VW bought Rolls Royce and Bentley - then BMW nobbled Rolls Royce out
from under them, so VW paid a heavy premium price for the Bentley
name.
As for RR, the car division was owned by Vickers before sale to VW.
The Aero Engine side was a public company, nationalised went it nearly
went bust in 1970 and now back in public ownership.
BMW plan to build RR cars at a new factory in the south of England,
presumably using engines from their newly launched engine plant in the
UK.
As for Ford and ownership / continuing use of the old Buick engine in
Range Rover, time will tell in the near future. The new Range Rover
looks an impressive piece of kit but at current Range Rover pricing it
damned well ought to be. The new model was largely developed under
Rover/BMW until the whole lot went pear-shaped in March last year.
Don't think Ford can claim too much of that but what it plans to do
with later versions of Defender, Discovery and Freelander is anyone's
guess. I don't think 'Henry' will have too much difficulty in coming
up with far better and more impressive versions of all these but this
is an issue Rover could have resolved itself if only it had put its
mind to it. If the ones I've been driving over the last three years
are representative of the general product and build quality, this goes
far in explaining why Daihatsu and Mitsubishi have done so well in the
UK. I drove a new Disco back from Germany in April and seriously
considered leaving it under the sea. Horrible thing - noisy, rough,
gutless, rattles and damned uncomfortable. After 300 miles over two
days I was more than exhausted. IMHO, a typical example of British
mediocrity that was common in the 1970's but out of place 30 years
later and allied to stratospheric pricing. Less than impressive all
round.
Jonmac
MG 4305 DLO 1970 2.5PI
"Fools rush in - and grab all the best seats"
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