As an ARG former marketing guy it started to go seriously wrong when the SD1 was engineered down to a price by Leyland bean counters. Surely one of the most beautiful looking cars but so badly built. The series 2 from 1982 looked great but the quality was only skin deep. Those terrible straight six Triumph designed engines were soon to eat camshafts. 800, 200, 400 and 600 reached a high point but so dependant on Honda quality and tech. BMW never wanted to do what VW did for Skoda, the brand was badly managed into collapse. MG Rover never had the money to revive it hence crap like the City Rover that sealed its fate

BMW never had any intention of keeping Austin Rover afloat. Their sole aim was to harvest the brand names that had promise... Mini, Jaguar and land rover. And Land rover was only so they could create their own poor excuse for an suv, the X series. Once they stripped what they wanted, they laughed as they sold the remains back to the management buy out. Then selling Jaguar and landrover to the yanks. While turning the always loved mini into something so far removed from the original concept, it doesn't deserve to wear the mini name.

My family has had several Rovers since the 70s. From the 2000 TC and several P6s and a right-hand drive P5 3500 to the SD1 3500 and Vitesse to now the Rover 75, The P models in particular will remain in our memories forever with their quality. My dream was my 3500 Vitesse. All of them always had a few problems but we still love them today. Greetings from Germany to England and I wish all Rover owners a carefree and enjoyable journey in the future!

So sad to see a world beater, destroyed by the bean counters and then beaten by everyone and his dog.

Poor Management and Greedy Bolshey work force! That is what caused Rover and BLs demise.

My dad drove Rovers in the 1950s and I remember them with great fondness and a little pride. I was taken aback when I got into a P4 model at a vintage car show in the naughties and that Rover smell of leather, wood and oil yanked me back 50 years!

A friend of mine worked in a Rover dealer in the 80's , 90's and told me when Honda arrived they just stopped breaking down ! Great . After Honda went he started buying Honda's himself .

The Rover 75 was a gorgeous car. Unfortunately it was built ten years too late.

Sleeping on the job. I worked in a major coachbuilder. Sleeping on the job was notoriously happening. This was the mid 80s. Drinking 6pints at lunchtime was the norm. Striking for anything like a sunny day was happening. I remember we went on strike. Because a guy was late for the roll trolley. I am not making that up.

The way you say 'But there was a problem' is priceless.

I had several of the Honda based Rovers in the 1980's and 1990's and they were great cars. I think Rover failed because BMW were bad owners, afraid to do for Rover what Honda did; allow them to use BMW platforms and engines. Imagine how good a Rover bodied and trimmed 3 series would have been. BMW and Rover could have complimented each other like VW and Audi do. A real tradgedy that this never happened.

Great video. My dad wouldn’t replace his P6 with an SD1. He thought the engineers were cheap. Gone was the sophisticated suspension. The interior had too much plastic and they couldn’t even be bothered to put the proper badge on the bonnet. Well then the build quality cemented the deal. No more rovers for him!

I owned a 75 for 5 years and 90K kilometers , a great car ! It was a 2000 Cowley built with all the goody's , before the beancounters with their " facelift " fucked it up . There was only one quality issue , the fabric on the doorcarts and A- pillars blistered because of poor glue , all the rest was topquality ! I wish they still existed . 😢

Mega Mismanagement Killed Rover!!

I used to work for rover in 1980s the sd1 was being built the problem with rover was the staff they wes stealing items every day I did see parts going out the door I did see people carrying boxes of parts headlights, door locks, dash parts no-one checked what was leaving the factory and with all the industrial strikes the staff dragged rover down no wonder rover went under

I owned and drove a 1963 P4 110 from 1998 to 2015 as an everyday car. Never a fault or breakdown, even in France for 6 months of each year for 14 trips and 3,000 miles a trip. Much admired wherever we went.

It's a miracle that any of the great British marques survived the corporate hellscape of BL. If I had crazy billionaire money, I'd be daily driving a frame-up, fully restored P5 coupé right now.

I can recall the then Prime Minister James Callaghan receiving a new brown SD1 in 1977 and the window glass dropped inside the door on an official engagement... Callaghan was said to have retorted "I do not wish to see that car again!" and from then on older P5s where used... Hence why we see Maggie turning up on her election victory in one... Yet as for the brown SD1... Labour leader Michael Foot ended up using it... and he loved it as one of the perks of being Her Majesty's Official Opposition Leader...

In 1961 my father bought a new Rover P5. I was only six years old, but I remember the car clearly as my father kept the car until 1974. I wish we had kept that car, as my father took meticulate care of it, and was in perfect running order. My overwhelming memory was of the thick leather seats that were so comfortable, especially for long journeys.

British management and internal rivalries, what a recipe for failure. The NHS has been broken by the same poor management and political micro-managing.

There’s a Carry On film that perfectly illustrates the down fall of the British car industry (and British industry as a whole). Watch it at Your Convenience. The film has a happy ending, unlike our car industry and associated industries like steel.

Great video. I have a 2003 Rover 75 that I have owned for 19 years. It is an excellent car. I have not had a single problem with it in all that time, which is more than I can say for the BMWs and Jaguars that I have owned.

The Rover story is sad, why the government of the day allowed the company to slide into history is beyond me. The last domestic large scale british manufacturer.

The day a rover badge was mounted on a metro was a nail in the coffin, going back to the city rover tata heap of crap, now tata are killing jaguar land-rover with terrible engine failures on there in house engines. Between the unions, cash shortages all,helped kill such a great brand

Well done Tom, you really do these history documentaries well.

I bought my brand new Admiralty blue Rover P5B coupe in 1969, and drove it everywhere in the UK as a daily car, I rebuilt the engine five years later and replaced the gearbox cluster around the same time, I took it to the Isle of Man where I lived later and eventually sold it to a family member who restored it and passed it on in 2003. I hope that it is still on the road, its original registration was XGP777G .

They were beautiful,solid cars. My Father wanted one in the late 60s, all We could afford was a Standard eight.😊

Ive been driving Rover's since 1979. My all time favorite being my old 3500 P6. When i got a 3500 SD1 after the P6 failed its MOT the fuel economy amazed me. I remember driving from Chesterfield to Blackpool & thinking the fuel gauge had stuck on full. The 216VP was okay but rusted away fast, didn't really rate it. The best Rover i ever owned was a 2,000 W reg 45 Club diesel which had 12k when i bought it & over 400k when i parted with it. Currently have 75 diesel tourer which is currently on sorn & will probably be my last Rover bringing 45 yrs era to a close. Another amazing well researched video Tom. I may be wrong but I think BMW really finished Rover by taking with them the new designs that were intended to replace the Honda platformed cars. One only has to look at the success of the Mini & the 1 series BMW.

Not allowing the Branches to compete with each other means they cant compete with anyone Else either.

Why the continued assertion that the I6 was "sabotaged"? It was tuned to suit it's application & fit into the broader range. It wasn't meant to be a high rpm screamer it was to be a flexible, smooth & fuel efficient (and reliable) mid range engine option. If it was meant to be more than that it would have received the 4 valve cylinder head, individual throttles etc etc. You could also say that the V8 was sabotaged as the 4.4 was ditched & the heads & cam profiles used strangled output which they undoubtedly did (the SD1 version was quite a bit softer than the older P5/6 version), it's horses for courses, nothing is done in isolation. Having worked for Rover I can confirm that any internal competition is never friendly either, that's the actual issue. People get so transixed waging war on their neighbours they lose sight of where the fight actually is & the competition quietly take advantage. It's what has repeatedly happend.

Back in the 80s I worked for a small pen printing company and set up the machine to print several hundred expensive Parker pens with the iconic viking boat for the Rover dealership. Unfortunately it was only at the very end when I was admiring how good they looked did I realise to my horror that I had got the colours back to front so the image was a red boat and gold sails rather than the other way around. My boss had a terrible temper and it was not unknown for him to violently fling pens around at walls if they were not done properly. Terrified I said nothing and off they went to the dealersip. They never noticed and I heard nothing more. What's even more funny is that an example of the job was kept by the boss and proudly kept in the promotional 'show-off' cabinet to show new clients!

I've had many Rovers over the years - a P4, SD1 V8, 825 (Honda engine seized), 827, 600 and the last a lovely 75. I think people forget buying a British car, any make, from the 60s to the 90s was very hit or miss, and more often a miss. My father had a Granada, a Ford model where you said a Hail Mary before trying the brakes; a new Jag where the electric windows went down but not back up; and an Austin 1300 where one of the back wheels fell off after the suspension failed. But my mother's Datsun always started, stopped when you wanted it to, and didn't fall apart after a year.

This is my perception at the time, being a kid in the 90s and early 2000s. Wedge-shaped Hondas later adorned with old man walnut, upright 1940s grilles, chrome and green or burgundy paint, one face-lift too many, Metro, CityRover, StreetRover. What happened to the cutting-edge, futuristic trajectories of the P6 and SD1?

Excellent piece on the real story of Rover. It was like most failures a culmination of many things. Back in the late 70’s/80’s Rover (BL) was heavily featured in documentaries and its was never for good reasons. Those of us who remember the magazine programme ‘Nationwide’ may recall a damning episode that concerned Rover product in Police forces, SD1 and RR being traffic cars. It was revealed that every UK police force had significant levels of vehicle unavailability due to serious and frequent failures. Back then the Home Office agreed fleet policy and specifications with manufacturers and a ‘you will buy this’ list was sent out. Under BMW’s leadership though Rover probably suffered the death blows. BP’s comments on R75 launch were the tip of the iceberg. Rover racked up £m’s of losses on ludicrous BMW management practices, travel and accommodation bejng eyewatering, but development programmes still starved of cash. But the fault was all laid at the door of the Rover itself. MINI was taken in house to BMW and it struggled. Severely delayed and not feeling like a MINI should, it was the ‘Flight Shed’ guys at Longbridge who solved many of the handling and ride issues BMW engineered in. There was a huge amount of talent at MGR but the P4 frittered away the BMW payoff. I once witnessed a P4 director have a tantrum about the interior colour of ‘his’ MG SV and insist that it be completely re-trimmed at the cost of £1000’s. It dawned on me at that moment that they realised MGR was sunk and they were just squeezing out what they could. Could MGR have survived? Absolutely but it needed a much more coherent strategy. If some of the realistic projects had been developed MGR would have appeared a much more viable prospect for a JV.

Awesome video report. Thanks for sharing ❤🤗👍♥️

Don't think you mentioned that Austin Rover was sold rather controversially to BAE in 1988 under the condition that they keep the company for six years. They didn't invest a lot into the company, so the Rover 800 was kept in production way too long.

Hi Tom, love your channel, for a youngen like your good self to take such an interest in all this is excellent Thankyou Son! So Rover! Always loved them, when I was about your age 🤣👍 I was looking for a luxury barge! All my gen were mad on the XJ, I loved them too, But I needed to be different didn't I! 🤣 I had a mate who had a 59 P5 sedan(as we say in 🇳🇿) he and I loved the old girl, anyway I was still in UK in 76 and decided the replacement for my beautiful 66 Humber Sceptre would be a P5B coupé I was working on coastal tankers in the North Sea and was cashed up, I found my dream at Romans of Woking in the form of an Admiralty Blue Coupé! In 1976, she was 6 YOA with only 16000 miles on the clock, she was an absolute Doozy Love at 1st sight! I loved my Sceptre but this was Something Else! I paid the princely sum of 1600 quid for her, everyone loved her people would come up to me at servos and in the street! 😂 Later I got married and in 81 we emigrated to Australia, leave the Rover in UK! No freakin Way! We had her shipped out to Sydney then we moved to North Queensland, unfortunately due to family and work commitments I didn't have time to look after her in the fashion she was used to! 😭 So we very reluctantly had to part company 😭 That was early 2000's, She is still around up in Cairns and we'll looked after and worth a bloody fortune! 🤣 Fantastic amazing cars! Now I'm retired, I decided to get back into classics again, I couldn't find a 5B coupé that anyone in their right mind would sell! 🤣😭 So I bought a Jag! 😱 a lovely XJ8 but I will never forget my old Rover 3.5 P5B Coupé,! What a shame Rover was allowed to go down the tubes! 😭😭😊

From what i saw the staff were the big issue. Remember pulling up at one of the BL plants to see workers loading their stollen parts into a car aided by the security guards! Then add the fact they were always on strike. Then the awful management. Great shame but they got what they asked for

my dear uncle always bought BL rover 213s etc then the penny dropped he realised the best part of the car was indeed the "Honda" engine so he changed tac and bought Honda

Awesome vid, thanks!

Getting into bed with British Leyland was the start of the rot set in and it massively crushed the brand's core values and led to some dreadful offerings. Even when things improved, that image stuck in car buyers minds, right up to it's death in 2005.

I’m enjoying your content Tom and curious to know how your Rover 75 is going as haven’t seen any content on it for a while

Great video as always. Lots of factors contributing to Rover's decline. Very sad. Couple of small errors on dates (because I am pedantic) - the Rover 800 was launched in 1986, not 1985, and BMW got rid of Rover in 2000, not 1999.

Quality and interesting as always

Toolmakers strike in 1977 was the straw that broke the camels back. SD1 was car of the year… Except you couldn’t buy one,and if you could it broke down,rusted or the paint fell off.

My first car was a 48 P3 I wish I had held onto it one of the best cars I have owned

Rover were developing the Whittle jet engine during WWII when they did a swap deal with Rolls-Royce to produce the V12 Meteor tank engine from the RR Merlin aero engine.... the RB code in RR jet engines stands for "Rover Barnoldswick" in reference to the Lancashire factory...

In the 1950's Rover 90s were owned by the village Doctor, The Vet, and the local Vicar. These people were also the ones who had a telephone, in our village. So in 1966 I managed to buy my first car, a Rover 90, whilst working as a GPO apprentice. It only ran on 5 cylinders, as it would oil it's plug on #5, This was helped by changing to an N8 instead of the N5 Plug on that cylinder. It also needed a new exhaust, which would have cost me 6 weeks wages, and the brakes were leaking. I wish I could have afforded to keep it maintained, but even the 18 mpg made it too expensive for my pay scale. I think with modern materials, and modern oils, that P4 2.8 litre six cylinder engine should last for a very long time. But nowadays I suppose it would need to be fitted with an Exhaust Gas Recirculator, and other modern statutory nonsense.

The turning point was the purchase by Leyland; from there on there was compromise in design and build quality and over zealous unions and poor management sealed the fate of a great marque.

My late father had a couple of Rover 10 cars when I was a kid. I remember they had a freewheel that could be enabled by a large black knob on the dashboard. They were old cars when he got them and he regularly had to patch up the rust eaten bodywork with the Oxy-Acetylene gear from where he worked at the time. He told me the engine had been designed by Bentley as a de-tuned racing engine. He also had to reline the drum brakes occasionally, I guess the freewheel (which he always used) would shorten brake life a bit. Good cars.

I ran a Rover 218 for 160,000 trouble free miles. The only failure was an alternator. I still miss it!

When I was a boy in the 60's, my parents bought two P3's. They were very quiet, sedate cars. I remember you could wind up the windsreen from the bottom. One of them had something called an overdrive (a sort of 5th geer). Also they had a freewheel for going downhill.

I once owned a P4 body style Rover, was a 105s as I remember. Really a fine car, loved driving it and much quality. It’s weak point was the oddly connected shift mechanism. If you got too aggressive with it the thing could break off in your hands. The engine was an “F” head too. It really was like a miniature Rolls Royce.

You were saying that the Rover brand lives on in the Land Rover, but just about every magazine and car journalist commenting on them says that you should only buy one if you are a masochist due to the lack of reliability. It's not a great recommendation. You also mentioned the Ford ecoboost engine. Due to the Internet, more and more people are discovering the enormous problems with this engine. The Wet Belt system and the cracked heads loosing all of the coolant. I know many people, including myself, who have sold their Ford cars while they were worth something and bought another make. Can I say that I enjoyed your video.👍

Had a P5 back in the late 60s it was a beautiful car to drive fast very comfortable and safe. We used to cruise at 100 mile an hour on the German Autobarn.

An interesting little video. I must say I didn't realise Rover's end was so mercenary. I'd just like to point out a total of 322,302 P6s were built. - Not 35,000 as stated in the video. As a P6 owner people forget how much these cars were embraced when new, giving them a big market share in the 1960's and well in to the 1970's.

I went to Longridge in the 1970s to get some space heaters going .They were making the SD1 ,and they were having issues with paint on the cars at the time ,There was 42 space heater hanging from the roof .it turned out 35 were not blowing hot air out but was sucking air and achieving nothing one didnt work at all if i remember the rest worked but not efficiently .The guys on the night shift were propping the doors to the spray booths and ovens that were supposed to bake the paint solid. just get some heat into the building ,I went in when the night shift were working and it was bloody freezing that was why the paint wasnt baking ,Spoke to several of the guys on the production line and they all came out with the same complaint senior managers would not authorise maintenance because it affected there bonus It was bonkers not the fault of the guys on the shop floor but bloody awful managers ,

Did I miss the Rover 600 (Honda collabaration) mine was a great example 120k in 3 years and nothing other than an auxilliary belt failing.

How many people worked at BL? Unfortunately not many of them! As a Rover fan you have pulled one out of the box here Tom. Great archival footage and commentary. 👍

I remember my step mum asking why there were no cars named after dogs. There's Jaguars, Wildcats, Peugeot and Holden have lions, why no dog? My dad said "There is Rover"

I have a 1976 Mazda 1300 and a 1976 Rover P6b (New Zealand built). My Mazda was well built and well thought out with good ergonomics for a small car (same size as a Ford Escort). My P6b has some ill thought out engineering, the wiring behind the dash looks like a dogs breakfast and the holes in the firewall for some cables and wires look like they were made with chisels. For a premium model, she’s a rough one. A P6b was the only car that failed when on Test by ABC’s Wheels program. IMHO Rover needed to tone down some of their engineering wet dreams pre Leyland and post Leyland their quality control was horrendous. A well built SD1 is a unicorn!

Hi Tom, another great video, yes the Met did stock pile sd1 including vanden plas , I remember we take all the badges off . I owned 800 vitesse 400 gsi great well built cars . I own a Mg Zs 180, not so built well after project drive when mgr had parts made cheaper and some trim missing on cars later cars . Regards mark

would say strikes killed it Tom,another great vid again

The P6 Rovers were wonderful cars. Their major short-coming in the U.S. market was their complexity caused by the inboard rear disc brakes, and front coil spring suspension (designed the way it was so the gas turbine engine could be fitted under the hood). Rover attention to detail was superb. That is, until the British Leyland buyout and the changes B.L. brought into the old Rover Company Limited. I dearly loved Rovers and Land Rovers of the 1960's well into the 1970's. I found the NAS specification SD-1 a major shift to a down-market product due to the lack of quality the P6 Rovers had. (As one example, compare the "quality" with the SD-1's carpets with the wool carpeting used in the P6 cars. As another example, the P6 had four-wheel disc brakes; the SD-1 used front disc and rear drum brakes.) Nice video. I'll love the old Rover Company to the day I die. Great products were the result of a superb and dedicated work force. Andrew "Andy" McKane IV, 17 June 2024, Maunaloa, Molokai, Hawaii, USA.

A tragedy, but well reported. Thanks from Canberra AU.

In the late 80’s I visited a few car plants and saw others. Dagenham the workers car park was 90% escort, capri, cortina, sierra. Ellesmere Port 90% Astra, nova, cavalier, likewise Luton was mostly astra, cavalier etc. Longbridge car park was Datsun, Toyota, Renault, VW … with an occasional Mini!!!

As former owner of 14 Rovers (from a 1949 P4 75 to a 1971 P5B coupé), I saw the decline in quality begin with a 1968 P5 saloon. The leather wasn't as good as previously, and external trim bits seemed to be of a thinner gauge metal. By the time I was considering a P6 3500, quality and reliability issues were too much, and I changed marques (to Mercedes-Benz). Seventeen Benzes later I know I made the switch at the right time. Fuck the poor management; fuck the stroppy workers, fuck the power-hungry unions, and fuck Maggie Thatcher, all of of which were major factors in the decline of the British motor industry.

I love the SD1. My neighbour when I was young drove a vanderPlas. Would love to drive one one day.

I am assuming that oil cooler flexible hoses are now available, 20 years ago the six pot sd1 models that often required a decent replacement that didn't leak were only available bespoke from the likes of pirtek, rebuilt a 2.3 for a mate and the hoses cost £100, the originals leaked for a pastime, and then there was the electrics on badly constructed pcb s on a plastic tray that warped when the unit got (as it so often did) warm, then hot as the terminals struggled to take the current, and then there was the sun roof... big ole lucas electrics on the p5, simples! Many thanks as ever, top stuff sir!

Loving the clips of the Rover from the Roger Moore film The Man Who Haunted Himself. It turned into a Lamborghini Islero. To me, Rover's end began at the beginning of the 1970s with several revolutionary projects cancelled by BL like the P8 and P10. The SD1 was sort of the last Rover in the traditional sense. Shame the build quality, the strikes and the service interval extension on the straight six scuppered its reputation. The "Rondas" did keep it going, but British Aerospace then BMW didn't really do the brand any favours I feel. If the Rover 35 and 55 had come to market maybe Rover would have survived. What killed Rover? Bad management decisions from the BL merger to the end with the Phoenix Four I reckon.

My Dad worked as an engine fitter at Rover's Tyseley, Birmingham works in the 1950's and 60's. We lived in Solihull and I remember as a child watching the Rover cars being tested on their own purpose-made track in the early 60's. The Headmaster of my Junior School drove a Rover. Landrovers were unique. They had a prestige higher than any nowadays Mercedes or BMW. Sadly it all went wrong...😢

I think one key element missed here is the changing perception of what prestige and quality meant to the customer from the 1970s and 1980s onwards and the lack of a solution provided by British motor manufacturers at the time. Customers no longer wanted stately homes on wheels with lashings of leather and wood. Instead, they wanted high quality modern styling far removed from the fuddy duddy cars their parent's valued. The issue is that those parents were still buying cars and still wanted those touches which younger people didn't, which led to a confused brand image. The SD1 in my opinion was an attempt to distance Rover from their old image and compete with the likes of BMW and Mercedes in the premium market and if the production and quality issues hadn't hampered this effort, it would have likely have succeeded. In the 1980s, Rover could have continued to push for more modern styled vehicles and emulated the offering of BMW but instead decided to play safe and stuck leather and fake wood to what were essentially badge engineered Hondas. It's the link up with Honda in the 80s that ultimately killed them in my opinion, as that Honda influence and cheap plastics carried on right up until the end, undermining any pretence Rover had of trying to compete on quality and prestige.

Used to have a P5b 3.5 Coupe back in the day with Webasto sun roof. Fabulous car beautifully finished and so relaxing to drive.Probably the last of the proper big Rovers

Tom, another great video. I never really bought the ‘motoring press killed the brand’ line… but at times they didn’t help. I had an early (new shape) 400 new as a company car in ‘95. It did everything brilliantly and was way more desirable than contemporary Astras, Escorts, 306’s etc. Mine did over 100k miles in 4 years and had one minor fault in all that time. But the press were lukewarm because it was pricier than the aforementioned opposition but not large enough to be a Mondeo rival. At that time though, the price premium was deserved and the Rover brand still meant something. On balance I think some of the Honda derived Rovers were the best of both manufacturers: Honda engineering and quality with added British luxury and the brilliant K series in many.

Great kits, you picked there, I have the bristol bulldog, and it looks like a lovely kit. I'm really worried about doing the rigging, though .Anybody recommend the right thickness to use. I was thinking 0.2 .

We have a habit of 'shooting ourselves in the foot' in the UK, this is not just in our manufacturing industry either.

Very enjoyable video but very sad.

I bought a Rover 416 saloon with 60000 on the clock. I assumed that all that bad workmanship and reliability issues were all behind them by then- how wrong was I ?? Just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong. It cost me a small fortune with faults such as gearbox failure, cylinder head gasket, starter motor, alternator, radiator, air conditioning, Overheating, CV joints, bearings and ultimately corrosion . I was glad to see the back of it!!

Any business, no matter how large or small will inevitably fail if teamwork is non-existent and this video sadly reflects the case perfectly. Japanese manufacturing companies create wonderful reliable refined products because of the high ethos standards embedded in each employees mind, from cleaner to top management. This would be an excellent subject to be taught at school, with examples of failure and achievement when we choose to work as a team with everyone becoming a permenant winner.

Liked 75 Contemplating buying 2 or 3 ReStore one

I had several Rovers over the decades and the 75 was the best. Very reliable, looked right, quiet and smooth. I also had some Triumphs which were good.The seeds of failure were sown way back by poor management in UK mass production industry (we are much better at high value low volume industry). Examples of this in BL included the huge parts bin and models and lack of manufacturing strategy, brand consistency and quality.

The SD1 was a stunning looking car but build quality was simply woeful.

I remember in 2003 they were still making amazing sedans.

We owned a Rover coupe 3.5. It was truly a real beauty. It is such a shame that this great true British car was destryed by various mis management

Part of the blame for Rover demise were the design of the car were so dull, it made the Italian's, French, Japanese, German and Euro American branch looked apertising.

The P5 b was a legend . Would love to have one here in the U.S .

I always wanted the Rover P5 or Coupe , Gorgous looking Cars ..wasnt a real Fan of the P6 .. Great Vid as always..

I feel that if the workers would have stuck it out instead of going on strike so much. Rover would be very much a prominent face of automotive success and innovation today.

Sadly Tom I think this video is bob on,cheers fella a sad but very interesting episode👍😉💪

Rover cars still look right today which is simalar to how larger capacity british motorcycles looked in the 50's and 60's. My family too had Rovers from the P4, P5, 3000, P6 then turned to Volvo in the 70's. I love Rovers all the way up to the 600 and 800's and the last 75. For me a marque destroyed by BMW while they stripped the best assets of Mini and Land Rover to sell back to the world.

The Rover 75 is a good classic car buy. BMW made this car with high quality build. It was the desperate try to save the company.

Industrial action,greed and internal politics on behalf of senior management. A lack of investment in technology and recruitment. Lastly shocking quality control

The Rover brand has since reverted back to Jaguar Land Rover, now under Tata Motors ownership. Whether the Rover brand will be resurrected is quite another matter.

Thanks Tom. I’ve owned a number of BL cars over the years and liked them all. This is a painful, but necessary watch about a catastrophe that should never have happened 😢

There is an SD1 that has been raced tucked away in a corner of a workshop near me. It’s red and white, in Belga cigarette livery.

Don't forget that Rover built motorcycles Between 1903 and 1924, Rover produced more than 10,000 motorcycles, There is at least two in the British Motor museum at Gayden

I can't help seeing the post SD1 cars as Hondas. I love Hondas (I have a 30year old Accord with 1/2 million K's and still runs like a Swiss watch). But sad for Rover, - I'm tempted by a 2000TC at the moment.

The Bell at Outwood, Surrey ! Thought I recognised it. Was an excellent venue for drinks and fod.

This is the british view on BMW but there was sabotage by the british workers etc. BMW lost much money with Rover. For BMW to buy Rover was a big mistake. The only good thing is now the Mini.

In my time I owned three P6 Rovers, the first was a genuine Rover P6, and still feel these were some of the best cars I have ever owned and driven in spite of not having all the "refinements" of modern cars.