Vauxhall workers agree to ditch summer shutdown..and about time too!!

[Jason Bourne]

MG/Rover was mis-managed from the top (BMW) and allowed the UK directors to run wild without checking up.

 

In fact MG/Rover was making a decent comeback with the ZR/ZS/ZT/MG-TF (as well as the non-sports verions of each variant) however the damage was done and it collasped in on itself.

 

Rover should never have sold out to the Germans in the first place; they should have gone into partnership with Honda instead.

[Resident]

Rover should never have sold out to the Germans in the first place; they should have gone into partnership with Honda instead.

 

They was already a partnership of sorts between Honda & Rover. Hence a generation of Civics being very similar to the 600s and some Rover models had Honda engines.

 

That ended though.

[Jason Bourne]

They was already a partnership of sorts between Honda & Rover. Hence a generation of Civics being very similar to the 600s and some Rover models had Honda engines.

 

That ended though.

 

Yes, they did indeed have a partnership (I should have made that clearer).

 

I thought the partnership worked well too, so I was surprised Rover sold out to BMW (who, it turns out, were only interested in the blueprints for the Range Rover in order to develop the X5)

[Michael_W]

the company i work for hasn't had a summer shutdown for years. we can have a week/fortnight holiday at any time but only a certain number can be off at any one time.

with regards to the ellesmere port agreement , general motors had the workforce by the short and curlys (agree to our terms or lose your job).

 

Most firms in Sheffield did away with the old 'shutdown / works weeks', it's much better having the choice of when you want to take holidays.

[PeteMorris]

Most firms in Sheffield did away with the old 'shutdown / works weeks', it's much better having the choice of when you want to take holidays.

 

Would be nice if someone imparted that information to my company!!!!..Aaaaaagh!!!!

[Resident]

In a sense though I can see the point of a shutdown in the car-building industry. The manufacturers can't possibly sell as many cars as they make in a week so to me the shut-down would act as a "catch up" period to stop new cars just being stood on some random tarmac in the middle of nowhere, if that makes sense.

[littlebasher]

In fact MG/Rover was making a decent comeback with the ZR/ZS/ZT/MG-TF .

 

With the exception of the ZT, those were nothing more than polishing a turd

 

25/45 models were already well out of date before the MG fairy waived her magic wand over them.

 

They needed new models and they never came.

 

As for the laughable attempt at launching a new small car (City Rover) by a rebadge of the Tata Indica, then selling them for more than twice what they paid Tata for them - this for a car not built to European standards, what did they expect?

[Uptowngirl]

Well played the chaps at the 'port. I hope the quality of them is top draw.

 

I find it strange though that us Brits can build cars for Japanese firms and build them and design them for American firms (and loads of others no doubt) to great acclaim but when it comes to be being a British run,design and build ie rover we haven't got a clue.

 

It was largely down to complacency and cow towing to the unions. Rover was effectively destroyed in the BL days of Red Robbo. The shoddy crap they turned out was a joke and undermined the British car industry.

It was only when the unions had been sorted that the Japanes started to invest in modern car plants in the UK and employed people who weren't on strike every other day.

The UK now exports more cars than we import, and quality is equal to any in the world. It would do wonders for the British economy if the folk who buy imports looked hard at our own production and bought UK built cars. It would reduce our balance of payments deficit by £10s off billions as well as adding 10s of thousands of jobs to British workers.

[Harleyman]

In years past Ford, Chrysler and General Motors laid off thousands and thousands in the US and Canada and closed assembly plants all over the place. Robots also took over some assembly line jobs.

Sales fell when petrol prices started to go up in the early 70s but the three companies were still churning out big gas guzzling V-8s which needed oil changes every 3,000 miles and engine rebuilds after 50-60,000 miles. Then they started to build small cars which were crap.

The Japs came along with small cars that could clock well over 100K before any major maintenance was required then in the following years they started to build most of their cars here.

Now Honda and Toyota America even export some of their US built cars to Japan.

After a decade or two of mediocre sales and on the verge of bankruptcy Ford, Chrysler and General Motors are now turning out quality cars, SUVs and trucks that people really want.

 

Hybrids arent worth the money however. They are way overpriced. It's a case of getting screwed at the fuel pump of getting screwed by the new car dealers. These days a nice mid sized car, mechanically tops likethe Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Nissan Altima, Ford Fusion and Chevrolet Malibu with MPGs of around 33-35 dont cost more than 30,000 dollars out the door if you know how to dicker with the sales person.

A hybrid on the other hand is likely to cost 7 or 8K more at least

[shane39]

I see Vauxhall workers had the good news that the Elesmere port factory was being kept open and will be making the new Astra in place of the Germans winning the contract.

 

In the process, I see that they have agreed to ditch the traditional July/Aug shutdown too, and accept a pay freeze.

 

Do you think other companies will follow suit in regard to the traditional shutdown? Will this have an impact upon the yoyo prices of holidays, which traditionally are extortionate in those weeks?

 

I do hope so

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2145785/End-long-summer-shutdown-Vauxhall-staff-ditch-perks-work-round-clock-save-factory-German-threat.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

 

Aye.

Get teachers to work through jul/aug.