What nobody is prepared to face is the fact that Rover is dead,
marketing a similar range of cars with a new badge is not going to
solve the problem, the company has been in serious decline for 20+
years. The product range is poor (the new mini fits well in the BMW
range anyway) and no-one wants a Rover, overpriced, bad customer
service and unreliable - Mr Towers/Mr Moulton have their work cut
out! Isn't it time someone looked at the issue realistically. As a UK
tax payer I don't want to throw away more money, especially when the
workforce were given an opportunity to survive under BMW but didn't
like working for the Germans...
Seb
At 9:38 PM +0100 4/26/00, Gerhard Wiederholl wrote:
>Leon, thank you for the Rover updates,
>
>I watch this topic as well, but in German newspapers and magazins. The recent
>"DER SPIEGEL", a usually well informed news magazin , issue 17/2000, has some
>additional informations.
>
>The title is(translated):
>
>Act of Ramification
>
>content in short:
>
>
>Nothing is fixed until now and neither Mr. Towers nor Alchemy have a
>contract or
>
>control on any part of Rover. Alchemy is in a good position because
>BMW wants to
>
>get rid of Rover very fast, which might allow Alchemy to dictate conditions.
>Alchemy might as well say that they are no longer interested and go away. And
>the rival bid of Mr. Towers is the worst situation for BMW imaginable.
>
>On the Rover auction the price might come down now because Mr. Towers wants to
>have a lot more from BMW than they want to give away and he promises to save
>more jobs. He not only wants the Rovers 25, 45, 75 and Longbridge,
>but also the
>new Mini and the Oxford factory. But the new Mini is designed to fit
>in a model
>range, which BMW wants to sell in the future.
>
>BMW has to regard the public mood against them in the UK which might put them
>into a position that they have to accept something they don't want.
>
>If BMW should decide that neither the offer of Alchemy nor the one of Phoenix
>(Mr. Towers) are acceptable, they have alredy made clear that they will close
>the Longbridge factory.
>
>An other problem is that in the past BMW integrated Rover more and
>more into the
>
>BMW group which means for example that there is presently a factoy
>beeing built
>near Hams Hall. There they wanted to make all the 4 cylinder engines that
>BMW/Rover needed. Without Rover it makes not much sense to run this factory.
>
>One member of the BMW managing board said: "We should reconsider
>making engines
>in England which we can make in Germany much cheaper. The exchange
>rate of the
>pound is a real problem."
>
>Next problem: In the past the tooling for the production of the new Mini was
>moved from Oxford to Longbridge, because Longbridge was under
>utilized. Now they
>
>need to transport everything back to Oxford .....
>
>But maybe they will not have to do this. "DER SPIEGEL" asked a member of the
>BMW managing board, if the pressure from British politicians is that
>strong that
>
>they would include the new Mini with the Rover sale "We don't want
>this in any
>case, but probably anything is possible now. "
>
>Gerhard Wiederholl
Sebastian King
Editorial Support Team Leader
IPC Magazines Ltd
020 7261 6115
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