Patrick Bowen wrote:
Maybe I am a bit into anylizing corporate psychology, but people do
things for a reason.
While not holding his breath for a new rollout, is awefully curious of
why!
As others have commented, it costs little to register a trademark.
Reliable sources have indicated to me outside a work environment that
BMW were undertaking a great deal of research and asking more than
just a few pertinent questions some months back about Triumph and the
north American market. Okay, that's probably par for the normal
research process (?) in registering a name that has lapsed for more
than just a few years. Many overlook the fact that in the 1970's, the
Triumph saloons sold in Europe, mainly Dolomite Sprint and 2.5/2500S
saloons were a lower cost alternative to the Munich roundel. The
Sprint and 2002ti certainly were neck and neck in European saloon car
racing.
Friendly discussions I have had over the last two years with senior
BMW people on a broad theme "of what might have been 20 years ago"
suggest the Riley and Triumph names were more than just of casual
importance to them. One actually said, "if Jaguar Rover Triumph had
not been so ruled by Austin Morris in the 1970's and had got the build
quality sorted earlier, many of us in Munich think you might have
bought us - and not the other way about as it later turned out."
This is all idle speculation on what may or may not happen, but when
you (happily?) divest yourself of a series of brand names, of which MG
is one, and cling passionately to Riley and Triumph in the face of all
odds, there is a reason. There's a factory at Spartanburg, another in
Oxford that currently builds the new Mini (which BMW once claimed
didn't really interest them all that much - yet they kept it) a new
engines plant being built near Birmingham, a new parts warehouse - and
Rolls Royce in a new factory near the south coast. That's a lot of
money being invested - and quite a lot of space, isn't it? Possibly
enough space to one day see a TR9, Messerfire or perhaps a Riley
Adelphi, Imp, Lynx ... ?
They might even do something completely different in Germany. Only
death and the rent man are life's certainties, everything else is a
variable.
Jonmac
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