The Austin Rover Group (abbreviated ARG) was a British motor manufacturer. It was created in 1982 as the mass-market car manufacturing subsidiary of
British Leyland
British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partl ...
(BL). Previously, this entity had been known as BL Cars Ltd (formerly Leyland Cars) which encompassed the ''Austin-Morris'' and ''Jaguar-Rover-Triumph'' divisions of British Leyland. After a major restructuring of BL's car manufacturing operations,
Jaguar
The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...
regained its independence (leading to its eventual de-merger in 1984) whilst the
Triumph
The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...
and
Morris
Morris may refer to:
Places
Australia
*St Morris, South Australia, place in South Australia
Canada
* Morris Township, Ontario, now part of the municipality of Morris-Turnberry
* Rural Municipality of Morris, Manitoba
** Morris, Manitob ...
marque
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
s were retired. The new, leaner car business was rechristened as the Austin Rover Group and focused primarily on the
Austin
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
and
Rover
Rover may refer to:
People
* Constance Rover (1910–2005), English historian
* Jolanda de Rover (born 1963), Dutch swimmer
* Rover Thomas (c. 1920–1998), Indigenous Australian artist
Places
* Rover, Arkansas, US
* Rover, Missouri, US
* ...
marques. The Morris and Triumph marques continued briefly within ARG until 1984 when both were dropped.
In 1989, two years after the Austin brand was also discontinued, ARG assumed the name of its parent company ''
Rover Group
The Rover Group plc was the British vehicle manufacturing conglomerate known as "BL plc" until 1986 (formerly British Leyland), which had been a state-owned company since 1975. It initially included the Austin Rover Group car business (comprisi ...
plc'', from which point the two entities were generally considered one and the same, although they continued to be legally separate – ''Rover Group plc'' was a
holding company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
also owned
Land Rover
Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR currently builds Land Rovers ...
following the divestment of
Unipart
Unipart Group is a multinational logistics, supply chain, manufacturing and consultancy company headquartered in Cowley, Oxfordshire, England. It has operations in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan and works across a variety of sector ...
and
Leyland Trucks
Leyland Trucks is a medium- and heavy-duty truck manufacturer based in Leyland, Lancashire, England. It can trace its origins back to the original Leyland Motors, which was founded in 1896, and subsequently evolved into British Leyland. Aft ...
, whilst ''Rover Group Limited'' was the mass market car manufacturing business.
History
![Austin_Maestro_1982](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Austin_Maestro_1982.JPG)
Following the financial collapse of the
British Leyland Motor Corporation
British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partl ...
(BLMC) in 1975 and the stark
Ryder Report on the ailing firm, the resulting government bail-out and
nationalisation
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
saw the company being renamed to
British Leyland
British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partl ...
(BL).
Alan Pilkington
Alan Pilkington (born 1966) is a British engineer and researcher known for his work in technology management, operations management, Manufacturing strategy and enterprise engineering. , Transforming Rover, Renewal against the Odds, 1981–94, (1996), Bristol Academic Press, Bristol, pp.199, The car manufacturing subsidiary of BL became ''Leyland Cars'', and later ''BL Cars Ltd'', and it was this entity which ultimately became Austin Rover. The Leyland name had become tainted by the industrial unrest and poor quality cars of the 1970s, and the creation of the Austin Rover brand was intended to present a new public face of the company, although at corporate level it was still known as "BL plc".
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 centred on
Longbridge
Longbridge is an area of Northfield in the south-west of Birmingham, England, located near the border with Worcestershire.
Public Transport
Longbridge is described as a hub for public transport with a number of bus services run by Kev's Coa ...
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 of the time ran out of patience with Robinson, and appointed South African-born corporate troubleshooter
Sir Michael Edwardes
Sir Michael Owen Edwardes (11 October 1930 – 15 September 2019) was a British-South African business executive who held chairmanships at several companies including motor manufacturer British Leyland.
Education
Edwardes was born in Port Eli ...
to turn BL around. His first task was to curb the large amount of power that the trade unions had over the company. After discovering Robinson's links with various communist 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 assembly plant in
Abingdon, and the
Triumph
The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...
plants in
Speke
Speke () is a suburb of Liverpool. It is southeast of the city centre. Located near the widest part of the River Mersey, it is bordered by the suburbs of Garston and Hunts Cross, and nearby to Halewood, Hale Village, and Widnes. The rural are ...
(Liverpool) and
Canley
Canley is a suburban neighbourhood located in CV4, south-west Coventry, England. Canley became part of Coventry as a result of successive encroachment of the latter's boundaries between 1928 and 1932, having historically been part of the St ...
(Coventry). BL pulled out of entire markets – for example the large
Leyland tractors range was sold-off wholesale to
Marshall
Marshall may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria
Canada
* Marshall, Saskatchewan
* The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia
Liberia
* Marshall, Liberia
Marshall Islands
* Marshall Islands, an i ...
, and Jaguar was privatised in 1984. Many of BL's non-core subsidiaries (such as refrigerator company
Prestcold
Prestcold was a British refrigerator manufacturer, established by the Pressed Steel Co. Ltd of Oxford in 1934. It manufactured both domestic and commercial refrigeration. Through its history, it was closely related to automotive manufacturing, pa ...
and industrial engine manufacturer
Coventry Climax
Coventry Climax was a British forklift truck, fire pump, racing, and other specialty engine manufacturer.
History
Pre WW1
The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, but two years later, following the departure of Stroyer, it was relocat ...
) were also culled during Edwardes' tenure.
Thirdly, he entered into a collaborative agreement with
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.
Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...
, the first product of this alliance being the
Triumph Acclaim
The Triumph Acclaim is a front-wheel drive compact family saloon/sedan manufactured by British Leyland (BL) from 1981 to 1984. It is based on the Honda Ballade. It used a Honda-designed engine, was manufactured under licence from Honda, and ...
, 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 smallest and cheapest models being sold under the Austin brand, while the more upmarket models carried a Rover badge. High performance version of the Austin hatchbacks and saloons made use of a revived MG badge. Light commercial vehicle production (
4x4
Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...
s and vans) was managed by the
Land Rover Group
Land Rover Group (LRG) was a division of British Leyland (BL) and later the Rover Group that was in existence between 1981 and 1987. LRG brought British Leyland's light commercial vehicle production under one management, consisting of the Land ...
, whilst full-size commercial vehicles were built by
Leyland Trucks
Leyland Trucks is a medium- and heavy-duty truck manufacturer based in Leyland, Lancashire, England. It can trace its origins back to the original Leyland Motors, which was founded in 1896, and subsequently evolved into British Leyland. Aft ...
and
Leyland Bus
Leyland Bus was a British bus and train manufacturer. It emerged from the Rover Group (formerly ''British Leyland'') as a management buyout of the bus business. It was subsequently acquired by Volvo Buses in 1988 and the Leyland name disappe ...
. The luxury manufacturer
Jaguar
The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...
was demerged from BL in 1984 and privatized, later taken over by
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
in 1989, and was ultimately reunited with former BL stablemate Land Rover in 2000 to form what is now
Jaguar Land Rover
Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC is the holding company of Jaguar Land Rover Limited (also known as JLR), and is a British multinational automobile manufacturer which produces luxury vehicles and sport utility vehicles. Jaguar Land Rover is a ...
.
Sales of Austin Rover products were reasonably strong, though not quite as high as the sales achieved by some of the earlier
British Leyland
British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partl ...
products – the Maestro and Montego for instance did not sell as well as their predecessors, the
Austin Allegro
The Austin Allegro is a small family car that was manufactured by the Austin-Morris division of British Leyland from 1973 until 1982. The same vehicle was built in Italy by Innocenti between 1974 and 1975 and sold as the Innocenti Regent. The Al ...
and
Morris Marina
The Morris Marina is a front-engined, rear-wheel-drive C-segment, small family car that was manufactured by the Morris Motors, Austin-Morris division of British Leyland from 1971 until 1980. It served to replace the Morris Minor in the Mo ...
, despite being fundamentally superior vehicles for their time. The
Austin/MG Metro was regularly among the top five selling cars in Britain throughout the 1980s, and for two years in the early part of the decade it was the best selling supermini in Britain. The Metro, which was launched in 1980, gave the firm a much-needed competitor in modern supermini market and filled a gap in the range vacated by a scaling down of
Mini
The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...
and Austin Allegro production. At its peak in 1983, the Metro was Britain's third best selling car with more than 130,000 sales.
The
Austin Maestro
The Austin Maestro is a five-door hatchback small family car (and two-door van derivative) that was produced from 1982 to 1987 by British Leyland, and from 1988 until 1994 by Rover Group, as a replacement for the Morris Marina and Austin Alleg ...
, launched in March 1983, was initially very popular, but sales dipped towards the end of the decade and in 1989 it was the 19th best selling new car in the UK with less than 40,000 sales, having peaked in 1984 at more than 80,000 sales as Britain's sixth best selling car. This was less of a problem thanks to the follow-up of the Triumph Acclaim with the first generation
Rover 200
The Rover 200 Series, and later the Rover 25, are a series of small family cars that were produced by British manufacturer Rover from 1984 until 2005.
There have been three distinct generations of the Rover 200. The first generation was a four ...
of 1984 – the second product of the Honda alliance 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 in Britain 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 the Austin-Morris division of British Leyland from 1973 until 1982. The same vehicle was built in Italy by Innocenti between 1974 and 1975 and sold as the Innocenti Regent. The Al ...
production from 1980. The similarly sized
Austin Maxi
The Austin Maxi is a medium-sized, 5-door hatchback family car that was produced by Austin and later British Leyland between 1969 and 1981. It was the first British five-door hatchback.
British Leyland built and sold the Maxi alongside the 1971 ...
had already been discontinued in 1981 to allow the Triumph Acclaim to take over its production lines.
The
Austin Montego
The Austin Montego is a British family car that was produced by British Leyland from 1984 until 1988, and then by Rover Group from 1988 until 1995. The Montego was the replacement for both the rear-wheel drive Morris Ital and the front-wheel dri ...
went on sale in April 1984 and sold well, being Britain's seventh best selling car in 1985 and 1986, though it was unable to match the sales success of the sector's established favourites – the
Ford Sierra
The Ford Sierra is a mid-size car or large family car manufactured and marketed by Ford Europe from 1982-1993, designed by Uwe Bahnsen, Robert Lutz and Patrick le Quément — and noted for its aerodynamic styling producing a drag coefficien ...
and
Vauxhall Cavalier
The Vauxhall Cavalier was a large family car that was sold primarily in the UK by Vauxhall from 1975 to 1995. It was based on a succession of Opel designs throughout its production life, during which it was built in three incarnations. The firs ...
. 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 front-engined, rear-wheel-drive C-segment, small family car that was manufactured by the Morris Motors, Austin-Morris division of British Leyland from 1971 until 1980. It served to replace the Morris Minor in the Mo ...
and
Princess
Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince.
Princess as a subst ...
, but the Montego actually replaced the
Morris Ital
The Morris Ital is a medium-sized car that was built by British Leyland (BL) from 1980 to 1984. A successor to the Morris Marina, it was available in a variety of bodystyles.
Design and launch
The Ital was given the design code ADO73 F/L (beca ...
and
Austin Ambassador
The Austin Ambassador is a large family car that was introduced by the Austin Rover Group subsidiary of British Leyland in March 1982. The vehicle was a heavily updated version of the Princess, a saloon car that had lacked a hatchback. Only the ...
which were the respective facelifted versions of those two cars.
Austin Rover's executive car, the
Rover 800
The Rover 800 series is an executive car (E-segment in Europe) range manufactured by the Austin Rover Group subsidiary of British Leyland, and its successor the Rover Group from 1986 to 1999. It was also marketed as the Sterling in the United St ...
, was launched in July 1986 as the third product of its venture with Honda, sharing its development with the
Honda Legend
:''Sections of this article are translated from Japanese Wikipedia''.
The Honda Legend is a series of V6-engined executive cars/mid-size luxury sedans produced by Honda since 1985 which currently serves as its flagship vehicle. It is larger tha ...
. This car also sold well, being a popular competitor for the likes of the
Ford Granada and
Vauxhall Carlton
The Vauxhall Carlton is a series of large family car/executive car sold in two distinct generations by the Vauxhall division of GM Europe between 1978 and 1994. The Carlton was based on the Opel Rekord E (Mk.1) and Omega A (Mk.2).
With the ...
. It was also sold in
America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
under the
Sterling brand, but this project was quickly shelved due to unacceptable product quality issues that led to low sales.
Austin Rover's decision not to replace sports cars like the
MG MGB
The MGB is a two-door sports car manufactured and marketed from 1962 until 1980 by the British Motor Corporation (BMC), later the ''Austin-Morris'' division of British Leyland, as a four-cylinder, soft-top sports car. It was announced and its det ...
and
Triumph TR7
The Triumph TR7 is a sports car manufactured in the United Kingdom from September 1974 to October 1981 by British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC), which changed its name to British Leyland (BL) in 1975. The car was launched in the United State ...
was justified by the fact that sports cars were no longer popular in the early 1980s, and many other manufacturers had also stopped – or were about to stop – production of sports coupes and roadsters. Buyers were instead being guided to "hot hatchbacks", following a trend set by the
Volkswagen Golf GTI
Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post-W ...
since 1976. By 1985, Austin Rover had launched a line-up of performance variants of its Metro and Maestro hatchbacks and the Montego saloon. These cars were badged as MG models and proved popular, especially in the form of the MG Metro. MG models accounted for approximately 10% of Metro, Maestro and Montego production between 1982 and 1991. The
Rover Group
The Rover Group plc was the British vehicle manufacturing conglomerate known as "BL plc" until 1986 (formerly British Leyland), which had been a state-owned company since 1975. It initially included the Austin Rover Group car business (comprisi ...
continued production of the MG Metro until 1990 when it was replaced by the Rover Metro GTi. MG Maestro and Montego production continued at Cowley until 1991, when these models were discontinued to make way for the GTi variants of the Rover 200 and 400. However, the last Maestro and Montego models survived in production until December 1994, just before the 200 and 400 ranges – which had been expected to replace them – were themselves replaced.
Consolidation and renaming
In 1986, Austin Rover's parent company, BL plc, was renamed "
Rover Group
The Rover Group plc was the British vehicle manufacturing conglomerate known as "BL plc" until 1986 (formerly British Leyland), which had been a state-owned company since 1975. It initially included the Austin Rover Group car business (comprisi ...
", and the truck and bus businesses were subsequently demerged and sold off to
DAF and
Volvo
The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...
, respectively. The spare parts and logistics arm
Unipart
Unipart Group is a multinational logistics, supply chain, manufacturing and consultancy company headquartered in Cowley, Oxfordshire, England. It has operations in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan and works across a variety of sector ...
was also spun out in 1987. After an abortive attempt in 1988 to divest Land Rover to
General Motors
The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
, the entire Rover Group was sold off by the British government in 1988 to
British Aerospace
British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. Formed in 1977, in 1999 it purchased Marconi ...
. The car making subsidiary Austin Rover Group Ltd was renamed "Rover Group Ltd", which saw the effective disappearance of the Austin Rover name and brand, even though the Austin badging had been removed from the Mini, Metro, Maestro and Montego models after 1987. By 1991, all Austin Rover dealer signage had been changed to the new claret and beige "Rover" branding, and use of the old blue and green "chevron" logo had ceased, although it made sporadic appearances on the cars themselves (see below).
The combine now known as Rover Group remained in BAe ownership until January 1994, when it was sold to
BMW. It remained in BMW ownership for six years before being sold to the "Phoenix Consortium" in May 2000, incorporating the MG and Rover marques and becoming
MG Rover
MG Rover Group 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 Consor ...
, which lasted five years before going bankrupt. The ownership of the Mini brand, however, remained in BMW ownership, as did ownership of the Cowley factory, which began production of an all-new Mini in the summer of 2001.
Land Rover
Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR currently builds Land Rovers ...
, meanwhile was sold to Ford, who had already purchased Jaguar in 1989.
MG production was revived in 2007 by new owner
Nanjing Automobile
Nanjing Automobile is a state-owned enterprise with a history that dates from 1947, , while the rights to use the
Rover marque were purchased by
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
in 2006, only to be transferred to ownership of Indian carmaker
Tata in 2008, as Tata also took over Land Rover and
Jaguar
The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...
to form
Jaguar Land Rover
Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC is the holding company of Jaguar Land Rover Limited (also known as JLR), and is a British multinational automobile manufacturer which produces luxury vehicles and sport utility vehicles. Jaguar Land Rover is a ...
. The Rover marque has yet to be revived more than a decade after its demise that was brought about by the collapse of MG Rover.
Branding and logo
In 1968 British Leyland had created ''Austin Morris Ltd'' as an
operating company
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...
that managed all the previous operations of the
British Motor Corporation
The British Motor Corporation Limited (BMC) was a UK-based vehicle manufacturer, formed in early 1952 to give effect to an agreed merger of the Morris and Austin businesses.Morris-Austin Merger Company Named. ''The Times'', Friday, 29 February ...
which it had absorbed, but it was not until 1978 that Austin-Morris was given a formal corporate identity (distinct from the Jaguar Rover Triumph (JRT) arm of the company) with the blue and green "chevron" logo (officially known as the "wing"), which began appearing on Austin and Morris-badged BL cars in that year – the
Princess 2 and the van/pick-up versions of the Morris Marina were the first vehicles to wear the logo. However, this separate branding strategy was later abandoned and by 1983 the chevron would be later expanded to represent virtually all of BL's marques and business activities in the public domain, eventually supplanting BL's own roundel logo (affectionately known as the "flying plughole" or "the plughole of despair") and would ultimately become the logo of the entire Austin Rover Group.
The ARG chevron officially remained in use until 1988, when ARG's rename and reprivatisation into the Rover Group saw it gradually disappear. The Austin name was retired after 1987, however the logo still appeared on the badging of the former Austin models, and the
VIN plates of the cars still read "Austin Rover Group Ltd", since this was still the manufacturer's official name until 1989. For that model year the chevron logo was finally dropped in favour of a black silhouetted version of the Rover "longship" badge upon which the model name (Metro, Maestro, Montego) was applied, although with the exception of the reengineered R6 Metro of 1990, the Rover name was never officially used for these models.
One interesting anomaly from the ARG era is that the chevron logo was stamped into thousands of BL/Rover Group vehicle components, many of which survived on Rover and Land Rover models into the 21st century; indeed there are still some components – most notably on the
Land Rover Defender
The Land Rover Defender (initially introduced as the Land Rover 110 / One Ten, and in 1984 joined by the Land Rover 90 / Ninety, plus the new, extra-length Land Rover 127 in 1985) is a series of British off-road cars and pickup trucks. They c ...
until it finished production in 2016 – which still bear both it and some still even bear the older BL roundel logo.
A number of new models were in development at the time that Austin Rover Group ceased to exist – including the second generation Rover 200 Series, launched in October 1989 and the new Metro which was launched in May 1990.
Timeline
* 1981: BL Cars Ltd is renamed Austin Rover Group Ltd.
* 1981: Launch of the
Triumph Acclaim
The Triumph Acclaim is a front-wheel drive compact family saloon/sedan manufactured by British Leyland (BL) from 1981 to 1984. It is based on the Honda Ballade. It used a Honda-designed engine, was manufactured under licence from Honda, and ...
, successor of the
Dolomite Dolomite may refer to:
*Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral
*Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock
*Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community
*Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...
and rebadged version of the Japanese
Honda Ballade, built in Cowley, Oxford.
* 1981: Demise of the Princess model range after nearly seven years in production.
* 1981: Production of the long-running
Austin Maxi
The Austin Maxi is a medium-sized, 5-door hatchback family car that was produced by Austin and later British Leyland between 1969 and 1981. It was the first British five-door hatchback.
British Leyland built and sold the Maxi alongside the 1971 ...
ends after 12 years.
* 1982: Launch of the
Austin Ambassador
The Austin Ambassador is a large family car that was introduced by the Austin Rover Group subsidiary of British Leyland in March 1982. The vehicle was a heavily updated version of the Princess, a saloon car that had lacked a hatchback. Only the ...
, a facelifted version of the discontinued
Princess
Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince.
Princess as a subst ...
.
* 1982: Michael Edwardes steps down as chairman and is replaced by
Harold Musgrove
Harold John Musgrove (born Birmingham, 1930) was the chairman of British Leyland's Austin Rover division between 1982–1986 and worked in several roles for the British National Health Service from 1991–2001.
British Leyland
Harold Musgrove ha ...
.
MG badge is relaunched, two years after being discontinued, on the MG Metro 1300. The Austin Allegro is discontinued after nine years in production.
* 1983: Launch of
Austin Maestro
The Austin Maestro is a five-door hatchback small family car (and two-door van derivative) that was produced from 1982 to 1987 by British Leyland, and from 1988 until 1994 by Rover Group, as a replacement for the Morris Marina and Austin Alleg ...
, which replaces the defunct
Allegro
Allegro may refer to:
Common meanings
* Allegro (music), a tempo marking indicate to play fast, quickly and bright
* Allegro (ballet), brisk and lively movement
Artistic works
* L'Allegro (1645), a poem by John Milton
* ''Allegro'' (Satie), an ...
and
Maxi ranges. The ''MG'' badge is used for the MG Maestro 1600 sports model. Austin Ambassador production ends in November.
* 1984: Launch of the second Honda-ARG joint venture car, the Mk1
Rover 200-series. It succeeds the Triumph Acclaim and in doing so spells the end of the
Triumph
The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...
marque.
* 1984: Launch of the
Austin Montego
The Austin Montego is a British family car that was produced by British Leyland from 1984 until 1988, and then by Rover Group from 1988 until 1995. The Montego was the replacement for both the rear-wheel drive Morris Ital and the front-wheel dri ...
as successor to the
Morris Ital
The Morris Ital is a medium-sized car that was built by British Leyland (BL) from 1980 to 1984. A successor to the Morris Marina, it was available in a variety of bodystyles.
Design and launch
The Ital was given the design code ADO73 F/L (beca ...
. This means the end of the Morris marque after 72 years. The MG Maestro 1600 is replaced by the MG Maestro 2.0 EFi. The Austin Metro receives a mild facelift and a five-door version is added to the range, an all-new model is planned to enter production by the end of the decade.
* 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 specifications. 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
:''Sections of this article are translated from Japanese Wikipedia''.
The Honda Legend is a series of V6-engined executive cars/mid-size luxury sedans produced by Honda since 1985 which currently serves as its flagship vehicle. It is larger tha ...
;
Rover SD1
The Rover SD1 is both the code name and eventual production name given to a series of executive cars built by the Specialist Division (later the ''Jaguar-Rover-Triumph'' division) of British Leyland (BL), under the Rover marque. It was produc ...
production ceases after 10 years.
* 1986: BL renamed "Rover Group PLC"
* 1987:
Unipart
Unipart Group is a multinational logistics, supply chain, manufacturing and consultancy company headquartered in Cowley, Oxfordshire, England. It has operations in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan and works across a variety of sector ...
, 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 the British government to
British Aerospace
British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. Formed in 1977, in 1999 it purchased Marconi ...
.
* 1988: A fastback version of the Rover 800 launches.
* 1989: Austin Rover Group is rebranded "Rover Group". Its final launch is 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 . The
Land Rover Discovery
Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of the planet Earth that is not submerged by the ocean or other bodies of water. It makes up 29% of Earth's surface and includes the continents and various isla ...
and the new Rover 200 Series enter production and launching around the time of the rebranding, with the Rover 200 Series and the new Rover Metro just months away from launch.
See also
*
Rover (marque)
Rover is a British automotive marque that was used for over a century, from 1904 to 2005. It was launched as a bicycle maker called Rover Company in 1878, before starting to manufacture autocars in 1904. The brand used the iconic Viking longs ...
*
MG Rover
MG Rover Group 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 Consor ...
*
British Leyland Motor Corporation
British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partl ...
*
Leyland Trucks
Leyland Trucks is a medium- and heavy-duty truck manufacturer based in Leyland, Lancashire, England. It can trace its origins back to the original Leyland Motors, which was founded in 1896, and subsequently evolved into British Leyland. Aft ...
*
Leyland Bus
Leyland Bus was a British bus and train manufacturer. It emerged from the Rover Group (formerly ''British Leyland'') as a management buyout of the bus business. It was subsequently acquired by Volvo Buses in 1988 and the Leyland name disappe ...
References
External links
Austin Memories
{{Authority control
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of England
Former nationalised industries of the United Kingdom
British Leyland
Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1982
Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1989
1982 establishments in England
1989 disestablishments in England
British companies disestablished in 1989
British companies established in 1982
Rover Group
The Rover Group plc was the British vehicle manufacturing conglomerate known as "BL plc" until 1986 (formerly British Leyland), which had been a state-owned company since 1975. It initially included the Austin Rover Group car business (comprisi ...