Fears 100,000 jobs could go in 'imminent' British car plant closure

lukekelly_2

ad9898 wrote: »

Agree, and they would advocate burning 25 barrels of oil to produce a new one for you to buy.:rolleyes:

I suspect the more reasoned (that is, everyone except the straw man from the preceding post) would suggest doing a calculation. Would the energy saved through having a more efficient car outweigh the cost of building a new car In most cases the answer will be that with reasonable mileage a new car will use less energy even once the construction cost is accounted for.

As for a plant closure, the car industry suffered from over capacity during the boom years. In the current climate their capacity is absurd. Industry is heavily cyclical, factories close in recessions. The important thing is not to prop up factories churning out products for which there is no market but to ensure that when the recession ends you're in a good position to compete for new factories.

piggeh

I saw last year you could still buy unregistered Rover City Cars for about £5k. Quite absurd they still had some in a car park somewhere several years after rover went bust. Can imagine the same scenario occuring for the manufacturers about to go under.

Rochdale_Pioneers

To correct a bad piece of spin in the Wail piece, the reason why 83% of production is being done for export is not because of poor sales in the UK - its because thats the output ratio of factories like Nissan and Honda. The reason why overall volumes are down so massively can be seen visually on the images on that Guardian link - Minis and Jags and Land Rovers sat parked awaiting export customers who aren't there. Nissan export 78% of their production, so the same can be said of their test-track's worth of cars in that photo.

funkyfreddy9k

piggeh wrote: »

I saw last year you could still buy unregistered Rover City Cars for about £5k. Quite absurd they still had some in a car park somewhere several years after rover went bust. Can imagine the same scenario occuring for the manufacturers about to go under.

wow really?! :eek:

Those things werent even worth £5k fresh off the production line whilst rover still existed! However many years on it is now after rotting in a car park they'll be lucky to shift them for £2000 each.

Really2

funkyfreddy9k wrote: »

wow really?! :eek:

Those things werent even worth £5k fresh off the production line whilst rover still existed! However many years on it is now after rotting in a car park they'll be lucky to shift them for £2000 each.

Was the city a chinese import and not actualy a UK produced or manufactured Rover?

lostinrates

It seems from the news the car plant itself, still incognito, employs 6000 staff.

JasonLVC

WestonDave wrote: »

I'd have more sympathy if they were actually trying to sell cars rather than the current "list price or get stuffed" attitude you get on every forecourt. People talk about home owners in denial - the car makers still think that the lump of metal they sold for £15k last year is still going to fetch £15k and boy are they going to hold out until they get it.

Honda has an airfield full of Civics in Wiltshire, won't cut the forecourt price of them, and yet is not far off relaunching it as a new version. To me it would make far more sense to flog off some of that backlog now, rather than have the new model launched with hundreds of old style cars either being unsaleable (if they don't cut the price) or being offered at a discount and diverting sales from the new model. The cash value sitting on that airfield must be horrific - although I suppose with interest rates where they are at least financing it all isn't so draining.

I'm quite depressed by the whole car buying exxpereience at the moment (could you tell?). I want to buy a new car, want dealer finance and have a budget of £25k (employer is funding this, not me).

Tried Skoda, Renault, Audi, VW, etc and all the dealers were not budging from MRRP(!). The new Skoda Octavia is £15k, the dealer wanted to sell me the old model for £13k and by the time you did the PCP/finance it worked out more expensive than the new one!.

Renault quoted me £23k for a Laguna Sport and then said there was a dealer bonus of £800 they could knock of the price. Wow!.

Nissan said they could do me a Verso on 4 yrs 0% on a list price of £16k but when I said I w.drivethedeal.com to do the car for £14k, they said they'd match the quote but not give the 0% apr - so there was no 0%, they just added £2k to the selling price?.

I realise if they discount cars tomorrow by £5k, all the people who bought cars last month will see £5k wiped off their resale value overnight - but there has got to be something better than just increasing prices to keep people in jobs and the car industry alive.

lostinrates

JasonLVC wrote: »

I'm quite depressed by the whole car buying exxpereience at the moment (could you tell?). I want to buy a new car, want dealer finance and have a budget of £25k (employer is funding this, not me).

Tried Skoda, Renault, Audi, VW, etc and all the dealers were not budging from MRRP(!). The new Skoda Octavia is £15k, the dealer wanted to sell me the old model for £13k and by the time you did the PCP/finance it worked out more expensive than the new one!.

Renault quoted me £23k for a Laguna Sport and then said there was a dealer bonus of £800 they could knock of the price. Wow!.

Nissan said they could do me a Verso on 4 yrs 0% on a list price of £16k but when I said I could drivethedeal.com to do the car for £14k, they said they'd match the quote but not give the 0% apr - so there was no 0%, they just added £2k to the selling price?.

I realise if they discount cars tomorrow by £5k, all the people who bought cars last month will see £5k wiped off their resale value overnight - but there has got to be something better than just increasing prices to keep people in jobs and the car industry alive.

A couple of months ago among the garages close to me Nissan and Honda were prepared to negotiate most significantly. Looking again now and people are a bit more stubborn it seems.



Wiping car proces WOULD be tough on those who have recently bought, but well.....new cars bomb ion resale anyway don't they? And the car still is the car they bought and runs like it used to......(just like you can still live in the home you love if its work 20k less.)

Optimist

Really2 wrote: »

Volvo will get sold or brought out don't forget they don't just make cars (volvo trucks etc.) and have been profitable up untill last year (but how much of that is Ford spreading losses?)

Saab have a far more limited market (salons or estates) I think that is why they are strugling also flushing their middle class image down the pan was not a good idea.

Just signed for a new Volvo for my other half last Sunday. We were looking for a one year old one and I made a silly offer for a new one i.e. £700 above the price of the second hand one. He bit my hand of and took the offer up I was very surprised the other half was very happy !

Rochdale_Pioneers

Supply and demand guys. Supply MASSIVELY outstrips demand, so the dealers need to create it - and that means stonking creat price cuts and more importantly finance deals.

OK so MR dealer may not make much (any?) money on some of the deals. But he has the bonus of staying in business and not going bankrupt as so many dealers seem to be either doing or teetering towards.

It would be nice if at the end of all this every remaining car dealer wasn't owned by Evans Halshaw.