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Most insurance companies do not provide competitive motor insurance quotes based solely on the make & model of car you drive. However the type of car you drive, in your case Rover, makes a real difference to the amount you get quoted. We have teamed up with Call Connection, a major UK company who specialise in the placement of motor insurance business, which includes insurance for cars made by Rover.
Call Connection will take a few details about you and your insurance needs and then place the enquiry with the most suitable insurer or broker for your insurance.
Insurance for Rover Cars
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The Rover Company was a British automobile manufacturing company originally founded as Starley & Sutton Co. of Coventry in 1878. 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 1947 onwards, with all production based in Solihull after moving to these premises after World War II. Later on, Rover cars were also produced in Cowley.
Despite a state-controlled absorption by Leyland Motors in 1967 and subsequent mergers and nationalisation, the Rover Company retained its identity first as an independent subsidiary division, and then through variously named combines of British Leyland through the 1970s and into the 1980s. The Rover marque became the primary brand of the newly set up Rover Group as it passed first through the hands of British Aerospace and then into the ownership of BMW Group. Technological know-how gained from Honda and financial investment during the BMW ownership led to a revival of the Rover marque during the 1990s in its core midsize segment.[1]
In 2000, BMW sold the Rover and related MG car activities of the Rover Group to the Phoenix Consortium, who established the MG Rover Group at Longbridge and sold Land Rover vehicle activities to the Ford Motor Company. Although the decision was down to strategic, financial, and managerial reasons and less related to problems with the automotive quality per se at that time, the intense media reporting severely eroded the perceived trust and sustainability of the marque.[1] Nevertheless, BMW retained ownership of the Rover marque, allowing MG Rover only to use it under licence. In April 2005, Rover cars ceased to be produced when the MG Rover Group became insolvent.
In July 2005, Nanjing Auto and SAIC acquired the physical assets & tooling and some vehicular intellectual property rights, respectively, with the plan to merge and resume production of MG Rover car designs in China and at Longbridge from 2007 onwards. However, on 18 September 2006, BMW sold the Rover marque to Ford for approximately £6-million, heralding an option of first refusal to buy it as a result of its purchase of Land Rover. Ford thus reunited the original Rover Company marques, primarily for brand-protective reasons, in preparation for divesting its Premier Automotive Group subsidiary.[2]
In March 2008, Ford reached agreement with Tata Motors of India to include the Rover marque as part of the sale of their Jaguar Land Rover operations to them, alongside related Daimler and Lanchester marques.[3]
With no Rover cars currently in production, the marque is considered dormant.
Rover and Honda
In 1979, British Leyland (or as it was now officially known, BL Ltd.) began a long relationship with the Honda Motor Company of Japan. The result was a cross-holding structure, where Honda took a 20% stake in the company while the company took a 20% stake in Honda's UK subsidiary. The deal was thought to be mutually beneficial: Honda used its British operations as a launchpad into Europe, and the company could pool resources with Honda in developing new cars.
Austin Rover Group was formed in 1982 as the mass-market car manufacturing subsidiary of BL, with the separate Rover Company becoming effectively defunct. In the 1980s, the slimmed-down BL used the Rover brand on a range of cars codeveloped with Honda. The first Honda-sourced Rover model, released in 1984, was the Rover 200, which, like the Triumph Acclaim that it replaced, was based on the Honda Ballade. Similarly, in Australia, the Honda Quint (known in Europe as the Quintet) and Integra were badged as the Rover Quintet and 416i.
[edit] The Rover brand name lives on
Main article: Rover Group
The Rover Group's Rover print logo.
1996 Rover 400.By 1986, Austin Rover had moved to a one-marque strategy, using only the Rover brand. Its parent, BL, was renamed as the Rover Group, with the car division becoming Rover Cars. In 1986, the Rover SD1 was replaced by the Rover 800, developed with the Honda Legend. The Austin range were now technically Rovers, though the word "Rover" never actually appeared on the badging. Instead, there was a badge similar to the Rover Viking shape, without wording. These were replaced by the Rover 400 and Rover 600, based on Honda's Concerto and Accord, respectively.
Rover exported Rover 800s, badged as Sterlings, to the United States from 1987 to 1992.
[edit] British Aerospace ownership of the brand name
In 1988, the Rover brand went back into private hands when the Rover Group was acquired by British Aerospace.
[edit] BMW ownership of the brand name
1998 Rover 75.The Honda partnership proved to be the turnaround point for the company, steadily rebuilding its image to the point where once again, Rover-branded cars were seen as upmarket alternatives to Fords and Vauxhalls. In 1994, British Aerospace sold the Rover Group, including the Rover, Land Rover, Riley, Mini, Triumph, and Austin-Healey brands to BMW, who had begun to see Rover-branded cars as potential major competitors. Under BMW, the Rover Group developed the Rover 75 as a retro-designed car influenced by the earlier Rover P4 and P5 designs.
In 2000, BMW split up the Rover Group, selling Land Rover to the Ford Motor Company for an estimated sum of £1.8-billion, retaining the MINI operations, and selling the rest of the car business to the Phoenix Consortium, who established it as MG Rover. Interestingly, although BMW included ownership of the MG brand in the deal, they retained ownership of the Rover brand, licensing its use to the new MG Rover company for use on the ongoing car models that they had acquired.
[edit] MG Rover licensing of the brand name
Main article: MG Rover Group
Rover Viking Longship logo until 2003.
Rover Viking Longship logo from 2003 to 2005.
2002 Rover 25.A specially assembled group of businessmen, known as the Phoenix Consortium and headed by ex-Rover chief executive John Towers, established the MG Rover Group from the former Rover Group car operations (acquired from BMW for a nominal £10 in May 2000) and continued to use the Rover brand under licence from BMW.
The year before its breakup, the Rover Group had sustained losses of an estimated £800-million. The four businessmen who took control of the newly formed MG Rover Group are reported to have received around £430-million in a dowry from BMW that included unsold stock.
The first new Rover-branded car to be launched after the formation of MG Rover was the estate version of the Rover 75, which went on sale later in 2000. In 2003, MG Rover launched the CityRover—an entry-level model that was produced in a venture with Indian carmaker Tata but failed miserably to sell, as it was overpriced for the level of equipment if offered. Had MG Rover re-engineered and 'Roverised' the Indica to a higher degree and priced it more sensibly, it may have been much more successful. Several concept cars intended as eventual replacements for the Rover 25 and 45 were shown in the early 2000s, but never went into production.
MG Rover production ceased on 15 April 2005, when it was declared insolvent. On 22 July 2005, the physical assets of the collapsed firm were sold to the Nanjing Automobile Group for £53m. They indicated that their preliminary plans involved relocating the Powertrain engine plant to China while splitting car production into Rover lines in China and resumed MG lines in the West Midlands (though not necessarily at Longbridge), where a UK R&D and technical facility would also be developed.
On 30 May 2007, Nanjing Automobile Group claimed to have restarted production of MG TF sports cars in the Longbridge plant, with sales expected to begin in the autumn.
Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), who held the intellectual property of Rover 75 car design (bought for £67m before MG Rover collapsed) and was also bidding for MG Rover, announced their own version of the Rover 75 in late 2006. In July 2006, SAIC announced their intent to buy the Rover brand name from BMW, who still owned the rights to the Rover marque.[5] However, BMW refused their request, due to an agreement that Ford had reached with them to be given first option on the brand when it acquired Land Rover. Unable to use the Rover name, SAIC created their own brand with a similar name and badge, known as Roewe. Roewe was eventually launched in early 2007.
[edit] Ford Motor Company ownership of the brand name
Ford had first option to purchase the Rover brand name if MG Rover ceased trading, a right that had been negotiated when the Land Rover brand was bought from BMW. This right was exercised on 18 September 2006.[6] No Rover-branded cars were produced whilst Ford owned the brand, and in a further twist, Tata Motors now owns the brand that was used for the ill-fated CityRover model, a rebadged Tata Indica marketed by MG Rover under license in the UK Market from 2003 to 2005.
[edit] Tata Motors' ownership of the brand name
As part of Ford's agreement to sell their Jaguar Land Rover operations to Tata Motors, the Rover brand name was included in the deal.[7]
[edit] Rover models
[edit] Launched under the independent Rover Company pre-merger (1904–67)
1904–12 Rover 8
1906–10 Rover 6
1906–10 Rover 16/20
1912–23 Rover 12
1919–25 Rover 8
1924–27 Rover 9/20
1925–27 Rover 14/45
1927–32 Rover Light Six
1927–47 Rover 10
1929–32 Rover 2-Litre
1930–34 Rover Meteor 16HP/20HP
1931–40 Rover Speed 20
1932–33 Rover Pilot/Speed Pilot
1932–32 Rover Scarab
1934–47 Rover 12
1934–47 Rover 14/Speed 14
1937–47 Rover 16
1948–78 Land Rover (I/II/III)—In 1978, BL established Land Rover Limited as a separate subsidiary; it took over Land Rover production.
1948–49 Rover P3 (60/75)
1949–64 Rover P4 (60/75/80/90/95/100/105/110)
1958–73 Rover P5 (3-Litre/3.5-Litre)
1963–76 Rover P6 (2000/2200/3500)
[edit] Launched under the Rover Company as a LMC/BL subsidiary (1967–86)
1970–78 Range Rover—In 1978, BL established Land Rover Limited as a separate subsidiary; it took over Range Rover production.
1976–86 Rover SD1 (2000/2300/2400/2600/3500/Vitesse)
1984–99 Rover 200 (211/213/214/216/218/220)
1985–89 Rover 416i—Australian market
[edit] Pre-existing models rebranded under the Rover Group (1986–2000)
Mini/Supermini cars
1986–2000 Rover Mini—Originally called the Austin Seven/Morris Mini Minor in 1959, but renamed Rover Mini in 1986.
1990–98 Rover Metro, Rover 100 (111/114/115)
Family cars
1989–94 Maestro—Never branded a Rover but sold through brand.
1989–94 Montego—Never branded a Rover but sold through brand.
[edit] Rover-branded models launched under the Rover Group (1986–2000)
Family cars
1992–98 Rover 200 Coupe (216/218/220/220 Turbo)
1990–2000 Rover 400 (414/416/418/420)
1993–99 Rover SK1, Rover 600 (618/620/623 and 620ti)
Executive cars
1986–98 Rover 800 (820/825/827 and Vitesse) and Sterling
1998–2005 Rover RD1, Rover 75
[edit] Rover-branded models launched under MG Rover (2000–05)
Mini/Supermini cars
2003–05 CityRover
Family cars
2000–05 Rover 25
2000–05 Rover 45
2003–05 Rover Streetwise
Van
2003–05 Rover Commerce
