Content Wrapper

[Simon Syddall]

This is very bad news, first and foremost for those who have lost their jobs. I ahve been there and done that and, unless you have, you cannot begin to imagine just what that is like.

As for the minority, who did damage, one hopes their details are already on circulation and they will not get jobs in the UK, before they retire.

One cannot take issue with the principle of making sure the business survives. However, zero hour temporary contracts and agency workers is one way around the proper consultation process for finishing so many.

When I toured the Hamms Hall engine plant, in 2004, they made much of the "family" there, loyalty etc breeding quality. If BMW/MINI have gone down an agency route, to cut cost, on premium price products, that is shabby and reprehensible and little wonder things like seat belt and air bag warning lights go off and all the other quality issues appearing on this site, are now the rule rather than exception. Loyalty is a two-way street.

As to the current economic problems, they are fair and square down to greedy high management in banking, with a feckless, intellectually barren government, asleep on the job.

The problem is now, nobody will lend and with the proliferation of the tick box skirt dogs to the banks - Experian, Equifax et al, nobody can actually get credit, to buy a new car if they wanted to. So, it goes around the loop.

Lack of demand panics the manufacturers into discounting, just to shift stock. That hits residuals - fortunately apparently still strong on MINI, which puts people into negative equity. They hand back the keys, rather than refinance the baloon, don't have the deposit to go into the next one and can't get the finance on the next one. It goes on. "Clever"(allegedly) people say don't buy a car on credit - IMO, putting net income into a wasting asset is crazy.

My own view is that a realistic PCP type deal keeps everyone protected and more need to be sold.

We'll see, next time I visit my dealer...................