Read in yesterdays FT that Tata are interested in a strategic stak of Rover. Would be good for both.
1: Potential long term volume for Rover in India and Asia, access to Euro market for Tata
2: Access to low cost components
3: Shared/reduced costs for new model development
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I don't think Indian cars have a reputation for good build quality though the one marketed by Rover is said to be better. Still, it does seem expensive compared with the competition. About £6.5K I think.
Incidentally Tata are a huge company and are making big inroads into the world IT and call centre markets. The UK IT company I am currently working with is outsourcing more and more work to them as they get the job done and charge peanuts. This is despite large numbers of unemployed software engineers in the UK.
It really is worrying when a country with cheap labour can take over work requiring highly educated workers. In the past it was manufacturing and textiles.
Oops. Better get off my soap box ...
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As India is one of the cheapest steel producers would this mean that Rover bodies are made in India and shipped to UK for completion?
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I suppose in time we will all be buying direct from main-dealers abroad. If only we could get export car servicing and get that done at cheap laboour rates of the third world !! Soon the only jobs left in the UK will be service industry that cannot be exported; including car maintenance, fire/police/ambulance/NHS, local authority jobs (stret cleaning, rubbish collection, etc.), and the civil service.
Just as other manufacturers are now building their cars abroad, Rover could end up doing the same for the majority of its production using TATA factories.
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It really is worrying when a country with cheap labour can take over work requiring highly educated workers. In the past it was manufacturing and textiles.
Doesn't India have a space program? And nuclear capability? Hardly a third-world nation, if you ask me ...
cheap labour doesn't neccesarily mean unskilled labour.
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Ian. I did not say that India was third world. All I said was that labour was cheap. I am aware that India has a very good education system turning out highly skilled people. That is what worries me. The Indian contract engineers I work with are at least on a par with UK staff but cost half as much.
As an aside I believe Microsoft has a huge software development campus in India.
All good car related stuff ...
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A tie up with MGR is more than probable now Tata is no more, within UK market.
Motor Vehicle Industries have completely stopped imports, here.
They only sold 1029 Loadbeta's in last 3 years.
Mark
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A mate of mine bought one of the 1029 Loadbetas and it is no surprise they never sold in great numbers.
Fair enough it was only sold as a cheap pickup for builders and farmers etc but the build quality was very poor and it was covered in rust within a short time.
Let's hope the build quality of Rover does not suffer as a consequence and it does for Tata what VAG did for Skoda and Seat.
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Most new generation Indian cars are quite well built. Some rubber parts may look crude on some. Tata's loadabta range is primitive and not many people buy them. The Indica is something else though and they have revamped it. The head of the car division used to work for GM and Saab.
"It really is worrying when a country with cheap labour can take over work requiring highly educated workers. In the past it was manufacturing and textiles." Simple, it is market economics, if you get better value, go for it, mind you India competes now in terms of quality also. Remember jobs were taken away from Indians when the British banned cloth manufacturing when they ruled India, I could go on but this is not the forum for this.
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It is interesting to read
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2839047.stm
where India's low wage economy problem is discussed - India faces a threat from lower cost countries such as Vietnam. See quote below:
Indian firms .... were themselves increasingly looking at shifting work abroad where they could "bring the advantages of cost and quality", Mr Paul added <<
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