79-591: MG Rover Group (2000–2005) Morris Motors Limited was a British privately owned motor vehicle manufacturing company formed in 1919 to take over the assets of William Morris 's WRM Motors Limited and continue production of the same vehicles. By 1926 its production represented 42 per cent of British car manufacture—a remarkable expansion rate attributed to William Morris's practice of buying in major as well as minor components and assembling them in his own factory. Although it merged with Austin Motor Company to form
158-572: A UK R&D and technical facility would also be developed. But on 27 August, The Daily Telegraph reported that the balance of around £47M, due on 22 August had not been paid. Citing confidentiality, the Administrators declined to comment. Because the Rover 45 range produced at Longbridge had still had significant Honda content, originating from the companies' legacy partnership with Rover and British Leyland, Honda executives moved quickly to terminate
237-461: A day. The Ministry of Aircraft Production took over the plant putting in managers from Supermarine and placing it under Vickers-Armstrongs (of which Supermarine was a part) supervision. After a major air raid damaged the Morris Bodies factory, the premises switched to the production of jerry cans , producing millions of these versatile containers for use during the rest of the war and following
316-518: A facelifted Marina) was the last Morris-badged passenger car, with production ending in the summer of 1984. The last Morris of all was a van variant of the Austin Metro , before the Morris brand was finally completely abandoned in 1987. After much restructuring of BL in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the former Morris plant at Cowley and its sister site the former Pressed Steel plant were turned over to
395-424: A further issue of ordinary shares to him, the car manufacturing businesses of Wolseley Motors Limited and The MG Car Company Limited. A separate private company, Wolseley Aero Engines Limited , was then formed to continue the development of his aviation interests. In 1936 Lord Nuffield sold Morris Commercial Cars Limited , his commercial vehicle enterprise, to Morris Motors. In 1938 William Morris, Baron Nuffield
474-511: A much-needed 4-seat version of the car. White and Poppe , who made the engine, were unable to supply the volume of units that Morris required, so Morris turned to Continental of Detroit, Michigan for the supply of a 1548 cc engine. Gearboxes and axles were also sourced in the US. In spite of the outbreak of the First World War the orders were maintained and, from mid-1915 a new larger car,
553-433: A personal relationship between Nick Stephenson and a consultant who he paid more than £1.6m in the 15-month period up to April 2005. Meanwhile, "Evidence Eliminator" software installed by Mr Beale deleted documents which were likely to have been relevant to the investigation. The investigators further accused Mr Beale of giving "untruthful" evidence during interviews. Conservative business spokesman Kenneth Clarke said it
632-406: A planned launch in 2021 under the re-launched Morris Commercial marque, well over 30 years after the Morris brand had disappeared. WRM Motors Ltd began in 1912 when bicycle manufacturer William Morris moved on from the sale, hire, and repair of cars to car manufacturing. He planned a new light car assembled from bought-in components. In this way he was able to retain ownership by keeping within
711-469: A proper moving assembly line and creating Europe's largest integrated car plant. But Morris and Lord fell out, and after 15 years Lord left in 1936—threatening to "take Cowley apart brick by brick". Lord moved to Austin and they were to meet again in BMC—Morris, as Lord Nuffield, its first chairman. Lord succeeded him. As of 1 July 1935 Morris Motors acquired from W R Morris, now Lord Nuffield, in exchange for
790-567: A separate MG factory was soon established south of Oxford in Abingdon, Oxfordshire . Having admired Budd's all-steel bodies Morris founded The Pressed Steel Company of Great Britain Limited in 1926 as a joint venture with Edward G Budd Manufacturing Company - Budd International of Philadelphia, USA. Pressed Steel's factory was located over the road from Morris's factory at Cowley and supplied Morris and many other motor manufacturers. Morris withdrew from
869-432: A speed of some 6–7 mph (9.7–11.3 km/h). The signalman noticed this and attempted to avert a collision with another train in the station by switching the points to an empty platform but was too late. The rear carriage was derailed, rolled onto its side and was crushed against the steel support of the main signal gantry. The first-class compartment where Kimber had been sitting was demolished; he and one other passenger
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#1733085123700948-699: Is owned and operated by BMW, who use it to assemble the new MINI . The history of William Morris's business is commemorated in the Morris Motors Museum at the Oxford Bus Museum . Post-Morris cars to have been built at Cowley include the Austin/MG Maestro , Austin/MG Montego , Rover 600 , Rover 800 and (for a short time) the Rover 75 . Following the bankruptcy of the MG Rover Group in 2005, three competing bids were launched aiming to acquire
1027-526: The British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC), and subsequently, in 1975, the nationalised British Leyland Limited (BL). The Cowley complex remained the second largest single facility in the BL empire (after Longbridge ), but BL's history was a turbulent one – BMC was close to financial ruin, and the newly installed Leyland management failed to turn its fortunes around. With the replacement for
1106-621: The British Motor Corporation in 1952, the Morris name remained in use until 1984, when the by-then Austin Rover Group decided to concentrate on the more popular Austin brand as well as expanding the more upmarket Rover brand. Until 2014, Morris Oxford vehicles (based on the 1954-59 Oxford) were manufactured with periodic enhancements in India by Hindustan Motors , and sold well there, even being imported to Britain in small numbers during
1185-454: The King's Cross railway accident on Sunday 4 February 1945, having boarded the 6:00 p.m. express to Leeds. Shortly after leaving the station and entering Gasworks Tunnel , the locomotive's wheels started slipping on a newly replaced section of rail laid on the rising gradient. In the darkness, the driver failed to realise that the train was no longer moving forward and had started to roll back at
1264-801: The Morris Marina and Leyland Princess being delayed into the 1980s, the Marina was restyled in 1980 to become the Morris Ital, while the Princess was restyled for 1982 to become the Austin Ambassador . British Leyland later confirmed that the Morris brand would be discontinued on the all-new replacement for these two cars, which was finally launched in April 1984 as the Austin Montego . The Morris Ital (essentially
1343-685: The Nuffield Organization merged with its old rival the Austin Motor Company to form the British Motor Corporation (BMC). Nuffield brought the Morris, MG, Riley and Wolseley marques into the merger. Leonard Lord was in charge, which led to Austin's domination of the organisation. Badge-engineering was important to BMC and for many years the various marques would be seen on several families of similar vehicles. In 1966, BMC acquired Jaguar to create British Motor Holdings (BMH), which subsequently merged with Leyland Motors in 1968 to form
1422-591: The Powertrain Ltd business, for £67M. It did not acquire the Rover name, which was still owned by BMW at the time (See 'Brands' below). On 15 April 2005, it was announced that SAIC had once again rejected pleas to buy out the company. With no other rescue deal in the pipeline, the administrators were not in a position to seek further funding from the government and announced that redundancy notices to Longbridge staff (who numbered more than 6,000) would be issued. As well as
1501-462: The "MG" trademark resulted in a legal dispute with Nanjing Automobile (Group) Corporation , which had also acquired assets of the defunct MG Rover Group. This case was won by Nanjing in February 2010. Cecil Kimber Cecil Kimber (12 April 1888 – 4 February 1945) was a motor car designer. He is best known for his role in having been the driving force behind The M.G. Car Company . Kimber
1580-574: The 1990s. Part of Morris's manufacturing complex at Cowley, Oxford is now BMW Group 's Plant Oxford , factory of the MINI marque since its launch in 2001. The Morris trademark is currently owned by the China-based automotive company SAIC after being transferred from bankrupt subsidiary Nanjing Automotive . The Morris Commercial JE, an electric van with a 1940s design, was unveiled in November 2019 ahead of
1659-507: The 2-seat and 4-seat Morris Cowley was introduced. After the war the Continental engine was no longer available so Morris arranged for Hotchkiss of France to make a near copy in their Coventry factory. This was used to power new versions of the basic Cowley and more up-market Morris Oxford cars. With a reputation for producing high-quality cars and a policy of cutting prices, Morris's business continued to grow and increase its share of
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#17330851237001738-477: The 25 still used underpinnings based on the 1989 Honda Concerto and the related Series II Rover 200 , whilst the 45 was essentially a rebadged Honda Civic/Domani outfitted with a K-series engine) - a legacy from Rover's one time partnership with Honda, which necessitated paying the Japanese company significant royalties on every car sold which further dented the profitability of those models. The acclaimed Rover 75
1817-653: The Administrators announced that the principal remaining assets of the group had been sold to the Nanjing Automobile Group for around £53M, with a deposit of around $ 5M. Nanjing Automobile Group indicating that their preliminary plans involved relocating the Powertrain engine plant to China and splitting car production into Rover lines in China and MG lines in the West Midlands (though not necessarily at Longbridge), where
1896-573: The British Empire. Both-Nuffield respirators were able to be produced by the thousand at about one-thirteenth the cost of the American design. In the summer of 1938 Morris agreed to build, equip and manage at government expense a huge new factory at Castle Bromwich specifically to manufacture Supermarine Spitfires . with intention to build bombers later. Nuffield's management failed; no Spitfires were delivered by May 1940 despite expectation of 60
1975-560: The British Government had decided to withdraw its offer of a £120 million loan to keep the deal going. On 7 April 2005 the company announced that it was suspending production because of component shortages. Later in the day, it was announced by Patricia Hewitt , the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry , that the company was being placed in receivership. Her statement was based on a conversation with MG Rover chairman, John Towers . It
2054-552: The British market overtaking Ford to become in 1924 the UK's biggest car manufacturer, holding a 51% share of the home market and remaining enormously profitable. Possessed of a very large cash income Morris had a policy of personally buying up suppliers' businesses. For example, in 1923 he bought Hotchkiss's Coventry business which later became Morris Engines branch. He also brought in F G Woollard which became Morris Commercial Cars to lead
2133-480: The British media suggesting the Chinese company was poised to launch a takeover. Later that year, in November, news broke of an agreement between the two companies to create a joint venture company to produce up to a million cars a year, with the production shared between MG Rover's Longbridge site and locations in China. SAIC were to have a 70% stake in this company in return for a £1 billion investment, with MG Rover owning
2212-460: The European market, from Chinese-built semi-knocked-down (SKD) kits, restarted. SAIC Motor merged with Nanjing Automobile in 2007, whilst nearly three-quarters of the massive Longbridge factory had been demolished and its land sold off - the old South Works is the only part of the plant which has survived. By 2011 MG Motor UK as it is now known started production of the first all new MG in 16 years,
2291-625: The Exchequer , and Richard Burden, Labour M.P. for Birmingham Northfield visited Tony Woodley at the offices of the Transport and General Workers' Union in Birmingham and stated that there might be some hope for the future of the company, although not the original deal agreed with SAIC. In the media, any news about MG Rover was overshadowed by the Pope's funeral and the problems of the register office marriage of
2370-535: The K series engine in a car for the Iranian market that was based on the old Mazda 121 and Kia Pride , were also rumoured to be potential buyers. SAIC had claimed that it had already acquired intellectual property rights in some Rover products for £67 million in the autumn of 2004, including the Rover 25 , the Rover 75 and the Rover Powertrain K-series engine, but the Administrators advised that there
2449-579: The MG6. In 2013 a new super-mini was added to the line up, the MG3. This was launched in summer 2013 and during 2014 helped in making MG Motor the fastest growing vehicle manufacturer within the UK. During the spring of 2015 a new MG6 was launched and plans for a new SUV were unveiled for the following year. The UK Government commissioned reports into the collapse of the company. The National Audit Office reported in March 2006 on
Morris Motors - Misplaced Pages Continue
2528-743: The Morris C4 truck, Morris ML ambulance, 500 Morris Commercial 8x8 GS Terrapin (amphibious vehicle)s , and the Morris Commercial CD series trucks. Production restarted after the Second World War, with the pre-war Eight and Ten designs. In 1948 the Eight was replaced by what is probably the most famous Morris car, the Morris Minor designed by Alec Issigonis (who later went on to design the Mini ) and reusing
2607-504: The Morris marque, being transferred to SAIC. The Morris badge shows an ox fording the River Isis , the traditional emblem of William Morris's home town of Oxford , used in the coat of arms of Oxford . Many of the model names are based on the tax horsepower rather than the actual horsepower. "Six" often indicates a 6-cylinder engine. MG Rover Group MG Rover Group was a British carmaker that existed between 2000 and 2005. It
2686-489: The Phoenix Consortium, including tax advice while Deloitte audited MG Rover. An independent tribunal refused to grant the right to appeal a finding that Deloitte failed to consider public interest, as of November 2013. In June 2004, it was learned that Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation had signed a joint venture partnership to develop new models and technologies with MG Rover. This led to much speculation among
2765-550: The Phoenix Four were disqualified as acting as company directors for varying lengths of time, totalling 19 years. The MG Rover range initially consisted of five cars: the Mini , Rover 25 , Rover 45 , Rover 75 and MG F along with car-derived van derivatives of the 25. The Mini was only built under temporary licence during the first five months of MG Rover's existence, and since the 1980s had only been built in limited numbers. After production finished, previous owner BMW regained
2844-505: The Prince of Wales and his bride . On 10 April 2005, MG Rover announced that they had received a £6.5M loan from the British Government. This would cover workers' wages for one week while buy-out proposals were made to SAIC. The same week, SAIC denied it had ever made an offer to buy MG Rover and threatened to sue anyone who attempted to make the 25 and 75 models. SAIC purchased the technical rights to manufacture Rover's 25 and 75 models, and for
2923-517: The SAIC tie-up went ahead, according to the Indian press. Tata claimed the report was inaccurate two days later. In January 2005, it was revealed that British Prime Minister Tony Blair had intervened to support the alliance between MG Rover and SAIC. MG Rover could not give a date on which the agreement would be finalized. In April 2005, it was reported that the partnership deal with SAIC was in trouble because
3002-506: The UK in 2014. The Rover brand , which had been retained by BMW and licensed to MG Rover, was sold to Ford , which had bought Land Rover from BMW in 2000. The rights to the dormant Rover brand were sold by Ford, along with the Jaguar Cars and Land Rover businesses, to Tata Motors in 2008. MG Rover Group was formally dissolved on 28 May 2023, more than 18 years after it was originally put into administration in April 2005. MG Rover
3081-513: The UK subsidiary was renamed MG Motor UK . The MG TF was manufactured at the former MG Rover Longbridge plant and sold within the UK from 2008 to 2010. In 2011 the first all new MG for 16 years (the MG 6 ) was launched in the UK (assembled at the Longbridge factory). During 2013 a supermini was added to the line up (the MG 3 ), this went on to help MG Motor become the fastest growing car manufacturer within
3160-417: The assets of both MG Rover and engine maker Rover Powertrain which, if successful, would see at least some production being restarted at Longbridge, and that talks with the other two interested parties – China's Nanjing Automobile Group and Project Kimber (a consortium of Birmingham businessmen led by David James ) – were still in progress. More than 6,000 workers at MG Rover lost their jobs when
3239-460: The away kit advertising MGs. Also, the company had sponsored the popular ITV murder drama series Midsomer Murders , in which a range of MG Rover cars were presented. All of the following brands were controlled by MG Rover, and were formerly the property of British Leyland. The Rover brand was used under licence from BMW, and was sold to Ford following the collapse of MG Rover; it was subsequently bought in 2008 by TATA. The MG XPower brand
Morris Motors - Misplaced Pages Continue
3318-462: The bounds of his own capital resources. A factory was opened in 1913 at former Oxford Military College at Cowley, Oxford , United Kingdom where Morris's first car, the 2-seat Morris Oxford "Bullnose" , was assembled. Nearly all the major components were bought in. In 1914 a coupé and van were added to the line-up, but the Bullnose chassis was too short and the 1018 cc engine too small to make
3397-464: The company intact as a going concern, the Administrators had instructed their agents to prepare for the piecemeal sale of the very few remaining assets in the event that satisfactory negotiations for the sale of the entire business were not concluded. On 14 July 2005, it was reported that Magma Holdings, a financial group including former Ford Motor Company and General Motors executives, working in conjunction with SAIC, would be making an offer for
3476-409: The company to proceed instead to a creditors' voluntary liquidation , setting the date for a preliminary Creditors' Meeting to be held in Birmingham on 10 June 2005. At that meeting, creditors learned that so little of value was left in the company that there would probably be negligible or even no repayment of its outstanding debt and that, although three bidders were then still negotiating to acquire
3555-428: The company went into liquidation. As many as 25,000 jobs were reported to have been lost in related supply industries, meaning that the total number of job losses brought on by MG Rover's collapse was somewhere in the region of 30,000. On 18 July, Magma Holdings and SAIC formalized their bid with a reported offer of £60M, with a number of additional conditions. However, that offer was not well received, and on 22 July,
3634-521: The company's assets. One of the bids, led by Maserati CEO Martin Leach alongside Chinese state-owned Shanghai Automotive Industries Corporation (SAIC) , included plans for a Morris Minor revival. Despite this, the bid was lost to the Nanjing Automobile Corporation and the new Minor was not produced, although Nanjing Automobile Corporation later merged with SAIC, with all assets, including
3713-546: The ending of hostilities. The Cowley plant was turned over to aircraft repair and production of Tiger Moth pilot trainers, as well as "mine sinkers" based on a design produced at the same plant during the First World War. Morris produced the popular Morris C8 Quad artillery prime mover towing artillery (such as the 25-pounder ) and anti-tank guns (such as the 17-pounder ) with some 10,200 made. Morris also produced some 2200 Morris Light Reconnaissance Cars , 100 Morris CS9 armoured cars, 21,319 Morris CS8 15cwt light trucks,
3792-485: The family firm in 1914 and get a job with Sheffield-Simplex as assistant to the chief designer. During World War I he moved first to AC Cars and then to component supplier EG Wrigley . He made a large personal financial investment in Wrigleys but he lost this when the company lost heavily on a deal with Angus-Sanderson for whom he had styled a radiator. Wrigley had also been a major supplier to Morris Motors Limited and
3871-515: The financial support provided to the company. It commended the DTI's contingency planning in 2004, but questioned whether the loan made in April 2005 achieved value for money. The DTI commissioned accountants BDO Stoy Hayward to report on the collapse of the company; this took four years to complete at a cost of £14.8 million. The firm issued its report to business minister Peter Mandelson in July 2009, and it
3950-546: The former Rover Group (itself the remaining rump of British Leyland , which in turn had its roots in the even older British Motor Corporation , formerly Austin and Morris ), which by now consisted solely of the Longbridge plant in Birmingham . Of the Rover Group's other two major plants; Solihull had already been divested as part of the sale of Land Rover to Ford, whilst the Cowley and Swindon plants were retained by BMW for
4029-466: The job losses at Longbridge, the months which followed the collapse of MG Rover resulted in many job losses in the supply chain, as well as jobs in MG Rover dealerships, as these businesses either went bankrupt, were faced with having to make job cuts, or in the case of some dealerships switched to different brands. By the end of April 2005, Sir Richard Branson had reportedly expressed an interest in buying
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#17330851237004108-609: The launch of the smallest model, the Indian-built CityRover , built as part of a venture with Tata , and a flagship model, the MG XPower SV , based on the Qvale Mangusta . Both cars, however, failed to achieve the sales figures that MG Rover had hoped for. MG Rover made the following vehicles during its lifetime: MG Rover sponsored Aston Villa Football Club from 2002 to 2004, with Villa's home kit advertising Rovers and
4187-479: The licensing agreement and removed tooling and assembly equipment for the car from Longbridge. Nanjing Automobile started shipping equipment from Longbridge to China on 15 September and, according to a report in The Times on Saturday, 17 September, were close to a deal with SAIC under which they would manufacture the Rover 25 and Powertrain engines while SAIC would produce a stretched Rover 75. Nanjing Automobile Group
4266-410: The outbreak of World War II, car production stopped and at first M.G. was reduced to making basic items for the armed forces until Kimber obtained contract work on aircraft but this was done without first obtaining approval and he was asked to resign and left in 1941. He soon found other work first with coachbuilder Charlesworth and then with specialist piston maker Specialloid. Kimber was killed in
4345-599: The production of Austin and Rover-badged vehicles. They continued to be used by BL's Austin Rover Group and its successor the Rover Group , which was eventually bought by BMW , and then by a management consortium, leading to the creation of MG Rover . None of the former Morris buildings now exist. British Aerospace sold the site in 1992; it was then demolished and replaced with the Oxford Business Park. The adjacent former Pressed Steel site (now known as Plant Oxford)
4424-413: The production of MG sports cars. The new company moved from Oxford to Abingdon in 1929 and Kimber became managing director in July 1930. The main shareholder remained William Morris himself and in 1935 he formally sold M.G. to Morris Motors which meant Kimber was no longer in sole control and had to take instructions from head office leading to him becoming increasingly disillusioned with his role. With
4503-452: The production of the new MINI family of vehicles. As part of these changes, all remaining Rover volume production at Cowley (essentially now just the Rover 75 as the Rover 600/800 ranges had already been discontinued by this point), was moved to Longbridge, whilst MG Rover would be allowed to continue manufacturing the original Mini at Longbridge until the new MINI was launched by BMW a year later. When BMW sold off its interests, MG Rover
4582-508: The re-organization of their engine production from batch to flow, thus increasing output from less than 300 units per week to 1200. By 1924 the factory was making 2000 units a week with only a small increase in work space and labour force. Cecil Kimber , head of Morris's own original 1909-founded Morris Garage sales hire and repair operation in Oxford, began building sporting versions of Morris cars in 1924 labelling them MG . They were so successful
4661-550: The remaining 30%. However, this agreement had to be ratified by the Chinese government, specifically its National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The Commission held the opinion that if BMW could not make a success of Rover, then it would be hard for SAIC to do so. On 8 December 2004, Tata of India, which had cooperated over the export of the Tata Indica as the CityRover , threatened to cease its agreement with MG Rover if
4740-402: The remaining assets of the company for the purpose of reviving the marque in order to enter the hybrid automobile market, and several other parties were also rumoured as wishing to buy the remnants. These included two Russian businessmen, although one of them denied any interest in buying the company's assets. The Iranian state-owned car manufacturer, SAIPA who had worked with MG Rover installing
4819-437: The rights to use the brand, and did so on an all-new car that was launched in 2001: MINI . The Rover 25 and Rover 45 were recently facelifted versions of visibly ageing mid-1990s designs, but production figures had been slightly decreased due to a fall in demand, even though the Rover 25 had been Britain's best-selling car of the month in April 2000. Both cars still had significant Honda content within their design (for example,
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#17330851237004898-576: The small car market helped Morris through the economic depression of the 1930s. At the 1934 London Motor Show the Minor was replaced by the Morris Eight , a direct response to the Ford Model Y and, though Leonard Lord's handiwork, heavily based on it. In 1932 W R Morris appointed Lord Managing Director of Morris Motors Limited and Lord swept through the Morris works, updating the production methods, introducing
4977-450: The small car name from 1928. The Ten was replaced by a new 1948 Morris Oxford MO , styled like a larger version of the Minor. A later Morris Oxford (the 1956 Morris Oxford III) was the basis for the design of India's Hindustan Ambassador , which continued in production until 2014. They used six engines and five (and a half) car bodies, of which the "specialist" three were obsolescent, the rest very closely related if not identical. In 1952
5056-520: The venture in mid-1930. Budd sold their share to British interests at the beginning of 1936. The small car market was entered in 1928 with the Leonard Lord -designed Morris Minor , using an 847 cc engine from Morris's newly acquired Wolseley Motors . Lord had been sent there to modernise the works and Wolseley's products. The Minor was to provide the base for the MG Midgets . This timely spread into
5135-429: Was also reported to have begun negotiations with at least two other potential partners, including "a wealthy San Francisco family", and, in early November, Nanjing committed to making every effort "to resume production [at Longbridge] at the beginning of 2007". In August 2008, more than three years after the facility had closed due to MG Rover's bankruptcy, assembly at Longbridge of a lightly revised MG TF roadster for
5214-453: Was born in London on 12 April 1888 to Henry Kimber, a printing engineer and his wife Fanny. After attending Stockport Grammar School he joined his father's company and took an early interest in motorcycles, buying a Rex model, but after an accident on a friend's machine that severely damaged his right leg he took to cars and in 1913 bought a 10 hp Singer . This interest caused him to leave
5293-490: Was bought by W R Morris in 1923. Presumably with the help of contacts, Kimber got a job in 1921 as Sales manager with Morris Garages , also a private company owned by Morris — he founded it in 1909 — and the Morris agency in Oxford . While at Morris Garages he developed a range of special bodies for Morris cars, which were sold under the MG brand , eventually leading in 1928 to the founding of The M.G. Car Company specialising in
5372-467: Was bought for a nominal £10 in May 2000 by a specially assembled group of businessmen known as the Phoenix Consortium. The consortium was headed by ex-Rover Chief Executive John Towers . When Phoenix took over, their first loss for the last eight months of 2000 were reported to be around £400m. By 2004, the company had reduced the losses to around £80m but never made a profit. MG Rover's best year for car sales
5451-429: Was created by MG Rover for their motorsport subsidiary, MG Sport and Racing Ltd. in 2001. It was subsequently used for the MG XPower SV sportscar , a higher powered version of the Qvale Mangusta, in 2005. After the demise of MG Rover, assets of MG Sport and Racing relating to the XPower SV were acquired from PWC , the Administrators, by the newly formed MG Sports and Racing Europe Ltd. However this company's use of
5530-419: Was formed from the parts of the former Rover Group volume car production business which BMW sold off in 2000 due to constant losses and a declining market share. BMW had acquired the Rover Group from British Aerospace in 1994 and had since sold the Land Rover business to Ford , and split off the MINI business as a new BMW subsidiary based in Cowley . MG Rover took control of the volume component of
5609-405: Was later denied by MG Rover Group, although the company admitted that it had engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers , the accountancy firm, to advise on its current financial situation. In the event, MG Rover placed itself in administration on 8 April 2005, a different status from receivership under British law. On 8 April 2005, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Gordon Brown , the Chancellor of
5688-738: Was little over a year old, and after a slow start sales were rising. An estate version was launched following the shift of production from Cowley to Longbridge . The replacement for the MG F, the MG TF sports car was, inevitably, a relatively low-volume product, but it had consistently been the most popular car in its sector since its 1995 launch. The Rover 25 and Rover 45 endured disappointing sales throughout MG Rover's existence, though their MG ZR and MG ZS sports variants proved popular from their launch in 2001. The Rover 75 and its MG ZT sports variant enjoyed more popularity. The range further expanded in 2003 with
5767-580: Was published on 11 September 2009. The report revealed that five executives took £42m in pay and pensions from the troubled firm as it collapsed. This was possible as Techtronic, the company that held the 427 million pound loan from BMW and was owned by the Phoenix Four, charged MG Rover interest and therefore made a profit. The report focused its criticism on the Phoenix Four and chief executive Kevin Howe who oversaw its collapse. Other findings included evidence of
5846-521: Was raised to Viscount Nuffield. The same year he transferred his newly acquired Riley car business to Morris Motors Limited for £100. Visiting London in 1938 during a polio epidemic Lord Nuffield saw a Both Iron Lung in use. He commissioned an improved design which could be produced using the techniques of car assembly and arranged production of approximately 1700 machines at the Cowley works, which he donated to hospitals throughout all parts of Britain and
5925-488: Was reported to be in exclusive negotiations with GB Sports Cars, a venture by former Rover managers, to re-establish MG production at Longbridge. In late October, key ex-workers received letters from Nanjing Automobile Corp offering 10 months' work dismantling plant at Longbridge for reassembly in China while talks with GB Sports Cars continued. However, after announcing that the UK government had not offered any substantial assistance in either grants or loans, Nanjing Automobile
6004-522: Was right the report criticised the Phoenix Four, whose behaviour was "disgraceful". Lord Mandelson said the Phoenix group had not shown an "ounce of humility" about the firm's demise and they owed an apology to the firm's employees and creditors. The Serious Fraud Office declined to mount an investigation into the matter, but Mandelson instructed lawyers to prepare a case to disqualify the key figures at Phoenix from future company directorships. In May 2011,
6083-462: Was still interest in saving some other parts of the company, including MG, and 13 May 2005 was set as the deadline for bids from potential investors. On 20 May 2005, the Administrators announced that, after considering numerous proposals, they had entered talks with two unnamed "overseas companies" with a view to restarting one or more of the Longbridge production lines. Nevertheless, the following week they informed creditors that they by then expected
6162-644: Was the last domestically owned mass-production car manufacturer in the British motor industry . The company was formed when BMW sold the car-making and engine manufacturing assets of the original Rover Group to Phoenix Venture Holdings in 2000. MG Rover went into administration in 2005 and its key assets were purchased by Nanjing Automobile Group , with Nanjing restarting MG sports car and sports saloon production in 2007. During that year Nanjing merged with SAIC Motor (the largest vehicle manufacturer in China). During 2009
6241-551: Was their first full year of business, in 2001 – when they sold over 170,000 cars. In 2004 their sales had declined to around 120,000. The company ceased trading on 8 April 2005, with debts of over £1.4 billion, after a proposed alliance with SAIC collapsed. In relation to this, accounting firm Deloitte was fined £14 million (US$ 22 million) in September 2013 for failing to manage conflicts of interest. Deloitte had acted as corporate finance advisers to firms involved with MG Rover and
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