Should a customer's car be out of service and require parts, the MG Rover dealer or authorised repairer will quote a completion time. If this deadline is not met due to the late arrival of parts, then a special programme named Parts Pledge will be invoked and courtesy car costs funded until three days after the parts are delivered.

Commenting on the initiative, John Parkinson, managing director of XPart Ltd, said: "We, like a lot of other manufacturers, experienced parts shortages in 2002. This led to a major review of the parts process and where appropriate fundamental changes were made. Parts availability for new MG and Rover cars has now reached 95 per cent and will continue to improve. This gives us the confidence to operate such a groundbreaking initiative.

"A key business objective is to offer our customers an exceptional aftersales service. This programme will provide customers with added confidence and signals a much improved parts situation with excellent availability on current MG and Rover car ranges."