Parking Cube

Reading this article on the new high-tech car park at the futuristic (Borg - sorry it had to be said) Cube complex in central Birmingham reminded me of the car park in the original Bullring that heralded the future. As the following article quotes the idea was simple:

Motorists left their car with a uniformed member of staff who would then drive it into a huge lift serving each of the four floors. It stopped at a level with spaces and the car would be driven out onto a trolley, then pushed to the nearest available space where it would be placed.

Unfortunately the idea was too labour intensive and was abandoned after three days, leaving the car park empty until it was demolished to make way for the new Bullring. Hopefully the Cube's version, said to be the largest car park stacking system in the UK, will be more successful.

Jasbir Authi drew a similar comparison in the Birmingham Mail yesterday.

Fast Cars & Women

The title of this post is what supposedly every red-blooded male lusts after. So how does Birmingham measure up in these two departments?

According to the news, not too well in the female department. A model from Stoke-on-Trent was chosen to represent Brum because beauty contest officials claim there was no-one gorgeous enough to represent us from the City itself. Surely nonsense. I think it is well known that Brummie women are amongst the best in Britain for their looks. Come on girls; if anyone thinks they could represent Brum why don't you send some photos to me and I will, ahem, promote you on my website. Can't fault a guy for trying, eh?

Not doing as badly in the fast cars stakes however. MG restarted production today under its new owner Nanjing Automotive. It is great to see car production restarted at Longbridge again. Wouldn't it be great if 10 years from now Longbridge was famed for its efficient production of competitive cars rather than the redundancies and union versus management battles that have plagued the factory for the last 30 years.

Saucy? Not in Brum

This is the 100th post on the blog and unfortunately yet again it is bad news. Heinz are planning to close the historic HP sauce factory in Aston, moving production to mainland Europe. It comes after Peugeot announcement last month of the closure of the Ryton plant that currently produces the outgoing 206, and a year after the infamous Rover closure that nearly took the Labour government with it.

When added to the many NHS Trusts in the area who have announced job cuts (including Sandwell and West Birmingham and the Women's Hospital) it appears Birmingham will have to reinvent itself again.

Jo Goes

It won't have escaped many people's notice that there are two women representing the West Midlands in the Apprentice. While Ruth may have the skills to go all the way, Jo, after surviving four boardrooms, finally went yesterday. Despite working for MG Rover she failed to sell a car. You just knew that was going to happen, just as you knew she was going to get the snide remark from Alan Sugar.

"She didn't sell a car... she worked for MG Rover, training directors how to make a profit. No wonder they went skint"

Oh dear.

What's Chinese for Deja-vu

According to recent reports, floundering Midlands-based firm Marconi are considering a tie-up with a Chinese firm.

Where have we heard that before...

It's all Rover at Longbridge

More details emerge concerning the takeover of the remaining assets of MG Rover by the chinese firm Nanjing. It appear the Rover brand will no longer roll off the production lines in the Midlands, and it is increasingly likely that no more cars will roll of the production line at the Longbridge plant.

Not exactly the best way to celebrate 100 years of Longbridge, but thanks for all the memories.

The Nanjing bid was the least preferred bid for the People's Republic. Shanghai Automotive, despite their role in Rover's downfall, appear to have the intellectual rights to the 25 and the 75 giving it greater scope to restart production at Longbridge. The third bid would have kept the company in British hands, and appeared to have some great ideas to develop the MG brand. It seems however that in the end Nanjing bid the most and so got the prize. We wish them well, and hope they will maintain a decent manufacturing presence in the West Midlands.

Above all, we hope thay can give us some cars to be proud about.