By Adam Harcourt-Webster BBC Money Programme

Chairman John Towers and other executives have been under fire

Have the directors of MG Rover, Britain's last major car manufacturer, made themselves rich at the expense of Rover cars?

On the eve of the Birmingham Motorshow the Money Programme investigates the charges levelled at the four men - known as the Phoenix consortium - who bought MG Rover from BMW four years ago for just �10.

The row over how much MG Rover's directors have paid themselves kicked off earlier this year, when the Guardian newspaper published a two page article detailing a series of allegations against the men who run the Phoenix consortium that saved Rover.

Chairman John Towers, and the other directors, stood accused of having awarded themselves large salaries and a �13m pension fund - way in excess of what was appropriate for a struggling company, and in stark contrast to the fortunes of a workforce whose own pension fund was found to be over �70m in the red.

I wouldn't like to be in their shoes, thinking about a strategy for the next 10 years Quentin Willson

Furthermore, the directors were accused of having restructured the company to the detriment of the loss-making core business - car manufacturing - by separating it from those parts of the company that made money, like the Powertrain engine plant and the X-Part spares business.

The charge was that if the car business failed, then the directors could simply walk away.

"It's almost like a soap opera," says Birmingham MP Richard Burden of the recent twists and turns in the Rover story. "You wonder whether it should be in the business pages or an episode of Eastenders."

'Huge personal risks'

In 2000 Richard Burden helped Phoenix buy Rover, but he now tells the Money Programme that the directors' decisions, to set up the �13m pension fund for themselves and take large salaries, fly in the face of falling car sales and the failure to evolve a future strategy for the company.

Last month two of the directors faced a public grilling, from MPs on the Trade and Industry Select Committee, on how they have operated.

This week the Money Programme has put one of those directors, Peter Beale, on the spot and asked him to answer the critics and explain the company's performance.

Rover has produced a limited-edition car, the MG X-Power SV

He says he fails to understand the criticism because the directors took huge personal risks when they bought Rover and says "if we had not restructured the business, it would have lasted six months".

Getting people to buy the cars is the key issue for MG Rover, and the row and press obsession with what the directors have been up to has tended to obscure this fundamental problem.

Industry experts acknowledge the company has done very well simply to survive at all; losses have been dramatically reduced from about �800m a year at the time of the takeover to about �95m now.

But they sell about 150,000 cars a year, and still can't reach the magic figure of 180,000 cars - which would allow them to break even and move on from living off the �427m dowry BMW left the company when it sold up.

'Absolutely crucial'

"Rover's problem is that their buyers are dying off," says motoring journalist Quentin Willson. The problem is that Rover cars still have a very traditional old-fashioned image. To survive MG Rover have to attract a whole new type of younger, more aspirational, buyer.

Up until now the company has relied on reworking a tired model range and clever exploitation of the more sporting MG badge, pinning it onto up-rated versions of its existing range. It has even produced an impressive all-new limited-edition car, the MG X-Power SV, to rival Porsche and Maserati.

Rover has exploited the MG badge

It's now vital that the company produce a new mid-range car with mass market appeal.

"This new model is absolutely crucial to whatever nature of long term future Rover has," maintains Professor Garel Rhys, Cardiff University's motor industry expert.

Why has Rover not been able to produce any new cars to date? Because it is too small.

Search for partner

Rover simply does not have the financial muscle to solve its own problems, so it has to seek joint ventures with other car companies, and in this they have not been blessed with good fortune.

A series of failed ventures with the likes of Tom Walkinshaw's TWR racing and China Brilliance have not produced anything so far, so the search continues.

Four years on from the Phoenix takeover MG Rover's future is still uncertain.

Undoubtedly the directors have saved thousands of jobs in Birmingham, but a new model range is critical for survival.

Quentin Willson maintains they have done OK so far, but he says: "I wouldn't like to be in their shoes, thinking about a strategy for the next 10 years".