Another one bites the dust

Will probably get buried in amongst the D-Day stuff but another nail in what is left of the UK motor industry. :rage:

Just Project Fear, not related to Brexit whatsoever just like all of the other recent closures. Project Fear all the way,

Will of the People, Sovereignty, Political Elite, etc. No please don’t blame Brexit, no please don’t as that would be undemocratic, Will of the People etc…

Just make your own mind up - seems a big coincidence for this to be anything other than Brexit related.

(I can only assume that these big businesses do not wish to blame Brexit for the closures as to do so may alienate potential customers).

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Nothing to do with Brexit, no one wants the engines Ford produces at Bridgend so what are they supposed to do?

Make something else?

I’m sure Ford want to be part of the motor industry when the infernal combustion engine has been consigned to the annals of history - so it’s got to do something  with it’s ICE manufacturing capacity - but factor in Brexit and it can’t be a***d to continue investment in the UK.

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Ford are also closing plants in France and Germany at the same time as part of a worldwide restructuring of it’s business.

I’m not necessarily disputing this - but to say that a major manufacturer pulling out of the UK at the present time us nothing to do with Brexit is naïve.

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Hopefully people can be re employed by companies building what we need new electric vehicles. Ford have been too slow to adopt new tech for a modern world. Maybe offer a deal to the Koreans to build Kia and Hyundai models

No Paul, it’s the truth. Why are Ford closing the plant in Bordeaux?

Wrong question - the right question is why are they increasing capacity in Romania.

Cheap labour thats why.

Actually, strike that - it’s quite a reasonable question.

However it is clear that Ford don’t want to pull out of Europe completely and they are, as has been observed, restructuring - but they are not reducing capacity at all sites since I believe they have increased in Romania - still in the EU but still depressed labour costs no doubt.

But you can imagine the conversation can’t you?

Ford Exec 1: OK, so EU plants review; Bridgend is next I believe
Ford Exec 2: <spews coffee out in barely suppressed guffaw> Dear me no, even without the other problems there’s Brexit
Ford Exec 1: Right, close Bridgend it is, now what about Bordeaux?

Probably , you beat me to that comment (see my last post).

Wrong way round, the Bordeaux closure was announced last year.

Oh, FFS allow a bit of artistic license :slight_smile:

Just believe!

Where’s Bridgenorth?:grinning:

D’oh - Shropshire, and for some reason it forced its way into my subconscious and overrode the correct location when I made that post - corrected.

I live very near the Bridgend plant. This closure has been on the cards for a while. They make engines for Jaguar Landrover as well as engines for Ford. The JLR contract is coming to an end and also Ford say they can make the Dragon Engine elsewhere and cheaper in other countries where the labour costs are less. Ford stopped making Transit vans in Southampton and moved the site to Turkey. JLR now has sites in Eastern Europe because its a cheaper labour force, even Hoovers moved out to Turkey from Merthyr Tydfil for the same reason. There is a thought that the EU has funded opening factories in the poorer south and east of the block. These days it’s a gobal world and the bottom line counts.

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