The museum venue underlined the city car-making heritage

The Transport and General Workers Union (T&GWU) said the choice of venue underlined the importance of car-making heritage to the city.

Shoppers were handed leaflets about the protest and asked to sign a petition.

There have already been several protests over the plans to cut 2,300 jobs at the Ryton plant.

PSA Peugeot-Citroen is to move production of the 206 to France and start work on a new 207 plant in Slovakia.

Jim O'Boyle, the union's convenor at the plant, said: "What better way to illustrate this act of corporate vandalism than campaign in the shadow of a museum that houses a heritage which is envied all over the world.

"The Ryton plant is the living embodiment of that heritage.

"Our message is clear that it can have a future, it deserves a future and with the help and support of the Coventry public it won't become yet another piece of industrial history."