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Rover Company

The Rover Company Limited
Industry Automotive industry
Motorcycle industry (until 1925)
Bicycle industry (until 1925)
Fate Merged into Leyland Motors (1967)
Assets separated as Land Rover (1978)
Rover brand defunct (2005)
Successor British Leyland Motor Corporation
Founded 1878
Founder John Kemp Starley &
William Sutton
Defunct 2005
Headquarters England:
Coventry, West Midlands
(1904–47)
Solihull, West Midlands
(1947–1981)
Gaydon, West Midlands
(1981–2000)
Longbridge, West Midlands
(2000–2005)
Key people
Spencer & Maurice Wilks
(Management & Engineering,
1929–63)
John Towers
Products Rover Automobiles
Motorcycles (until 1925)
Bicycles (until 1925)
Land Rover All terrain vehicles
Subsidiaries Alvis Cars (1965–67)

Rover is a former British car manufacturing company founded as Starley & Sutton Co. of Coventry in 1878. It is the direct ancestor of the present day Land Rover marque, which is now a brand of Jaguar Land Rover, in turn owned by the Tata Group.

The company traded as Rover, manufacturing cars between 1904 and 1967, when it was sold to Leyland Motor Corporation, becoming the Rover marque. The Rover marque was used on cars produced by British Leyland (BL), who separated the assets of the original Rover Company as Land Rover in 1978 whilst the Rover trademark continued to be used on vehicles produced by its successor companies – the Austin Rover Group (1982–1986), the Rover Group (1986–2000), and then finally MG Rover (2000–2005). Following MG Rover's collapse in 2005, the Rover marque became dormant, and was subsequently sold by BMW to Ford, who had bought Land Rover from BMW in 2000. The rights to the Rover brand were transferred along with the Jaguar Cars and Land Rover businesses, to Tata Motors in 2008.

After developing the template for the modern bicycle with its Rover Safety Bicycle of 1885, the company moved into the automotive industry. It started building motorcycles and Rover cars, using their established marque with the iconic Viking Longship, from 1904 onwards. Land Rover vehicles were added from 1948 onwards, with all production moving to the Solihull plant after World War II.


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