75ZT Community

If (and I hesitate to use these initials) BMW can convince most of the world that SKODA is a car to be admired, and most trade members do, especially after the name was such a huge joke then anything is possible. Even with Skoda's notable Rally heritage the reputation of the ordinary cars was absolutely awful. Now, they have awards coming at them from every direction. I know TaTa and BMW are worlds apart but everyone laughed at BMW for investing in a company with about as much cred. as Wartburg. Never say never eh?

i hope that with the right car and back up rover can return , jag and land rover are doing ok so why not rover.........

Jumper wrote:If (and I hesitate to use these initials) BMW can convince most of the world that SKODA is a car to be admired, and most trade members do, especially after the name was such a huge joke then anything is possible. Even with Skoda's notable Rally heritage the reputation of the ordinary cars was absolutely awful. Now, they have awards coming at them from every direction. I know TaTa and BMW are worlds apart but everyone laughed at BMW for investing in a company with about as much cred. as Wartburg. Never say never eh?

Do not think that BMW did anything to convince the World about Skoda. However, VW did as they own Skoda.

Paul

starbug2 wrote:i hope that with the right car and back up rover can return , jag and land rover are doing ok so why not rover.........

. . . because in the eyes of the public Jag and Land Rover had a much better reputation than Rover and were perceived to be of better quality, and also the Jag and Land Rover names never actually disappeared.

PaulT wrote:

Jumper wrote:If (and I hesitate to use these initials) BMW can convince most of the world that SKODA is a car to be admired, and most trade members do, especially after the name was such a huge joke then anything is possible. Even with Skoda's notable Rally heritage the reputation of the ordinary cars was absolutely awful. Now, they have awards coming at them from every direction. I know TaTa and BMW are worlds apart but everyone laughed at BMW for investing in a company with about as much cred. as Wartburg. Never say never eh?

Do not think that BMW did anything to convince the World about Skoda. However, VW did as they own Skoda.

Paul

Oops. Ah well, same sentiment.

Tourerfogey wrote:

starbug2 wrote:i hope that with the right car and back up rover can return , jag and land rover are doing ok so why not rover.........

. . . because in the eyes of the public Jag and Land Rover had a much better reputation than Rover and were perceived to be of better quality, and also the Jag and Land Rover names never actually disappeared.

Depends where you want to put the marker date wise.....

The P4 was seen as staid but a favourite with doctors and solicitors

The P5 with captains of industry, cabinet ministers and of course HM

The P6 with young executives

The SD1 - now this is where quality went due to Leyland cost cutters - I was assured by a senior Rover person that 'it was alright when it left us before Leyland got their hands on it'

The 800 - plentiful on UK roads with the Mk2 improving on styling

The 75 - well respected in motoring press and a large number sold.

The US seemed to struggle with the V8 P6 - Rover wanted to finish development of the FI version (developed far enough to be subject to crash tests but Leyland wanted on sale sooner so had an horrific plumbing nightmare for emissions that caused tuning problems. They also struggled selling the SD1. The 800 was marketed under the name Sterling but people knew it was a Rover. Interestingly there seems to be a change and some in the US are now concluding that they were not as bad as claimed.

Perhaps where the name Rover suffered was being associated with a smaller / cheaper range of cars. It had been an upmarket manufacturer and suddenly the likes of 213s etc had the Rover name.

If the name does come back then it needs to be restricted to upmarket models and perhaps learn some lessons from the old independent company. Having said that it has been commented that, under the independent company, the cars division was subsidised by the very profitable Land Rover division.

Paul

PaulT wrote:

Jumper wrote:If (and I hesitate to use these initials) BMW can convince most of the world that SKODA is a car to be admired, and most trade members do, especially after the name was such a huge joke then anything is possible. Even with Skoda's notable Rally heritage the reputation of the ordinary cars was absolutely awful. Now, they have awards coming at them from every direction. I know TaTa and BMW are worlds apart but everyone laughed at BMW for investing in a company with about as much cred. as Wartburg. Never say never eh?

Do not think that BMW did anything to convince the World about Skoda. However, VW did as they own Skoda.

Paul

Dead right, part of VW Group, as are a surprising number of other brands.

They convinced people they are a quality car by one particular method. Making them a quality car and then pretending it was a secret. Things go wrong when you try to convince everyone that things have changed, but they haven't as people aren't fooled for long.

Tourerfogey wrote:

starbug2 wrote:i hope that with the right car and back up rover can return , jag and land rover are doing ok so why not rover.........

. . . because in the eyes of the public Jag and Land Rover had a much better reputation than Rover and were perceived to be of better quality, and also the Jag and Land Rover names never actually disappeared.

thats the problem ,"perceived " the lack of good press and bad management , with better press and back up the "perceived " could be turn around and be reborn as have other things which have had bad press

But isnt this JUST an email from a reader

Nothing they do re "Rover" will help me personally , unless they start making the Mk1 75 again!
...

James.uk wrote:Nothing they do re "Rover" will help me personally , unless they start making the Mk1 75 again!
...

perhaps a mk 1 75 A , well they had a NCC 1701 A