TheFazz
Club Guest
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2004
- Messages
- 67
- Points
- 6
When Bernd Pischetsrieder (then BMW CEO in the mid 90s) bought Rover, many wondered what on earth was he thinking? Rover was not really a healthy dog to start with. True enough, it soon transformed from a sad mutt into the English patient.But Peaches (I cannot spell his name without checking) is an Anglophile. Not content with Rover, he also bought Rolls Royce. At the time when VW and BMW were out bidding each other for the silver lady, Peaches demonstrated a stroke of genius by pushing VW to out bid itself and win the purchase of the company, but with BMW retaining the RR brand (thru its association with the RR Aircraft Engines company).Suddenly BMW was a company which owned several illustrious brands (aside from BMW, of course). It then owned, RR, MINI, Rover, MG, Land Rover amongst other nostalgic British brands. It went on to produce the Rover 75 - which I thought was a very nice, retro & very English car. Its collaboration with Land Rover produce the excellent current Range Rover. Then it produced the award winning MINI and the stupendous Silver Phantom.It looked like Peaches had the midas touch. But alas, the old dog cannot learn new tricks, and Rover could not become profitable and was burning a hole in BMW's pockets. Unlike DaimlerChrysler, BMW quickly realised the problem and quickly dumped Rover for a notional GBP10. Yes, just ten quids.Together with Rover went Peaches (who moved to VW) and Peaches then CEO rival Wolfgang Rietzle... who was quite the star of BMW, but left because the board appointed Prof Panken instead of Rietzle who looked very much like the obvious choice.Anyway, many a casualty was the result of BMW's Rover adventure. In selling off Rover (for 10 quid), BMW held on to the MINI brand and went on to sell MINI's like hot nasi lemaks. But strong brands like Land Rover went to Ford (another rival and a long time BMW predator). I though that was a sad sad move. BMW should have kept Land Rover (and Range Rover) and avoided from building the X5 and the X3. But who am I to say so?But my question now, is what brands does BMW still own? The article below somewhat confuses me... saying that MG and Rover (and other brands apparently) are still own by BMW, but leased to the current Rover owners. It even says that BMW bought RR from VW... which I am sure was not the case. BMW bought the RR brand from the RR-BMW aircraft engine JV (or was it Vickers).Lets list them out:1. BMW2. MINI3. Rolls Royce4. MG??? is this true?5. Rover??? is this true?6.7.8.9.http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_feature_item.phpIf true that BMW still owns the MG... what chances of BMW producing another blockbuster in the form of an MG roadster?? What about a direct Jaguar rival with Rover (but not built in England)?
