Had the privilege of a trip around the Mini factory at Oxford yesterday, where a cornucopia of these desirable runabouts was being created - in a surprisingly quiet atmosphere for a car factory.
Some 70 per cent of them are exported, this former Rover/Austin Rover/British Leyland/BMC/Morris factory not seeing success on this scale since the heyday of the original Mini and the Morris 1100 in the mid-1960s. Our tour of the paint shop revealed the intriguing fact that in 1998 it was re-equipped and modernised to accommodate models as large as the Range Rover.
The first new model to go through it was the Rover 75 - which was moved to Longbridge post-BMW - but BMW’s plan was to integrate the Oxford plant (or Cowley, as it used to be known), Longbridge (originally to have built the new Mini) and Solihull so that the outputs of each could be managed against the rise and fall of each model’s lifecycle in the least profit-damaging way.
BMW is a master of industrial manipulation of this kind, the production management of its network of German factories one of the keys to its success. Having bought Rover’s still extensive string of factories in 1994, it must have seen scope to achieve the same results.
In fact, a fair chunk of that network survives today, and includes the Swindon panel pressing plant - formerly Pressed Steel Fisher - which remains with BMW to stamp panels for the Mini - and the Hams Hall engine plant near Birmingham, fresh-built by BMW in 2001, which was supposed to have supplied four cylinder engines for Minis, BMWs and Rovers. Instead, Peugeot takes the engines that Rover would have used. All of which is a reminder of how far BMW got with its reconstruction of the Rover Group before boardroom bust-ups, a falling share price, wrangles over government subsidies, slow sales and a poor press caused it to pull the pin.
But I occasionally allow myself to speculate on what would have happened had BMW managed to face down than huge pressure - it certainly tried - and launched the Mini as a Rover Group product.
I suspect it might not have done quite as well as it has, but certainly well enough to have saved BMW’s English Patient. Which means that by now, we would not only be able to buy the now infamous new medium car, but also the Rover 75’s replacement, an Austin Healey 3000 successor out of Spartanburg in the US, new MGs, possibly a Riley and even a modern Frog-eyed Sprite, not to mention assortments of Land Rovers. It could have been a great empire.
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blktoy
re: Rover: the lost empire
Unfortunately i suspect that many British people wanted Rover to fail as long as it was being run by a German company. Even Autocar to this day seems to prefer the idea of an American run British company too a German run one. The obvious bias in favour of Jaguar in road tests was noticeably by its absence when Rovers were tested.
papagomp
re: Rover: the lost empire
Interesting piece, but as we know the story ended so differently. As one of the former employees of MG Rover, it is always interesting to read the speculative reports of what might have been, or how it all went wrong. The truth is much sadder, and to see 6000 people left without jobs will always be more grim than even the great cars that could have come out had things been better. To have seen pictures of an empty Longbridge, with part built cars on the track is another sad image that I will always remember. What Peter Stevens praised of his Design team (of which I was a junior member) in those final days must also be said of the workforce at the factory. A very sad episode, where a lot of people were left with little or nothing. I feel very priveliged to have worked with some really good people, without who there would never have been a chance. As it was, it was not to be.
loather
re: Rover: the lost empire
Wasn't it £500 million that BMW left in the hands of the Pheonix consortium(the Fab Four) in 2000. What happened to that legacy Richard? BMW must to this day, eight years later, give thanks for being shot of Rover Group - you seem to forget it nearly caused the implosion of the parent, BMW, itself. It cost Pischetrieder his job, although he went onto VW; Reitzle who was destined to head BMW had to leave too. Yes MINI is a runaway success but so is Rolls-Royce. If Pischetsrieder desperately wanted his uncle(Issigonis)'s BMC Mini, he could have saved BMW the bother of acquiring Rover Group and simply bought the brand when it went bust, as it was destined to do. And then do a Rolls-Royce on it - English final assembly base for maintained English pukkaness and everything else coming from their continental factories, like Rolls-Royce. Yes Cowley(Oxford)'s good and Hams Hall but nothing anything better than a greenfield final assembly plant and powertrain from Munich or Steyr for instance.
Similarly with Land Rover. BMW showed, contrary to most accusations of pinching LR's crown-jewel 4WD technology/knowhow, that they could do it themselves from scratch to great acclaim with the X5. Don't forget Ford paid BMW to finish the development of the current Range Rover when they took it over in 2000. Again, the Range Rover's good, but it was BMW's work, with a lot of the 7 series systems and powertrains carried over.
The real villains of the piece - and some of us will never forget or forgive - were/are the Phoenix Four and John Towers in particular. The govt's inquiry is 3 years on and heading into the sand. They're home scot free - utterly shameful. And don't forget Richard even the fag-end promises of assembly of KD kits from China at Longbridge made over two years ago have come to nought so far.
PS Richard, if you want to recall the true state of the BMW-Rover Group relationship during those six years, 1994-2000, you should get hold of the BBC Midlands' tv programme, I think called 'When Rover met BMW' or something similar, based on the 'When Harry met Sally' film title. Anyway, it was absoutely cringe-making to see how the so-called Rover Execs behaved so amateurishly to their - what were in fact their overtaking bosses - from BMW.
loorymach
Rover had excellent
Rover had excellent engineering expertise, really !
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