The buying public had lost it's faith in anything to do with what was BL/Austin Rover because the models were atrocious I know I had quite a few of them and they were awful. There was a bit of a revival when it became Rover group and especially when the 75 came out but it was short lived, the retro look started to lose it's appeal and sales fell.
You've only got to look at the price lists of the competitors to work out another good reason, compared to the competition they were in the end overpriced.
Here's a good example the Volvo S60 a direct competitor to the 75 first built in 2000 and facelifted in 2004 and again in 2006.
https://www.volvoclub.org.uk/current...sTechSpecs.pdf
https://www.xpowerforums.com/Acrobat...ice%20List.pdf
Look at a diesel Connie SE, then a diesel S60 SE there's not a lot in it price wise, but the Volvo is better built, better equipped and has more safety features.
Without an absolutely enormous amount of cash input to develop new models it was always going to be just a matter of time before it folded. I've heard from a very reliable source who worked at the Roundhouse that he saw a Whiteboard where a meeting of the directors had taken place. On The board it said "THE END Sept 2003" circulled numorous times. If this is true and I have no reason to think otherwise, I think that MGR did well to continue as long as it did.
Russ