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The directors have got a very nice pension out of Rover it was one of the first things they made sure of when the bought it. I don't know if being bailed out by the goverment would help in the long term they cant bail out every company that goes under. Anyway they bailed out all the farmers so theres not anything left for other industries Whos going to be the biggest British car company now? Caterham? Morgan? Westfield?
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BS Nymph Singer Chamois Coupe Series 3 Landy
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what about Lotus and TVR, or are they foreign owned now too?
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Lotus are Malaysian I think and TVR are Russian.
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BS Nymph Singer Chamois Coupe Series 3 Landy
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Proton own the controlling share in Lotus (stop laughing at the back! It's true you know!).... And TVR is owned by some russian tycoon for the purposes of money laundering... (see also: Chelsea FC)
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I think the company making the London Taxis, must be the largest british car manufacturer left - assuming it isn't owned by VW
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Last Edit: Apr 8, 2005 15:08:04 GMT by DerbyDan
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Apparently the government did offer a bridging loan until they found out that the chinese were no longer interested in Rover as they said it probably wouldn't be viable in a few years (ie after the loan money ran out!). A believe £40m has been made available to help out Rovers suppliers though.
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;D is this a hoax?
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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right click > properties >
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god damn! thats the second hoax i've fallen for today!
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Apr 13, 2005 10:52:28 GMT
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Let's be honest here. BMW really stitched them up. When the new "Mini" was in the planning stages, it was designed to use a Chrysler engine from the outset. If BMW had any comittment to Rover, it would have used the K-series. I think the writing was on the wall even then. Let's be realistic, they wouldn't sell off a company they owned which produced a car aimed at their market sector and leave it financially intact now, would they? They bought the company only to get their hands on the Range Rover so they could nick their ideas for their own 4X4. The sad fact is that they still own the Austin, Morris, Wolseley and Riley names and could revive those to enter the more mass-market sector e.g.Ford, Vauxhall etc. What a stitch-up
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1953 Minor (Long term project) PT Cruiser
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Apr 13, 2005 11:01:33 GMT
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Do BMW still own all the BMC names other then Rover MG and Land Rover?
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BS Nymph Singer Chamois Coupe Series 3 Landy
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Apr 13, 2005 17:18:18 GMT
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Well, the Healey family (as in Donald Healey's next of kin etc) own the rights to the Healey name, but besides that I'm not altogether sure, but I think BMW own various former BMC brands, although I'd heard rumors about Rover owning Austin and Morris still, in which case SAIC could possibly buy them up whenever they come to collect the valuable bits of MGRover, ie the K Series engine, the tooling, the Rover 75 (soon to be an SAIC I reckon, although not the other two models because they're even more of a load of hand-me-downs than the poor quality VW Polos and Buicks that SAIC build, so they'd probably not be interested, plus Honda might have something to say about it, seeing as various bits of the 45/400/Civic/whatever else it's been badged as in the last decade are still Honda designs I think.)
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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Apr 14, 2005 10:55:28 GMT
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Not sure about Triumph. Apparently BMW pulled off a similar stitchup with Borgward in the '60's. You know, thinking about it, I'm pretty sure BMW pulled the plug on the Metro/Rover 100 to eliminate a possible competitor for the "new Mini". After several years out of the small hatch sector(possibly the biggest sector sales-wise), it became virtually impossible to get back in (and BMW knew that), hence the Citirover. I think they'd have been better off putting the Rover 25 running gear into a smaller shell. It might have even worked out cheaper.
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1953 Minor (Long term project) PT Cruiser
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Apr 14, 2005 11:24:42 GMT
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Apparently BMW pulled off a similar stitchup with Borgward in the '60's. That was M-B apparently putting pressure on Borgward's suppliers to insist on payment on delivery. Because Borgward had just introduced their 'Big Six' model, they didn't have the cashflow to cope with that situation, hence their collapse. Was it a coincidence that the Borgward Big Six was a head-on rival for the Merc Fintail (and arguably a much better car, especially the engineering)?
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Apr 15, 2005 10:18:21 GMT
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Steve Wright interviewed Quentin Wilson on Radio 2 yesterday and described him as one of the biggest experts on motoring.
Talking about Rover, Quentin Wilson said that without Rover the british car industry will be left to companys like TVR!
So Mr Quentin Wilson "one of the leading experts on motoring" thinks TVR are British!
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BS Nymph Singer Chamois Coupe Series 3 Landy
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Apr 15, 2005 16:09:35 GMT
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In a sense they are, don't they still build cars here, even if they're now owned by that dodgy git Smolenski? But I see what you mean, they're now run by a Russian who now had Isreali citizenship and runs his business empire from Toronto (well, so I've read somewhere), so it's hardly a small, British run company!
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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So, Rovers gone bust then!BenzBoy
@benzboy
Club Retro Rides Member 7
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Apr 15, 2005 16:53:32 GMT
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What about Reliant, and Jensen? I think they're still British aren't they? OK they aren't volume manufacturers but it's about all we're left with . I'm hoping MG will be kept British. The Rover brand is a bit of a dead duck really (in my opinion), without some serious cash injections which I don't think will come.
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Apr 15, 2005 17:11:50 GMT
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That and SAIC have already bought various Rover assests, apparently they've already laid claim to the 25,75 and K Series engine, according to the Unofficial Austin-Rover site, so I doubt they have much need to be hanging around to help what's left of Rover to get back on it's feet, and I doubt they'd save Longbridge out of sheer charity.
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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