Member Article

A potted history of the Rover car company

Here’s my potted history of the Rover car company:

• Morris and Austin come together to conceive BMC in 1952
• In 1966 BMC purchased Jaguar forming the conglomeration known as British Motor Holdings (BMH); William Lyons retains role as the managing director of Jaguar.
• Leyland Motors and BMH merged to become The British Leyland Motor Company in 1968
• In 1974 the finances of BLMC were in a perilous position which resulted in the company’s creditors approaching the Government for help.
• The Ryder Report was published in 1975, and recommended the company be enlarged under government ownership, which resulted in the majority of British Leyland’s shares being purchased by the government
• In 1976 a new factory at Solihull started to produce the Rover 3500.
• The Allegro was the first car to appear under BL ownership replacing the 11/1300(1973)
• Then it was the princess and the TR7 in 1975 (replacing 18/2200 and the TR6) Then it was the SD1 a year later, in 1976.
• Sir Michael Edwardes was drafted in, in 1978 to save the company from the brink.
• As times worsened it was obvious that it was going to have to pair up with a company many different options were tried before eventually merged with honda (one of Japan’s best selling car manufacturers). This meant they would supply the company with engines and design cars in coalition with them in turn they would give them a plant in Swindon.
• A deal between Rover and Honda was struck on christmas day 1979
• By 1982 BL had changed its name to Austin Rover
• In 1986 Rover unveiled its new main engine the k series to replace the O and A series
• By 1988 to Rover (with the deletion of the austin badges a year earlier)
• Under the chairmanship of Graham Day, the Leyland truck business was sold to the Dutch, the bus operation to the Swedes and subsidiary businesses, such as Unipart, to their workforces.
• Amid huge controversy, the remains of Rover - the car business and Land-Rover - was sold to British Aerospace in 1988 for £150 million.
• The early nineties was probably one of the best times for Rover since before the formation of BL! With relaunches of mini cooper editions, the launch of the very successful rover 200/400 series mk2 in 1989 the second generation metro a year later in 1990 and the rather attractive 600 in 93.
• This was Rover’s full range at the end of 1993 it all seemed well but ownership under BAE Systems was about to end
• Between 1994-2000 Rover suffered a slow death and BMW took the company over on the January 31, 1994.
• BMW still wondered why they were building maestros and montego in 1994. The first job was to replace the aged 800 (circa 1986)
• Then the Mini. Something had to be done about the Mini it was proving to be uneconomical and a ’‘pig’’ to build some of the procedures that were required meant it was having to be almost hand built.
• Rover’s existing packages such as its k series engine and hydragas were proving very good and fruitful for the company as seen in the metro and mgf
• Various models were considered such as this 1995 spiritual concept design which was shown at the 1997 Geneva Motor Show , was a proposal for the Mini styled by Oliver Le Grice, rejected by BMW in 1995. This particular car used a rear mounted K-Series engine, subframes and Hydragas suspension. Does it capture the spirit of the original Mini? Rover seemed to think so. Sadly BMW thought they were ten years ahead of their time…
• An American, Frank Stephenson, produced the final design for the new mini.
• The Rover 75 suffered a troubled launch and a poor relationship with BMW didn’t help
• It was suffering from premature launch syndrome
• As with all new model launches, a press conference had been planned – to be led by Pischetsrieder – to announce the new model. It was scheduled for 4pm, but this time came and went, while the BMW CEO and Rover’s BMW-appointed chairman Walter Hasselkus sat together in deep discussion. Obviously, this was going to be no ordinary press launch by the proud boss! Rover was in the midst of a deep crisis and drastic action would be needed in order to safeguard production at Longbridge. He stated: “Short-term actions are required for the long-term future of the Rover Group. Talks are taking place with the British Government about the whole problem.”
• Using the launch of a vital new product to publicly question the viability of a factory (and one that the new model was not even planned to built in!) was unprecedented within the industry – and essentially a huge error of judgement to make. So the newspapers and magazines of the following few days carried stories of “Rover in crisis” rather than “Rover’s brilliant new executive car.”
• BMW sold Rover to ‘the Phoenix 4’ on May 10, 2000

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Hugh Waddell .