carl

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

TRF

very sad news, cant imagine what the workers and their families are going through.

Scooby Roo

Fantastic news for the 6000 - 18000 affected

The cost to the country is well in excess of the £100m required.

Narrow minded Labour once again.

Roo

BOB.T

The trouble with Rover is that they make crap cars! I don't think this will be a massive loss to the country and besides which, businesses fail every day and nobody cares about them! Hands up, how many people here own, have owned or would consider owning a Rover.

Bob (ex Rover technician)

Allan

iTrader: (1)

Used to own a P6 V8S, none of the current range does it for me though.

Allan

Daz34

I wouldn't buy one no but several members of my family work there

Pauleds2

I sympathise with all the workers and families affected but if the product is utter ****e to begin with and always has been then you are on to a loser.It was only a matter of time and i say good riddence to poor products.

Government are short sighted whankers..... but then again we always knew that.

Scooby Roo

They used to make competent cars that had reasonable performance for the money (back in 98/99) problem is they had so much of a problem with previous management they could not escape from the legacy (mini metros for 20 yrs).

We are still talking about people and industry in UK.
As for Bob.T yep owned a Rover - faster, better than others on the company car list. Some quality issues but overall I liked 'em (own a scoob now so not an issue)

Roo

Sprint Chief

I'm not a big fan of the government, but I think the loan was available, but the Chinese deal fell through so there was no point in taking the loan (the company was effectively insolvent)

Should have tied up with Honda years ago rather than BAe/BMW etc. IMHO.

David Lock

Hewitt has got it wrong. Rover have NOT called in receivers but asked Price Waterhouse for advice which is completely different.

Source BBC Newsnight. 11.08 pm

Note Hewitt's gaffe may mean that lack of confidence in Rover may be final blow and they may need to call in receivers.

StickyMicky

i seams to see LOADS of them sporty looking 25 things flying about round this way
suprised they are so skint, but i dont know the ins and outs of there buisness

all manufacturing in this country is ****ed IMO

nissan threaten to leave the uk everytime theres a model change and the goverment sweet talk them with loads of extra cash to keep them there

johnfelstead

under EU competition rules the government cant bail MG Rover out, thats why they were ofering a bridging loan that had to be seen to be repayable. Without the means to guarantee repayment it's illegal for the UK government to give them a penny, hence why the China deal was so important.

Soulgirl

Oh dear.. another great british company goes down the pan. We are an endagered species... soon, we shall be an importing country only.

David Lock

So presumably if they do go into Receivership the Chinese can come along and cherry pick the bits of the business they want to buy which will be going for a song 'cos no one else wants it. So they get what they want without the baggage of debt or any responsibility for worker rights. And I expect the Director's multi- million pound pension pot is ring fenced!

IIRC there was an analogy in India, albeit under different circumstances, where the old Morris Oxford was manufactered locally to original design but with a modern 1.8i engine. Some years ago this was actually re-imported into UK, I think called the Ambassador. DL

DaveMiddleton

I would think that the directors could have almost funded enough to halt this scenario from the MILLILONS each of them have siphoned off individually since they bought the company.
They should lose out also, but they will each be worth tens of millions!!

Scoob99

iTrader: (1)

To be honest I think it's very sad, I mean come on forty years ago how many makes of car came from Austin/Rover/M.G./Jaguar, I really do feel for the the workers at Longbridge cos their future looks pretty bleak, I myself before I had the Scoob owned an M.G. Maestro, what a little pocket rocket that was, ownd it for 10 years, my father has owned more Rovers and Austins, than I care to remember, I just think the goverment should and could do more
Cheers
Colin

lmsbman

Its sad but inevitable. The problem is Rover's image. They either sell Old Grandad Cars or tacky looking 'Man at Halfords' MG's! I can't see how the loan of £100m would have solved that

Dream Weaver

Its a shame, but its hardly a "great british company". I've had a fair few Rovers/BL cars now and in the most they have been OK. Started with MG Metro's/Montegos etc, through 216's and so on.

But they have just never improved their products.

My sister has a 2 year old MGTF and last week the head gasket went, with 22k miles on the clock. Its also rusting a bit The rest of the car lacks any quality whatsoever, hardly surprising they are going under.

jasey

Sad but true - make stuff that people don't want and you aint gonna go very far.

What was the last attractive (Looks, performance, reliability - anything that makes ownership "attractive") model produced by MG/Rover.

I'm 40 and I can't think of 1

Sad day - but it's been coming for some time .

Dracoro

Why can't the banks loan them £100m. Probably coz they see it as a poor and highly risky deal. If it is risky and poor then we the taxpayers shouldn't bail them out (they'll prob go down the pan anyway). The workers will have a tough time for a few months but they'll have to move on and get new jobs. Maybe another car manufacturer will take over the factory and build their (at least half decent) cars there.

If the govt. must 'help' - £100m divided by 6000, that's £16k per employee. Give it to them as redundancy, not a company that will in all probablility go under anyway and the £100m never to be seen again.

Gordo

It's sad that Rover's demise looks increasingly likely but I'm very glad the government haven't stepped in to bail the thing out - it would be a completely inappropriate use of taxpayer's money. The real liability would not be the spurious £100m talked about to enable the Shanghai deal, once it's been bailed out the funding requirements would continue for years. i.e. if the free market isn't prepared to fund it, there isn't a viable business and therefore state sponsored (****e) manufacturing would be unproductive (literally) and could easily hoover up billions, not hundreds of millions.

The directors should be investigated IMO and the government handling of this has been poor - making announcements about their views on the fragile health of the business were not helpful.

Gordo

Remster

I run an Injection Moulding Company albeit, thankfully, in a different specialised field, namely medical products. The impact of another car manufacturer pulling out of the UK will have a devistating impact on our industry. I know of many moulders who have signed contracts with Rover that provide them with a good 50% of their business.

It is so frustrating that the voice of industry, especially from SME's, is being totally ignored by Tony and his cronies. The stories about our buoyant economy are frankly laughable. My Company is finding it harder and harder to compete with Eastern European concerns and those in the Far East. The current governments hand of help is more like a slap in the face. They embrace and thrust upon us, more and more efficiency sapping EU legislation, increase what is already a too high minimum wage and place more onus on the Employer to carry out what was previously their job. (i.e. stakeholder pensions).

However, I for one will not give. I will carry on slogging my guts our to make sure that my Company, founded by my grandfather 40 years ago, continues to see out this current Labour storm.
Role on May and lets get these fcukwits out of the way and get on with it.

richieh

just out of curiousity what do you think the minimum wage should be?
richie

Remster

richie,

The minimum wage should be set at what the Country can afford. The Country cannot afford the current £4.85/Hr (over 21) rising to £5.05 in Oct.

It's the bigger picture that people fail to see! Would you like your job to pay a huge salary for a couple of years and then fold, or, pay a sensible salary and hopefully ensure longevity? Boom to Bust is too familiar with a Labour government as history shows.

richieh

wouldnt call £5 per hour a huge salary tbh-was just curious as to what you thought it should be rather than what it shouldnt.
doesnt effect me anyway tbh cos i'm on about £45 a week dss money
and i'm not a tony b'liar lover at all
richie

thecirsch

Just been on the news that the government is giving Rover a 40 milllion cash injection.

Lets hope its not too little, too late

ChrisB

Beeb says it's for Rover suppliers:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4423181.stm

Buckrogers

40 million, thats the Directors redundency's sorted then

How the directors had the cheek to award themselves millions in pay rises whilst the company reports losses in the 10's of millions is beyond me.

D70

I can't understand why anyone wants to keep what is essentially a corpse alive.

Rover made crap cars that they sold to the weak minded. You should all be grateful your elderly relatives will now get into something semi-decent rather than rover's outdated old tat.

As for the jobs who cares about a few thousand jobs in the midlands? It's very, very small beer and the only people who do care are those with a vested interest.

InvisibleMan

plus all those other companies that had big contracts with them that was one of their main sources of income like the one i used to worked for - theyre going to suffer too im sure...