VW buying Rover

[tinman]

Made ya look.

Seriously though, VW are very good at absorbing "lost" and tarnished brands. They turned around Seat and Skoda, but what would actually stop them taking on Rover? Remember that Seat were making absolute garbage in the 80s before they were purchased, and Skoda was the butt of all jokes. They have a well developed platform in the A4(? - Golf Mk5) that could easily be rebodied within 2 years for a Rover assembly line.

So apart from the Rover name being owned by BMW - which I'm pretty sure they would be made to hand over - what would stop VW taking on such a project?

Before you all jump on this and think this is a sh!te idea - Rover sell lots of product into Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Just not enough.

[Mr Blue]

matey boy has got a point

[888v]

yeah i do agree with ya mate, if they can turn skoda round, rover would be a doddle 

[richy]

That would mean that German VW would own 2 British car companies - Rover and Bentley!  And BMW own Mini too.  Can only be a good thing tho - British cars are sh!te.

[monkeyalan]

MG Rover don't own anything anymore.

Longbridge is rented
 
The rover name is licensed from BMW

The parts business is owned by caterpillar

SAIC own the  rights to build the 25,45 and 75.

VW TF anyone?

[DubFan]

Imagine a VW based on the MG X-Power ZT, you know, the one with a V8 and 600+ bhp.....

Or how about a Rover 75 with the A6 chassis and a 1.8T or 2.8 Quattro ?
Rover are already buying in V8 engines for use in the ZT, so why not give them something decent to work with.

No doubt it would improve the build quality and reliability.

Of course it would also keep many british people in their jobs and do some good for the economy.

Sounds like a good idea, keep the british designs, but have VAG engineering underneath.

There are only a few fully british car companies left, they're just the small independants like Noble, Morgan; since TVR are owned by a Russian and even Lotus are owned by someone foreign. But it would be good in the long run.

[mix]

i think lotus is know owned by hyundai......

VAG owning rover could work....

[monkeyalan]

proton own lotus.  Read an interesting piece in autocar about how the future could be. Rovers never coming back so focus on MG. Facelift the TF and build that coupe version, make about 10000 units a year, then introduce a new model in a few years along with a V8 powered rwd car as well.