MG/Rover dying.

[child of Thor]

My old man used to have this thing about Morris minors, he never had any other car, we had salon and estate(wooden frame!) versions.

As a kid i always wanted a Triumph Stag when i was old enough. TR7 too I know what you mean about this era of cars - kinda flawed but fun. It will be a shame to be left with just the few minority sports cars makers imho.
I guess after the Dolorian thing the British government is wary of pumping cash into this industry?

[Dauphin]

Incidentally DeLorean died the other week.

[child of Thor]

yeah i guess that was why they put that 'horizon' documentary on about all that took place. DeLorean got it - heh, my spelling stinks Would that class as a british car?

EDIT: latest bit - it seems definately dead now

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4422705.stm

[Dinner]

If Colin Chapman hadn't died of a heart attack then he likely would have spent time in prison along with Delorean over that whole drug smuggling thing. Since that would have brought Lotus down with Delorean I'm kind of glad the old man had the wits to check out before that happened.

[Provost Harrison]

Well I've been patriotic as my car was made in Sunderland...by Nissan As for Rovers - never, ever fancied one of the things...

[The Mad Monk]

I thought one of the Mars rovers was about to expire.

[Spec]

Rovers are unreliable overpriced SUVs. No loss here.

Unless someone buys them and makes the wind change directions. Like Volvo and Lamborghini for example.

Spec.

[Provost Harrison]

I think you are getting confused Spec, we are talking about the British car manufacturer, not some sort of SUV...

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by VetLegion
Automobile industry -> jobs + keeping up the tech -> keeping up the manufacturing capacity -> tanks?

What are crazy Englishmen thinking? The channel canal is open and it's a matter of time before advanced Leclercs and Leopards storm over(under), only to be met by Challengers three generations behind

No problem. It wouldn't take more than a university fraternity and a healthy supply of beer to flood the Chunnel.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Spec
Rovers are unreliable overpriced SUVs. No loss here.

Unless someone buys them and makes the wind change directions. Like Volvo and Lamborghini for example.

Spec.

Your thinking of Land Rover which was Rover's SUV division before BMW got cold feet and sold it off to Ford a few years back. BMW kept the Mini brand and spun off the MG & Rover brands as their own company.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by child of Thor

http://www.simcatalbotclub.org/rancho.htm

Now i could be wrong, but it seems that the origonal company that made this beast wasn't british, but i think Talbot was a uk car company?

It was. It grew out of the old Rootes group. Then it was bought up by Chrysler/GM and merged with Peugeot (Simca).

[Dinner]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4426383.stm

Nice timeline on the 100 year history of auto making at Long Bridge.

[Dinner]

It's sad really the Chinese pulled out because the British government wouldn't extend bridging loans for two years plus there was disagreement over the 400 million pounds in pension unfunded pension debt Rover owed its retired employees. SAIC has pulled out so Rover is certainly dead and one of the oldest car makers in the world has gone belly up. It seems likely that MG will also die but it is possible MG will survive in some form. Unlike Rover MG's sales have been up each of the last five years plus its models are relatively newer then Rover's line up. Critically people in the US, Canada, and Australia (big potential markets) actually recognize the MG name while Rover seems to sink in a sea of anonymity.

I know growing up one of my neighbors had a 1977 Rover 3500 (sold in the EU as the Rover SD1) and it was a medium to small sized two door coupe with four wheel independent suspension, a five speed manual, disk breaks, and a 3.5L V-8. The engine was actually originally designed by GM and was dead reliable (the well thought off Rover V-8 started life as a Buick V-8 but in the late 1960’s GM decided that Buicks would be limited to V-6s while Caddy and Olds got the V-8 treatment thus the Buick V-8 was sold to British Leyland) . It was a nice car which had some electrical problems (all of the electrics were done by Lucas electric which was nick-named “the prince of darkness” for its high rate of failure) but mechanically it was dead reliable. I’m afraid that BL in the 1970’s was a text book case for how not to manage labor/management relations because there were several cases of management screwing workers and workers sabotaging cars in order to get even but in the end it was the company which suffered and nearly everyone lost their jobs because of it. To bad because it was one of the world’s first automakers but at least the Rover name survives in Land Rover (which started as Rover’s military brand in WW2).

PS it’s 3am and I’m drunk so sorry about misspellings. I am trying to e John Miller right now.

[chequita guevara]

MG/Rover didn't die. It was killed.

[Provost Harrison]

Now, now Oerdin, you didn't pinch that picture off me at Counterglow did you? *tut* Well I got it off Dauphin at CGN anyway