MG Rover: Bosses were in a 'muddle'

SPECIAL REPORT: Rover: The full story

Stevens said he found the gulf in culture between Ford, a former employer, and Rover a shock: 'My experience of very large companies came originally from when I worked for Ford, which is a very sharp professional company. When I had a chance to come to Rover and operate at board level I did think that I was going to learn an awful lot and meet startlingly experienced people.

'And I thought, 'Well, this is the same old muddle you'd probably get in your corner hardware shop.'

He said there were 'little groups of extraordinary, dedicated people busying away making stuff happen...despite the inertia, the dreadful inertia of the fundamental culture.'

Speaking to the Tonight Programme with Trevor Macdonald on ITV1, Stevens said he believed senior management were naive in the way they conducted negotiations with Chinese motor industry giants Shanghai Automotive in the failed attempt to cut a deal that could have saved the company. There was never more than a 50% chance of striking the deal, he said, adding:

'I'm not sure that it was ever going to work in the way that people would have liked to think. They weren't going to take on the factory here, continue production just as it was and send cheap seat frames from China or something to cut the cost.'

The Chinese had certainly wanted to build Rover 75s in China, he said. 'I just don't think they had the money. I don't think the Shanghai Auto Corporation that had a 50% drop in sales last year actually had the money itself to do the deal.'

Why Rover Crashed: Tonight with Trevor McDonald, is a two-part programme to be shown on ITV1 at 8pm tonight (Mon) and Friday.