the Government would have helped them out in a re-structure - Imagine a German company having these problems - govt would bend over backwards for them.

 

It doesn't help when the people in our country dont even support them. Fleet Manager told us this morning that she will be taking Rover off the company car list - great support and timing !

 

This country is all about kicking the dying dog instead of helping it back on its feet

[Ladders]

Yep, if this was any other country they'd get help from the goverment. Although whats the point in pumping money into a mismanaged company I suppose.

 

Just a shame another great british company has been allowed to die!

[GCCK]

Closer to home: How long before the 111s & std S2 Elise disappear from pricelists?

[Fiona]

However, I see the management are set up for life.........

[AndyS]

Completely correct about other countries supporting large manufacturing industries -look at the efforts made by th eFrench government to bail out Alstom (although they were in breach of the EU rules they bent them sufficiently that they found 76 financial instiutions over the weekend to stump up the cash to keep it afloat to the thue of a couple of billion - read lend them the money we'll gaurentee it)

[chris_h]

Its a real shame especially as they owe my company about £5k that i don't expect to see.

 

Normally do about £20k a year business with them. I'm sure there are lots of other small companies around the midlands that will also be affected by it

 

Just hope many more don't go under as we'll start to see a repeat of '91

[Mark A]

I know loads of people who are still there (I got out in 2000) so really feel for most of them, especially those who are not earning loads (technicians etc), who will be really hit hard with mortgages etc especially as it looks like salaries payments will stop as of Monday.

 

Hopefully something will survive but it isn't looking good at the moment as SAIC own the rights to most of the current product range.

[shortname]

I started with Austin Rover, then it was Rover Group, then it was BMW group and I ultimately ended up at Land Rover when BMW split the group up. I've followed their fortunes hoping they can make a go of it. The talent is there - the Z cars were recieved with almost universal approval, and remember that New Mini was predominantly designed by British Rover engineers!

 

I'm still holding out hope for the guys, if you were SAIC would you buy a company just about to go bust, or one that has just gone bust. And as soon as that woman in charge of Trade & Industry starts opening her mouth I smell a rat. General Election in a month, Tony Blair pulls a rescue plan out of the bag at the last minute? Call me cynical if you like, but as soon as the politicial get involved...

[Rich111s]

Gutted to... the sorry state of our once great manufacturing industry is enough to bring a tear to the eye. As a completely new member I was hoping to be a bit more up beat with my first post, but this is an issue that I have strong views.... what I find more is the thought of Lotus manufacturing in the far east?! What's going on there? I was at Hethel on Saturday as I attending the driver training day that I'd been bought as a (superb) birthday present and the views of the other owners was similar to mine - if Lotus was to 'out-source' manufacturing to the homeland of Proton, we would seriously consider whether we wanted to own one.... any views?