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?

[henk4]

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

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

it's rumoured that

[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.