MIKE Whitby, leader of Birmingham City Council, could not have put it better when he admitted: "This is a day many people thought would never come."

When Nanjing Automobile clinched a deal for the remnants of MG Rover last year, the company pledged to bring car manufacturing back to Britain.

But hopes began to fade as months passed without any announcement.

There were rumblings that behind the scenes negotiations were not going well - that Nanjing's British partner was unhappy - that most of the machinery inside Longbridge had been exported to China where it would be used to build MGs and Rovers for the world's fastest growing automotive market.

We know now that the latter suspicion was without foundation.

Longbridge opened to journalists last week and what they saw was shocking. Where the giant West halls were once filled with robots, welding machines and the hundreds of other bits and pieces that go together to manufacture cars, there is just fresh air. Instead, the empty halls of Longbridge looked more like aircraft hangars.

The equipment has been packed up and sent to China where it will be re-assembled so production of MGs and Rovers can start afresh. Whether they will be called MG or Rover remains to be seen.

So why did Nanjing sign a 33-year deal with Longbridge owner St Modwen?

The company has not taken a lease on the whole site. Only about a third of it is subject to the new deal, the rest will be re-developed.

And amid the celebrations and back slapping last week, there remains a great deal to be done if car production is to resume in any form.

Nanjing is keeping its cards close. Officials still talk in vague terms about what they plan to make in Britain. The only model so far mentioned by name is the MG TF two-seater sportscar. But the design rights for the TF are held by another Chinese company - they were mistakenly transferred by Rover bosses when they sold the rights to a number of other designs last year.

Rights issues aside, when MG Rover collapsed, there was reason to believe the TF could be saved. After all, hadn't it been Britain's best-selling two-seater in 2004?

But time marches on, and if the TF returns to showrooms, it will face a much tougher challenge.

Mazda's MX5 has been re-born and it promises everything the TF did - and more.

As one pundit said last week: "Why would anybody want to buy a TF, based on an 11-year-old design, when they could have an MX 5?"

The collapse of MG-Rover has also had a terrible effect on TF secondhand prices. It is now possible to get a TF with just a few miles on the clock for about half the price MG-Rover was selling them at. With so many "nearly new" models in the showrooms, the incentive to buy a new one for a premium may not be so strong.

Councillor Whitby admitted that negotiations with the Chinese had gone to the wire. The parties were still talking the morning of the Press conference and a deal was only agreed when the city council stumped up some cash to help resolve problems with the effluent plant at the site.

This was, said Coun Whitby, an "emotional and financial commitment to Longbridge" and a return to car manufacturing.

Bill Oliver, St Modwen's chief executive, said: "We have always said that if long-term auto-motive use could be introduced to Longbridge, then we would facilitate that. We wish Nanjing every success."

But does Longbridge actually need car manufacturing anymore?

The Chinese talked loosely of "hundreds of jobs" - not the 6,000 lost when MG-Rover went bust last year.

But when the rest of the site is redeveloped for business and retail, there could be as many as 10,000 created in other industries.

Nanjing has a six-month "get out" clause, which allows it to walk away from Longbridge if things do not go well.

If the company does walk away, plans are well advanced to build a future that's not dependent on cars.