At BMW headquarters, managers are desperate to have Rover taken off their hands

In retrospect BMW made its biggest mistake five weeks ago, announcing that Rover would be sold to the venture capital group Alchemy before all the financial details of the deal had been agreed.

To have to call off the deal at the eleventh hour makes BMW's management appear at best naive and at worst unprofessional.

On Thursday BMW dismissed a rival bid for Rover from the Phoenix consortium, saying there was no basis for negotiation.

But now the Phoenix bid is the only one on the table.

Thus BMW now says it would negotiate with Phoenix, provided there were financial guarantees to back an offer for Rover. Another embarrassing about turn for BMW.

BMW boss Joachim Milberg is likely to face tough questions from shareholders

Since the Alchemy deal was announced, BMW has seen its reputation in the UK, one of its most important export markets, attacked by government ministers and trades unions.

Calls for a boycott of BMW cars have gone largely unheeded.

But if BMW eventually has to take the step of closing down the Longbridge plant in Birmingham, with the loss of 9,000 jobs, the rhetoric will become much more hostile.

As one leading German commentator remarked: "BMW is a disaster. This is not the way that top German companies should do business."

Bernd Pischetsrieder was sacked as BMW boss after Rover's losses escalated

BMW's management give the impression that they are not in control of events.

The Quandt family, which still holds the biggest single shareholding in BMW, has moved to get rid of senior managers at BMW before. It may now feel that more changes are needed.

But the greatest threat is to BMW's independence. Rover has cost the German carmaker billions and it's still losing money at the rate of �2.5m a day.

Financially weakened, poorly managed and with its reputation tarnished, BMW presents a tempting target. Ford has already agreed to buy Land Rover from BMW. Now it may fancy swallowing BMW too.