Rover under the wing of Ford!
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From the times;
Ford pays £6m for Rover marque
From James Doran in New York
THE prospect of Rover rising from the ashes was revived once again yesterday as Ford, the ailing American car manufacturer, bought the rights to the former luxury British car marque for about £6 million from BMW.
Ford is not expected to bring back the Rover in its old form — a quintessentially British luxury saloon — but is working on plans to introduce a range of “Rover” branded vehicles to fit within its Land Rover range, a source close to the company said.
Ford was granted an option of first refusal to buy the Rover brand when it acquired Land Rover from BMW for $2.7 billion in 2000.
Ford, which did not disclose officially the financial terms of its agreement with BMW, said that it had exercised the right to buy the Rover brand to protect Land Rover, which is part of its Premium Automotive Group (PAG).
“We believed then [in 2000], as we do now, that it is in the interests of the Land Rover business to own the Rover trademark,” Ford said.
Although Ford would not comment on the future of the Rover brand, sources said that the company wanted to build further upon its successful Land Rover brand in North America and has plans to design a so-called “crossover vehicle” using the Rover brand.
“Land Rover could be one member of a new Rover family,” the source said, “with Range Rover and who knows what other kind of ‘Rover’.”
Crossover vehicles are smaller more fuel-efficient versions of the gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles (SUVs) that are becoming less popular in America. Land Rover already makes the Freelander, which is similar to a crossover vehicle, but it has not proved popular in the United States.
The Rover brand was not included in last year’s deal to sell MG Rover to Nanjing Automobile Group, of China, which is planning to manufacture MG-branded sports cars at Longbridge, Birmingham, but it is understood that the Chinese company, and others, had expressed an interest in buying it.
The outside interest, which also came from Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), of China, which owned the rights to build two Rover models before the company collapsed, is understood to have spurred Ford to exercise its option to buy the brand. SAIC is in a joint venture with both General Motors and Volkswagen to manufacture cars in China.
Ford made the surprise move yesterday, as it was revealed that the carmaker recently held brief preliminary talks about a merger or alliance with its arch-rival General Motors.
The talks, between Don Leclair, the chief financial officer of Ford, and Fritz Henderson, his counterpart at GM, were held in August, but are not expected to be revived and no deal between the two is expected to emerge. GM has also been in talks with Renault, of France, and Nissan, of Japan, about a possible three-way alliance. The talks do not seem to have advanced since they were announced in July, however.
Ford and GM are struggling in the face of increased competition from Asian carmakers and rising labour costs.
Last week Ford offered redundancy packages to all 82,000 of its hourly unionised workers and said that it also would cut 14,000 salaried jobs.
The company declined to comment about the talks with GM.
Ford pays £6m for Rover marque
From James Doran in New York
THE prospect of Rover rising from the ashes was revived once again yesterday as Ford, the ailing American car manufacturer, bought the rights to the former luxury British car marque for about £6 million from BMW.
Ford is not expected to bring back the Rover in its old form — a quintessentially British luxury saloon — but is working on plans to introduce a range of “Rover” branded vehicles to fit within its Land Rover range, a source close to the company said.
Ford was granted an option of first refusal to buy the Rover brand when it acquired Land Rover from BMW for $2.7 billion in 2000.
Ford, which did not disclose officially the financial terms of its agreement with BMW, said that it had exercised the right to buy the Rover brand to protect Land Rover, which is part of its Premium Automotive Group (PAG).
“We believed then [in 2000], as we do now, that it is in the interests of the Land Rover business to own the Rover trademark,” Ford said.
Although Ford would not comment on the future of the Rover brand, sources said that the company wanted to build further upon its successful Land Rover brand in North America and has plans to design a so-called “crossover vehicle” using the Rover brand.
“Land Rover could be one member of a new Rover family,” the source said, “with Range Rover and who knows what other kind of ‘Rover’.”
Crossover vehicles are smaller more fuel-efficient versions of the gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles (SUVs) that are becoming less popular in America. Land Rover already makes the Freelander, which is similar to a crossover vehicle, but it has not proved popular in the United States.
The Rover brand was not included in last year’s deal to sell MG Rover to Nanjing Automobile Group, of China, which is planning to manufacture MG-branded sports cars at Longbridge, Birmingham, but it is understood that the Chinese company, and others, had expressed an interest in buying it.
The outside interest, which also came from Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), of China, which owned the rights to build two Rover models before the company collapsed, is understood to have spurred Ford to exercise its option to buy the brand. SAIC is in a joint venture with both General Motors and Volkswagen to manufacture cars in China.
Ford made the surprise move yesterday, as it was revealed that the carmaker recently held brief preliminary talks about a merger or alliance with its arch-rival General Motors.
The talks, between Don Leclair, the chief financial officer of Ford, and Fritz Henderson, his counterpart at GM, were held in August, but are not expected to be revived and no deal between the two is expected to emerge. GM has also been in talks with Renault, of France, and Nissan, of Japan, about a possible three-way alliance. The talks do not seem to have advanced since they were announced in July, however.
Ford and GM are struggling in the face of increased competition from Asian carmakers and rising labour costs.
Last week Ford offered redundancy packages to all 82,000 of its hourly unionised workers and said that it also would cut 14,000 salaried jobs.
The company declined to comment about the talks with GM.
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