Triumphrat

Old Scratcher

Not satisfied with plundering the finest of British motorcar marques, India's Tata are now rumoured to be negotiating a buy out of MV Agusta, which is in such dire financial straits, they had to stop manufacturing bikes last week.
Aparently Tata's cashed up, making more than $30bil USD profit last year, selling those POS that they make.
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/04/28/r...-in-mv-agusta/

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"They told me I was goin to have to work for my living, & all I wanna do is ride. I don't care where we're goin from here. So Honey you decide" Jackson Browne (the Road & The Sky)

Catenaccio

MV is like every other Italian brand name, eventually it will fail unless somebody throws tons of money at it. I'm not being cynical here. Alfa Romeo, Lamborghini, and Lancia had to be sucked up to survive. If survival is the key, then more power to Tata!

wenzel850

If Tata buys MV then the character and soul will be lost. I'd rather see them out of business that to be bought out by people who have no soul.....

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Quentin

denman13

Why do you feel that Tata has no soul? If it's just a buy-out that doesn't result in changes to the manufacturing or engineering of the bikes, who cares where the money comes from? If they're going to make drastic changes to the quality of the bike, then there is cause for concern. But if it's only a financing deal, well big deal.

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Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes.
Never miss a good opportunity to shut up. - Will Rogers

Old Scratcher

That's what they plan to do with Jaguar & land Rover, so there's no reason to believe that they'll do any different with MV. They'd be crazy if they didn't, as they'd know bugger all about making Italian Superbikes, & they'd need all the expertise they can get.
The real interesting hook up, is that Jaguar, Land Rover & MV will all be under the same corporate umberella, with R&D, & manufacturing facilities all within the same EU ecconomic zone. So there could be some cross-fertilisation of ideas & technologies. That's what I'm hoping their Indian overlords will decree.

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"They told me I was goin to have to work for my living, & all I wanna do is ride. I don't care where we're goin from here. So Honey you decide" Jackson Browne (the Road & The Sky)

wenzel850

I have had too much contact with Indian industry and don't have any use for it.

Have you ever heard of any famous Indian car/motorcycle ?

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Quentin

2bugeyez

Um.....Indian

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denman13

Well that could be a good sign. If they buy out a manufacturer w/o changing it into an "Indian" product that could mean that they are Indian in money only and are staying out of the engineering and production process. What the Indians may have is a bigger set of distribution channels and cheaper ways of getting products into foreign markets. It doesn't necessarily have to be the demise of MV. We'll just have to wait and see. :

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Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes.
Never miss a good opportunity to shut up. - Will Rogers

Diego

In the case of Jaguar-Land Rover, the alternative was apparently Mahindra, and we know what happened the last time the British car industry was in the hands of a tractor maker.

From what I read in The Economist, JLR's business plan was apparently quite satisfactory and Tata intends to let them follow through on it unmolested. Rover had already turned the corner on profitability (more profitable than the rest of Ford combined, IIRC) and can sustain R&D on Jaguar's much needed new models.

I doubt MV is in such an enviable position, though, and I have to wonder how much oversight and direction it might receive from the parent company.

It's a very different animal from Triumph, which I am glad Mr Bloor shows no signs of selling... although, if worse came to worst, we could at least take some consolation in knowing that Mr Tata's first name is RATan.

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John

CaliforniaKevo

I'll be stoked to see Jaguars that arent just rebadged Ford Contours.