Motoring Discussion > Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each
Thread Author: Falkirk Bairn Replies: 21
View Threaded 

New Thu 3 May 12 12:38 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - Falkirk Bairn
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-17920549

Modest payment - it will cost more to administer than the payout!
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 3 May 12 13:05 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - diddy1234
That is disgusting.

The Phoenix four should be MADE to contribute to that fund, especially with the millions they have.

Isn't it odd that the phoenix four come out of all of this smelling like a bed of roses yet thousands of workers have nothing and are expected to find new jobs else where.

Some of those workers had been at 'rover' since leaving school.

I think lots of people had high expectations of the phoenix four even though after BMW left the only newish car in production then was the Rover 75, Nothing new in the pipe line so what could they do ?

Run Rover into the ground ......

oh and don't get me started on the RX40 design, sorry I mean the BMW 1 series
Last edited by: diddy1234 on Thu 3 May 12 at 13:08
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 3 May 12 14:17 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - Auristocrat
Appallling. The Phoenix Four paid themselves £40 million in remunerations and pensions. They paid £12 million into this trust fund that was actually owed to banks, and later reclaimed by the banks - leaving the trust fund with very little.
When they were running Rover, they were approached by Fiat, who had problems utilising the Stilo production facility efficiently, with a few to sharing the design and production. Would have given Rover an up-to-date replacement for the 400. After initial talks, Rover didn't follow it through.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 3 May 12 16:39 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - Londoner
How are Rover any different to lots of other organisations which are seemly run for the benefit of the executives at the top? Look at Fred the Shred for example, and the sorry tale of the Banks and their role in bringing about the current recession. And it is still going on.

So, Yes, I condemn the Phoenix Four, and feel for the ordinary Rover worker, but that's the "Unacceptable Face of Capitalism" for you. (Coined by Ted Heath in the early seventies, I believe).
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 3 May 12 16:53 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - mikeyb
Or you could look at the flip side which is that they had 5 years gainful employment post BMW's plans to shut the company down........
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 3 May 12 17:35 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - Zero
The company was doomed the moment BMW pulled out. The sums of money required to develop new cars was beyond them.

Now one can say the management kept them employed for 5 years agains the odds, or one can say they took 5 years to strip what money they could out of the business for themselves.

I can't say which, both are probably true, but you can't argue the directors came out very nicely thank you.
Reply to this message | Report message
      1  
New Thu 3 May 12 18:16 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - DP
>> The company was doomed the moment BMW pulled out.

Totally agree. BMW are not stupid. You don't sell a business for a quid if it's a) profitable, or b) can possibly be made profitable.

When your 21st century offering in the ultra competitive C- segment is a rebadged mid 90's Honda Civic, and you have no budget to develop a replacement, you are in serious trouble. The 75 was alright, but kitsch, the 25 priced to compete with cars in the segment above.

The only hope Rover had was the Mini, and BMW took that. Doomed from that point on.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 3 May 12 18:59 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - Londoner
>> BMW are not stupid.
If you read David Kiley's book "Driven", you would come to the conclusion that BMW sometimes ARE stupid. They were stupid to get involved in the first place as part of a flawed strategy for gaining market share.
Kiley is a huge admirer of BMW, but his chapter on the Rover fiasco is called "The Ultimate Blunder".
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 3 May 12 19:17 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - R.P.
The then boss of BMW was an Anglophile - maybe his judgement was clouded, however they came away with the MINI at least to assembly plants and some 4WD know how. BMW are not that stupid !

They still own the rights to a number of ex-BL names including Riley and Triumph don't they ?
Last edited by: R.P. on Thu 3 May 12 at 19:29
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 3 May 12 19:50 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - Zero

>> They still own the rights to a number of ex-BL names including Riley and Triumph
>> don't they ?

The ONLY brand name form that stable with any cachet left was MG.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 3 May 12 19:56 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - R.P.
Maybe that's why BMW sacked him then !
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 3 May 12 20:36 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - mikeyb
BMW were not stupid and took quite a lot from their ownership.

If the stories are to be believed a lot of Rover / Land Rover development teams were working on BMW projects such as the X5, but the costs were not passed back to BMW so some models were developed at very low cost. Now, I'm sure this is common practice in multiple brand groups such as VAG, but it all helped BMW's story when they declared that Rover was losing X millions.

To be fair though a lot of the damage was already done by british aerospace who only took it on for a token sum to keep Thatcher sweet - they never invested much, and were happy to off load it for a profit
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 3 May 12 20:41 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - Bagpuss
>> To be fair though a lot of the damage was already done by british aerospace who only took it on for a token
>> sum to keep Thatcher sweet - they never invested much, and were happy to off load it for a profit

Nice way of subsidising your Aerospace Industry through the back door ;-)
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 3 May 12 20:44 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - R.P.
There was a back-story with the real estate somewhere as well, either BMW or BAe made a packet on that...
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 3 May 12 21:32 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - mikeyb
Interesting article I just stumbled across - probably slightly bias but food for thought.

Key points are:-

BMW bought Rover Group for £800m - they sold Land Rover to Ford for £1.8b

Rover was profitable

Areas of high investment by BMW were retained by BMW - i.e Cowley (mini) plant, Hamms Hall (engines)

After the sale the the Phoenix 4 BMW retained the Longbridge Engine and Transmission facility, and Swindon pressings plant so BMW still made money on every car that Rover sold. These facilities were later sold to Rover at market value.

In 5 years the only new model that was launched as a Rover was the 75, and when launched at the motor show they also announced that they were considering shutting longbridge.

Cost of offloading Rover to the P4 with little more than a very old model range and a filed of unsold cars was cheaper than shutting it down and causing much upset in a market that is very big for BMW

Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 3 May 12 21:43 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - Zero
>> Interesting article I just stumbled across - probably slightly bias but food for thought.

This one

site.bmwsucks.com/category.php?licenseKey=37e6d44add3dfcb44ac279ea80185e7e&ID=1778


Its hardly a paragon of balanced facts now is it, merely a series of suppositions.

And strange assertions - Things like the "inexplicable" decision not to use the K series in the new mini.

Its hardly inexplicable is it as any HG serial user will testify.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 3 May 12 at 21:47
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 3 May 12 21:50 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - R.P.
They probably did consider it but decided not to as you say for obvious reasons...BMW probably does "suck" it's a big corporation, it makes bikes and cars that I happen to like though :-(
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 3 May 12 21:54 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - Zero
>> They probably did consider it but decided not to as you say for obvious reasons...BMW
>> probably does "suck" it's a big corporation, it makes bikes and cars that I happen
>> to like though :-(

It has its technology, its marketing and its finances right. Cant think of a good reason to say it "sucks"
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 3 May 12 22:53 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - Runfer D'Hills
>>Cant think of a good reason to say it "sucks"

Oh I don't know, maybe that's the reason so many of the drivers who favour them are um.."male hens"...

Sorry, I don't really think that but you know how it is...

:-))
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 3 May 12 22:57 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - R.P.
I've passed that stage.. :-0
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Thu 3 May 12 21:51 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - mikeyb
>> >> Interesting article I just stumbled across - probably slightly bias but food for thought.
>>
>>
>> This one
>>
>> site.bmwsucks.com/category.php?licenseKey=37e6d44add3dfcb44ac279ea80185e7e&ID=1778
>>
>>
>> Its hardly a paragon of balanced facts now is it, merely a series of suppositions.
>>
>>

I did say it was bias :-),

Cant argue with a lot of the factual bits, although the suggestion that they intended to ruin Rover right from the outset is obviously the work of fiction
Reply to this message | Report message
       
New Fri 4 May 12 16:03 
 Rover - MR Rover workers to get £3.00 each - Mike Hannon
>>The company was doomed the moment BMW pulled out<<

The company was doomed from the moment of the disgraceful decision to carp all over Honda.

As someone who actually thought it was a good idea to own the products of British manufacturing at Longbridge and Cowley I can't, to be honest, feel much sympathy for the 'Rover' workers. On the whole they didn't give a toss about what they did to me and and I don't really give a toss about what happened when it was their turn.
Reply to this message | Report message
       
Latest Forum Posts