What ever happened to the British car industry? MG Rover went into receivership yesterday and it probably marks the end of locally owned volume car production in the UK. It is however not surprising as the simple fact is MG Rover makes cars no one wants to buy. Yes, the 75 is as good as any equivalent model but when the Rover brand is past it’s sell by date and only retired gents who fondly remember their P5B buy your cars, you know you’re in trouble. The rest of range is a joke. The 25 is outclassed in very respect by the competition and the 45 is a prehistoric Honda design at least four or five generations older than the equivalent Civic. And what has happened to poor old MG? The ageing TF has managed to keep it’s end up but the bespoilered badge engineered Rover cars are what they are, Rovers with an MG logo glued to the outside. Which leads us back to my original remarks. So who if anyone is to blame? Well I think the problem goes all the way back to the 1970s and the days of British Leyland when we made cars with names like Marina, Allegro, Maxi and Princess. All of which, apart from the original version of the last one, were turds with a wheel at each corner, so when the Japanese began to import cars that melted like a Weetabix covered in hit milk in the rain but started when you turned the ignition key we bought those instead. In a attempt to stay in the game BL began to sell off the family silver by offing Jaguar and Land Rover to Ford and BMW didn’t help by keeping the Mini brand and flogging the rest off for a tenner. MG Rover then ended up with a handful of models no one wanted, no IP, no money, a brand stuck in the 1970s, one factory and four board members who took £40 million out of the business. And lets not forget who carries the can for all this mismanagement, yep the staff at Longbridge. Funny that! But if you want to know how low MG Rover has sank take a look at this. The plot I suggest has been well and truely lost.