Ford buys Rover brand

[go.pawel]

When in 2000 Ford bought Land Rover from BMW, it was decided that if BMW ever decides to sell the Rover brand, Ford will have the right to buy it. This August BMW decided to sell Rover to Shanghai Automotive. Of course they asked Ford first, giving it 90 days to make a decision. But no-one really expected Ford to use its right to acquire Rover. Ford did it "to protect the Land Rover name". The acquisition is being handled by the Premier Automotive Group.
Ford announced first that they don't intend to sell the brand to another automaker. However, it's rumoured that Mazda might use Rover name as a brand for its luxury products (like Infiniti for Nissan and Lexus for Toyota). In 1992 Mazda already planned to introduce such a brand in North America - the Amati, but the project was discontinued.

[2ndclasscitizen]

Oh God, why ruin perfectly good Mazdas by putting a shite badge on them?

[go.pawel]

Oh God, why ruin perfectly good Mazdas by putting a shite badge on them?
I'd say it the other way - why spoil such a great name by linking it to a mediocre company like Mazda? :D

[henk4]

I'd say it the other way - why spoil such a great name by linking it to a mediocre company like Mazda? :D

Indeed....

[Leo_Ant]

Rover is a glorious name put to garbage the last two decades. But there is place for it in the market and not necessarily as a Mazda nickname...At least, it's more glorious than Ghia, usually connected to Ford accessible luxury...

[fpv_gtho]

Associating the brand with Mazda IMO would confuse too many buyers.

Im surprised Ford actually made the purchase. Theyre hardly in the position to be spending profits

[drakkie]

Dont you guys seem to be forgetting one thing :D



it's rumoured that

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :D

[pimento]

I agree though, Mazdas are totally the wrong cars for a brand like Rover, the Hondas at least had an image closer to Rover. It'd be a mistake for both marques to link them in that way. If they get rid of Aston Martin, they'd be better off using Rover to take a position under Jaguar, and lifting Jag up a little in the market to fill the gap there. Cross-linking to Volvo would be better than with Mazda.

[Othix]

I don't think they'll do it. They won't just start calling Mazda's "Rovers." Mazda & Rovers have loyal buyers and they're also both entirely different entities. Mazda for cars, rovers for trucks. They may LINK the names, and sell them at the same dealerships, but they won't entirely change the names.

[LandQuail]

Ford seems to be in some pretty deep water to be buying out BMW's tiny cash cow...

[go.pawel]

I don't think they'll do it. They won't just start calling Mazda's "Rovers." Mazda & Rovers have loyal buyers and they're also both entirely different entities. Mazda for cars, rovers for trucks. They may LINK the names, and sell them at the same dealerships, but they won't entirely change the names.

Uhm... In case you didn't notice, Rover cars' production has been discontinued since April '05. So Rover cann't have loyal buyers any more, unless we consider used cars. For the same reason they wouldn't have anything to sell along with Mazda in their dealerships. And as for TRUCKS - I don't recall Rover ever producing trucks.

[scottie300z]

they wont start calling mazdas rovers. Its like infinity, acura and lexus, they are different models then nissan, toyota, and honda, they may have similarities but they will still be different models w/ different attributes and images. so apart from the educate people, such as car enthusiests, the majority of the car buyers would most likely have no association w/ rover and mazda. That is if the rumor turns true.

[kigango123]

land rover was a good company back in the day, they havent come out with a descent car
in almost a decade and you know it, excluding this car the are reproducing every year,
discovery 3 i think,

[go.pawel]

land rover was a good company back in the day, they havent come out with a descent car
in almost a decade and you know it, excluding this car the are reproducing every year,
discovery 3 i think,

We're talking about Rover here, not Land Rover. Those are two different companies nowadays.
But as for LR, I would say that they had some very good models in the past decade. All of them actually :) The new Range Rover, RR Sport, Discovery 3 all are great cars. I don't know much about the new Freelander yet, but it also seems to be a really good car.

[NSXType-R]

The beancounters at Ford are definitely sleeping on the job or something.

[ferrarifreak013]

i live in america and obvioulsy we dont get rovers over here and to my knowledge never have. but i have never heard anything good about them are they crap or no?

[Mr.Tiv]

i live in america and obvioulsy we dont get rovers over here and to my knowledge never have. but i have never heard anything good about them are they crap or no?
there are some rovers over here. I think they brought them over in the 60s. Most of them are rust heaps in junkyards as far as can gather.

[ferrarifreak013]

there are some rovers over here. I think they brought them over in the 60s. Most of them are rust heaps in junkyards as far as can gather.
yeah well i wasnt sure i thought i heard something about them over here btu i wasnt sure

[Mr.Tiv]

That's cool, just filling you in.

[Coventrysucks]

The beancounters at Ford are definitely sleeping on the job or something.

What, by preventing the Chinese from potentially launching an SUV with "Rover" emblazoned across its bows, at the same time boosting the value of it's own Land Rover brand?

[NSXType-R]

What potential do you see with the Rover brand? Isn't Ford in enough trouble as it is? Why should they save a dying brand? They should worry about themselves first. Using that money to buy Rover to improve themselves first is what I call an improvement, which hasn't happened in a while at Ford.

[fpv_gtho]

Well Ford's only in trouble in North America to start with. That shouldnt inhibit their global operations.

[PerfAdv]

Does Mazda think the US is so starved for a Euro-lux brand that instead of introducing their own upscale brand, a tactic that other Japanese brands have had success with, they'll try to introduce a defunct Euro brand??!!

Amati was stillborn and the lesser Amati to be, the Mellinia, never caught on as expected. Now, they'll make road-centric trucks sold as rovers?

Mazda, start a new line of cars called the ZZ, for zoom zoom. They should be special edition Mazdaspeed cars that have 20% more power and weigh 20% less. No special-marketing-department-derived luxury names, whether real or imaginary, just give the people what they want and they'll buy your cars.

[Coventrysucks]

What potential do you see with the Rover brand? Isn't Ford in enough trouble as it is? Why should they save a dying brand? They should worry about themselves first. Using that money to buy Rover to improve themselves first is what I call an improvement, which hasn't happened in a while at Ford.

Ford is not "saving" nor "resurrecting" nor "using" the Rover brand.

They are buying the rights to the name, so that they are the only people in the world who could make a car called a "Rover".

"Land Rover", you may have noticed, is 50% "Rover", so it is probably quite a good idea to control the use of that name.

This move strengthens Ford by;

- protecting Land Rover by stopping any other company from building an SUV and calling it a Rover.

- increases the value of the Land Rover brand by adding control over an important part of the name.

To not do this would be foolish in the extreme.

[scottie300z]

Mazda, start a new line of cars called the ZZ, for zoom zoom. They should be special edition Mazdaspeed cars that have 20% more power and weigh 20% less. No special-marketing-department-derived luxury names, whether real or imaginary, just give the people what they want and they'll buy your cars.


why dont they just make the mazdaspeed cars 20% better? seems sort of odd to have a special edition of a special edition.