RIP Rover

csv8 · 16-04-2005, 09:42 PM

Sad news, Rover Cars has gone bankrupt, after 105 years in production.
It is sad that the last British car is no more.
Maybe, Ford could buy it and add it to PAG?

SpoolMan · 16-04-2005, 10:01 PM

I seen this on the news, they were hoping the Chinese were going to bail them out with a rescue package....
500 or 5000 jobs gone lost...
The UK government have put together a $350 million redundancy package for the workers..
Its an election year over there.

**Peuty** · 16-04-2005, 10:20 PM

Ah well, its an end of an era for the British motor industry.

buickman · 17-04-2005, 05:32 PM

Is there a car maker left in Britian that is owned by them ?

buickman

M14A-Mclaren · 17-04-2005, 05:45 PM

Didnt one of their cars have a stang engine in it?

loxxr6 · 17-04-2005, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Didnt one of their cars have a stang engine in it?

One of the later models had the 4.6L. I think Motor gave it a review not long ago and panned it.

AUIII XR8 MAN · 17-04-2005, 10:32 PM

It's a shame this has happen but the world well go on.

Homer1 · 18-04-2005, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by csv8

Sad news, Rover Cars has gone bankrupt, after 105 years in production.
It is sad that the last British car is no more.
Maybe, Ford could buy it and add it to PAG?

Rover has been a financial black hole for years, even BMW dumped them because it was losing them millions. It would br financial suicide for Ford (especially with the state of thier own finances) to bail them. It was long overdue that Rover is finally put out of its misery. Thier cars are terrible and thier sales figures show that there are plenty of much better alternatives (unless you're a die hard Pom) for the same money

M14A-Mclaren · 18-04-2005, 09:26 AM

I agree, If Ford bailed out Rover it would be completely idoitic, I mean Ford pulled out of Formula 1 which is going to be a hell of alot more benefical than Rover ever would be.

**russellw** · 18-04-2005, 07:18 PM

Considering they should have been a dead duck way back in the late 80's it is a minor miracle that they lasted this long building crap cars for the great unwashed.

They also made some great cars but even those were let down by the continued British love affair with Lucas (Prince of Darkness) electrics and IFI (Intermittent Fuel Injection) which were both guaranteed to sour any ownership experience.

Cheers
Russ

outback_ute · 18-04-2005, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buickman

Is there a car maker left in Britian that is owned by them ?

buickman

There would be a couple of the smaller companies, Caterham, Bristol, Morgan.

The latest version of Rover was always going to struggle to succeed when they needed to find the best part of a billion dollars to develop an all-new car or two to replace the existing small cars which are based on 15 year old Hondas - instead they just did facelifts which convinced nobody except people who have been buying Rovers out of habit for 50 years (and there aren't too many of them!). Putting the 4.6 V8 in the MG ZT was just ridiculous and I can't imagine how they thought they would make money on it, not to mention the development money could have been far better spent.

Homer1 · 19-04-2005, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by outback_ute

There would be a couple of the smaller companies, Caterham, Bristol, Morgan.

TVR and Noble as well?

smoo · 19-04-2005, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by csv8

It is sad that the last British car is no more.

I'd rather say it's sad for the poms, that the last British car was represented by ancient pieces of shite. A car in the same class as a Corolla can't and shouldn't last for over 10 years. Bugger about the loss of 5000 odd jobs tho, One reason is that there will just be more whinging poms.

:

I think a Russian bought TVR last year.