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Longbridge future


Dick Longbridge

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My source has confirmed that the lease has been handed back to St Modwen and demolition is underway. 
I can't believe SMTC UK would walk off the site; it's put a lot of money into testing cells recently. 

As for the Kremlin, Elephant House and CAB 1, I'm still finding out. 

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Well, that's that then. What's the future of Longbridge? To be a carbon copy of most other towns/city parts around the UK with a set of offices owned/run by private firms, housing estates, some new 'aspirational' housing surrounded by a load of council sink estates, a retail park which will eventually kill off any smaller shops and become a convenient 'hub' of the community. The name of BMC/Austin/Rover/MG etc... the building of cars in Longbridge will cease to exist and be nothing more than a bad memory.

 

Those in power have wanted kill off car building in Longbridge for years, it somehow became a blot on the landscape, an embarrassing reminder of yesteryear in todays modern world of technological paper-pushing and sales consultancy. I never really thought that the Chinese take over by SAIC or whoever was a real effort to save Longbridge, it's workers and car building there, more a vanity project, a badge to claim that thier cars "designed and nailed together in England" and probably a synical way of slowly winding down car building there until it completely ceases to exist.

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Very interesting thread and pictures, I'm off to see if any other intrepid souls have visited the factory recently and taken more photos.

 

I wish I had been old enough to explore the old BL truck factory in Bathgate which closed the very year I moved to Linlithgow. As with Longbridge, this was flattened and a cultural desert created with sterile 'aspirational' houses, about which I could probably rustle up some sort of Euan McGregor Trainspotting style soliloquy in time to a phat Underworld backbeat.

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I'm in China right now, no shortage of investment in manufacturing. The factory I'm in now has just got rid of one of their old machine (8 years old) and got a brand new one in. Barely fits on the low loader so not cheap. Imagine that happening in Britain?

 

However they can also make tooling in one third the time of a UK supplier, they always answer the phone and emails and they work hard to deliver on time. We deal with 2 Chinese suppliers and 4 UK suppliers for similar products and the Chinese ones are miles better for products, costs and customer service.

 

It's like what the Japanese did to British motorbike manufacturers in the '70s and we STILL haven't learned how to make stuff.

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I despise seeing engineering stuff left to ruin, don't like seeing derelict old factories looking sorry for themselves. The historical side of wandering around old factories wondering what was made there and what that hole in the floor was for etc is fun, but realistically nobody is going to restart building cars at Longbridge now. It's a dead factory.

 

Nobody here in the UK is going to spend millions resurrecting Longbridge. The Chinese aren't going to spend millions on it either. The Midlands used to be the engineering hub of the Empire but those days are long gone, the skills have mainly gone, the customers have gone, and run of the mill British cars aren't wanted by anyone anymore, not even the British.

 

Take loads of photos, save what can be saved and bulldoze the lot. Build the 'Derek Robinson Retail Park' if you want but let BL finally rest in peace.

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Those in power have wanted kill off car building in Longbridge for years, it somehow became a blot on the landscape, an embarrassing reminder of yesteryear in todays modern world of technological paper-pushing and sales consultancy. I never really thought that the Chinese take over by SAIC or whoever was a real effort to save Longbridge, it's workers and car building there, more a vanity project, a badge to claim that thier cars "designed and nailed together in England" and probably a synical way of slowly winding down car building there until it completely ceases to exist.

 

Hanlon's Razor

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Thing is what are you resurrecting? The Rover name had gone down the pan by the time they packed in, they couldn't break even in a less competitive market 15 years ago. What hope have they now? Why would you want to resurrect it anyway? Enjoy the cars they made by preserving them.

 

I like Fleetwood Mac, I wouldn't go round Mick Fleetwoods house and make him make some more new music similar to 'Rumours'. The times past, enjoy it for what it was.

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Thing is what are you resurrecting? The Rover name had gone down the pan by the time they packed in, they couldn't break even in a less competitive market 15 years ago. What hope have they now? Why would you want to resurrect it anyway? Enjoy the cars they made by preserving them.

 

I like Fleetwood Mac, I wouldn't go round Mick Fleetwoods house and make him make some more new music similar to 'Rumours'. The times past, enjoy it for what it was.

Don't believe you, your tell me lies, tell me....................

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Thing is what are you resurrecting? The Rover name had gone down the pan by the time they packed in, they couldn't break even in a less competitive market 15 years ago. What hope have they now? Why would you want to resurrect it anyway? Enjoy the cars they made by preserving them.

 

I like Fleetwood Mac, I wouldn't go round Mick Fleetwoods house and make him make some more new music similar to 'Rumours'. The times past, enjoy it for what it was.

 

 

Rover? It's secondhand news.

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I despise seeing engineering stuff left to ruin, don't like seeing derelict old factories looking sorry for themselves. The historical side of wandering around old factories wondering what was made there and what that hole in the floor was for etc is fun, but realistically nobody is going to restart building cars at Longbridge now. It's a dead factory.

 

Nobody here in the UK is going to spend millions resurrecting Longbridge. The Chinese aren't going to spend millions on it either. The Midlands used to be the engineering hub of the Empire but those days are long gone, the skills have mainly gone, the customers have gone, and run of the mill British cars aren't wanted by anyone anymore, not even the British.

 

Take loads of photos, save what can be saved and bulldoze the lot. Build the 'Derek Robinson Retail Park' if you want but let BL finally rest in peace.

 

 

Thing is though, Rover in 2017 is healthier than it's ever been.

 

It's called 'Land Rover', the clue being in the name. Maker of highly desirable* and saleable** products the world over.

 

Ditto Jaguar. 

 

Cowley? How astonishingly successful and productive has in been the past 15 years?

 

 

Truth is, the shit was swept away, leaving a profitable core of British built cars the envy of the world. It's a pity Rover didn't make it as the 75 had the makings of a world beater. Never mind.

 

 

 

*not by me.

 

** see above.

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I adore Land Rovers, brilliant things.

 

The thing is, although there's some lovely engineering in them, until BMW and Ford got involved the build quality on LR stuff was pretty bloody awful. The P38 had reliability and build issues from the start, despite being LRs first shot for 25 years at building a world beating product.

 

Ford and BMW spent horrifying amounts of money trying to sort out LR. Rover themselves seemed to get them vaguely operational and then chuck them out of the door 'It'll break, but we're keeping the warranty lads in jobs' appears to have been the QC thinking at LR.

 

Land Rover are only flourishing now because they're run as a proper business, something which wasn't the case until around 2002. Previously they were underfunded and chucked together. Now they're built to standards which simply couldn't happen under Rover's watch.

 

For me, Rover died in 1968. The P6b was the last truly brilliant bit of kit they chucked together. The SD1 was a brilliant looking thing which only got built half decently from 82-85, and mechanically it was a step backwards from the P6b.

 

The little Rovers, the 216 etc were OK cars but they were never a patch on the proper old P4/5/6 for proper British engineering. A good V8 P6 still feels incredibly modern for something designed almost 60 years ago, it rides well, is quiet, comfy, has lots of lovely little design touches and is still a cool car.

 

Rover never really followed it up. They made those lovely MG ZT 260s and that was it.

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Guest Lord Sward

I've got a Big Love for Rover 800's but I don't think there's a market for new ones.

 

 

There was a market for them when they were still being marketed.  

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