The Richards wrote:
>
> At 10:29 AM 12/13/97 -0000, you wrote:
> It's a small hatchback. Rover's just launched a BRM sports version with
> >retro BRG paint and red leather interior - very sexy. Interestingly,
> >someone suggested to me that Rover should have given the car an MG badge
> >- not many people remember BRM. What ya all think?
>
> Unless it comes from a workforce dedicated to building, primarily, MGs, then
> it's just a car with an MG badge glued on it. Are there any MG employees
> other than sales/marketing sorts? If no, then is there even really an MG
> company at all, even as part of Rover?
> Does anyone in the BMW/Rover system feel that they work for MG? Or do they
> all feel as though they are BMW/Rover employees building an occassional car
> to which they attach an octagon badge?
> If the latter is so, then really, MG is no more alive than those dead
> Legionaires propped up to fool the Arabs in "Beau Geste". . .and we're the
> Arabs.
>
> Michael, New Bern, NC
There may no longer be a separate MG factory (or more accurately, assembly
plant)
but there is very definitely marque and model loyalty within the Rover
factories.
People tend to stay on one track for considerable lengths of time, work in
teams,
with team targets, and can directly see the results of individual effort, or
otherwise. All of them work for Rover, but as individuals many are intensly
proud
of the cars they build, cars as diverse as the Mini, the MGF and the 4WDs.
As for 'gluing on a badge', that is how it all began anyway, and the modern MG
saloons replicated that albeit not from a discrete workforce, but they still
have
a loyal following. How many detractors have owned one themselves, I wonder?
The
MGF has a direct parallel with the MGB - purpose designed body containing many
corporate parts. The days of a discrete workforce designing and building the
car
and all its components are long gone, but does that make the MGA and MGB any
less
worthy?
Cynicism, or rose-tinted spectacles, may well hamper the viewer from
appreciating
worthy products.
PaulH.
|