Rover was a British automobile manufacturer and later a marque based at the former Austin Longbridge plant in Birmingham. In recent years it was part of BMW and the MG Rover Group. However, in April 2005, production stopped when the company became insolvent. In July 2005 the Nanjing Automobile Group acquired the assets, with plans to resume production in China and at Longbridge, in 2007. On September 18, 2006 Ford bought the rights to the Rover name from BMW for approximately £6 million. [1] Ford had acquired an option of first refusal to buy the Rover brand as a result of its purchase of Land Rover from BMW in 2000.

The first Rover was a tricycle manufactured by Starley & Sutton Co of Coventry, England in 1883. The company was founded by John Kemp Starley and William Sutton in 1878. Starley had formerly worked with his uncle James Starley (father of the cycle trade) who began in manufacturing sewing machines and switched to bicycles in 1869.
In the early 1880s the cycles available were the relatively dangerous penny-farthings and high-wheel tricycles. J. K. Starley made history in 1885 by producing the Rover Safety Bicycle - a rear-wheel-drive, chain-driven cycle with two similar-sized wheels, making it more stable than the previous high wheeled designs. Cycling Magazine said the Rover had ’set the pattern to the world’ and the phrase was used in their advertising for many years. Starley’s Rover is usually described by historians as the first recognisably modern bicycle. In 1888 Starley made an electric car, but it never was put into production.
In 1889 the company became J. K. Starley & Co. Ltd and in the late 1890s, the Rover Cycle Company Ltd. Three years after Starley’s death in 1901, the Rover company began producing automobiles with the two-seater Rover Eight to the designs of Edmund Lewis who came from Daimler. During the First World War they made motorcycles, lorries to Maudsley designs and not having a suitable one of their own, cars to a Sunbeam design. Bicycle and motorcycle production continued until the Great Depression forced the end of production in 1925. The business was not very successful during the 1920s and did not pay a dividend from 1923 until the mid 1930s. In 1929 when there was a change of management with Spencer Wilks coming in from Hillman as general manager. He set about reorganising the company and moving it up market to cater for people who wanted something “superior” to Fords and Austins. He was joined by his brother Maurice, who had also been at Hillman, as chief engineer in 1930. Spencer Wilks stayed with the company until 1962 and his brother until 1963.

Source:wikipedia

If you would like immediate updates, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

by John Neff

Today Ford will report its second quarter earnings for 2007, and analysts expect the Blue Oval to ink another losing quarter in the books for the eighth time in a row. The No. 2 automaker in the U.S., for now, lost $282 million in Q1, and analysts expect Ford’s aggressive use of incentives to sell cars, as well as the ever rising cost of materials, to again hurt the bottom line to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

There’s a silver lining on Ford’s dark cloud, however, in that its poor performance is likely to grease the wheels of the United Auto Workers, which is currently in landmark talks with each of the Big 3 domestic automakers over new contracts. Booking an eighth quarterly loss in a row should make crystal clear the fact that concessions are required by the UAW if Ford is to have any shot at avoiding a ninth.

[Source: Reuters]

If you would like immediate updates, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

The Rootes Group was a British automobile manufacturer, which was based in the Midlands of England. Rootes was the parent company of many well-known British marques, including Hillman, Humber, Singer, Sunbeam, Talbot, Commer and Karrier. The company no longer exists, having been taken over in stages by Chrysler, and subsequently sold to Peugeot and, in part, Renault.

Originally founded in Kent in 1919 by William Rootes as a car sales company, Rootes grew and took over other companies, and became one of the earliest advocates of the policy of “badge engineering”. Hillman was intended to be the basic brand, Singer slightly more upmarket, Sunbeam was the sports brand, while Humber made luxury models. Commer and Karrier were the commercial vehicle brands, with Commer manufacturing light vans with the Karrier badge appearing on heavy vans and light duty trucks (mainly for municipal use).

Rootes was best known for manufacturing solid, dependable, well engineered middle-market vehicles. Famous Rootes models include the Hillman Minx, Singer Gazelle, Humber Super Snipe and the Sunbeam Alpine.
William Rootes built the Rootes Group using specific brands for each market niche.

With the onset of the Second World War Rootes, like most other British car manufacturers, became involved with the production of armaments. In 1940, under the Government’s shadow factory scheme, Rootes built its massive assembly plant in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, near Coventry, initially manufacturing aircraft, one of the first types being the Bristol Blenheim. Production included another RAF heavy bomber, the Handley Page Halifax. Rootes also manufactured military vehicles, based on the Humber and Commer.
Rootes had a rare lapse of business judgement shortly after the end of War II: when he visited the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg to consider its value for war reparations, he considered it – and the Beetle – had no value.

Source:Wikipedia

If you would like immediate updates, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

A member of ChevyHHR.net dropped us a line to let us know that his local Chevy dealer had gotten some 2008 Chevy HHRs yesterday. One of his first orders of business was to grab the new owners manual and start flipping through the pages. His perusal bore fruit, as on page 2-47, he found the following passage in the “Cupholder(s)” section (shown at right):

“If your vehicle is an SS model, the automatic transmission vehicles have a cupholder in front of the shifter.”

This serves as the first official-ish confirmation (Chevy has not yet made any formal announcements related to the HHR SS) that the 2008 HHR SS will be offered with an automatic in addition to the 5-speed manual that’s referenced in the brochure that was leaked earlier in the month. The next question, of course, is which automatic will be offered?

Thanks, Ryan!

[Source: ChevyHHR.net (registration req’d)]

If you would like immediate updates, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

Rolls-Royce Motors was created from the demerger of the Rolls-Royce car business from Rolls-Royce Limited in 1973. Rolls-Royce Limited had been nationalised in 1971 due to the financial collapse of the company caused in part by the development of the RB211 jet engine. In 1973 the British government sold the Rolls-Royce car business to allow Rolls-Royce Limited to concentrate on jet engine manufacture.
In 1980 Rolls-Royce Motors was acquired by Vickers. In 1998 Vickers decided to sell Rolls-Royce Motors. The leading contender seemed to be BMW, who already supplied engines and other components for Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars. However their final offer of £340m was outbid by Volkswagen, who offered £430m.
However Rolls-Royce plc, the aero-engine maker, decided it would license certain essential trademarks (the Rolls-Royce name and logo) not to VW, but to BMW, with whom it had recently had joint business ventures. VW had bought rights to the “Spirit of Ecstasy” mascot and the shape of the radiator grille, but it lacked rights to the Rolls-Royce name in order to build the cars. Likewise, BMW lacked rights to the grille and mascot. BMW bought an option on the trademarks, licensing the name and “RR” logo for £40m, a deal that many commentators thought was a bargain for possibly the most valuable property in the deal. VW claimed that it had only really wanted Bentley anyway, and in sales terms this was the stronger brand, with Bentley models out-selling the equivalent Rolls Royce by around two to one.
BMW and VW arrived at a solution. From 1998 to 2002 BMW would continue to supply engines for the cars and would allow use of the names, but this would cease on January 1, 2003. On that date, only BMW would be able to name cars “Rolls-Royce”, and VW’s former Rolls-Royce/Bentley division would build only cars called “Bentley”. Rolls Royce’s convertible, the Corniche, ceased production in 2002.

If you would like immediate updates, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

by Alex Nunez

Ahhh, Autumn. We love it so. The leaves change, football is in full swing, the air gets brisk, and Honda comes clean with a MUGEN for us Yanks. That’s right, kids: Americans will finally be able to buy a Mugen-prepared Honda Civic this fall. Following up on the Honda Civic MUGEN Si show car that was displayed at SEMA last year, Honda has announced that the production version will go on sale in October. The Civic MUGEN Si is powered by the same 197-horsepower four-cylinder as the standard-issue Si, but the MUGEN is the beneficiary of a track-tuned suspension, lighter wheels, and a new sport exhaust. It also gets the requisite aero kit with an updated grille, skirting and new spoilers fore and aft. Inside, look for a new shift knob and a plaque. Only 1,000 Civic MUGEN Si sedans will be built for the 2008 model year (sorry, no coupes), and all will be finished in the Fiji Blue Pearl you see here. Full pricing details weren’t announced, but Honda did say that the car will go for less than $30,000. Until enthusiasts here in the States are offered a Type-R, this is gonna be the Civic to have. Sure, it’s no Civic MUGEN RR, but it’s a start.

[Source: Honda]

If you would like immediate updates, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!