MG Rover Poll

[Simster]

These utter wankers at MG Rover who spent one POUND buying MG Rover, ran it into the ground while taking £42million out of the company (mostly funded through the tax payer), and in the process have left 6,500 without jobs or pensions.

This is perfectly legal in our capitalist society, but bushy has asked the question on the other thread whether, given the chance, we could say with certainty that we would not have done the same?

So could you happily trouser £10m or so having risked nothing of your own,while 6,500 lost their jobs and pensions?

 

[hans kraay fan club]

To be fair to them, it was TEN pounds of their own money they put in.

 

[sten_super]

I voted no, purely on the grounds that I'm not a complete and total bastard.

 

[bhaexpress]

Sorry but castration with a very blunt razor is required here. there people f***ed up thousands of lives, to hell with them.

 

[The Uninvited Guest]

MG Rover came with a 500million present from BMW

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Even Archer paid £56.25 to get his hands on our football club.

 

[scooter1]

I saw this on the news this morning and i'm not trying to defend what they did here as I don't know all the facts, but they did keep the business afloat for 4 years and kept the workforce on. Ok, they trousered huge salaries and pensions etc, but most senior bankers are doing it too.

As I say, i'm not defending them but it seems they may have tried to do the right thing for a few years before realising it was a sinking ship..

 

[hans kraay fan club]

I saw this on the news this morning and i'm not trying to defend what they did here as I don't know all the facts, but they did keep the business afloat for 4 years and kept the workforce on. Ok, they trousered huge salaries and pensions etc, but most senior bankers are doing it too.

As I say, i'm not defending them but it seems they may have tried to do the right thing for a few years before realising it was a sinking ship..

As part of the takeover deal, they were provided with 'incentives' to the tune of £500m. That amounts to £83k for each of the 6000 workers at the site.

Spectacular job, they did there keeping it running for four years.

 

[scooter1]

As part of the takeover deal, they were provided with 'incentives' to the tune of £500m. That amounts to £83k for each of the 6000 workers at the site.

Spectacular job, they did there keeping it running for four years.

As I said, I don't know all the facts and they omitted to mention that this morning.

Aren't I the stupid one for actually believing what the BBC tell me...

 

[Gully]

If you disregard the fact that they have effectively robbed the company of millions, they did keep a workforce employed for four years to produce some of the worst cars in the World...no mean achievement.

 

[bhaexpress]

If you disregard the fact that they have effectively robbed the company of millions, they did keep a workforce employed for four years to produce some of the worst cars in the World...no mean achievement.

Oi ! Whilst it's not a brilliant car and in fact mainly a Honda my Rover is actually a very good car. Mind you, it was a lot cheaper than the equivalent Ford or Vauxhall as it's not made anymore.

 

[Cian]

If you disregard the fact that they have effectively robbed the company of millions, they did keep a workforce employed for four years to produce some of the worst cars in the World...no mean achievement.

The Rover 75 with a KV6 engine is a fine car (admittedly its mostly a BMW, but anyway); and their plans for the late '05 engine refresh would have made the 25/ZR and 45/ZS a lot more reliable than they were.

If you want a high spec large saloon or estate a Rover 75 is one of the best choices out there - the resale value is terrible due to everyone assuming that a: its shite and b: you can't get parts when neither is true.

 

[upthealbion1970]

If you disregard the fact that they have effectively robbed the company of millions, they did keep a workforce employed for four years to produce some of the worst cars in the World...no mean achievement.

you forgot to include the 2 most important facts about these delightful automotive beasts -

1. with no warning haed gasket failure
2. at around 2 years old they all smell of wee

 

[upthealbion1970]

Oi ! Whilst it's not a brilliant car and in fact mainly a Honda my Rover is actually a very good car. Mind you, it was a lot cheaper than the equivalent Ford or Vauxhall as it's not made anymore.

your rover was cheap because they are not worth good money, with weak engines prone to sudden head gasket failure and interior full of plastic

 

[brm]

The P4 were and are not good but also not the people some think they are.
Whilst under the control of BAE the company spent less on r&d then any other comparable motor company in Europe, they spent far, far less on advertising and the model range was somewhat dated. When BMW came
along some people in Govt. gave a huge sigh of relief. However when they chickened out the only offers to buy came from Alchemy and Phoenix (P4) The offer from Alchemy group meant that they would stop selling
Rovers and just sell MG`S on a much smaller scale which was unaceptable to the British govt. So the P4 got the deal after putting over £10m of their own money up front.The company was purchased by the P4 for £10 from BMW. the fact that BMW gave the P4 £500m to run MGR was because under German law if a company goes bankrupt within 5 years the seller is still responsible for all losses. Therefore BMW had no choice.
MG Rover under the P4 asked the government for a loan of £100m to sell the company to the chinese, Blair was all for this but Mandelson and Brown were not under any circumstances. If this loan did go ahead then the company would probably still be here today. The company under the ownership of the P4 paid round £500m in taxes to the Govt. in 5 years. To say nothing of the balance of payments from exports etc There were several models which were sucessful, the range of MG cars and the Rover 75. They were not bad cars (the first lot of 75`s were
virtually hand built at Cowley, now the Mini plant) and were, still are directly comparable to similar aged cars from europe, Citroen and Fiat to name two, in fact the Rover 75 is in my opinion better than anything Fiat or
Citroen produce even now, especially in diesel form.The same (but modified) engine is sold in the current MG sportscar produced in very limited numbers in Birmingham.BMW took much more out of the company than most people imagine, the development for the new Mini was all done by Rover, to the best of my knowledge some of it before BMW took over. The development for the X3 and the X5 was all done by Land Rover, part of the same company at the time. I have never heard anything about BMW paying for or allowing a return for the cost of this development, however the company belonged to BMW therefore you couild argue that the developement cost was a burden which Rover would bear and that was not a matter for discussion.Car factories in the UK at that time were closing at fair old rate,Vauxhall closed Luton, Ford Dagenham and Peugoet pulled out of Coventry, to say nothing of Jaguar because it`s not really directly comparable ( but.....)
To top it all? the VW group did try to buy Rover not once but twice when Thatcher was in control but she wouldn`t sell, they eventually gave up and bought Skoda, look at them now......... It`s a sorry, sorry mess but don`t blame the P4 they were naive and selfish at the end but Towers and Stephenson in particular were (are) genuine people who care about British industry. The things you are reading in the papers are frankly 8011ocks.
Incidentally what has replaced the £100m per year in tax revenue that Rover used to earn for the Govt ? nothing, not a penny. The scrappage scheme? yes that`s great for the French, The Italians, the Germans and the Koreans As far as i am concerned the company had been winding down for 20 years and the Govt. all of them did sweet feck all because they are total wankers one and all.
If youv`e read all this....thanks


Last one out of the midlands turn off the light ........unless they
cut off the electric before you get your coat on