Kristi is right.
BMW bought up the Rover Group about 3-4 years ago, and with it came all the
brands that had been merged into what was British Leyland - Rover, Triumph,
Austin, Morris, MG, Mini, Land Rover, Austin-Healey, Wolsey, Riley,
Standard.
They sold it all again a year ago, for #10, after losing a huge amount of
money. The Rover and MG brands were sold to a group who now run MG Rover as
an independant company. Land Rover was sold to Ford (for serious money -
that part was worth something, particularly with the new Range Rover almost
ready). Mini was retained by BMW, so they could sell the new Mini. All the
other brands were included in the sale to MG Rover, except, interestingly,
Triumph and Riley. No-one knows for sure why BMW insisted on keeping those
(and they did insist, at one point it was close to a deal-breaking issue),
and BMW won't say.
I hadn't heard about BMW retaining the Rover brand and leasing it to MG
Rover - that's an interesting one.
For those in the US who won't have seen all this, but might care, MG Rover
have been doing a stunning job of re-juvenating the company. The dull Rover
saloon cars have also been made available as MGs with serious power and
handling improvements, including the 75 (biggest saloon) being converted to
rear-wheel-drive and a sodding great V8 fitted. The MGF (open-top 2-seater
descendant of the MGB) has just been face-lifted, and there are plans for a
SERIOUS high-performance convertible based on a design by a bankrupt Italian
company (Qvale) that MG Rover bought the remnants of. They are racing in
the top national saloon car championship with some success, and raced at Le
Mans last year and will be back again this year.
They are trying damn hard with a company that one of the greatest car giants
in the world flogged for #10 as a dead loss, and I hope they succeed. They
deserve to. And if they don't start selling the MG TF (as the MGF has been
renamed) in the States they are fools, as I'm sure it would help their
cause.
Richard & Daffy
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