It’s the 15th of April 2005. Over 6000 people are standing outside a building they once called their workplace. They’ve all lost their jobs for good and hundreds of dealers will be closing their doors. A dark cloud descends across the West Midlands where Rover and MG cars are built. The factory was located in an area known as Longbridge and many people who lived in Longbridge were employed by MG/Rover. Now, the area has a sudden unemployment crisis that will linger around the area for years.
Rover was once a bluechip stock when it was part of British Leyland, British Aerospace, and when it was under BMW. When taken over by Pheonix Consortium in 2000 they were pretty strong too as in 2001 they had their greatest year yet selling over 170,000 cars. When Phoenix took them over, the loss figures were at £400 million. When they left they were at around £80 million though the debts were over £1.4 billion.
Rover once made cars for the elite. They were big on quality and using “fine craftsmanship” to make their cars. A notable example of this is with the P5 and the P6 from the 1950s and 1960s. They were the car for the professional and something you aspired to. Then came 1968 when they were merged into British Leyland and the decline began. British Leyland at the time was the world’s fourth-largest car producer in the world but things were stiff. The brands inside British Leyland were all somewhat direct rivals. The Austin Allegro would rival the Morris Marina, Jaguar cars would rival Triumphs and Rovers. British Leyland was designed to be one big family, in which everyone argues all the time and keeps themselves to themselves. Many British Leyland brands hated sharing technology with each other as although they were under the same name, they still felt as if they were rivals.
The issue with British Leyland was that it had too many economy brands and too many luxury brands in one. All of these manufacturers were rivals before the merger and now things had got a lot more strained. To make matters worse, in the 1970s the UK faced its own wave of communism. Militant shop stewards took charge and every single week British Leyland employees spent more time outside the factory than they did inside. The employees were lazy and come 5 pm they would just stop work and go home. There was no sense of passion or pride even in the Jaguar department. Ford and Vauxhall both knew this was going to happen, so they were smart and connected with their German equivalents (Ford Europe and Opel) to make sure production never stopped since the Germans had sense and worked a lot harder.
British Leyland’s employee issues were so bad that this large manufacturer quickly lost all credibility. It was bringing out absolute dirtbags for cars. The Morris Ital, the Austin Princess, and the Austin Allegro to name a few. Then there was the Rover SD1 a car that won car of the year but rusted faster than any Italian car. The SD1 was the car everyone wanted because it looked so cool but they would have to go to the mechanics every month because of the appalling build quality.
British Leyland struggled in 1973 where it went bankrupt due to an oil crisis, the three-day working week and strikes. The business was unmanageable.
The British car suddenly got a reputation worldwide for being rubbish. They were built worse than what a novice could do, they weren’t great to drive and deliveries were always late because the workers were outside. This made British Leyland fall even in their own domestic market eventually getting beaten by Renault. However, the worst was yet to come.
Japan Takes Over
Japan had killed Detroit in the 1970s. It was now time for the East to kill Longbridge. Margret Thatcher had just won the election in 1979 and she was the complete opposite to the British Leyland employee. She not only closed down all the mines but she also closed down a lot of the factories including the majority of British Leyland. soon Morris, Triumph, and Austin went under. The death of Triumph affected places like Coventry massively, where once the Triumph factory hired many people living there.
What kicked British Leyland in the backside was the rise of the Japanese car. Eastern Europe had already imported many cars into the UK, all very cheap but they were cheap for a reason. Japan took the same idea of making a cheap car but they injected quality into them and a decent driving experience. Japan had been in the UK for some time and in 1984 Nissan opened a factory in Sunderland and Toyota opened their UK factories in 1992.
Nissan had the Bluebird and the Sunny and Toyota had the Carina and the Corolla. The British market could finally buy an affordable car that started the first time every single morning. The Bluebird was the first-ever reliable British car in history. It was a brilliant car despite it being incredibly boring. This car sold in the hundreds of thousands and it was launched when British Leyland was at its worst peak.
Prior to the Bluebird, British Leyland did sign a contract with Honda to essentially re-badge their cars. Great news for reliability but terrible news for reputation. Cars like the Triumph Acclaim was launched which was later replaced by the Rover 200. All of this was ok until it was time to launch the Rover flagship, the 800. It was a replacement for the SD1 and it was based on the Honda Legend. It drove well and looked good but Rover enthusiasts hated it as it felt too much like a Honda.
Ultimately, these Japanese brands walked all over British Leyland. Hence why they lost so many sales which resulted in so many cuts and job losses.
After 1986
British Leyland folded in 1986 and Rover was purchased by British Aerospace in 1987. Now all that lasted was MG, Land Rover, Mini, Rover, Sterling, and Leyland till 1987. Jaguar had gone off to Ford and every other manufacturer had died. British Aerospace had been told they were not allowed to sell the company for five years. In 1994 exactly five years later, they sold Rover Group to BMW. Happy days as British Aerospace had made a profit, Rover group was stable and BMW were top dogs of the game.
British Aerospace had succeeded with Rover by making mainstream cars with reliable engines. However, these cars were underneath all mostly Hondas and the Rover reputation had diminished. BMW told Rover that they would allow them to make their own car. Their own Rover, not a rebadged Honda or 3-series. Their own new car. This made Rover very excited and they launched the 75.
The 75 was the pinnacle of modern Rover. It was the same price as a UK Mondeo but it was better. It was launched at the 1999 Birmingham Motorshow alongside the new Jaguar S-Type. It was a car that many talked about and it was British in every single way despite it having a German engine. The 75 probably had the UK national anthem pre-loaded. It was so proud and it only attracted old people which was an issue n itself as its the younger people who you want to attract as someday the older people will die and that’s a customer gone.
It was a quality car for sure but it was deeply uncool. Americans loved it though as it was just so British. It was more a history exhibition than a car.
BMW Sells Rover and Hello Phoenix
BMW sold Rover in 1999 due to appalling sales. They saw no future in the Rover group and with no buyer lined up, it seemed that the brand would crumble. BMW took Mini with them, Land Rover was sold off to Ford and the Rover group was in a mess. Then a Birmingham-based business called Phoenix Consortium brought MG Rover for £10. They were in a mess at the time. Their best selling model, the Metro had suffered due to a bad safety record, the other models were all too old and the 75 development was so expensive it meant that no new proper models could be built.
Anyways, what this group decided was that Rover needed new cars. So they took their old cars and made them new again. It worked in some cases with the MG TF but it didn’t in others with the MG ZS. It just made the brand look like a laughing stock and soon the brand was known for making recycled cars.
The Phoenix boys loved speed. In fact, they put MG Rover back in motorsport with a new brand called X-Power. There was one car under the X-power brand the incredible MG SV8 or as otherwise known as the MG X-Power SV8. It was a Mustang powered Italian designed sportscar made from carbon fiber. It was an expensive project but it did somewhat pay off despite selling incredibly badly. Only 82 cars were sold. the decision to make a sports car rather than invest in family vehicles has been noted down as one of the reasons why this brand died. It was a stupid decision but things were about to get worse.
They decided to enter many races. From the touring car championships to small rallies. Nothing wrong with those. But then they stepped out of their league when they went into the most expensive race of them all, LeMans. Teams at LeMans would spend what MG Rover made per year in at LeMans. The competitors were the likes of Audi and Porsche, two brands with unlimited bank accounts. MG Rover spent a lot on hospitality for their guests putting on shows etc. They also spent a bit on the car too.
Unfortunately, they never finished the race which is a complete embarrassment for the brand. In this instance, there was no Henry Ford II or Porsche style get back up and go activity. Rover was now in a bad financial hangover and they needed a partner in order to stay alive.
They then decided to go to Tata in India to rebadge their Indica. This was a bad move because the Indica was great for Indian standards but terrible for European standards. It became known as one of the worst cars ever as it was just so flimsy and cheap. It drove awfully and it looked rubbish. This venture was done on the cheap and it was a terrible decision by Rover. They tried to redo the Metro but they did it on such a budget that the Cityrover was bad in every single way.
Played By The Chinese
They found the partner, a Chinese state-owned company called SAIC motor. The Chinese were a lot better at business than the Brummies and it was evident in discussions. MG Rover had sold the rights to the 25d design, the 75 design, and the Rover K-Series engine to SAIC motor before the business negotiations. This was what SAIC motor wanted as these sort of cars would sell very well in China. Come to the negotiations and SAIC motor basically cripple MG Rover group. They even threatened to sue anybody who tried to make the 25 or the 75 which were the group’s two best-selling cars.
MG Rover received some government funding to pay workers wages for a week. There were constant negotiations with SAIC but nothing came out of them. They refused to buy MG Rover and with time running out the chances of MG Rover surviving were a million to one.
On 15 April 2005, after long tough negotiations in Shanghai with SAIC motor, the big Chinese state-owned manufacturer completely refused to partner with MG Rover and then stated they weren’t interested anymore. This left no other choice but for the bosses to pull the plug on MG Rover. So they did, and over 6000 people lost their job that day and a further 30,000 lost their jobs.
In 2006 SAIC motor and Magma holdings did buy the crippled group for £53 million though on 22 August when the payment was due, there was still £47 million outstanding. SAIC just got themselves a bargain and the MG name nowadays is going strong in China and the rest of the world. The Rover name was not purchased so instead they use the name Roewe. It was a sneaky move by the Chinese that killed the MG Rover and you can call it a horrible way to do business but it was at the fault of Phoenix for selling the property rights for their two best-selling cars to them. They used MG Rover badly and they were the final nail in the coffin.
The remaining 45 models were licensed by Honda who quickly terminated the contract and removed all tooling to make the car from Longbridghe. Rover was finished.
The group still managed to make the MG TF until 2010 at Longbridge but the factory soon was demolished and eventually replaced with shops. There is still a small center in Longbridge for MG design and a large headquarter building in London. However, most manufacturing is now done in China. This is an example of China killing the British automotive industry and crippling the economy. Only if the British weren’t so gullible and stupid would MG Rover still be alive today and would those 30,000+ people still be in a job?
Featured image credits via: Birminghamlive.com