The Austin Rover Group (ARG) was a British The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[note 7] is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land motor manufacturer. It was formed in 1981 as the mass-market car manufacturing subsidiary of British Leyland British Leyland was a vehicle manufacturing company formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd . It was partly nationalised in 1975 with the government creating a new holding company called British Leyland Ltd which became BL Ltd (later BL plc) in 1978. It incorporated much of the British owned motor vehicle (BL). ARG was the end result of a comprehensive restructuring programme intended to rescue BL from almost-certain oblivion, and with the Triumph, Morris, Riley and Wolseley marques A marque is a brand name, especially in the automobile industry. For example, Chevrolet and Buick are marques of their maker, General Motors (GM). A company may have many marques; GM has used more than a dozen in the North American market alone now effectively dead, the new, leaner car business was rechristened as the Austin Rover Group.
In 1989, ARG was rebranded as Rover Group Rover Group plc was the name that was given by the British government, in 1986, to the state-owned vehicle manufacturer British Leyland or BL, the name of its owner. In 2008, Tata Motors Tata Motors Ltd is a multinational corporation headquartered in Mumbai, India. Part of the Tata Group, it was formerly known as TELCO (TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company). Tata Motors has a consolidated revenue of USD 16 billion after the acquisition of British automotive brands Jaguar and Land Rover in 2008 purchased the Rover marque, as well as former BL/Rover Group businesses, Land Rover Land Rover is currently a luxury-type four-wheel drive, all-terrain vehicle manufacturer, based in Gaydon, Warwickshire, England. It operates as the Jaguar Land Rover business unit by Tata Motors of India and Jaguar Cars Jaguar Cars Ltd., better known simply as Jaguar, is a British luxury car manufacturer, headquartered in Coventry, England. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Indian company Tata Motors Ltd. and is operated as part of the Jaguar Land Rover business, and the former BL marques Daimler The Daimler Motor Company was a British motor vehicle manufacturing company, founded in 1896, and based in Coventry. The company became a subsidiary of BSA in 1910, and was acquired by Jaguar Cars in 1960 and Lanchester, from the Ford Motor Company The Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford also owns Volvo Cars in Sweden, and a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK. Ford'. The Austin marque has been retired and the Mini Mini is an automotive brand owned by the BMW Group that has produced the successor of the original Mini since April 2001. Currently[update], four body variants are available: Hardtop, Convertible, Clubman (estate) and Countryman (crossover) marque is owned by BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW), (literally English: Bavarian Motor Works) is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the MINI brand, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands. BMW is known for its.
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History
Rover 213SE 1986 Rover 820SiFollowing the collapse of the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC) in 1975 and the stark Ryder Report on the ailing firm, the resulting government bail-out and nationalisation Nationalization, also spelled nationalisation, is the act of taking an industry or assets into the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being transferred to the public sector to be operated by or saw the company being renamed to British Leyland British Leyland was a vehicle manufacturing company formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd . It was partly nationalised in 1975 with the government creating a new holding company called British Leyland Ltd which became BL Ltd (later BL plc) in 1978. It incorporated much of the British owned motor vehicle (BL)[1].
However, the huge industrial relations problems, ineffectual management and product duplication that had plagued the company up to the nationalisation continued throughout the late 1970s. The problems centered around Longbridge Longbridge is an area of Birmingham, England. For local government purposes it is a ward within the district of Northfield union leader and shop steward Derek Robinson (nicknamed "Red Robbo" by the British press). Robinson had assumed a greater level of control over BL than any of its senior managers, and his network of union leaders in the various BL plants had the power to end production if he had instructed them to do so.
The Labour government The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom, and is regarded as the principal party of the Left in England, Scotland and Wales since 1920. Labour first surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s. It formed minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and from 1929 until 1931 and took of the time ran out of patience with Robinson, and appointed South African Coordinates: 29°02′46″S 25°03′47″E / 29.046°S 25.063°E The Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a 2,798 kilometres coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland; while Lesotho is an independent-born corporate troubleshooter Sir Michael Edwardes to turn BL around.
His first task was to curb the excessive amount of power that the trade unions A trade union or labor union (American English) is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members (rank and file members) and negotiates labor contracts (collective bargaining) with had over the company. After discovering Robinson's links with various communist Communism is a sociopolitical movement that aims for a classless and stateless society structured upon communal ownership of property groups, the company amassed sufficient evidence claiming that his actions were intended to deliberately damage both BL itself and the UK economy. As a result of this, he was dismissed in 1979. Secondly, Edwardes began a ruthless programme of factory closures and sell-offs. The biggest casualties of this were the MG MG Cars is best known for its two-seat open sports cars, but MG also produced saloons and coupés. More recently, the MG marque has also been used on sportier versions of other models belonging to the parent company assembly plant in Abingdon Abingdon is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire in Southern England. It is the seat of the Vale of White Horse district. Previously the county town of Berkshire, Abingdon is one of several places which claim to be Britain's oldest continuously occupied town. It was transferred from Berkshire to Oxfordshire in 1974, and the Triumph The Triumph Motor Company is a defunct British motor manufacturer. The Triumph marque is currently owned by BMW. The marque had its origins in 1885 when Siegfried Bettmann and Moritz (Maurice) Schulte from Germany founded Bettmann & Co and started selling Triumph bicycles from premises in London and from 1889 started making their own machines plants in Speke and Canley. BL pulled out of entire markets - for example the large Leyland tractors range was sold off wholesale to Marshall. Thirdly, he entered into a collaborative agreement with Honda Honda Motor Company, Ltd. listen (help·info) (TYO: 7267) is a Japanese multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles, which paved the way for the joint development of a range of cars which spearheaded the company's revival in the 1980s and 1990s. Lastly, the number of BL dealerships in the UK was trimmed down drastically.
The new, slimmer British Leyland was organised into a series of groups. Austin Rover handled the mass production of cars, with the lower- to mid-market cars being badged as Austins and the middle- to upper-market cars as Rovers. Light commercial vehicle production (4x4s Four-wheel drive, 4WD, 4x4 , or AWD ("all wheel drive") is a four-wheeled vehicle with a drivetrain that allows all four wheels to receive torque from the engine simultaneously. While many people associate the term with off-road vehicles and Sport utility vehicles, powering all four wheels provides better control than normal road cars on and vans A van is a kind of vehicle used for transporting goods or groups of people. It is usually a box-shaped vehicle on four wheels, about the same width and length as a large automobile, but taller and usually higher off the ground, also referred to as a light commercial vehicle or LCV. However, in North America, the term may be used to refer to any) was managed by the Land Rover Group, whilst full-size commercial vehicles were built by Leyland Trucks Leyland Trucks is the UK's leading medium & heavy duty truck manufacturer and is based in the town of Leyland, Lancashire. It emerged from the bankruptcy of DAF NV as the result of a management buy-out in 1993, and was acquired by PACCAR in 1998, of which it is now a subsidiary. Since Leyland Trucks was acquired by PACCAR it has become the and Leyland Bus.
Sales of Austin Rover products were reasonably strong, though not quite as high as the sales achieved by some of the British Leyland British Leyland was a vehicle manufacturing company formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd . It was partly nationalised in 1975 with the government creating a new holding company called British Leyland Ltd which became BL Ltd (later BL plc) in 1978. It incorporated much of the British owned motor vehicle products. The Austin/MG Metro The Metro is a supermini car that was produced by the Austin Rover Group division of British Leyland and its successors. It was launched in 1980 as the Austin mini Metro. It was intended to complement the Mini, and was developed under the codename LC8 was regularly among the top five selling cars in Britain throughout the 1980s, and in the early part of the decade it was the best selling supermini in the country. The Metro, which was launched in 1980, gave the firm a much-needed competitor in the entry-level hatchback market and filled a gap in the range vacated by a scaling down of Mini The Mini is a small car that was made by the British Motor Corporation and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered a British icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout (that allowed 80% of the area of the car's floorpan to be used for passengers and luggage) influenced a generation of car-makers. The and Austin Allegro production.
The Austin/MG Maestro (launched in 1983), was initially very popular, but sales dipped towards the end of the decade and in 1989 it was the 19th best selling car new car in the UK. This was less of a problem thanks to the introduction of the similar-sized Rover 200 The Rover 200-series / 25 is a small car which was produced by the Austin Rover Group, and latterly the Rover Group and MG Rover in 1984 — the product of a venture with Honda Honda Motor Company, Ltd. listen (help·info) (TYO: 7267) is a Japanese multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles and one of the few strong-selling small family saloons of its era. So in effect, Austin Rover was selling around 100,000 cars of this size every year during the mid to late 1980s, regaining its share of the sector after the scaling-down of Austin Allegro The Austin Allegro is a small family car that was manufactured by British Leyland under the Austin name from 1973 until 1983. The same vehicle was built in Italy by Innocenti in 1974 and 1975 and sold as the Innocenti Regent. In total, 642,350 Austin Allegros were produced during its ten year production life, with the majority being sold on the production in its final years.
The Austin/MG Montego went on sale in 1984 and sold fairly well, though it was unable to match the sales success of the sector's established favourites — the Ford Sierra The Ford Sierra is a large family car built by Ford Europe from 1982 until 1993. It was designed by Uwe Bahnsen, Robert Lutz and Patrick le Quément. The code used during development was "Project Toni" and Vauxhall Cavalier. The car had been in the pipeline since the late 1970s when the company's main competitors in this sector were the Morris Marina The Morris Marina is a car manufactured by the Morris division of British Leyland in the UK throughout the 1970s, which was a period of great turbulence and difficulty for the British car industry. It was known in some markets as the Austin Marina, Leyland Marina, and Morris 1.7 and Austin Maxi, but the Montego actually replaced the Morris Ital that had been launched in 1980 as an updated version of the Marina. The Maxi continued until 1982, when it was discontinued in preparation for the launch of the Maestro and Montego.
Austin Rover's executive car, the Rover 800, was launched in 1986 as the second product of its venture with Honda, being based on the Honda Legend The Honda Legend is a Full-size luxury car made by the Japanese automaker Honda. It was originally developed as part of Project XX, a joint venture with the Austin Rover Group of Great Britain and was a twin of the Rover 800 series. This car also sold well, being a popular competitor for the likes of the Ford Granada and Vauxhall Carlton. It was also sold in America ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language under the Sterling brand, but this project was quickly shelved due to low sales.
Austin Rover's decision not to replace sports cars like the MG MGB The MGB is a sports car launched by MG Cars in May 1962 to replace the MGA and manufactured until 22 October 1980—originally by the British Motor Corporation and later by its successors. MGB production continued throughout restructuring of the British motor industry, and the parent company’s transition from BMC to British Motor Holdings and to and Triumph TR7 was justified by the fact that such cars were no longer popular in the early 1980s, and many other manufacturers had also stopped - or were about to stop - production of such cars. Buyers were instead being guided to "hot hatchbacks", following a trend set by Volkswagen's Volkswagen is one of the world's largest automobile manufacturers. The company is headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Volkswagen is the original marque within the Volkswagen Group, which includes the car marques Audi, Bentley Motors, Bugatti Automobiles, Automobili Lamborghini, SEAT, Škoda Auto and heavy goods vehicle manufacturer Golf GTI The front-wheel drive Golf was Volkswagen's first successful replacement for the air-cooled Volkswagen Beetle. Historically, it is Volkswagen's best-selling model and the world's third best-selling model, with more than 25 million built by 2007 in 1976. By 1985, Austin Rover had launched a line-up of performance variants of its Metro, Maestro and Montego hatchbacks. These cars all made use of a revived MG marque. They proved reasonably popular, though few enthusiasts regarded them as true MGs. The Rover Group Rover Group plc was the name that was given by the British government, in 1986, to the state-owned vehicle manufacturer British Leyland or BL continued production of these "badge engineered" models until 1991.
Following the renaming of its parent company, BL, in 1986 to the Rover Group Rover Group plc was the name that was given by the British government, in 1986, to the state-owned vehicle manufacturer British Leyland or BL, and the subsequent sell-off of its truck and bus businesses, and takeover in 1988 by British Aerospace British Aerospace was a UK aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. In 1999 it purchased Marconi Electronic Systems, the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc to form BAE Systems, and then in 1994 by BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW), (literally English: Bavarian Motor Works) is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the MINI brand, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands. BMW is known for its, the combine now known as Rover Group was eventually sold back into private ownership and became MG Rover MG Rover was the last domestically owned mass-production car manufacturer in the British motor industry. The company was formed when BMW sold the car-making and engine manufacturing assets of the original Rover Group to the Phoenix Consortium in 2000, which lasted five years before going bankrupt. MG MG Cars is best known for its two-seat open sports cars, but MG also produced saloons and coupés. More recently, the MG marque has also been used on sportier versions of other models belonging to the parent company production was revived in 2007 by new owner Nanjing Automobile, while the Rover The Rover Company is a former British car manufacturing company founded as Starley & Sutton Co. of Coventry in 1878. After developing the template for the modern bicycle with its Rover Safety Bicycle of 1885, the company moved into the automotive industry. It started building motorcycles and Rover cars, using their established marque with the marque was purchased by Ford The Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford also owns Volvo Cars in Sweden, and a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK. Ford' in 2006, only to be transferred to ownership of Indian Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four major religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated here, while Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam carmaker Tata Tata Motors Ltd is a multinational corporation headquartered in Mumbai, India. Part of the Tata Group, it was formerly known as TELCO (TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company). Tata Motors has a consolidated revenue of USD 16 billion after the acquisition of British automotive brands Jaguar and Land Rover in 2008 in 2008, as Tata also took over Land Rover Land Rover is currently a luxury-type four-wheel drive, all-terrain vehicle manufacturer, based in Gaydon, Warwickshire, England. It operates as the Jaguar Land Rover business unit by Tata Motors of India and Jaguar Jaguar Cars Ltd., better known simply as Jaguar, is a British luxury car manufacturer, headquartered in Coventry, England. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Indian company Tata Motors Ltd. and is operated as part of the Jaguar Land Rover business to form Jaguar Land Rover.
The Land Rover marque was removed from the combine at the time of the 2000 sell-off, becoming part of the Ford Motor Company, while BMW retained the rights to build the new MINI which was launched in 2001.
Austin Rover Group timeline
- 1981: BL Cars Ltd is renamed Austin Rover Group Ltd. Launch of the Triumph Acclaim, successor the Dolomite and restyled version of the Japanese-built Honda Ballade.
- 1982: Launch of Austin Ambassador, a facelifted version of the discontinued Princess.
- 1982: Michael Edwardes steps down as Chairman, and is replaced by Harold Musgrove. MG badge is relaunched, two years after being discontinued, on the MG Metro 1300.
- 1983: Launch of Austin Maestro, which replaces the 10-year-old Allegro. The MG badge is used for the MG Maestro 1600 sports model.
- 1984: Launch of the second Honda-ARG joint venture car, the Mk.1 Rover 200-series. It succeeds the Triumph Acclaim, and in doing so spells the end of the Triumph marque. The MG Maestro 1600 is shelved after one year on sale, and replaced by the more powerful MG Maestro 2.0 EFi.
- 1984: Launch of the Austin Montego as successor to the Morris Ital. This means the end of the Morris marque after 72 years. The MG Maestro 1600 is replaced by the MG Maestro 2.0 EFi, which has a fuel injected 2.0 unit in place of the previous 1.6 twin-carburettor.
- 1985: Production begins at Cowley of the Honda Ballade, which is visually identical to the Rover 200 but uses some of its own engines and has a higher level of specification. The MG version of the Montego goes on sale.
- 1986: Launch of the Rover 800-series, jointly developed with Honda and based on the Honda Legend; Rover SD1 production ceases after 10 years.
- 1986: BL renamed Rover Group PLC.
- 1987: Unipart, ARG's spare parts brand is sold off via management buyout.
- 1987: The Austin marque is shelved, with the Metro, Maestro and Montego ranges now selling under just their model names. The Rover badge is not used on these cars in the UK market.
- 1988: Rover Group PLC sold by British Government to British Aerospace.
- 1989: Austin Rover Group is re-branded Rover Group. Its final launch was the MG Maestro Turbo, powered by a 2.0 turbocharged engine and one of the fastest hatchbacks in the world with a top speed of nearly 130 mph (210 km/h).
See also
References
- ^ Alan Pilkington, Transforming Rover, Renewal against the Odds, 1981-94, (1996), Bristol Academic Press, Bristol, pp.199, ISBN 0951376233
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TEAM78
ue, 17 Apr 2007 00:04:33 GM
Im just trying to find out the history of what . Austin. -. Rover. were upto in motorsport. People I can think of whom im looking for are, John West, Cliff Humphries, David Wood, David Gillanders, James Pond (Son of Tony) and others. ...
