Comments on: British police to investigate MG Rover demise

By: Bob Hume @ drivewire.eu

Bob Hume @ drivewire.eu — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:16:17 +0000

The Government investigation has undoubtedly wasted a surreal amount of money but the police investigation stands a great chance of proving FA and adding to the bill in the process.

The UK Government is spending multiples of the amount of money that these muppets allegedly stole, to try to prove that they ACTUALLY stole it. If it goes to court it’ll cost a bit more and on the slender chance that they manage to secure a conviction, it will cost even more to keep them in jail.

Wonderful! The 15000 people that lost their jobs and the creditors who’ve been relieved of £1.3 Billion must be delighted!

By: Bavarian Missile®™

Bavarian Missile®™ — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:04:25 +0000

Quote ” Whatever happens there’s no doubt that they’ll have spent bucketloads of public money by the time they’ve finished.”

If they havent spent it already Bob……….no foot spas for them hey Bob

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:49:54 +0000

Bob Hume, I agree that they were a pretty poor manufacturer, especially in the late eighties and nineties but to be fare on the truly dismal CityRover, it was a rebadged Tata. It was still their choice of course and a bad one at that but it wasn’t their bad car. And the 75 was properly good, just bought by the wrong people.

By: Bob Hume @ drivewire.eu

Bob Hume @ drivewire.eu — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:19:05 +0000

There’s no doubt that there was always a hint of dodgy dealings (allegedly) in MG Rover’s demise but the fact is that Rover made some awful cars in its final 20 years. The Cityrover (I’m not sure it actually made its way to Australia) was a very bad car and that’s the nicest thing I can say about it. The 16-valve K-Series petrol engine (famed for self-destruction) and the largely unlamented and truly rubbish Rover Metro all did little to enhance what was generally known to be a very poor car manufacturer.
If the investigation proves wrong-doing of any kind, I’ll be surprised – I’ve little faith in these things. These fellas will have covered their behinds in the five years that it took for them to run the company into the ground and if their company accountants and auditors didn’t spot it, the SFO may not.
Whatever happens there’s no doubt that they’ll have spent bucketloads of public money by the time they’ve finished.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:36:23 +0000

I miss MG. I can’t say that I miss Rover and really, buying an MG was just like buying an M Sport pack for your BMW for quite a while there but I miss the TF. It wasn’t as good as an MX-5 and as what is surely a joke, fourteen years after original release they’ve brought it back but you know what? I would probably rather one over an MX-5 for some reason. I’m sure it’s just because I’m British, but I can get nostalgic over these things.

By: realcars

realcars — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:46:35 +0000

What a shame.

By: Captain Mainwaring

Captain Mainwaring — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:16:41 +0000

Shack. And someone of your skills could probably have succeeded, provided you and your fellow Directors only paid yourselves a modest $200K or so each per year.

By: Shak

Shak — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:32:30 +0000

Wait they paid 20 dollars for a car company. I could have paid more and transformed this decrepit company.

By: Captain Mainwaring

Captain Mainwaring — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:21:10 +0000

This comes as no great surprise. At the time, it seemed that the value of the assets reduced by about the same amount as the directors were sucking out, when sales revenue was not covering production costs.
Brilliant, if you don’t get caught.

By: Toxic_Horse

Toxic_Horse — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:15:48 +0000

Impressive building !