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Mini production at Oxford, UKViews : 1417 Replies : 20Users Viewing This Thread : |
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Aug 5th, 2022, 23:17 | #21 | |
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The rumour about X5 was true - L322 Range Rover and X5 were essentially the same car - LR did all the initial (mechanical) development - most of the electronics systems and some of the reusable oily bits were off the shelf 7 series. Now onto the really clever bit - what made up all the massive debt and writedowns used by BMW to sell the "English Patient" story - to sell the story that Rover was bleeding them dry? What were those investments? Hamms Hall engine plant (kept by BMW - still going strong today) Cowley refresh (kept by BMW - still going strong today) R30 - kept by BMW - now called the 1 series. MINI! Longbridge enhancements - whoopee they got to keep that. And they kept the rights to all Rover designs - Pheonix Rover had to pay BMW a fortune in royalties to make their own engines and to use the BMW diesel in the 75. Essentially the vast majority of the big ticket Rover investments - debt used to prove Rover were a financial writeoff - ended up in BMW's hands. They make a fortune selling JLR. They made a fortune selling the vast swathes of land owned by the historic group. They got the core of two new models developed on Rover's books (new 1 Series and X5) The other company bidding for Rover at the time were Honda - what a shame PWC went with BMW. BMW asset-stripped and dumped Rover - Phoenix was a clever distraction to distance BMW from killing Rover - because it was already doomed for the reasons I gave you - and to really kick Phoenix Rover in the teeth, they sub-contracted TWR to develop a new mid-sized platform to replace the R30 platform BMW pinched. TWR went bust, but somehow ended up owning the rights to the platform! Which got sold on to the Chinese by the administrators! What an own-goal by the Phoenix idiots. |
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