It woiuld be interesting to hear the real story behind Unipart's problems. There was a time when it was the only commercially successful part of BL and its demise is certainly not going to be down to the recession alone - if at all.

Not just employees suffering. Landlords of many sites are now having to find rates payments when previously the tenants paid it. It reduces income and profit so the country receives less tax income.

Suppliers will also need to find new outlets or they will wither away, with more job losses. The recession is not over yet, whatever George Osborne says.

When I owned BMC/British Leyland cars I probably kept Unipart and Quinton Hazell going with many small DIY fitted parts among them. Most bolt on parts were replaced on two Minis, a Maxi and a Marina over an interesting 12 year period.

Since I went over to the VW group in around 1987, parts required for repairs are few and far between. No wheel bearings, suspension parts, fuel tanks, water pumps, piston rings, valves, exhausts etc etc even running a Passat up to 140,000 miles.

Try telling that to the tens of thousands of VW 2.0L TDI owners with wrecked engines after water pump failure caused the cambelt to break or slip - or the thousands of longitudinally mounted 2.0L TDI VAG engines where the oil pump drive has failed wrecking the engine. The many thousands of three cylinder VAG engines that have gone bang (con rods etc.)

Whilst I would trust late 80s early 90s VAG cars to be well-engineered and dependable – they are now living on reputation alone with too many examples of poor design and engineering to mention of late.

My last Jag XJ8 still had it's original wheel bearings, fuel tank, water pump, piston rings, valves etc at the time I sold it on 170K miles - one of the most reliable cars I have ever owned - as was the XJR it replaced. It did receive two new front wishbones at 150K. But then being an avid Mk1 Golf hillclimber I got used to replacing wishbones as consumables as they bent rather easily on hard-driven cars.

Apart from trunnions (which were okay anyway if kept greased), what on earth was there to go wrong on a Marina ?!?