THE administrators' self-imposed deadline for bidders to register a serious interest in MG-Rover came and went last week with no announcement.

Last month, administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) said it had received more than 30 expressions of interest in the failed company, but that only a handful had the capital needed to make a serious go of resurrecting Britain's last UK-owned mass manufacturer.

The deadline was imposed to weed out the dreamers from the realists, but MG Rover watchers believe the silence from the Longbridge factory is an ominous sign.

As one put it: "It looks as though none of them have the money to put up or shut up."

One man who hopes he is still in the running is motor industry analyst Krish Bhaskar, who leads the UK Motor Industry Research Unit.

Only days before the deadline he made the bold claim that his consortium could plough more than £1.5bn into a rescue bid.

Mr Bhaskar said his deal would see PWC sell MG Rover for £65m in return for investment and the restarting of production.

In a nod to the Chinese company Shanghai Automotive, which bought the rights to key Rover models last year, he said the new MG Rover would be prepared to work with the Chinese on existing cars and new models.

The Longbridge plant would be saved from closure. If a deal is struck with Shanghai Automotive, production of some cars would start immediately.

If, however, the new group is forced to go it alone, the factory will be mothballed for anything up to four years as a new generation of cars is designed and readied for production.

Mr Bhaskar says that will include a replacement for the 75 executive saloon, an off-roader, a replacement for the MG TF and an Austin Healey large sports car. They will be built around a common platform.

The plan sounds great - in theory - but there are some substantial obstacles.

We already knew that the Chinese owned the Rover 75 and 25, but now it seems the MG TF belongs to them as well.

In what seems to have been an extraordinary blunder by MG Rover, the rights to the popular sportscar were signed over to Shanghai Automotive last year - even though the Chinese did not want them. That leaves MG Rover as a car company without any cars.

The idea of mothballing the factory and starting afresh has never been tried before.

Midlands businessman John Bloor adopted the same strategy when he bought the rights to make Triumph motorcycles by putting the company into deep freeze for a couple of years. But that was because he also needed to build a new factory.

The Longbridge plant needs cash just to do nothing. The paint plant, for instance, cannot be switched off and switched on at a moment's notice - for it to be worth anything, it has to be maintained constantly. A new owner would also have to pay rent. Developing four or five new models in four years is also asking a lot. MG Rover tried and failed to bring one new car to market in six years.

The idea of selling an off-roader is also a sticky subject.

Under the terms of the deal with BMW - Rover's former owner and current custodian of the marque - the company could not sell a 4x4.

That was to prevent Rover selling an off-roader in competition with Land Rover, and was also a key part of BMW's deal to sell Land Rover to Ford at the same time as it got rid of MG Rover to the so-called Phoenix Four.

Finally, Mr Bhaskar admits he is struggling to convince PricewaterhouseCooper that his bid is genuine. He says he needs time to put all the funding in place. But that is the one commodity that MG Rover simply does not have.