I notice from today's Telegraph (Business section) that MG Rover are currently the only bidders for an old Daewoo/FSO car mfg plant in Poland.
Perhaps their next move is to release a badge engineered version of the Polonez...
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According to other reports, VW are interested in this plant too.
It has actually been modernised by Daewoo and includes a pressing plant, which MG Rover could do with as they currently have to buy panels from BMW's Swindon plant.
The plan is to continue production of two Daewoo models for the East European market, under licence from GM Daewoo, and then move the 25/45 production line over there when the new 45 replacement is ready. But the way things are dragging on, they won't even have bought the plant by then....
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Trivia point - I was amazed to learn that BMW's excellent Swindon pressings plant makes body panels for Rolls Royce, in addition to Honda and MG Rover. The last Rolls Royce brochure I looked through (courtesy of an Uncle who ultimately purchased a turbocharged Bentley) showed pictures of craftsmen lovingly beating metal by hand. A far cry from high tech Swindon Pressings!
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Trivia point - I was amazed to learn that BMW's excellent Swindon pressings plant makes body panels for Rolls Royce, in addition to Honda and MG Rover. The last Rolls Royce brochure I looked through (courtesy of an Uncle who ultimately purchased a turbocharged Bentley) showed pictures of craftsmen lovingly beating metal by hand. A far cry from high tech Swindon Pressings!
I would love to know the difference between a man made and (modern) pressed item. If the car is made to the same spec each time then every panel should be the same, so It shouldn't be a problem.
I could understand this not being the case 50 years ago, but nowadays if its made correctly (and designed correctly) then all the panels should fit exactly without the need for a panel beater to massage any gaps.
I understand that Aston Martin still have panel beaters.
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puntoo is right, a well made, fully tooled body panel should be the right size every time, but because such a tool is so expensive, low volume manufacturers cannot always afford to do it. Hence a lower quality tool is used and the parts are reworked before putting on the car.
The cost of these huge pressings is why floorpan sharing is so common, and why Aston Martin chose the 1975 Jaguar XJ-S floorpan for their DB7.
Gareth
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