Listers,
I think that we have to be a little careful overdoing the nostalgia angle here
(....wait and read the rest first!), the current Longbridge plant isn't the
same
plant that they stopped building Healeys in fifty years ago. Few if any of the
workers there would thank you for wishing that upon them! It's an ultra-modern
plant largely put together by BMW (when they owned MG-R) and the current owners.
What is sad is that the current team and their engineers haven't been able to
generate enough cash to invest in a new line of cars that people would want to
buy. The **real** trouble is that no-one wants to buy MG-Rovers any more (sales
have already slumped 17% this year), because they are expensive for what they
are and can't compete with the other (non-UK) manufacturers who manufacture
over
here (Toyota, BMW etc etc).
They desperately need new cars, but the costs that they have had to carry ( and
I don't think that people have ALWAYS had their "snouts in the trough") have
perpetually been high. The current owners who are essentially a bunch of VCs
don't have access to the vast amounts of cash they need. Remember that the
Government was going to make a loan of GBP 100M to tide MG-R over for a period
while they got themselves sorted with Shaghai Automotive...
All that being said as the owner of a late Longbridge BN4 and an MGB and a BV8
in the past, I for one will be sorry to see both the Longbridge name disappear
and that of MG and Rover. Far less wouold I want to see it "turned into another
supermarket" as one of the union leaders said.
Peter Dzwig
>>
> On Apr 7, 2005, at 2:56 PM, David Ward wrote:
>
>> It now looks very likely that the final death knell has been sounded
>> for this
>> famous plant for all time.
>> The plant where so many famous models were made has gone into
>> receivership
>> to-day with the estimated loss of 6000 jobs.
>> The UK really has brilliant engineers and designers, but we are
>> absolutely
>> useless as business managers, it will be interesting to see when the
>> smoke
>> clears as to exactly if anyone had their,"snouts in troughs"
>> I only hope and trust that once again we do not experience the raiding
>> of the
>> employee pension funds, time will tell.
>> Indeed a sad day for everyone in Coventry and Birmingham.
>> Regards.
>> David.
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