Why did rover go bust

[danmayberry]

i think that when ford sold landrover they held onto the rover brand iirc

[mark d3]

Originally Posted by danmayberry

i think that when ford sold landrover they held onto the rover brand iirc

i heard that as well now that tata own JLR dont know if they bought the rover name as well

[danmayberry]

i stand corrected,ive just wiki'd it and right enough,tata own the brand now

[Brabus]

Nearly the group back together if they got the rest we could see BMC back

[kaiser]

Why Rover went under would most likely have many reasons, but incompetence would rank amongst them. Greed, stupidity, flawed engineering, lack of care and bad luck would also come in the mix.

Lastly and not insignificantly, the attitude of the workforce generally might also have played a role.

There were undoubtedly many solid men and women working for Rover, but I can't stop thinking that many of the workers were not people I would employ, having a choice.

That problems like the head-gasket were not sorted is unforgivable, and, as we saw was not forgiven. The design of the V6 with the belts was not smart, the use of plastic was not smart, the temperature gauge issue was not brilliant, and neither was the rest of the cooling system. And on top of that the 75 was right in so many other areas. It could have been right up there with a bit of care and sound judgement.



100 years of first class tradition thrown out the window!

A crying shame.

[topman]

I think the main reason is they didn't make cars that people wanted. They didn't respond to what the public wanted. Lots of people on here like Rovers and like what they produced, but maybe they should have spent more time looking at what the casual buyers wanted, there is the big money.

MGR went bankrupt only 3 years after I passed my test so it was pretty much gone buy the time I was looking at newer cars. But older people I asked about why they didn't buy rover and the thought was they were in the same bracket as ford vauxhall etc but were priced higher. The company thought they were in a class above, for them, too many people thought differently.

[Dashiel]

It all boils down eventually to the fact that the business was never restructured as it should have been. Who's fault this was? - well probably everyone's. Governments, the management, the unions, BMW.

The buck was passed from pillar to post.

The government off loaded it and rubbed their hands together with a big grin.
The management got their bonuses and pensions.
The unions got their jobs for life agreements.
BMW got the car brands and the know how.

And Rover was left with nothing.

[Poppy]

Originally Posted by mark d3

i dont know there overheads where massive,6,000+wages to find every month,the leasing of Longbridge which at the time was a small town in its own right,massive council tax on top of that,not selling enough cars to keep the wolves from the door and no investment to make new models,the Phoenix 4 done well out of it its the workers who lost everything

Hiya Mark... Have to take issue with you there... Longbridge... A small town.? It is in the great city Of Birmingham... The home of the Industrial Revolution... Just round the corner is Coften Park... The venue of the papal visit not 12 months ago....I take it you are not familiar with Birmingham...

[Shapfell]

I read it thus;
When B** bought the combine, they were after 4x4 and FWD tech as, even to this day they still haven't got the hang of it. Honda were **** on from a great height.
You have to remember that businesses that are successful plan a long way in advance, so to that end B** knew they had to keep MGR running for at least ten years, but during that time they cherry-picked the best bits and poisoned the well (K-series headgasket/oil rails, underspec components in V6's etc). The Metro was binned (despite bringing in 40% of the income..) and no replacement was made so now, instead of buying a small British car, you would have to buy a small foreign (read Oriental cheapo) car. Market lost. The R200/25 was built from the ashes of the R200/400 and was well accepted until the old built in problems occurred. The R400/45 as well, I've had both and they aren't bad cars, just have 'issues'. The R600 was a reskin of the Accord and again, was a good car BUT B** didn't want to build Hondas and the R800 was getting old by anyone's standard. This is where the R75 came in; wipe out two complete ranges and replace with one car. The cars are brilliant, but once again the built-in problems blighted them.
B** finally sold the remains of Land Rover and Jaguar to Ford after they'd picked the development clean (and they STILL cant get 4x4 right!) and thought that was the end of them, but Ford threw £ at Range Rover and its still the best 4x4xfar, even though Rattan Tata has taken them on since.
This left B** with the three-car Rover range; so they tinkered (BRM anyone?) and eventually realised they had to be shot by 2000 to hit thier deadlines for eradicating the company. In steps the Pheonix Four, all smiles, shake Bliar by the hand, pass over £10 and off they went with £500M of B** money to run the company into the deck over the next five years. B** walked away with all the development work on the BINI and all the 4x4 skills and also the first generation of R45 replacement designs (B** 100 series). All worth at least £500M of anyones cash....
Rover had one 'new' car and two 'older' cars so what did the four dimwits do, buy Qvale and develop a supercar! More £ down the pan. There were a few bright lights, namely the Z-cars which certainly woke a generation of drivers up and put youngsters behind the wheel of a 'hot' hatch (the 1.4 was a stroke of genius), the show cars and the R75 coupe (dribble..), but all the while the clock was ticking. Money was bleeding away, but they at least did lodge the parts and spares with a supportive business (Caterpillar) but when they sold the site to St Modwen I for one had a sinking feeling.
When the poo finally hit the fan, the Labour Government did exactly what it was told to do by Brussels and Munich and let the company die. They could have dibbed in, as they did later with the thieving bankers, but no, industry had to fail so it did. It sickened me to see a political party, supposedly behind the working man just turn and walk away when its supporters needed them.
Could MGR have survived; in a different political climate, yes. You just have to see how quickly Ford/Tata moved to cure the K-series issues as soon as the rights became available, something we all benefit from. As for the gits on TG, they say what they are allegedly paid to say. MGR had to be 100% better than anything B** made to be equal in their eyes, even though the 600ti actually drew with the M3 in a head-to-head test when it came out, it was THAT good.
Sad and sickening.

[Johnny the Fox]

Originally Posted by Shapfell

I read it thus;
When B** bought the combine, they were after 4x4 and FWD tech as, even to this day they still haven't got the hang of it. Honda were **** on from a great height.
You have to remember that businesses that are successful plan a long way in advance, so to that end B** knew they had to keep MGR running for at least ten years, but during that time they cherry-picked the best bits and poisoned the well (K-series headgasket/oil rails, underspec components in V6's etc). The Metro was binned (despite bringing in 40% of the income..) and no replacement was made so now, instead of buying a small British car, you would have to buy a small foreign (read Oriental cheapo) car. Market lost. The R200/25 was built from the ashes of the R200/400 and was well accepted until the old built in problems occurred. The R400/45 as well, I've had both and they aren't bad cars, just have 'issues'. The R600 was a reskin of the Accord and again, was a good car BUT B** didn't want to build Hondas and the R800 was getting old by anyone's standard. This is where the R75 came in; wipe out two complete ranges and replace with one car. The cars are brilliant, but once again the built-in problems blighted them.
B** finally sold the remains of Land Rover and Jaguar to Ford after they'd picked the development clean (and they STILL cant get 4x4 right!) and thought that was the end of them, but Ford threw £ at Range Rover and its still the best 4x4xfar, even though Rattan Tata has taken them on since.
This left B** with the three-car Rover range; so they tinkered (BRM anyone?) and eventually realised they had to be shot by 2000 to hit thier deadlines for eradicating the company. In steps the Pheonix Four, all smiles, shake Bliar by the hand, pass over £10 and off they went with £500M of B** money to run the company into the deck over the next five years. B** walked away with all the development work on the BINI and all the 4x4 skills and also the first generation of R45 replacement designs (B** 100 series). All worth at least £500M of anyones cash....
Rover had one 'new' car and two 'older' cars so what did the four dimwits do, buy Qvale and develop a supercar! More £ down the pan. There were a few bright lights, namely the Z-cars which certainly woke a generation of drivers up and put youngsters behind the wheel of a 'hot' hatch (the 1.4 was a stroke of genius), the show cars and the R75 coupe (dribble..), but all the while the clock was ticking. Money was bleeding away, but they at least did lodge the parts and spares with a supportive business (Caterpillar) but when they sold the site to St Modwen I for one had a sinking feeling.
When the poo finally hit the fan, the Labour Government did exactly what it was told to do by Brussels and Munich and let the company die. They could have dibbed in, as they did later with the thieving bankers, but no, industry had to fail so it did. It sickened me to see a political party, supposedly behind the working man just turn and walk away when its supporters needed them.
Could MGR have survived; in a different political climate, yes. You just have to see how quickly Ford/Tata moved to cure the K-series issues as soon as the rights became available, something we all benefit from. As for the gits on TG, they say what they are allegedly paid to say. MGR had to be 100% better than anything B** made to be equal in their eyes, even though the 600ti actually drew with the M3 in a head-to-head test when it came out, it was THAT good.
Sad and sickening.

Why does very one look at the Austin Rover / Honda tie up as favourable ?? Honda didn't want or need to buy ,upgrade its stake in Rover as with the deal they had ,they had Rover in a bear hug of death. Rover were not allowed to sell in the US under the terms of the deal and for every 200,400,600,800 made Rover had to pay Honda a huge royalty. So Honda did very well, they used Rover for certain tech/designs. This is why there was very little independent products from Rover. BAE had never invested in Rover and were desperate to sell to Honda who basically didn't want to buy as they had the best of both worlds. It was sacrilege that the government sold Leyland /BL/Rover in the first place. Basically Rover was dying for over 30 years before it was sold to BMW.
As much as i am a fan of Rover and the British car industry per se, it was a huge lack of foresight by management and the unions why the industry including Rover died. When BLMC was formed, the management never took the decision to kill off or mothball some of the marque names. BLMC were basically their own rivals,seriously cutting the sales potential of the more successful brands ,like Rover, Triumph, Jaguar,MG with **** products from Austin /Morris,
Allegro, Marina et al. To allow Triumph to proceed with building their own V8 instead of using Rovers Buick derived unit which was already a proven unit was madness. This was due to each marque brand acting like they were still independent entities. The MGB should have never been allowed to soldier on to 1980 and the fitting of the horrendous rubber bumpers to the Midget and MGB although necessary for the US was a mistake. Both cars should have been new designs. The Marina was just a Minor in new clothes. Lever arm dampers and suspension trunnions with its inherent grease nipples went out with Noah! Lack of ideas, a car company that was too big , too many workers and factories making designs of cars that were either out of date or not built /executed properly,selling to a population that were tired of doing the companies quality checks and tired of the strikes act. Production of the TR7 was stopped for a year ,by a strike at Speke. As usual though the management were slow to react only moving production to another plant after the sales to the US had dried up. Basically who in their right mind was going to buy a BLMC/rover product when you could buy foreign and you paid less but you knew it was going to be pretty reliable compared to a BLMC product. This theme continued right through to the end.