Austin Rover Group

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 (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 regained its independence (leading to its eventual de-merger in 1984) whilst the Triumph and Morrismarques were retired. The new, leaner car business was rechristened as the Austin Rover Group and focused primarily on the Austin and Rover marques. The Morris and Triumph marques continued briefly within ARG until 1984 when both were dropped.

The Austin Rover brand was intended as a new public face for British Leyland, which had become tainted by the infamous industrial unrest and poor quality cars of the 1970s, although "BL" still existed as the name of the holding company "BL plc".

In 1989, two years after the Austin brand was also discontinued, ARG assumed the name of its parent company Rover Group plc, from which point the two entities were generally considered one and the same, although they continued to be legally separate – the holding company "BL plc" became Rover Group plc which also owned Land Rover.