In case you're unlikely to look back...

I added the pictures to my earlier post, just took ages. The gallery has more pictures in it too, I didn't want to go too nuts with how many I put on the post.



http://edwards.livejournal.com/786566.html#cutid1

Walk with me

and I'll lend you my coat.

The other day, one of my friends & I got into a discussion about people's social chameleon behaviour; the way new people change your moods, tastes, even your outlook on life. It is by no means a criticism of that pattern to identify it, but it is definitely interesting to watch.

It's particularly interesting to watch it in oneself and to be aware of it.

It's almost as if relationships - not relationships, but the interplay between people - are like fashions. You have to try on what they're wearing, you have to taste what they're eating. Some of it may be new exposure, new ideas seeping through and testing where they fit. Some of it may be like one of those 2D masks, amusing to see but ultimately worrying, inappropriate. Imagine if I tried to fit in with ravers.

What's really interesting, though, is when someone hands you their coat, and it's not just a perfect fit; it's the coat you had before, but brought up to date. To the outside world it looks like you've got their coat and are wearing it, but there's this happiness inside at recognising something that was always there.

So, walk with me. I'll lend you my coat.

*sigh*

The net curtains won't be twitching for much longer around Washwood Heath, by the sounds of it. Malaysian firm Weststar has pulled out of the deal with LDV - no doubt the Government and Union demands that manufacturing remained in the UK couldn't be met, as Weststar was the CKD manufacturer of the LDV Maxus and the most logical progression with the firm would be to wait until it simply couldn't be sold as a going concern - see "MG Rover" - before purchasing the production line and IP for peanuts, crucially losing the UK employment liability and shipping the lot out to Malaysia.

Without more research into Weststar, I don't know how crucial to their survival the CKD deal with LDV was. I doubt significantly if they were able to get the backing to make even a viable attempt at saving LDV.

Why is this important? Well, in terms of British manufacturing, LDV is the last "British" (owned by Gaz, of course, in Russia) manufacturer. Vauxhall's Vivaro is a rebranded Renault. The Transit is actually German. LDV did acquire the IP for the Maxus from Daewoo, but even so, it wasn't a significantly "corrupted" brand and manufacturing exercise.

Vans also remain profitable throughout recession. LDV hasn't marketed the Maxus well and should have been better placed going into the "downturn".

*shrugs* GM Europe is about to be acquired by a component supplier. SAAB is looking like it might become part of a bespoke supercar manufacturer. Porsche, despite being technically in debt, owns a massive stake in VW - sufficient, if it were not for specific laws controlling the state of Lower Saxony's controlling interest in VW, to be called VW's owners. The whole industry was already on its head; now it's not even certain which limbs are performing which function.

Magna could do a lot worse than buy LDV at this stage. The Maxus, being a Daewoo design originally, should be very close to GM's "culture" of design and it would give Vauxhall/Opel a wholly owned commercial brand again. Bedford Mk II?

Oh well. We didn't need a motor industry anyway.