Ford purchased Land Rover, according to Yahoo News. The rest of Rover went to
the new buyers. Apparently BMW is only keeping the "new Mini" out of the whole
Rover thing. These they intend to sell in North America at "select BMW
dealerships." No one seems to know if Alchemy Partners (and they better be
good at that if they want to make something profitable out of the remnants of
Rover) will continue to make the "Old Mini" after it's planned September
phase-out date.
Not too long ago, Wolfgang Ziebart, a spokesman for BMW AG, told a press
conference in Detroit that they had no plans to market an MG in North America
"in the forseeable future." Speculation was that it was due to problems with
federalizing the cars, and dealer network squabbles still left over from when
British Leyland pulled out of the US market. (There are dealers out there who
claim first dibs on those franchises if they come back.) I would guess it was
more to do with dealer network troubles than technical issues since the new car
was expected to be based on the Z-3 which already meets crash standards. (and
anything can be made to pass emissions with some development) I wonder what
the new owners think about this, and if any Austin-Healey would have the same
problem. I really think that using the Healey name for a car unconnected with
the Healey family would be a shame. Kind of like the way I feel about Ford
using "Cobra" on hot Mustang variants - that's a Shelby name and should be kept
that way.
I wonder if the Ford/Land Rover deal is the beginning of the end for the old
Buick/Rover aluminum v-8. Ford likes to standardize things and I would guess
they'll take a look at that old pushrod mill of GM ancestry and decide it's
time to put their new ohc v-8 in there.
Phil Vanner
with an MG and a BMW and Ford that's really a Mazda (and a Mazda pseudo-Ford)
On Friday, March 17, 2000 4:02 PM, Jay Bourgraf [SMTP:jaybird@isoc.net] wrote:
> FYI
> Rumor from a good source sent me a message today stating that Ford has
> purchased Rover . Somehow I don't think the blue oval goes good with Daktari
> stripes...
>
> Jaybird
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