Archive for November, 2009
Allegros : It’s a case of love… and hate. But mainly hate.
Keith Adams You think I’d never learn. Soon-to-be ex-Practical Classics staffer, Sam Glover, dropped me a note asking if I’d be interested in taking his delightful Allegro off him. Seems he can’t keep it once he moves down South, and as always, thought of me once he’d found himself in a must-get-rid-of-old-donkey scenario. Allegros and [...]
November 30, 2009
· 
Keith Adams · 
5 Comments
India Watch : Tata Motors posts profit aided by rise in JLR volume
Automotive News Europe, 27th November, 2009 MUMBAI (Reuters) Helped by strong volume growth from Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Motors Limited posted an unexpected consolidated profit for the September quarter. JLR saw sales volume rise 23 percent from the previous quarter, and Tata Motors said there were signs of improved demand for other key units after [...]
November 27, 2009
· Clive Goldthorp · No Comments
Press Report : Former MG Rover bosses make £3m payment to creditors
Alun Thorne, Birmingham Post, 27th November, 2009 The company owned by the former bosses of MG Rover has paid £3 million to creditors of the firm. The so-called Phoenix Four have agreed to pay the sum to a liquidator almost five years after the collapse of Longbridge. The money will be distributed by Price Waterhouse Coopers [...]
November 27, 2009
· Clive Goldthorp · No Comments
Hatchbacks : the forgotten generation
Keith Adams I’m sitting here feeling a little sorry for myself, suffering from a pair of cracked ribs and a dented ego (yeah, I don’t practice what I preach when working on my cars) and, between bouts of writing for Octane, I’ve found myself going on a few car-related tangents. This one’s actually about the forgotten [...]
November 27, 2009
· Keith Adams · 9 Comments
The way forward for the Rover brand
Sam Skelton A new SD1: based upon Jaguar’s XF and styled to blend with the Jaguar Land Rover range. Could something like this be the next X-Type? I guess that AROnline’s regular readers already know that I’m a BL lover. I really should join BL-coholics Anonymous, but that’s beside the point. The car that first sparked [...]
November 26, 2009
· Sam Skelton · 21 Comments
China Watch : SAIC Motor aims to double MG and Roewe sales in 2010
Automotive News Europe, 23rd November, 2009 GUANGZHOU (Reuters) SAIC Motor plans to begin manufacturing its new MG6 sedan in the UK at the end of next year, the company said. SAIC Motor became the owner of MG Rover’s 10,000-unit Longbridge plant in Birmingham, central England, after a merger with its much smaller peer Nanjing Automobile Group [...]
November 24, 2009
· Clive Goldthorp · No Comments
MG6 : SAIC Motor plans UK production by the end of 2010
Clive Goldthorp SAIC Motor-owned MG’s most important hatchback since the 1981 MG Metro has been launched in its home market of China today. The MG6 is a five-door fastback which features conventionally handsome styling and is powered by an evolution of the K-Series engine in 1.8-litre turbo and normally aspirated forms. Most excitingly, SAIC Motor has announced plans to assemble the MG6 [...]
November 23, 2009
· Clive Goldthorp · No Comments
The MG6 : Why I’m still excited by it…
Keith Adams First thing’s first, I’ll lay it on the line now: I like the MG6. There, I said it and, from what I have seen of the car - and that’s no more than anyone else who reads this site – it’s an inoffensive, modern-looking hatchback that won’t alienate buyers who want a stylish car that’s a [...]
November 22, 2009
· Keith Adams · 6 Comments
Another one ticked off
Keith Adams Regular readers might remember me saying that I was keeping the Metro and letting the 200 go to a new owner. Well, over the weekend that happened, when I swapped it for a nice Audi Coupé 1.8i. Not just any Coupé, mind you - but the one that Andrew Elphick, Matthew Hayward and I drove [...]
November 19, 2009
· Keith Adams · 5 Comments
The Quest-Part One
Adam Sloman I love buying cars, can’t help it, always have. I love the hunt, through the internet and the free ad papers, it’s great fun, and it’s even more fun when it’s someone else’s money. The someone else in this case is my older brother. Car-less for almost four years now he’s decided he [...]
November 18, 2009
· Adam Sloman · One Comment
India Watch : Search underway for Ratan Tata’s successor
MUMBAI (Reuters) — India’s Tata conglomerate is looking around the world for a successor to Ratan Tata, the 71-year-old Chairman of the sprawling salt-to-automaker group said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published on Wednesday. Local and foreign candidates were being looked at to head the group, which includes Tata Motors Ltd., Tata [...]
November 18, 2009
· Clive Goldthorp · No Comments
Metro: a couple of weeks on…
Keith Adams Against my better judgment, I’ve been tooling around in a Rover Metro 1.4LD for the past couple of weeks in order to save while I drive. In its first week’s of motoring, a £29 refill was all it needed and the old girl’s averaged 68mpg. Okay, so it’s not exactly set the roads on [...]
November 17, 2009
· Keith Adams · 8 Comments
Press Report : Carmaker JLR secures loan of £170m
Martin Arnold, FT.com, 16th November, 2009 Jaguar Land Rover will today announce that it has secured a new £170m working capital facility from GE Capital, allowing it to start making money from its finished vehicles long before they reach dealers’ showrooms around the world. The five-year loan is an important step for the lossmaking car [...]
November 16, 2009
· Clive Goldthorp · One Comment
Press Report : Christmas comes early for Phoenix Four Directors
Alun Thorne, Birmingham Post, 16th November, 2009 Vilified Phoenix Four Directors Peter Beale and John Edwards are in line for a massive multi-million pound Christmas bonus from the remnants of the Longbridge empire. The two former Longbridge bosses, who with fellow Directors John Towers and Nick Stephenson have already enriched themselves to the tune of [...]
November 16, 2009
· Clive Goldthorp · No Comments
Press Comment : Is this really time for new management at JLR?
John Cranage, Industrial Editor, Birmingham Post, 12th November, 2009 With General Motors’ European boss Carl-Peter Forster tipped to join Tata, Industrial Editor John Cranage looks at the possible implications his appointment would have for Jaguar Land Rover. General Motors’ U-turn over its plan to unload its European carmaking business has left one of the automotive [...]
November 12, 2009
· Clive Goldthorp · No Comments
Press Report : GM boss Carl-Peter Forster set for JLR
Dominic O’Connell, The Sunday Times, 8th November, 2009 Carl-Peter Forster, the departing boss of General Motors Europe, has been lined up to take charge of Jaguar Land Rover, the Midlands-based luxury carmaker. Senior sources in Frankfurt and Detroit said Forster, who led GM Europe through its recent turbulent negotiations with the German Government and would-be [...]
November 9, 2009
· Clive Goldthorp · No Comments
The joys of Scrappage motoring
Keith Adams It’s been a funny old week and one that will go down in my life as a landmark really. Why? Well, in the space of a couple of days, no less than three Rovers have been added to fleet… by anyone’s standards, that’s impressive/stupid/obsessive enough to have the boys in the white coats coming [...]
November 7, 2009
· Keith Adams · 13 Comments
Press Report : MGR’s Phoenix Four facing legal action for £22m
Jon Walker, Birmingham Post, 4th November, 2009 The Government has offered to back legal action forcing former Rover Directors to hand over up to £22 million to former employees and community projects. Business Minister Ian Lucas told the House of Commons he would do “anything I can do” to help local people obtain the money. [...]
November 4, 2009
· Clive Goldthorp · No Comments
Press Report : Unions to meet with MPs over JLR job threats
Jon Griffin, Birmingham Post, 3rd November, 2009 Unions have called a high level summit of MPs to an emergency meeting at the House of Commons to preserve thousands of West Midland jobs feared under threat at Jaguar Land Rover. The London summit is being held on Wednesday amid growing resistance from unions over JLR’s new [...]
November 3, 2009
· Clive Goldthorp · No Comments
Car of the month : November 2009
There’s a lot of Wedge-love on AROnline, and we reckon that the most delicious examples of all are the original 18/22 Series models that only ran for a matter of months in 1975. And when it comes to the examples still with us today, top of the list must surely be Alex Sebbinger’s magnificent Wolseley, [...]
November 1, 2009
· Keith Adams · 2 Comments
