Is this Top Gear's most ******* off article to date?

[mihir2002]

Have a read of this

http://www.topgear.com/content/featu...s/mg_rover/01/

What is the point of this article? It is literally only there as part of Top Gear's campaign to continually slag off MGR! I somehow think I will not be buying another one of their magazines!

[king arthur]

It's an old article, so I don't know why it's dated 16th October. Check the figures on the last page, it quotes MG-R sales this year as down 5.4%, they're in fact now up 0.15%.

[JohnSwitzer]

Once the pride of automotive television producers everywhere, today’s Top Gear is but an early morning shadow its former glory. Despite, several makeovers and flirtations with web and print editions, can Top Gear survive?

Working on the basis that the best means of defence is attack, the cheapened and tired concept continues to trot out desperate stories in an attempt to maintain the shock value for which it was once famed.

A recent makeover and a reformatted television edition suggests there may be hope for the ailing monolith, but MG-Rover.org's very own ‘car enthusiast from hell’, John Switzer is unconvinced.

‘There’s only so much you can do with a basic platform and no amount of desperate makeovers can hide its age. The Grade B listed components are increasingly showing their age. It’s worth remembering that Top Gear is almost twice as old as competitors, such as MG Rover’s venerable 45.’ says John.

The future for Top Gear is not looking good. Television and broadcasting space is increasingly valuable and the ailing show looks increasingly vulnerable. Ultimately license payers and television executives will determine the future for Top Gear, but it is undeniably anything but bright.

[mihir2002]

If this article is old, that means that top gear must have spent months digging up as much dirt as they could about MGR. That time would have been better spent by inserting a garden gnome up JCs backside.

[Dr Dave]

I think it would take more than one gnome to fill JC's a_rse!

[GarethP]

Originally posted by mihir2002
If this article is old...

It even says the SV and V8's aren't on sale yet....

[DavidP]

@ JohnS

The folks at the BBC must be kicking themselves after dropping Top Gear and then seeing the format and presenters picked up by Channel 5 for Fifth Gear.

The article this week about rear end shunts and whiplash (ooooohhherrrrr, Matron!) shows that C5 is on the ball.

I never buy TG magazine because on the odd occasions that I have looked at it in the newsagents it has contained nothing but arselicking articles on over priced German and Italian supercars - about as relevant to the average motorist as a an application form to become an astronaut.

In fact I only buy Autoexpress, and for all the slagging that magazine gets the fact that they have shed their pro-BMW bias measn that it is now a good read.

[lukeph]

I'm going to send them an e-mail suggesting that they publish balanced articles that are up-to-date and accurate ...

[Rovertron]

They must be desparate for column inches and I think that MGR's mickey take about the Streetwise and TG ruffled a few feathers.

I'm sending an e-mail in too, stupid feckers, thick as porcine do-dos.

[lukeph]

I just sent this to top.gear@bbc.co.uk:

Dear Top Gear,

With reference to your online article:

http://www.topgear.com/content/featu...s/mg_rover/01/

I would suggest that instead of recycling old articles and putting current dates on them, rendering factually inaccurate and misrepresentative impressions of MG Rover, you and your reporters rethink your irritatingly negative anti-MGR stance and provide your viewers and readers with a balanced and more supportive view of the company.

This is the UK's only car manufacturer of significance; your ugly bad press only serves to make less likely the survival of a British manufacturing icon, at a time when it is making great strides towards survival and potential profitability. It was left in the doldrums by poor parent company management, as has been the British motor industry over the decades, yet your article seems to consider BMW's parting actions as being rather more generous than they actually were.

The following facts (for example) - Rover has reduced its operating loss massively since the BMW exit; its sales in its core market and several European markets have turned the corner into positive territory; the SVs and V8s *are* on sale - suggest to me not that MG Rover is failing to recover from its desperate position, but that Top Gear wishes to kick it back down into the dirt. That is your choice, whatever your questionable motives, but it neither demonstrates good journalism nor good spirit.

I hope that in future Top Gear content improves markedly, such that it becomes worth considering as a balanced source of motoring information.

Yours sincerely,

Luke Phillips

[MG-FIDO]

Nice, let us know if you get a response!

[apm055]

last time I emailed them I got bugger all response

[Rovertron]

Here's mine.

Can't your article writers do any better than this? I read this article and it's a mish-mash of old news, rumours and some total inaccuracies. I seriously doubt any article writer from Top Gear would be granted any interviews with any MGR managers as your articles seem to follow the same consistent vein; run-down MGR.

For example, your article quotes sales are down this year, they are not, they are up, only by a small margin but certainly not 5% down. This news was available to have made a copy deadline for October. Also, at this time many other manufacturers have experienced much larger falls in sales. Secondly, so what if the CityRover is made in India? Many manufacturer make their cars in low labour cost countries, ever heard of Skoda? The article also failed to mention that Indica V2 is one of only two cars in India with a waiting list for customers. The CityRover has also received very positive reviews by other car journalists placing Top Gear in a minority of one. There is an excellent profit margin built into the car and it is very well specced for the price. Your article speaks of failed partnerships and yet TATA is one of the largest manufacturing companies in the world. Ratan Tata himself has spoken publicly on his hopes for more partnership with MGR, he is very impressed with MGR's engineers and their philosophy. If you bothered to research the Pune factory you would realise that it is very modern and state of the art; all the plant is from the former Nissan Adelaide factory so the plant is practically brand new. For example, Pune do all the paintwork for Mercedes and it holds the highest quality ratings for that work outside Germany.

Whilst the 45 and 25 are old, the MGs are more than just 're-bodied' and the ZS has had a very good year in the BTCC this year. Not bad for an 8-year old car. Many owner of the ZT190 as well rave about the excellent dynamics of the car. The ZR is the country's biggest selling hot hatch. The fact that MGR do not have a replacement medium car has more to do with BMW's taking all the work on the replacement and binning it than any mismanagement at MGR.

Also the SV has sold it's first years production, the ZT V8s have received rave reviews and dealers are reporting extensive interest and orders; they go on sale in a matter of days. Not only will it spawn the Ultimate 385Bhp model the article mentions but also a Rover Vitesse, for a price and performance that no-one can match. The 75 is still winning awards to add to the 30 it has already won. You also fail to mention the progress made with the RDX60 project, TWR did go bust and that was the delay to the ZT V8s, the project is taken in house and MGR are going alone not looking for another development partner as the article suggests. The launch date you have is also incorrect, the first variant is due end-2004 not end 2005 as your article suggests.

As for Streetwise, Top Gear's most uncoolest car, it's also sellng very well for a niche car, maybe the advert MGR published for it upset a few egos at Top Gear? I can see now how you fully deserved it. According to the Driver Power survey in another more accurate and representative magazine; MGR was the most improved manufacturer on all fronts. The 75 beating the Passat and Laguna AND made at Longbridge. MGR cars now hold a higher rating amongst customers than VW cars. Something else you failed to mention. As far as Longbridge is concerned, land is being cleared and again, your article fails to mention that Longbridge still has the production ability to manufacture 350,000 cars a year. Car plants no longer need the huge facilities to make large numbers of cars.

Yes, MGR might be small, not have much cash and their future might be in doubt but Ford are huge, sell millions of cars and have truly massive debts and they are in much more difficulties than MGR. Peugeot Ryton may make 208,000 206s a year with a smaller workforce but it is a car that hardly has an evitable reputation for reliability, when was the last time any MGR car had a recall issued?

If a member of the general public can find all this information in his spare time then why can't a full-time journalist? The article is a mess and I recognise most of it from several Top Gear articles on MGR from previous months.

Basically, it's a shabby piece of journalism. I wouldn't normally mind but on your piece of journalism rides the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people.

Regards,
Michael Thomas

Owner of a superb, faultlessly reliable, excellent to drive and proud to own, Rover 75

[Initialised]

I love how MGR is using the 'Least Cool Car' in its advertising.

[ZT999]

Top gear has always slagged of Rover cars, whats changed! I have always said that the british press will be the cause to the fall of MGR as they never write any thing decent about them just about Bevarian motors, but yet the germans perceive our cars highly. What is the problem with our journalists, they are just a bunch of ar**s.

I have always said that the british press will be the cause to the fall of MGR as they never write any thing decent about them

"I refer the honourable gentleman to the answer I gave earlier" as they say in Parliament.

Give Autoexpress their due, they give credit where credit is due. For example, they are not to keen on the 45 but rate the ZS very highly (reflecting the improvements made during it's transformation into the MG).

[lukeph]

Originally posted by MG-FIDO
Nice, let us know if you get a response!

I got an apologetic response immediately (literally) from Katy Henderson at the BBC, and she's forwarded it on to Top Gear magazine ... whether they respond or not remains to be seen.

[mustrum_ridcully]

I've heard of being cruel to be kind but this is taking the ****. Apart from a few points that were actual true it was garbage.

Please remember though the TG TV on BBC2 has little to do with TG the magazine. I don't remember TG TV ever slaggin off MGR unlike the magazine.

[Rovertron]

I've got a reply too now and they are going to put responses on a page with the article on the website.

Please write in with your disgust, even if it is a couple of sentences.

To say this TG article is la-la land journalism is an insult to the inhabitants of la-la land.