Liverpool FC Forum

by **7_Kewell** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 6:23 pm

Looks like Rover is finally about to slip under never to return....shame really, fair enough their cars were pretty ****** but its a pity the last mass produced British car is now finished

by **yckatbjywtbiastkamb** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 7:54 pm

just like the other big industries like mining and shipbuilding.
the cradle of modern industry and the home of the industrial revolution and we cant even knock a car out now.

by **Woollyback** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 10:12 pm

Rover were screwed by 2 things -

1) Asset-stripping by BMW. The Germans bought into the company on the back of promises of investment into developing new models, but showed their true clours by investing nothing and using Rover for one thing - to get their hands on the Mini brand name. The other valuable part of Rover (Land Rover & Range Rover) were then flogged by BMW to Ford because they'd decided to go for the 4x4 market themselves, albeit with a bit of a lipstick off-roader aimed at footballers wives. That left Rover with an ageing model range and little money for developing new ones

2) The Rover 75. Rover's last roll of the dice with the last of their money went on making a "Marks & Spencers" car. They made a perfectly good car then ruined it by branding it as a "comfortable" car aimed basically at pensioners, complete with the cardinal sin of car design - fake walnut dashboard inserts. How the management could so recklessly mis-judge what the middle/upper-market car buying public wanted is just breathtaking

I feel desperately sorry for the 6000 Rover workers left on the scrapheap, not to mention countless thousands more people who work for Rover's suppliers and also small businesses anywhere near Longbridge.

But Rover have brought this all upon themselves for two simple reasons - firstly they let themselves get a*se-raped by one of their biggest competitors, then they totally and utterly misjudged what their customers wanted.

The blame for this lies squarely at the feet of senior management, precisely the only people who will walk away from Rover as rich men, whilst 6000 men lose their entire livelihood. An absolute disgrace. :angry:

Liverpool FC Forum

Rover - Pretty screwed

Who is online