''Interesting article in Financial Times today about who makes most money out of making cars and the answer seems to be the component suppliers''
Now that's a laugh, JLR screw us every year on price and they do not allow us to make more than 6% profit on what we sell to them hence a lot of the components we buy have to come from eastern Europe.

Interesting comment, given that most of the volume car makers are running at a loss then 6% isn't bad! That's why GM sold their european operations recently to PSA and Ford have been making a loss for ages. Are you talking 6% profit for the business as a whole or 6% gross margin on individual components?
As ever there is probably more financial engineering in a car then mechanical engineering. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

The plant I work for (part of a multi-national company) has been in operation since 1988 and apart from a couple of years when MG Rover closed we have turned in a profit but the parent company as a whole was losing large amounts of money.

Taking up an earlier point, another reason for the low quoted residual value is to stop the leaser (is that a word?) walking away at the end of the deal. My FL1 was my only lease car, and at the end of three years the actual value was less than the amount they wanted for me to buy it. So I walked away, and they stuck the car in a field for a couple of years because they didn't know what to do with it (I know this, because they didn't do the paperwork and the car was still registered in my name). It meant that I didn't have a mighty sum as a deposit, but I also didn't have the hassle of selling it or trading it in, and that was fine as I bought a ten year old Disco from a mate. Ex AA Series III LWB Safari - Gone
300TDi Disco (bought new - terrible car) sent back after 18 months
Freelander 1 Estate - leased, given back at end of lease
200TDi Disco (bought from a mate with 100,000 on the clock) - Gone
Disco 2 TD5 - sold and exported to France
FR2 TD4 GS - Gone
FR2 SD4 HSE - Now changed for a DS
New model ex-demo Evoque S 180 in white
Unable to order a new DS, so gave up. Now have a Volvo S90 Recharge.

Young people are definitely becoming motoring "Savvy"
My 22 year old Nephew turned up at my house in a 67 Rover p6. Wheres your Mazda sports I asked .
He replied, "Well uncle Stan its like this my lease was ending on the MX5 and the renewal costs were just silly , so
I bought this for £3 grand with a full MOT , free road tax and classic insurance of £120. Theres a local back street garage who looks after it for me . As I only do about 5k miles a year it was a no-brainer.
Personally, I couldnt fault his way of thinking. He told me that two of his mates are doing the same with a Morris Minor and a MG Midget. He can now use his "hard earned" for holidays and other things that we old gits take for granted.
He is a electronics guy in the RAF and has no plans to "Settle down with a mortgage and children".
How life "Including Motoring" has changed...

Might be best to warn him that old Rovers are very attractive to thieves. Some good security and even a tracker recommended. Ex AA Series III LWB Safari - Gone
300TDi Disco (bought new - terrible car) sent back after 18 months
Freelander 1 Estate - leased, given back at end of lease
200TDi Disco (bought from a mate with 100,000 on the clock) - Gone
Disco 2 TD5 - sold and exported to France
FR2 TD4 GS - Gone
FR2 SD4 HSE - Now changed for a DS
New model ex-demo Evoque S 180 in white
Unable to order a new DS, so gave up. Now have a Volvo S90 Recharge.

Forget trackers, there is extensive discussion on this forum about them. One of my sons recently bought a Porsche 911 for about £70k from a Porsche dealer. Although it had a tracker fitted as standard the salesman advised him not to waste his money getting it activated. Apparently very few people bother with them these days as the police are too stretched to go looking for a stolen vehicle and they are often stolen to order and go straight into a shipping container anyway. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

& a closed steel shipping container will prevent any signal getting out! Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

Exactly, a Faraday Cage 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

Not sure of the export market for old Rovers - possibly there's demand in Japan, but most will be stolen for parts, or to substitute for rusty old MoT failures. I don't think this is the same market as the high-end export-in-containers-to-the-far-east trade, or even the old Defenders-to-Irish-farmers trade. Fact remains, they are easy to steal, so precautions are a good idea. Ex AA Series III LWB Safari - Gone
300TDi Disco (bought new - terrible car) sent back after 18 months
Freelander 1 Estate - leased, given back at end of lease
200TDi Disco (bought from a mate with 100,000 on the clock) - Gone
Disco 2 TD5 - sold and exported to France
FR2 TD4 GS - Gone
FR2 SD4 HSE - Now changed for a DS
New model ex-demo Evoque S 180 in white
Unable to order a new DS, so gave up. Now have a Volvo S90 Recharge.

Automotive Council Report as of June 2017

Tuesday 20 June, 2017 Cars manufactured in Britain are becoming more British, according to a new
Automotive Council study released today. The report, Growing the Automotive Supply Chain – Local Vehicle
Content Analysis, shows that 44% of all components used by UK car makers now come from domestic
suppliers, compared with 41% in 2015 when the study was last carried out.1
The figures are a significant move in the right direction as efforts to re-shore the automotive supply chain
continue. In 2011 local vehicle content stood at just 36%, which itself was an improvement following years of
decline in UK automotive manufacturing.
British car manufacturing hit a 17-year high in 2016 with more than 1.7 million vehicles made and, since
2009 when the Automotive Council was formed, production has risen more than 72%.2
Another measure of
success is the amount of locally sourced parts and components used in vehicle manufacturing, because
much of the sector’s value added is created at the start of the production process.
In pure financial terms, with regard to output of the UK automotive parts sector, turnover has increased from
£9 billion at the start of 2011 to £12.7 billion today – a 41% uplift.
Exhausts, large pressings, small pressings and plastics have all enjoyed growth, though opportunities to
increase production capacity in these commodities, and others, remain. When combined with the increase in
the proportion of parts sourced locally, it means domestic suppliers have increased their output by 60% since
2011.
Increasing the British supply base in this way offers benefits to the UK's vehicle manufacturers. Operating on
a ‘just in time’ delivery basis, sourcing from UK suppliers reduces time and cost of supply chains, reducing
the risk of delays which can halt production. Growing local content – and thus the domestic supply chain –
also helps increase the attractiveness of the UK as an inward investment destination as a healthy supply
chain is a pre-requisite of vehicle production location decisions. Furthermore, if the industry is to take
advantage of beneficial trading terms included in free trade deals, originating content must meet minimum
rules of origin thresholds else reduced tariffs may not apply.

But still big problems ahead. See https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/...toms-union

Honda UK said it relied on 350 trucks a day arriving from Europe to keep its giant Swindon factory operating, with just an hour’s worth of parts being held on the production line Ex AA Series III LWB Safari - Gone
300TDi Disco (bought new - terrible car) sent back after 18 months
Freelander 1 Estate - leased, given back at end of lease
200TDi Disco (bought from a mate with 100,000 on the clock) - Gone
Disco 2 TD5 - sold and exported to France
FR2 TD4 GS - Gone
FR2 SD4 HSE - Now changed for a DS
New model ex-demo Evoque S 180 in white
Unable to order a new DS, so gave up. Now have a Volvo S90 Recharge.

The Guardian is a known remainer newspaper so I don't take any notice of what they have to say. The motor industry is the best place to get real facts from.

A strong UK supply base is fundamental to the future success of the wider automotive industry. The UK is home to over 30 automotive manufacturers, producing cars, vans, trucks, buses and engines – who want to take advantage of increased local sourcing.
18 of the world’s top 20 automotive suppliers operate in the UK and SMMT is committed to driving growth in the supply chain.

UK sourced components has increased and manufacturers will need to continue to use these as a source in order to keep their costs competative, they could of course close their factories and move production abroad but then risk the loss of sales in the UK, something I don't think any of them want to do, especially the German manufacturers who import heavily in to the UK

No point in getting into an argument over this, but I'll just point out that while there is inevitably a Grauniad slant, the article is actually quoting Honda, and they are indeed part of the industry. Ex AA Series III LWB Safari - Gone
300TDi Disco (bought new - terrible car) sent back after 18 months
Freelander 1 Estate - leased, given back at end of lease
200TDi Disco (bought from a mate with 100,000 on the clock) - Gone
Disco 2 TD5 - sold and exported to France
FR2 TD4 GS - Gone
FR2 SD4 HSE - Now changed for a DS
New model ex-demo Evoque S 180 in white
Unable to order a new DS, so gave up. Now have a Volvo S90 Recharge.

No arguement intended

Quoted sources also tend to be dependant on who they choose to quote (regardless of media source) 2 weeks ago a prominent investment banker told a group of people at a meeting that his company would be moving their financial dealings to Frankfurt due to Brexit, this was reported as a quote in the media, only for the chairman of the company to respond the next day that they were not looking to do this at all and were in fact happy to continue to trade from the UK.

The problem with a lot of these quotes is that you could read 4 newspapers and get 4 sides of the story, we seem to be fed whatever one persons personal view is at the time of publication, in reality we have no idea what is going on and I doubt we will know anything for sure until many years down the line