Rover: The Story of a British Car Brand, 1878–2005

At a glance

Bicycles, motorcycles and the first cars (1878–1928)

John Kemp Starley and William Sutton started their business in Coventry in 1878, and their first product, a tricycle, appeared in 1883. In 1885 Starley built the Rover safety bicycle, with a chain drive to the rear wheel and two wheels of similar size. Its success gave the business its name, and in 1889 the firm was renamed after its founder as J K Starley and Company Limited. Starley had also experimented with an electric car in 1888, but it never went into production.

Starley died in October 1901, aged 46. The company's first motorcycle, the Imperial, followed in 1902, and in 1904 Rover began to build cars with the Rover 8, which stayed in production until 1912. The Rover 12 of 1912 was such a success that for a time it was the only car Rover made. During the First World War the company built motorcycles and designed trucks for other makers.

The Wilks brothers and the quality car (1929–1945)

The 1920s were difficult, and Rover's future was shaped by new management. Frank Searle became managing director in 1928, Spencer Wilks joined the board in 1929, and his brother Maurice Wilks joined in 1930. Under the Wilks brothers, Rover moved away from cheap cars towards well-built, quietly elegant saloons for professional buyers. The rear-engined Scarab small car was announced in 1931 but never produced.

The firm also modernised its bodies. The Rover 10 of the early 1930s used steel bodywork made by the Pressed Steel Company, replacing the traditional wood frames covered with fabric. In 1937 the company started to run a government "shadow factory" at Acocks Green in Birmingham, and in 1940 a second one at Solihull, both to build aircraft engines. Its own Helen Street works in Coventry was damaged by bombing in 1940 and 1941.

During the war the company worked on Frank Whittle's jet engine. On 1 April 1943 it handed this work to Rolls-Royce in exchange for production of the Meteor tank engine, a version of the Merlin aero engine.

Solihull, the Land Rover and the gas turbine (1945–1967)

After the war the company left its bomb-damaged Coventry site and made Solihull its car factory, with production resuming there in 1947. Steel was rationed and given mainly to exporters, so Maurice Wilks proposed a simple four-wheel-drive utility vehicle inspired by the wartime Jeep, with an aluminium body. Land Rover production began in 1948, and the off-roader soon outsold the saloons. Its later story is told in the history of Land Rover.

The Solihull engineers were also pioneers of the gas-turbine car. The JET1, an open two-seater, was shown to the public in March 1950 and exceeded 150 mph (240 km/h) in speed trials at Jabbeke, Belgium, in 1952. The car is now kept by the Science Museum in London. The idea continued with the Rover-BRM, which raced at Le Mans in 1963 with Graham Hill and Richie Ginther driving.

On the road, the brand sold dignified saloons: the P4 from 1949 to 1964, the larger P5 from 1958 and the modern P6 from 1963. The P6 Rover 2000 was the first winner of the European Car of the Year award, in 1964. In 1965 the company bought the specialist maker Alvis and acquired the rights to an aluminium V8 designed by Buick, which became the Rover V8 and powered Rover and Land Rover models for more than 30 years.

Inside British Leyland (1967–1986)

In 1967 Rover became part of the Leyland Motor Corporation, which already owned Triumph. In 1968 Leyland merged with British Motor Holdings, the owner of Austin, Morris and Jaguar, to form British Leyland. Projects that could compete with Jaguar were cancelled, including the P8 saloon, for which body tooling had already been ordered, and the mid-engined P6BS sports car.

One project survived and changed the industry. The "100-inch station wagon" became the Range Rover of 1970, which combined Land Rover off-road ability with the comfort of a Rover saloon, using the ex-Buick V8, permanent four-wheel drive and disc brakes on all wheels. In 1976 the Rover SD1 hatchback arrived and won the European Car of the Year award for 1977, but its build quality and reliability problems damaged the brand. British Leyland was nationalised in 1975, and in 1982 the car business was reorganised as Austin Rover.

Honda partnership and the Rover Group (1979–1994)

From 1979 British Leyland worked with Honda, and the partnership shaped the brand for 15 years. The Rover 200 of 1984 was the first Honda-based Rover, and the Rover 800 of 1986, developed alongside the Honda Legend, replaced the SD1. Later models such as the 200 and 400 of 1989–1990 and the 600 of 1993 also used Honda platforms or engines, and the reputation for quality improved.

In 1986 the company became the Rover Group, and in 1988 the British government sold it to British Aerospace. Honda took a 20% stake in the Rover car business in the early 1990s.

BMW, MG Rover and the end (1994–2005)

In 1994 British Aerospace sold the Rover Group to BMW, and Honda withdrew from the partnership. Under BMW, engineers at Rover developed the Rover 75, shown in October 1998 and on sale from June 1999, the last all-new Rover. BMW also worked on the new MINI and invested in Land Rover, but losses at Longbridge kept growing.

In May 2000 BMW broke up the group. Land Rover was sold to Ford, BMW kept MINI and the Cowley plant, and the car business with Longbridge went for a nominal sum to the Phoenix Consortium, led by former Rover chief John Towers. The new MG Rover Group continued the Rover 25, 45 and 75 and the related MG models, and added the Indian-built CityRover in October 2003. Without a partner for new models, it could not survive: MG Rover stopped production on 15 April 2005 and became insolvent.

On 22 July 2005 Nanjing Automobile bought the company's physical assets, including the 75 tooling, and later revived the MG brand. SAIC, which had bought the rights to the Rover 75 and 25 designs, could not get the Rover name and created its own brand, Roewe, whose first car, the Roewe 750, was based on the Rover 75. Ford bought the Rover name from BMW on 18 September 2006 to protect Land Rover, and it passed to Tata Motors with Jaguar Land Rover in 2008. The brand has been dormant ever since.

Timeline, 1878–2008

Landmark models

A dormant name today

No car carries the name today. The name belongs to Jaguar Land Rover, which keeps it mainly to protect the Land Rover and Range Rover brands. The Rover design legacy survives in two ways: in Land Rover, which grew out of Rover's own factory, and in China, where the Rover 75 lived on as the Roewe 750 and MG 7. Former models listed on 1cars are in the Rover catalogue, and the story of its sister brand is in the history of MG. BMW's side of the 1990s is covered in the BMW history.

Which classic Rover to choose: verdict

By our count, the company lasted 127 years, from 1878 to 2005, and built cars for 101 of them. That gives a model for almost every kind of classic buyer, and other cars of the era are collected in the 1cars 1960s classics section.

The P4 and P5 suit owners who want a solid, upright saloon from the 1950s and 1960s that is simple to maintain. The P6 2000 and 3500 are the best-balanced of the classics to drive, with the ex-Buick V8 in the 3500 giving strong performance. The SD1 Vitesse is the choice for 1980s style, but needs the most care. For daily use, a late 75 or the Honda-based 800 is the most practical; to check how either compares with a rival of the time, use the comparison tool. The legacy also lives on in Land Rover: the Range Rover Sport SVR is third in the 1cars fastest SUVs ranking.