Who is to blame for the death of MG Rover?

The company produced its first car in 1904 and by 1946 the 1,000,000th car had been produced at

Longbridge.

The MG TD midgets, produced between 1949 and 1953, were popular in the USA and helped fuel a

craze for sports cars.

The MG was redesigned to become smaller and racier with a prominent nose and large round

headlights.

Among other famous cars produced at Longbridge, from 1959, was the classic Mini. Here the

1,000,000th is driven off the production line by

designer Alec Issigonis.

In 1952, motor industry giants Herbert Austin and William Morris joined forces to form the British

Motor Corporation, with its headquarters at

Longbridge.

The Rover Group was cobbled together from the remains of state firm British Leyland but by the

1980s was taken over by British Aerospace.

                                                                                                                                          

             

In 1994 Rover was sold to German car firm BMW, and the following year saw the launch of three

redesigned model ranges at Longbridge, including

the Rover 400.

And by 1998, BMW had provided the funds to launch the new Rover 75, which became Car of

the Year.

But in 2000, the last Mini rolled off the production line, and BMW decided to break up the Rover

Group after losing £600m in one year.

BMW sold Rover to a consortium of local businessmen - Phoenix Venture Holdings - which renamed the company MG Rover, to capitalise on

the popular MG sports car name.

                                                                                                                                       

   

             

Under new ownership, Rover reduced its losses from about £800m in 1999 to £77m in 2003. But it

never managed to become profitable.

A worker at Rover's Longbridge plant in Birmingham stares glumly as he digests the

grim news about the company's future.

• SMALL WONDER

SMALL WONDER

• German owned BMW• Factory Oxford • 200 new jobs (February 2005)• New £100 million investment• 73 countries• 70% of 200,000 cars exported• USA 36,000• Germany 27,000• Italy 22,000• Japan 13,000

Who is to blame for Longbridge closure?

Big Issues 1

For each suspect please think about….

• Who they are?• Why are they a suspect?• What influence have they had on MG Rover?• What are the reasons for their influences?• Do you think this is fair?

Big Issues 2

• Who own mini?

• Why are they doing so well?

• Do you think the British government have stopped the sell of MG Rover without the Mini?

• Do we have an obligation to but British to support our own industries?

The Suspects?

• Government• Phoenix Consortium• BMW• SCIA• The Cars (product)• The growth of overseas

car manufacturing • The Workers

Acknowledgements

• Designed and created by Adam Lawson, East Sussex

• Photos from www.bbc.co.uk

• To be used in conjunction with the Rover mystery cards