The boss of a major Oxfordshire Rover dealership is unsurprised by news that administrators plan to sell off the surplus stock of cars at bargain basement prices.

Unsold Rovers stretch into the distance along the runway at the former US Air Force base at Upper Heyford

Administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers are expected to offer discounts of up to 45 per cent on some cars from the collapsed firm.

Thousands of unsold Rovers are laid up at two former RAF airfields near Bicester and Banbury.

Martin Kernahan, dealer principal of Kernahans of Witney, said he did not know where the 45 per cent discount figure had come from, but added: "The truth is that we have been offering large discounts for some months now."

He added: "There will be no redundancies among our 63 staff because we run a tight ship and have managed to avoid the traps that have brought some dealerships down."

Some dealers are complaining that Rover "dumped" cars on them in the final month before the company went into administrsation. Now the dealers are left with large bills to pay.

Mr Kernhan said: "They did try to allocate us cars we hadn't ordered but I just sent them back.

"Now we have just three Rovers left to sell. We did get caught slightly, though, when Rover was trying to make dealers register more cars. We registered one before we had sold it. Then we were left with a car that had to be sold as a used car."

Kernahan has also been saved from financial problems since it sells Rover parts. There is more business around in supplying spares locally since Rover-owned dealers Phoenix Venture Motors of Summertown, Oxford, went into administration last week.

Mr Kernhan said: "We have even taken on one more member of staff."

Twenty six staff made redundant at Phoenix have learned from administrators that they must join the queue of creditors to receive even a small proportion of last month's wages and commission on cars sold.

Meanwhile car distributor Axial, which stores Rovers at the former RAF airfields at Upper Heyford and Chipping Warden, has been left with the job of tracking the histories of thousands of cars and working out who owns them.

Spokesman Mark Morgan said: "We are storing about 3,500 new Rovers at Upper Heyford and another 3,500 ex-hire cars at Chipping Warden. About 70 per cent of the new cars are unsold.

"Obviously we are working with the administrators to decide where these cars will go from here."