New Zealand's domestic car industry (where they simply connected the imported bits together) died in the late 80s when tariffs were removed and we've been better off for it.
Billions are being invested in replacing that stuff today, and every one of those projects cuts staffing needs 90%.
The plumbers will be there laughing at office wankers who thought they had a sweet gig.
Supposedly, the problem Rover hit was though their last-developed large car (Rover 75) was very good and reasonably popular, since they'd been pulled away from working with Honda by the sale to BMW, they had neither a modern middle-sized car nor a replacement for the Metro. Put that together with being passed from hand-to-hand (from BAe to BMW was 6 years, BMW to Phoenix another 6, and Phoenix lasted another 5) in an industry struggling from overproduction, and it was always problematic.
Whenever Citroen, GM, etc have gone bust, their respective governments have always stepped in. Competing in a loss-making industry against government-backed competitors is one tough game.
In 1999 (or thereabouts) I was sick of being run off the road on my motorbike and decided to buy a car. Being an IT contractor with silly Y2K rates going on, I had plenty of disposable cash.
First dealer was Toyota, Bill Allen's of Cheltenham. The salesman looked at me, decided I didn't have money then completely ignored me. Nice.
Second was an MG garage whos name escapes me. Literally every car was was wrong - either the doors didn't fit, or there was a clunk when they closed, or in one case they didn't bother fitting the rear brake light (internal) correctly and it fell off during the test drive.
I have never seen such a rubbish car in my life, literally each one I saw looked like it had been built on a Friday afternoon. No wonder they went bust.
Another anecdote: My boss at the time was awesome and from Birmingham, right next to the Rover/MG plant. He asked me to do a speech for his wedding anniversary, so I went along to a social club next door to the factory. I noticed there were hardly any of their own cars in the employee car park, it was all Ford, Mazda, etc. This tells its own tale, at a time where 'Buy British and save Rover' was trumpeted everywhere.