At 12:39 PM 05/09/2000 EDT, MGMagnette@aol.com wrote:
> No no not my old Rover sitting in the backyard with moss on the roof...
>The whole damn company was sold for 10 pounds. Thats about, um, five issues
>of Autocar.
>
>>From the BBC:
>
>Production of the Rover 75 will be shifted from Cowley, Oxford, to
Longbridge
>in Birmingham as part of the deal.
>
>Phoenix retains production of the full Rover range, MG and the current Mini,
>and plans to develop an estate version of the award-winning 75 model.
>
>BMW keeps the new Mini, to be produced at Cowley, and retains rights to the
>Triumph and Riley marque names.
>
>
> Pheonix also got a gift of 500 million pounds to keep the company afloat
>in the mean time.
>
>
Maybe I am wrong, but this is politics over business sense.
Alchemy was going to concentrate in the small areas where the British can
compete. ie MG and other special sport car models etc. Now we have a less
solvent company that will try and succeed where BMW failed. Like BMW
doesn't know how to mass produce in the world market at a profit. But the
powers that be ,saw the short term saving of jobs with Phoenix's plan to
continue with the present line of cars as more politically acceptable. I
hope I am wrong, but soon this company will go bust and none of the auto
workers at Rover will have a job. Alchemy at least had a chance to save
some of the jobs with a smaller work force and a concentration on cars that
would have a world wide appeal. MG
Mike
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