Comments by "John Brereton" (@johnbrereton5229) on "Number 27" channel.

  1. ​ @matthewlewis2072  The 'BMW' mini was actually the Rover R30 mini that if Rover had been able to keep it, would have saved the company. Instead BMW took the R30 and Rovers new midrange car the R50 and then broke Rover in two and sold off Landrover for more money than they had paid for the whole company. This condemned Rover to a slow death with out any chance of survival .
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  2.  @anonimalombardafabbricaaut7824  Perhaps you should have gone to speck savers ! 😂😂
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  3.  @anonimalombardafabbricaaut7824  Well, beauty is matter of opinion, and to me the Alfa looks like a much older and unimaginative design compared to the mini.
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  4. Why ? Because they built a 'German' car and all german cars fail and are the least reliable.
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  5. Rovers equal tie up with Honda was very benificial to both companies. Rover owned 20% of Honda and visa versa. The first cars were joint designs and both Rovers and Honda models were built at Rovers factory and did very well, so well that BMW started to take an interest and bought the company behind Hondas back. When BMW owned them they would not allow Lotus to develope Rovers award winning K series engine, and stopped Rover exporting models to America because they were competition with their own BMW models. Surely as they now owned Rover they would want to sell as many as they could, if they were really interested in Rovers future. In the end they broke Rover in two, selling Land Rover for more money than they paid for the whole of Rover. They then kept the Oxford plant where the 75 were made forcing the Pheonix consortium to move production to Longbridge. They also kept the R30 Mini which was intended to have Rovers K series engine fitted. As well as the R50 Rovers new mid range car which later resurfaced as the new BMW 1 series. After all this asset stripping Rover could never survive, they were condemned to a slow and painfull death. So yes, added to what you have repeated about BMWs chairman's speach at the 75s launch , BMW wilfully intended to kill Rover.
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  6.  @Mahoromatic  The mini wasnt designed as a sportsaloon, the Giulietta was. The mini was a revolutionary design made to be a cheap small car after WW2 that could transport four adults. However, it only had Austin's basic A series engine which was never designed to be a sportscar engine. Nevertheless, when people drove them they found that the light tiny car handled like a dream and could therefore travel fast because it ironed out all the corners. This led to the mini astonishing performance at Monte Carlo in 1964 beating many cars like the Guilietta which came 64th and shocking the auto industry with its audacious win. This followed by other wins at Monte Carlo and over 30 more around the world. Yes, on paper the mini was just an uninspiring shopping trolley but in reality it was a giant killer that influenced many other small car designs world wide.
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  7. ​ @MaximilianvonPinneberg  No, this one was fitted with the BMW derived engine after the BMW takeover. Previously, during the time when Rover owned 20% of Honda and visa versa Rover did fit some Honda engines untill their own K series engine came into production. But then Honda also fitted the Rover diesel engine in their cars too.
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  8. It looks very classy both inside and out and judging by your uncontrollable enthusiasm a great car to drive too. Though I must say, I think VW has even done a great job in the newer Bentleys as well. Far better than BMW has with the RR which looks somewhat vulgar to my eye, more a car for a gold toothed drug dealer, than a sophisticated owner of good taste and nobel birth.
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  9.  @chrissmith2114  Rover was a very prestigious British car brand known as 'The Poor Mans Rolls Royce'. Amongst their many innovations was the worlds first jet powered car. The innovative and award winning Rover K series of Engines was fitted to many other cars as well as Rover such as Lotus, Ariel Atom, Caterham etc and the groundbreaking Rover K series of engineers, inspired Honda engineers, not the other way around. Rover also owned 20% of Honda and Honda owned 20% of Rover. The Rover diesel engine was fitted to Honda cars and some Honda engines were fitted to Rover untill Rovers K series was put into production. After BMW bought Rover the close association with Honda ended. BMW later insisted that their quieter and apparently more sophisticated diesel engines were fitted to Rover instead of their own. However, Rover engineers redesigned their own engines and prototypes won blind testing competition against the BMW engines. However, by this time BMW had asset stripped Rover and this design was sold off to an Indian company instead, while Rover itself was broken up.
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  10.  @chrissmith2114  Honda began making motorcycles in 1949 and cars in 1963 and over the years gained a very good reputation in engine design and manufacturing. In 1959 they became the worlds largest motorcycle manufacturer eclipsing the British BSA company. Rover began making bicycles in 1885 when they invented the worlds first modern bicycle. That design is still universally copied all over the world. So synonymous is the name Rover to the bicycle that we know today, that it is the word for bicycle in many countries across the world. In 1899 they fitted a small combustion engine to one of their bicycles and created the first Rover motorcycle selling over 10,000 before production ceased to concentrate on car production which began in 1888 with a prototype for an electric car. A two seater Rover 8 followed in 1901. In early 1940s Frank Whittle the inventor of the jet engine approached Rover to build his engines which they did but after developing there own handed over the Whittle jet designs to Rolls Royce in exchange for RR Meteor tank engine manufacturing. Later in 1950 Rover produced Jet1 the world first jet powered car, which later went onto become the BRM jet powered racing car. In the late 1940s they designed the Land Rover and this became their biggest selling vehicle and is still manufactured today. In 1967 Rover became part of British Leyland and this was the start of a downhill spiral for all the companies involved including Rover. British Leylands first venture with Honda was the Triumph acclaim in 1981 when the began manufacturing the Honda Ballade under the Triumph name. In 1990 after being taken under the ownership of the Government Rover took a 20% share in Honda and Honda a 20% share in Rover and together they designed and developed the 200 for Rover and the Concerto for Honda. The 200 also was used as a basis for the Rover 400. All these cars including the Hondas were build by Rover at their plant at Longbridge. This deal worked well for both companies. However after Rover was sold by the Government to British Airspace they were asset stripped and then sold on to BMW who did the same before breaking up the company and leaving the rump of Rover to struggle on into bankruptcy. I've owned many Rovers including those with the award winning Rover K series engines and I've never had a head gasket go in any of them. Many other manufacturers fitted Rover K series engines to their cars including Lotus who approached BMW asking if they could developed the engine further yet BMW surprisingly refused. This was a stark indication of BMWs malign intentions towards Rover.
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  11. The Rover company did not build the Land Rover by 'accident'. They puposefully decided to creat it and in doing so they created a Legend that would out live Rover itself .
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