Rover 75 Number Plates

Rover was the British car company who had a not-so happy ending. They didn’t start out making cars though, as they were founded after building the first modern bicycle, compared to the Penny-Farthings of the time. In fact, their bicycles had such an impact, that countries around the world took inspiration from the name ‘Rover’ for their word for ‘bicycle’, such as the Polish word for bike, “Rower”! They continued to produce bicycles, before venturing into motorcycles, and eventually motor cars.

Rover 75

The tough times…

Rover endured some incredibly tough times with Leyland Motor Corporation and British Leyland, going through various peaks and troughs through nationalisation, mergers and demergers! Despite this, Rover managed to keep their identity throughout the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s, as well as after their change of hands with the likes of BMW, MG and Honda.

Their failure and insolvency was a product of their lack of sales and a constant run of unfortunate events. For example, the Rover P8 had potential to bring them back when under British Leyland, however it was seen as a threat to the future investment of the Jaguar XJ6 and so was put on hold yet never returned.

The Rover SD1 also had economic setbacks and the 70’s financial fiasco. Likewise the Rover 75 in 1999 also struggled as a result of not being able to compete with the BMW 3 Series, which resulted in it being pulled from production.

When Rover came to be passed on to MG in 1999, the company had a total loss of £800 million due to poor sales and unfavourable vehicles compared to competitors. The rough years didn’t end there unfortunately.