Should mg rover have been saved?
 

As the title suggests really..

Should mg rover have been saved?
I feel this question is even more prominent now with the whole Brexit thing.

Makes me question the motives of the government at the time as to why we are now funding so much for HS2 and MPs decorating flats etc all at tax payers cost. Makes you think had this money been put towards mg rover would the company have been around today and if so in what state.

I've been doing a lot of reading, various news articles and documentaries and books etc as I find it interesting, if somewhat a very vast history and sequence of events..

I wasn't going to post anything like this for fear of sparking a huge debate but.. what the hey.. after seeing this article it changed my mind about opening this potential can of worms.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/opinio...wn-british-car

I look forward to hearing your views and thoughts

Rob

Very complex question but, in a nutshell, I'd be quite happy to see serious investment providing it produces cars with Lexus beating reliability at an affordable price.

The days of Friday afternoon cars must be a thing of the past as should treating the workforce as some sort of peasant serfs. In return the workforce must produce a quality product for a decent pay packet.

Look how often a world "first" with cutting edge design & engineering was rolled out only to be scuppered by poor quality control and incompetent management.

The combination of Brexit & COVID has surely shown just how fragile an economy based on stuff coming in from abroad is.

Looking forward to hearing other views.

So true, and it goes on. Suggestion to cut off power to Jersey made recently. Long supply chains aren't green or logical.
We have the skills in the UK. It's a combination of short termism in politics, coupled with misplaced financial engineering. Confiscatory taxes on companies and rampant issuance of fiat currency puts a massive brake on innovation. We need new pathways for entrepreneurs to be encouraged and government could and should play a major role.

I too read a lot about this in 2017. A great deal of time on my hands recovering from cancer.
It is a massive debate but my own conclusion was that it should not have been saved.
The rot started with Leonard Lord in the 1950's. The creation of BLMC in the late 60's was ill judged and poorly executed.
Honda full takeover was a missed opportunity.
BAe was a waste of time and BMW lost interest and ran off with the best bits.
In 2005 the cars had been so poor quality they were no longer able to sell them. I've owned a few and was horrified by the drop in fit and finish.
The last 5 years of MGR were a bonus for what was a dead duck.
Pity really as the cars were actually really good designs badly built.

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If it had, its unlikely they would still be made in the UK

MG should have been bought by JLR
 

I think the missed opportunity was JLR not buying MG. Perfect fit as it fits at the lower, small(er) fun sports car / saloons end of the range and in no way treads on the toes of Jaguar or Land Rover's core (much bigger) models.

Smaller, light weight, cars brings their average emissions down much easier to bring them in line with legislation.

New generation of young people brought to the marque. Cross selling as they age and want more luxury and comfort.

Much better range coverage than relying on expensive luxury cars that are exposed to the whim of market trends and buying power.

I'm afraid Rover does not fit quite so neatly as it truly should be right up there with Jaguar, looking for luxury car sales.

No, no it shouldn’t.
Companies who wish to succeed, must cater for what the public wants.
The public for all their sins did not want elegant saloons or 10yr old designs badge engineered tart ups, nor did they want nods to the past or a tip of the cap.

They wanted exciting sports cars, something that elevated them above their peers into some faux sense of social hierarchy.
As a company that was sinking for years it should have been massively scaled back in size and had every process streamlined for efficiency to focus on a smaller range of new models. I think that would have put them in a better standing for a buyout later down the line, but ultimately it was too late in the day to turn it around without huge financial pumping.
BMW knew this and the Government knew this...nobody wanted to prop it up and have that burden looming, politically nobody wanted to be responsible for haemorrhaging tax payers money on it.

Phoenix was the best short term solution, even though I’m sure they knew it would fail. It satisfied the Germans, came with a big cheque and secured short term jobs which is great for the moral of voters ;)
They knew that by the time it went belly up it would be someone else’s job to clean up the mess.

The company didn’t produce cars with enough kerb appeal, desirability or credibility to compete in such a fierce market. Car buyers spoke with their money and went elsewhere. That’s not the fault of the government.

Poor management and a culture of harking back to the glory years gone is not how you progress. They were stuck in their ways and were punished for it.

MG Rover death rattle
 

I don't know the detailed background but the venture was always under-resourced - finance, development plan and ideas. The auto business needs either a lot of at least one of these and adequate of all of them. For various reasons the future money spinners had been leached out and the shell business was left with a narrow obsolete product range with pretty well nowwhere to go.
Like a lot of things, timing is everything and with a bit more 'space'/direction backed up with sufficient funding it might have been a different story. Making the best of what they had in the late 90's was never going to deliver long term and all they could manage was virtually badge engineering and the vanity but doomed V8 project....

It could have been saved with a simple policy.

All tax paid vehicles will be brought from manufacturers in the UK.

So police cars must be British, buses owned by public companies must be British, ambulances must be British, taxi's must be British made, etc etc etc.

Look at the French, their entire fleet for police force is French cars bar a few tiny exceptions.

How can you have national pride when even your national organisations don't use the vehicles.

I wouldn't have a problem with a government funded/part funded company. But I think the motoring press had already pretty much scuppered MGR's chances, the name had a bad reputation, and I don't think, regardless of how much money was invested, people would have seen beyond the badge. Plus, as much as I'd like to see the Rover name alive, they would have had to provide cars that the market place desires, which for me, would mean I would be unlikely to want a modern one anyway, very very few modern cars appeal to me, either interior or exterior, so I'll be keeping the ZT going as long as practical.