Several car companies with UK factories have recently announced significant changes:

• Honda confirmed in February its Swindon plant will close in 2021, with the loss of about 3,500 jobs. It said the move was due to global changes in the car industry and the need to launch electric vehicles, and was nothing to do with Brexit.
• In February Nissan chose Japan over the UK to build the new X-trail car, thought to be driven by a decision by falling diesel car sales in Europe, post-Brexit concerns, and an EU-Japan trade deal which will reduce tariffs on cars imported from Japan.
• In January, Jaguar Land Rover confirmed it was cutting 4,500 jobs, with the substantial majority coming from its 40,000 strong UK workforce. It said it was facing several challenges, including a slump in demand for diesel cars and a sales slowdown in China. The firm has also complained about uncertainty caused by Brexit. In April it said it will build its next-generation Land Rover Defender 4x4 in Slovakia rather than the UK.
• Despite the challenges it has not all been bad news - in March Toyota announced it would start manufacturing hybrid cars for Suzuki at its factory in Burnaston, Derbyshire, although this will not bring in extra jobs.
• Aston Martin plans to create 700 jobs at its plant in St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan, where it will produce its first electric car. The Welsh Government has given it grants totalling £18.8m and has guaranteed its rent for a 30-year period for an undisclosed amount. However the company has faced scepticism from investors over its strategy.
• BMW and Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) are to joinforces on developing electric car technologies. Under the deal, JLR will then produce its drivetrains, which deliver power to the wheels,at its Wolverhampton plant, which employs 1,600 people.

"It's not good. It sounds like it has been signed and sealed," said market trader Darren Ham.

"I know a lot of guys who work there.

"It is the younger guys that the older guys are worried about. They will have to reinvent themselves."

"In total, the taxpayer has invested a huge sum of money in Ford's Bridgend plant and the workers do not deserve to be treated in this way," said Economy Minister Ken Skates.

"Since 1978 something in the order of £140m of taxpayers' money has been invested in the plant.

"That has been money well spent because just in the last decade, £3bn has been pumped back into the Bridgend economy by the Ford plant.

"Many businesses are hugely dependent on that site.”

Ford's engine plant in Bridgend will close in September 2020, according to union sources.

It's understood Ford will announce the potential closure of its Bridgend plant by the end of next year. Union officials are being told details of the plans which include the offer of redeployment of Bridgend workers to other UK plants. The company is understood to be blaming “under-utilisation” and cost disadvantage compared with other plants.

Wales has already lost 13,000 manufacturing jobs in 10 years, according to union GMB.

Its statistics suggest there has been an 8% drop in the workforce between 2008 and 2018, from 168,000 employees to 155,000.

Trader Steve Bletsoe called on locals to rally around every single person who loses their job.

He said: "It is going to mean that people in the town potentially have less money to spend here.

"I know that's a cliche, but it's a reality.

"I wouldn't want to wake up this morning thinking a job I've had for 25 years is on the wane - it's awful."

Tom Jones from Bridgend said: "My dad works at Ford and half the street where I live.

"It's gutting but I think workers knew it was coming.

"I was laid off a couple of months ago from a window company and I've been struggling to find work around Bridgend. So I'm retraining. I'm not sure how the area will cope losing so many jobs."

"We've done plenty of business with Ford over the years," said Matt Barker, manager of a plant hire company based on the Bridgend industrial estate.

"But once you stop manufacturing cars in the UK, we thought that was the beginning of the end.

"This industrial estate has seen so much business go over the years, including Sony. I just can't see how those jobs are going to be replaced and they're well paid jobs."

Former First Minister Carwyn Jones speaks of his concerns at the prospect of the closure of Bridgend Ford plant

"Uncertainty" for the workers is the hardest thing, according to Susan Morris from Maesteg.

She said the impact would be massive, adding: "It's the workers I feel sorry for.

"Lots of people from Maesteg work there, it's not just going to impact the Bridgend area but the surrounding area - a lot of factories have closed.

"So many businesses (in the town) are struggling anyway. With Ford closing, it's going to make it worse - it's really sad."

There is a "very difficult business backdrop" for car makers to negotiate, according to consultant Anne-Marie Blaisden.

The head of autos research for Fitch Solutions added: "(This is) partly because the trade future is uncertain with Brexit.

"Partly because there is this shift away from what is being made at the moment, in terms of diesel cars. It takes a lot of investment so they have to think years in advance about whether they've got the supply chain, whether they've got the skills."

When the factory opened, the cars being produced were very different to those on the road today.

These included the mark III Ford Escort - which was nearly called the Ford Erika after its development name and the Ford Fiesta.

From a brownfield site in the 1970s, the land became home to one of south Wales' biggest workforces.

The potential closure of Ford's Bridgend plant could be the culmination of changes that begun in the 1990s, as BBC Wales reported in 2017.