Rover was a British automobile manufacturer originating in Coventry, moving to Solihull after World War Two, and latterly a marque based at the former Austin Longbridge plant in Birmingham.
In recent years it was part of BMW and the MG Rover Group. However, in April 2005, production stopped when the company became insolvent. In July 2005 the Nanjing Automobile Group acquired physical assets/tooling, although SAIC already owned certain intellectual property, with plans to resume production in China and at Longbridge, in 2007. On September 18, 2006 Ford bought the rights to the Rover name from BMW for approximately £6 million, in order to protect their Land Rover brand. Ford had acquired an option of first refusal to buy the Rover brand as a result of its purchase of Land Rover from BMW in 2000. Rover was in the 1960s a very desirable car to own, especially in the UK.
