Chinese get more time over Rover

[FISH]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...ds/4708190.stm

Monday, 13 February 2006, 10:23 GMT


The owner of MG Rover's Longbridge site is giving Chinese car maker Nanjing more time to come up with a business plan to use part of the site.
St Modwen Properties said it expected the car maker to sign a short-term extension to its current licence, which runs out next Wednesday.

Nanjing needs about 100 acres to restart production of MG sports cars.

The new deal would enable Nanjing to firm up its plans before committing to a long-term contract of 35 years.

Nanjing bought MG Rover for about £50m last year and at the time pledged to consider Longbridge as a location for its manufacturing site.

Anthony Glossop, chairman of St Modwen, said: "At the moment, we see no reason not to be hopeful that there's a long-term future for Nanjing at Longbridge."

If Nanjing signed an initial six-month lease for 100 acres of the site, the remainder of the site would be redeveloped by St Modwen into offices, a technology park and hundreds of homes at a cost of £500m.

[Martino_z]

Wow. I didnt know MG and Rover were all chinese now. How does that make me feel? Sick thats right. I wish that all these mobs and people in general would see that china is our economic enemy instead of pissin in their pockets. I guess they should have made better cars for the past few years.

[Road Kill]

The times, they are a changin!

[nadepalma]

Originally Posted by Martino_z

Wow. I didnt know MG and Rover were all chinese now. How does that make me feel? Sick thats right. I wish that all these mobs and people in general would see that china is our economic enemy instead of pissin in their pockets. I guess they should have made better cars for the past few years.

Yeah, when MG-R went into administration by PriceWaterhouseCoopers a year and more ago. There were a few companies and consortiums out there looking to take them over. Two were Chinese companies -- Nanjing and SAIC (GM's partner in China). There were a few other ventures as well and even a rumor that the Russian kid who bought TVR was looking at buying MG-R as well.

But Nanjing won out in the end and they are now fighthing SAIC b/c MG-R sold the rights of the K-Series engine to SAIC before Nanjing won the final bid.

And this is a big deal -- the Chinese WANT a western nameplate to use to sell their cars. Rover and MG are only two of the names that MG-R owned -- others like Austin are still viable and have historic connotation.

It's going to take forever to see what happens next...but one things for sure, we haven't heard the last of MG-R and what unfolds next will be very interesting.

[mbukukanyau]

Unions, High taxes and general British attitude towards business and welfare states, obsession with wood and leather did MG and Rover in

[paul3230]

Sad to see...I wonder how good they'll manage them?

[Road Kill]

When you look at so many of the once proud Brit car companies that have gone by the wayside, it kind of makes you fear what could and is happening here.

[cyboexpo2002]

Actually it's not Rover, since when MG-Rover went into administration (Britain's equivalent to bankruptsy), the Rover name reverted back to BMW (the previous owner). That had to do with a clause stating the company had to run for 5 years for MG-Rover to own the name themselves. However, the MG name was part of the initial sale and so the Chinese /do/ own MG, along with some other names formerly used by British Leyland (the company name prior to BMW ownership), except for Mini and Land Rover, which BMW kept (before selling LR to Ford.

[Bravada]

Originally Posted by mbukukanyau

Unions, High taxes and general British attitude towards business and welfare states, obsession with wood and leather did MG and Rover in

I don't know what's wrong with wood and leather, the other things ruined BL, what ruined MR Rover in its last incarnation was unfavorable GBP exchange rates and poor management.

And yes, that's true that BMW owns Rover. Chinese have only got MG and perhaps other names like Morris, Austin, Wolseley. The rights to the engines, the designs of 25 and 75 (45 was too much of a Honda Civic for anybody to be able to manufacture it without Honda's consent I've heard), nameplates, K-series engines etc. are distributed between SAIC, Nanjing and the remnants of MG Rover, so it's quite hard to put them together again.

Besides, Rover was pretty a tarnished nameplate and the rest are quite irrelevant in the current European market, perhaps MG might have the most allure but I doubt it whether the Chinese could come up with something that would live up to the badge. Even if they resurrected the last MG lineup, those designs are quite old now.

Update:

Brands owned by Nanjing through the remnants of MG Rover:
- MG
- Austin (incl. American Austin and Austin-Healey)
- Morris
- Wolseley (please, don't resurrect THAT!)
- Vanden Plas (but not in US/Canada -> Ford through Jaguar)
- Princess
- Sterling

The rest are BMW's or Ford's, excluding Alvis, which is still owned by BAE.

[joey]

Lke the Chinese have any intentions of manufacturing anything outside Mainland China. Maybe they're planning on exporting a whole factory staff of illegal aliens to the UK to work at the factory for 50 cents a day.

[vxl]

[quote=nadepalma]
And this is a big deal -- the Chinese WANT a western nameplate to use to sell their cars. Rover and MG are only two of the names that MG-R owned -- others like Austin are still viable and have historic connotation.


There's been a few threads theorizing about Toyota/Honda/Renault taking over GM. The real acquirer will be SAIC.

[toronado10]

Originally Posted by cyboexpo2002

MG, along with some other names formerly used by British Leyland (the company name prior to BMW ownership), except for Mini and Land Rover, which BMW kept (before selling LR to Ford.

BMW also kept the names Triumph and Riley, but those names were long dead when BMW spun off MG Rover. Actually, the Pheonix Consortium asked BMW for Triumph but BMW threatened that if it insisted, they would break off the deal. (A rebadged Z4 wouldn't be a bad TR9 in my opinion)

[ChevroletRevived]

Sad..I really liked MG-R. Their cars were great. They were also the last British volume manufacturer. Now, their gone..to the Chinese. How awful..

[ChevroletRevived]

Hmm..the name thing is interesting. I wonder why BMW wants Triumph. I don't ever think they will ressurect them. Do you?

[asim]

So they plan to revive the company..eh?