STAFF at a Northwich-based MG Rover dealership will face an agonising wait to see if a rescue deal can be reached before job losses become a reality.

More than 6,000 staff from the Birmingham car giant Rover attended an emergency meeting at the company's Longbridge headquarters on Monday to learn a £6.5million Government loan would cover overheads for the next week - but unless a buyer is found soon, redundancies at the car manufacturer would inevitably follow.

Now staff at Station Road's MG Rover Northwich are also bracing themselves for a flood of calls from concerned car owners who fear events at the crisis-hit company could affect the validity of existing warranties.

David Dyson, financial director of Manchester-based Lookers dealership, said overall responsibility for warranty agreements would rest with the manufacturers. He added: "There remains no guarantee that a MG Rover warranty will be honoured by all dealers if the company goes under.

"What we as dealers would try to do is to stand behind the warranty but it's going to cost a lot of money to do that."

PricewaterhouseCoopers, administrators for the British car giant, hopes to re-open takeover talks with China's Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation but a spokesman for the Asian company say they are 'highly unlikely' to pursue a deal with the Midlands manufacturer.