The Name
There's still some debate over which part of the complicated MG Rover/Phoenix Venture Holdings company actually controls the rights to the MG name. But assuming these can be resolved by the administrator, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, there's no reason why the brand cannot be quickly passed on to another manufacturer. Many would cherish it, especially for the cachet it still seems capable of commanding in the US, 25 years after the last MG was sold there.

The obvious names have already been suggested - Ford, Lotus, various obscure far eastern manufacturers and even, improbably, BMW. But interest might come from a less likely source, the Peugeot group. The French company is one of the few auto makers with the spare cash necessary to make a go of MG - and its under-utilised Ryton plant in Coventry has plenty of spare capacity.

Another possibility is that Alchemy Partners - the company that came close to buying MG Rover from BMW before Phoenix muscled in - buys the MG brand from the receivers and resurrects its original idea of turning the company into a niche sports car maker. As we closed for press, Alchemy's Jon Moulton was in close discussions and had brought in ex-CEO of Lotus, Terry Playle, to look at producing 20,000 new MG sports cars by 2007 using Lotus's new Versatile Vehicle Architecture technology that debuted at Geneva this year. Watch this space.

Meanwhile, the Rover name seems likely to die completely. The rights to it still reside with BMW, which has suggested it will sell to Ford to protect Land Rover from similar-sounding rivals.

The Cars
The most valuable automotive asset left on the table is the MG TF. Even as the company slipped towards administration it was still Britain's best-selling roadster, with over 2000 registered since the start of the year and little drop in sales since 2004. By itself it's profitable, and there are plans somewhere in Longbridge for a coupe version (mostly-engineered) that MG was intending to bring to market later in the year. As the TF's production line is separate from those of the 25/45 and 75 at Longbridge, it could even be extracted relatively easily - although the big stumbling block is that it would need to end up at a factory with a paint shop.

The TF could also possibly be passed through American Federal testing - as Lotus has managed with the Elise - which would open up a vast new market for a company prepared to gamble the ΂£30m or so that compliance testing costs; this would also set the car up for other global markets. The MG ZR, ZS and ZT will likely sink without trace.

Finally, the MG SV might prove to be a surprisingly attractive asset. Under the command of MG Sport & Racing, sales of the over-priced SV were disastrous, (we understand that just 27 had been built and a mere handful delivered to customers when the company folded). But as it is effectively a fully-developed sports car, with all production except final trim taking place well away from Longbridge in Italy, it could appeal to another car maker wanting to put its badge onto a vanity supercar; the administrators are letting the company continue to assemble SVs, as the aim is to sell it as a going concern.