Morris Motor Company

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Morris Motor Company

The Morris Motor Company was a British car manufacturing company. After the incorporation of the company into larger corporations, the Morris name remained in use as a marque until 1984 when British Leyland's Austin Rover Group decided to concentrate on the more popular Austin marque.

History

Early history

The Morris Motor Company was started in 1910 when bicycle manufacturer William Morris turned his attention to car manufacturing and began to plan a new light car. A factory was opened in 1913 in a former Oxford Military College at Cowley, Oxford, United Kingdom, and the company's first car, the 2-seat Morris Oxford "Bullnose" was introduced. Nearly all the major components were bought-in, with only final assembly being undertaken in the Morris works. In 1914 a coupé and van were added to the line-up but the chassis was too short and the 1018 cc engine too small to make a much-needed 4-seat version of the car. White and Poppe, who made the engine, wanted more money than Morris was prepared to pay for a larger version, so the company turned to Continental of Detroit, Michigan, United States for supplies of a 1548 cc unit. Gearboxes and axles were also sourced in the US. In spite of the outbreak of the First World War the orders were maintained and, from mid-1915 a new larger car, the 2-seat and 4-seat Morris Cowley was introduced.

Inter War years

After the war the Continental engine was no longer available, so Morris arranged for the French company Hotchkiss to make a near-copy in their Coventry factory. This was used to power new versions of the basic Cowley and more up-market Morris Oxford cars. With a reputation for producing high-quality cars and a policy of cutting prices, Morris Motor Company continued to grow and increase its share of the British market and, in 1924, overtook Ford to become the UK's biggest car manufacturer, holding a 51% share of the home market. They had a policy of buying up suppliers with, for example, Hotchkiss in Coventry becoming the Morris Engines branch in 1923. In 1924 the head of the Morris sales agency in Oxford, Cecil Kimber, started building sporting versions of Morris cars, called "MG" — after the agency, Morris Garages. The MG factory was in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

The small car market was entered in 1928, with the Morris Minor, using an 847 cc engine from the Wolseley Motor Company, a company which became part of Morris Motors Company in 1927. This helped the company through the economic depression of the time. The Minor was replaced at the 1934 London Motor Show by the Morris Eight, a direct response to the Ford Model Y and heavily based on it. In 1932 Morris appointed Leonard Lord as Managing Director and he swept through the works, updating the production methods and introducing a proper moving assembly line, but Morris and Lord fell out, and Lord left in 1936 — threatening to "take Cowley apart brick by brick". Also in 1936 William Morris sold Morris Commercial Cars Limited, his commercial vehicle enterprise, to Morris Motors. In 1938 William Morris became Viscount Nuffield, and the same year he merged the Morris Motor Company (incorporating Wolseley) and MG with newly acquired Riley to form a new company: the Nuffield Organisation.

In 1926 The Pressed Steel Company Limited was founded as a joint venture between William Morris, the Budd Corporation (of USA) and an American bank. Its factory was located over the road from the Morris factory at Cowley and supplied Morris and many other motor manufacturers.

Second World War

In the summer of 1938 the Nuffield Organisation agreed to build equip and manage a huge new factory at Castle Bromwich, which was built specifically to manufacture Supermarine Spitfires. After a major air raid damaged the Morris Bodies factory, the premises switched to the production of jerry cans, producing millions of these versatile containers for use during the rest of the war and following the ending of hostilities. The Cowley plant was turned over to aircraft repair and production of Tiger Moth pilot trainers, as well as "mine sinkers" based on a design produced at the same plant during the First World War.

Post World War II production

Production restarted after World War II, with the pre-war Eight and Ten designs. In 1948 the "Eight" was replaced by what is probably the most famous Morris car, the Morris Minor designed by Alec Issigonis (who later went on to design the Mini) and reusing the small car name from 1928. The "Ten" was replaced by a new 1948 Morris Oxford, styled like a larger version of the Minor. A later Morris Oxford (the 1956 Morris Oxford III) was the basis for the design of India's famous Hindustan Ambassador which continues in production to the present day.

BMC

In 1952, the Nuffield Organisation merged with its old rival the Austin Motor Company to form the British Motor Corporation (BMC). Nuffield brought the Morris, MG, Riley and Wolseley marques into the merger. Leonard Lord was in charge, which led to Austin's domination of the organisation. Badge-engineering was important to the new company and for many years the several marques would be seen on several families of similar vehicles.

British Leyland

In 1968, in further rationalisations of the British motor industry, BMC became part of the newly-formed British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC), and subsequently, in 1975, the nationalised British Leyland Limited (BL).

The Morris marque continued to be used until the early 1980s on cars such as the Morris Marina. The Morris Ital (essentially a facelifted Marina) was the last Morris-badged passenger car, with production ending in the summer of 1984. The last Morris of all was a van variant of the Austin Metro.

In the early 1980s, the former Morris plant at Cowley and its sister site the former Pressed Steel plant, were turned over to the production of Austin and Rover badged vehicles. They continued to be used by BL's Austin Rover Group and its successor the Rover Group, which was eventually bought by BMW, and then by a management consortium, leading to the creation of MG Rover. None of the former Morris buildings now exist, British Aerospace sold the site in 1992, it was than demolished and replaced with the Oxford Business Park. The adjacent former Pressed Steel Company site (now known as "Plant Oxford") is owned and operated by BMW, who use it to assemble the new MINI.

The rights to the Morris marque are currently owned by Nanjing Automobile (Group) Corporation.

The history of the company is commemorated in the Morris Motors Museum at the Oxford Bus Museum.

Post-Morris cars to have been built at Cowley include the Austin/MG Maestro, Austin/MG Montego, Rover 600, Rover 800 and (for a short time) the Rover 75.

Badge

The Morris badge shows an ox crossing a river — a reference to the company's home town, Oxford.

Car models (excludes light vans)

* 1913–1926 - Morris Oxford (Bullnose)
* 1915–1935 - Morris Cowley
* 1920–1929 - Morris Six
* 1926–1935 - Morris Oxford
* 1928–1932 - Morris Minor
* 1931–1933 - Morris Major
* 1929–1935 - Morris Isis
* 1933–1939 - Morris Twenty-One/Twenty-Five
* 1935–1939 - Morris Twelve
* 1935–1939 - Morris Fourteen
* 1935–1948 - Morris Eight
* 1933–1948 - Morris Ten
* 1948–1952 - Morris Minor MM
* 1952–1956 - Morris Minor
* 1955–1971 - Morris Minor 1000
* 1948–1954 - Morris Oxford MO
* 1948–1953 - Morris Six MS
* 1954–1971 - Morris Oxford II / III / IV / V / VI
* 1954–1959 - Morris Cowley
* 1955–1958 - Morris Isis
* 1957–1960 - Morris Marshal (BMC Australia)
* 1958–1964 - Morris Major (BMC Australia)
* 1959–1969 - Morris Mini Minor
* 1964–1968 - Morris Mini Moke (United Kingdom)
* 1966–1973 - Morris Mini Moke (Australia)
* 1962–1971 - Morris 1100
* 1967–1971 - Morris 1300
* 1969–1972 - Morris 1500 (Australia)
* 1966–1975 - Morris 1800
* 1972–1975 - Morris 2200
* 1969–1972 - Morris Nomad (Australia)
* 1971–1980 - Morris Marina
* 1980–1984 - Morris Ital

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British Motor Corporation

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British Motor Corporation

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British Motor Corporation

The British Motor Corporation (BMC) was a vehicle manufacturer from United Kingdom, formed by the merger of the Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation (parent of the Morris car company, MG, Riley and Wolseley) in 1952. It was the predecessor of British Leyland.

Organisation

BMC was the largest British car company of its day, with (in 1952) 39 percent of British output, producing a wide range of cars under brand names including Austin, Morris, MG, Austin-Healey, Wolseley as well as commercial vehicles and agricultural tractors. The first chairman was Lord Nuffield (William Morris) but he was replaced in August 1952 by Austin's Leonard Lord who continued in that role until his 65th birthday in 1961 but handing over, in theory at least, the managing director responsibilities to his deputy George Harriman in 1956.

BMC's headquarters were at the Austin plant at Longbridge, near Birmingham and Austin was the dominant partner in the group mainly because of the chairman. The use of Morris engine designs was dropped within 3 years and all new car designs were coded ADO from "Austin Drawing Office". The Longbridge plant was up to date, having been thoroughly modernised in 1951, and compared very favourably with Nuffield's 16 different and often old fashioned factories scattered over the English Midlands. Austin's management systems however, especially cost control and marketing were not as good as Nuffield's and as the market changed from a shortage of cars to competition this was to tell. The biggest selling car, the Mini, was famously analysed by Ford Motor Company who concluded that BMC must be losing £30 on every one sold. The result was that although volumes held up well throughout the BMC era, market share fell as did profitability and hence investment in new models, triggering the 1966 government sponsored merger with Jaguar to form British Motor Holdings (BMH), and three years later leading to the merger of BMH with Leyland Motor Corporation.

At the time of the mergers, there was a well established dealership network for each of the marques. Among the car-buying British public there was a tendency of loyalty to a particular marque and marques appealed to different market segments. This meant that marques competed against each other in some areas, though some marques had a larger range than others. The Riley and Wolseley models were selling in very small numbers. Styling was also getting distinctly old fashioned and this caused Leonard Lord, in an unusual move for him, to call upon the services of an external stylist.

BMC Farina

In 1958, BMC hired Battista Farina to redesign its entire car line. This resulted in the creation of three "Farina" saloons, each of which was badge-engineered to fit the various BMC car lines:

The compact Farina model bowed in 1958 with the Austin A40 Farina. This is considered by many to be the first mass produced hatchback car: a small estate version was produced with a horizontally split tailgate, its size and configuration would today be considered that of a small hatchback. A Mark II A40 Farina appeared in 1961 and was produced through 1967. These small cars used the A-Series engine.

The mid-sized Farinas were launched in 1958 with the Wolseley 15/60. Other members of the group included the Riley 4/68, Austin A55 Cambridge Mk. II, MG Magnette Mk. III, and Morris Oxford V. Later, the design was licensed in Argentina and produced as the Di Tella 1500/Traveller/Argenta. The mid-size cars used the B-Series straight-4 engine.

Most of these cars lasted until 1961, though the Di Tellas remained until 1965. They were replaced with a new Farina body style and most were renamed. These were the Austin A60 Cambridge, MG Magnette Mk. IV, Morris Oxford VI, Riley 4/72, and Wolseley 16/60. These mostly remained in production until 1968, with no rear wheel drive replacement produced.

Farina also designed a large car. Launched in 1959 as the Austin A99 Westminster, Vanden Plas Princess 3-Litre, and Wolseley 6/99, it used the large C-Series straight-6 engine. The large Farinas were updated in 1961 as the Austin A110 Westminster, Vanden Plas Princess 3-Litre Mk. II, and Wolseley 6/110. These remained in production until 1968.

BMC Cars (Inherited" Models)

Austin

* Austin A125 Sheerline 1947-1954
* Austin A135 Princess 1947-1956
* Austin A40 Sports 1950-1953
* Austin A70 Hereford 1950-1954
* Austin A30 1951-1956
* Austin A40 Devon 1947-1952



MG

* MG TD 1949-1953
* MG Y-type 1947-1953



Morris

* Morris Minor 1948-1971
* Morris Oxford (Series MO) 1948-1954
* Morris Six MS 1948-1953



Riley

* Riley RM series 1945-1955



Wolseley

* Wolseley 4/50 1948-1953
* Wolseley 6/80 1948-1954
* Wolseley Oxford Taxi 1947-1955

BMC Designs

Austin

* Austin A40 Somerset 1952-1954
* Austin A40 Cambridge 1954-1958
* Austin A90 Westminster 1954-1968
* Austin Metropolitan 1954-1961
* Austin A35 1956-1959
* Austin Lancer (Australia) 1958-1962
* Austin Princess IV 1956-1959
* Austin A40 Farina 1958-1967
* Austin A55 Cambridge 1959-1969
* Austin Mini 1959-1989
* Austin Freeway (Australia) 1962-1965
* Austin 1100/1300 1963-1974
* Austin 1800 1964-1975
* Austin 3-Litre 1967-1971
* Austin Maxi 1969-1981 (Designed in the BMC era)



Austin-Healey

* Austin-Healey 100 1953-1959
* Austin-Healey 3000 1959-1968
* Austin-Healey Sprite 1958-1971



MG

* MGA 1955-1962
* MG Magnette ZA/ZB 1953-1959
* MG Magnette Mk III/Mk IV 1959-1968
* MG Midget 1961-1974
* MGB 1962-1980
* MG 1100/1300 1962-1973
* MGC 1967-1969



Morris

* Morris Oxford 1954-1971
* Morris Cowley 1954-1959
* Morris Isis 1955-1958
* Morris Marshal (Australia) 1957-1960
* Morris Major (Australia) 1958-1964
* Morris Mini-Minor 1959-2000
* Morris 1100/1300 1963-1974
* Morris 1800 1964-1975

BMC Project Numbers

Most BMC projects followed the earlier Austin practice of describing vehicles with an 'ADO' number (which stands for 'Austin Design Office', but also sometimes known as the 'Amalgamated Drawing Office'). Hence cars that had more than one marque name (e.g. Austin Se7en and Morris Mini Minor) would have the same ADO number. Given the often complex badge-engineering that BMC undertook, it is common amongst enthusiasts to use the ADO number when referring to vehicles as a single design (for example, saying 'The ADO15 entered production in 1959'- this encompasses the fact that when launched, the ADO15 was marketed as both the Morris Mini Minor and the Austin Seven). The ADO numbers used were as follows:

* ADO6 Austin FX4 Taxi
* ADO8 Austin A40 Farina
* ADO9 Austin A55 Cambridge
* ADO10 Austin A90 Westminster
* ADO13 Austin-Healey Sprite
* ADO14 Austin Maxi
* ADO15 Mini
* ADO16 1100/1300
* ADO17 1800/2200
* ADO20 Mini MkIII and Clubman
* ADO23 MGB
* ADO26 Austin Healey 3000 MkIII
* ADO27 Austin Kimberley
* ADO28 Morris Marina
* ADO31 MGA 1600
* ADO34 Pininfarina design for 2 seat roadster based on Mini.
* ADO37 Vanden Plas Princess 3 litre
* ADO40 Wolseley 24/80
* ADO41 Austin-Healey Sprite MkII
* ADO47 MG Midget MkI
* ADO50 Mini Cooper and Cooper S
* ADO52 MGC
* ADO53 Austin A110 Westminster
* ADO59 Morris Minor 1000
* ADO61 Austin 3-Litre
* ADO66 Vanden Plas Princess 4-litre R
* ADO67 Austin Allegro
* ADO88 Mini Metro

BMC Commercial Vehicles

Most BMC era commercial vehicles were sold as Morris but there were sometimes Austin equivalents. Radiator badges on the larger vehicles were often BMC.

Car based light vans

* Morris Z-series ¼-ton (Morris Eight Series E) 1940-1953
* Morris ¼-ton O-Type (Morris Minor van) 1953-1971
* Morris Cowley MCV (Morris Oxford van) 1950-1956
* Austin A30 van 1954-1956
* Austin A35 van 1956-1968
* Austin A35 pick-up 1956-1957
* Morris ½-ton (Morris Oxford Series III van) 1956-1962
* Austin A55/A60 van 1958-1972
* Austin A55/A60 pick-up (Australian built) 1958-1972
* Mini van 1960-1982
* Mini pick-up 1961-1982
* Austin A40 Farina van (export only) 1961-1967
* Austin 1800 ute(pick-up) (Australia built) 1967-1974

Light Vans

* Austin K8 1948-1954
* Morris J-type 1949-1960
* Morris LD 1952-1968
* Morris J2 1956-1967
* Morris 250 JU 1967
* Austin/Morris J4 1960-1974

Light lorries

* Morris LC4 1952-1954
* Morris LC5 1954-1960
* Morris FV-series (Series I) 1948-1954
* Morris FV-series (Series II) 1954-1955
* Morris FE-series (Series III) 1955-1959
* Morris FG 1960-1968
* Morris FM 1961-1968
* Morris WE 1955-1964
* Morris WF 1964-1981
* Morris FF 1958-1961
* Morris FH 1961-1964
* Morris FJ 1964-1968

BMC agricultural vehicles

With the merge of the Nuffield and Austin interests, the Nuffield Organisation's tractors became part of BMC.

* Nuffield Universal
* BMC Mini

BMC abroad

In the 1950s and the 1960s, BMC set-up twenty-one plants overseas, some as subsidiaries, and some as joint ventures, to assemble their vehicles. One was British Motor Corporation (Australia) which was established in 1953 at the Nuffield Australia site on the one time Victoria Park horse racetrack in Sydney. This facility went from a marshalling area for fully imported Morris cars (Austins were up until then being assembled in Melbourne, Victoria from an earlier Austin Motors establishment), to a facility for making CKD cars, to the total local fabrication and construction of vehicles, engines, and mechanicals.

Denmark was a particularly strong market for BMC products in Europe. In the post-war period, the Danish government closely regulated exports and imports to maintain the country's balance of trade. High-value imports such as cars were heavily taxed. Britain bought large amounts of agricultural and meat produce from Denmark, and in response British cars were subject to a much lower import tax than cars from other countries, making BMC products very popular in the country until the 1970s, when these regulations were relaxed.

The end of BMC

In 1966 BMC and Pressed Steel merged with Jaguar Cars to form British Motor Holdings (BMH). In 1968 there was a further wave of mergers in the British car industry, (under pressure from the Labour British Government and Minister of Technology Tony Benn) and BMH merged with the Leyland Motor Corporation (LMC) to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC), the original BMC mass-production, and MG sports car products being brought together into the Austin Morris division of the new organisation. In 1975 BLMC was nationalised and became British Leyland Limited.

Post Mortem

Following the "merger" with Leyland, the new company's board bore an uncanny resemblance to the senior management team that had hitherto headed up the Leyland half of the partnership, so comments of the management team on the profitability of the former BMC elements need to be viewed with caution. However, following a review of company records undertaken with the support of the new board, author Graham Turner stated that at the time of the merger there were 16 versions of the Mini being produced, yielding an average profit of just £16 per car, while every Morris Minor sold lost the group £9 and every Austin Westminster sold lost £17. This helps to explain why the Westminster and Minor were among the early casualties of the merger, as well as the introduction of the Mini Clubman, capable of being built for less but sold for more than a standard Mini thanks to simplified ("modernised") front panels. Even the UK's best seller, the Austin/Morris 1100 had to be subjected to an emergency cost reduction programme which removed approximately £10 from the cost of each car, applying changes that included the omission of lead sealing from body joints (£2.40 per car), removing provision for optional reversing lamps (£0.10) and "changes in body finish" (£0.75). Rebuilding the Cowley plant to include "new automated body building facilities" saved £2.00 in transport costs per car for bodies that no longer needed to be transported from the corporation's Swindon plant and in the longer term further transport costs were saved by concentrating assembly of the model at a single plant, rather than splitting it between plants at Cowley and Longbridge. Because of the high proportion of auto-production costs represented by fixed costs that needed to be allocated over a planned production volume, and the use in the 1960s of investment appraisal criteria that were ill-suited to accounting for volume fluctuations and the rapidly changing value of the UK currency in the 1960s, the precise figures quoted may be open to challenge, but the new management's diagnosis that BMC's profitability was insufficient to fund support and new model investment to cover its disparate range of brands and models was hard to refute.

Life After Death

In 2002, BMC (Turkey), a Turkish commercial vehicle builder, originally set up by the British Motor Corporation to build their designs under licence in the 1950s, began exporting its vehicles to Britain. This saw the return of the BMC brand to British roads for the first time in over 40 years.

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Nuffield Organisation

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Nuffield Organisation

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Nuffield Organisation

The Nuffield Organisation was a vehicle manufacturing company in the United Kingdom. Named after its founder, William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield, it was formed in 1938 as the merger of Nuffield's Morris Motor Company (already having acquired Wolseley Motors in 1927), another of Nuffield's companies the MG Car Company and Riley.

Morris Motors Ltd included Morris Commercial Cars which made light commercial vehicles such as vans.

In 1937, Nuffield Mechanisations Ltd was formed for the purpose of development and production of tanks. The Cruiser Mk III was their first product.

Second World War

During World War II Nuffield was engaged in military production. Among their activities was production of the Liberty L-12 engine for use in British tanks of the period. In 1939 one of their subsidiaries was given the opportunity to take part in production of the Covenanter tank then being designed but opted to develop their own version of the design which became the Crusader tank. They followed this with the Cavalier tank which used the Liberty engine as well. The tank was built but the power of the Liberty was limited and with the increase in tank weight the Cavalier was not used in combat. The last tank the Liberty was produced for was the A27L Centaur tank, effectively an underpowered Cromwell tank.

Commercial vehicles in the Morris range were produced for military use - such as the Morris C8 and Morris Commercial also built vehicles such as the Terrapin amphibious carrier.

Post war

Automobile production of Morris, MG, Wolseley and Riley marques restarted in the 1940s. Post war, Nuffield vice chairman, Sir Miles Thomas, announced to the I.S.M.A at Hull in 1946 "Nuffield to Make Tractors". Production started in 1948 with the Nuffield Universal tractor, launched at the Smithfield show in December 1948. Designed by former David Brown Ltd. tractor designer Dr. H E Merritt, who had been involved in tank design during the war.

Tractor manufacture was undertaken at the former Wolseley factory in Birmingham.

The Nuffield Organisation merged with the Austin Motor Company to form the British Motor Corporation in 1952.

Following the Merger of BMC with Leyland Motors the Nuffield tractor brand became Leyland tractors in 1968, production was transferred to Bathgate in Scotland.

Nuffield Organisation

Industry : Automotive
Fate : Merged with Austin Motor Company
Successor : British Motor Corporation
Founded : 1938
Defunct : 1952
Headquarters : Cowley, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Key people : William Morris

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British Leyland ~ Timelines

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British Leyland ~ Timelines

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British Leyland ~ Timelines

Notes for the timeline table

* The car brands of BSA were divested, BSA was not merged into Jaguar.

* Mini was not originally a marque in its own right. See Mini and MINI (BMW) for more detail.

* The BMC trademark is registered (1564704, E1118348) to MG Rover Group in the UK. BMC is also the name of a commercial vehicle manufacturer in Turkey, formerly the Turkish subsidiary of the British Motor Corporation. It is believed that Nanjing Automotive may have purchased this from MG Rover, however the brand has not been re-assigned as of 17 July 2006.

* The Wolseley trademark is registered (UK 1490228) to MG Rover Group Ltd for automobiles only. It is believed that Nanjing Automotive may have purchased this from MG Rover, however the brand has not been -reassigned as of July 2006 to a different company. The UK building materials supplier Wolseley plc owns the rights to the Wolseley name for all other purposes. Wolseley plc is a descendant of the original Wolseley company.

* The Vanden Plas trademark is owned by Ford (through Jaguar) for use within the USA and Canada, and as (UK 1133528, E2654481) to MG Rover Group Ltd for use in the rest of the world. It is believed that Nanjing Automotive may have purchased this from MG Rover, however the trademark has not been recorded as reassigned as of 17 July 2006. This is why Jaguar XJ Vanden Plas models are branded as Daimlers in Britain. The last Rover to use the Vanden Plas name was the Rover 75 Vanden Plas, a long wheelbase limousine model.

* The Rover trademark was owned by BMW and was only licenced to MG Rover Group Ltd. BMW sold the brand to Ford in September 2006.

* Alvis was purchased from British Leyland by United Scientific Holdings plc in 1981, in 2002 Alvis merged with part of Vickers Defence Systems to form Alvis Vickers which was purchased by BAE Systems in 2004. BAE Systems did not acquire Alvis through their ownership of the Rover Group in the early 1990s. Production of Alvis branded cars ceased in 1967. The trademark is owned by Alvis Vehicles Ltd

* The use of the Triumph name as a trademark for vehicles is shared between BMW and Triumph Motorcycles Ltd. The former for automobiles and the latter for motorcycles. The motorcycle and car business separated in the 1930s.

Merged companies

The car firms (and car brands) which eventually merged to form the company are as follows.

The dates given are those of the first car of each name, but these are often debatable as each car may be several years in development.

* 1895 Wolseley Motor Company
* 1896 Lanchester Motor Company
* 1896 Leyland Motors Ltd (commercial vehicles)
* 1896 Daimler
* 1898 Riley
* 1903 Standard Motor Company
* 1904 Rover
* 1905 Austin
* 1912 Morris
* 1913 Vanden Plas
* 1919 Alvis
* 1923 MG created by Morris
* 1923 Triumph Motor Company
* 1924 BSA used as a car brand
* 1935 Jaguar
* 1947 Land Rover created by Rover
* 1952 Austin-Healey created by Austin division of BMC
* 1959 Mini : the car initially launched as the Austin Seven and Morris Mini-Minor became popularly known just as the 'Mini' and BMC recognised this by initially re-badging the Austin as the Austin Mini, and subsequently deleting both marque names from the car and effectively making Mini a marque name in its own right.

Other merger events

Several of these names (including Jaguar, Land Rover and Mini) are now in other hands. The history of the mergers and other key events is as follows:

* 1910 Daimler purchased by the armaments-and-motorbikes engineering company BSA
* 1931 Lanchester purchased by BSA (last Lanchester 1956)
* 1938 Morris incorporates Wolseley and Riley forming the Nuffield Organisation
* 1944 Standard acquire Triumph, forming Standard Triumph
* 1946 Austin acquire Vanden Plas
* 1952 The Nuffield Organisation and Austin merge to form the British Motor Corporation (BMC)
* 1955 Leyland Motors acquire Scammell Lorries Limited of Watford
* 1960 Jaguar buy the car-making interests of BSA, including Daimler
* 1961 Leyland Motors acquire Standard Triumph
* 1962 Leyland Motors acquired ACV, the renamed AEC (Associated Equipment Company) company.
* 1963 Jaguar acquire the engine and fork lift truck manufacturing company Coventry Climax
* 1965 Rover acquire Alvis
* 1966 BMC merge with Jaguar to form British Motor Holdings (BMH)
* 1967 Leyland absorb Rover
* 1968 Leyland merge with British Motor Holdings to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC)
* 1969 Joint venture with the National Bus Company to build Leyland National buses, and also to continue the manufacture of Bristol buses previously built by the NBC
* 1970s Majority stake in Danish partner DAB, to form Leyland-DAB, producer of the Leyland-DAB articulated bus
* 1972 BLMC take control of Innocenti
* 1974 Cessation of production of cars in Australia
* 1975 Publication of the Ryder Report, British Leyland effectively nationalised due to financial difficulties with new holding company formed British Leyland Ltd later BL plc with the government as the principal (but not the only) shareholder
* 1977 Michael Edwardes appointed as Chairman by Labour Government. Begins massive cull of excess BL assets.
* 1982 BL buys out the National Bus Company from the bus plant joint venture.

Divestments

* 1969 The last Riley Elf, 1300, and 4/72 models were built, thus ending the Riley marque
* 1975 Innocenti passed to Alejandro de Tomaso
* 1976 Final Wolseley, a 2200, is built, thus ending the Wolseley marque
* 1978 Land Rover separated from Rover to form a separate company, still part of BL
* 1979 Collaboration with Honda begins, sacking of Derek Robinson ("Red Robbo")
* 1978 Closure of Triumph assembly plant in Speke - production moved to Canley
* 1980 Closure of MG and Triumph assembly plants in Abingdon and Canley
* 1981 Closure of Rover-Triumph plant in Solihull
* 1981 Alvis sold to United Scientific Holdings and Alvis plc formed
* 1982 Michael Edwardes steps down as Chairman, BL Cars Ltd renamed Austin Rover Group (ARG)
* 1982 Leyland Tractors sold to Marshall Tractors, tractor production at Bathgate assembly plant ends
* 1983 Closure of Bristol bus plant, production transferred to Leyland National plant at Workington
* 1984 Morris Ital goes out of production, signalling the end of the Morris badge
* 1984 Jaguar floated off (including Daimler and the US rights to Vanden Plas); bought by Ford in 1989
* 1984 Final Triumph Acclaim rolls off the production line, ending the Triumph name
* 1985 Closure of Bathgate truck assembly plant
* 1986 BL plc renamed Rover Group, Austin badges disappear the following year
* 1986 Leyland Bus floated off; bought by Volvo in 1988
* 1987 Leyland Trucks division (including Freight Rover vans) merged with DAF to form DAF NV/Leyland DAF. Vans became independent as LDV in 1993, as did Trucks as Leyland Trucks. Leyland Trucks was taken over by US giant PACCAR in 1998 and integrated with Foden.
* 1987 Unipart, BL's spare parts division acquired by management buy-out
* 1988 Rover Group privatised; sold to British Aerospace
* 1994 Rover Group sold to BMW; collaboration with Honda ends
* 1994 Maestro and Montego go out of production.
* 1998 Metro/100-series goes out of production - the last of the former Austin models.
* 2000 BMW decides to break up and sell the Rover empire; Land Rover sold to Ford
* 2000 BMW MINI, Triumph, and Riley trademarks retained by BMW, but BMW's other interests sold off
* 2000 Remainder of company became independent as the MG Rover Group
* 2005 MG Rover goes into administration with huge debts, and is taken over by Nanjing Automobile.
* 2006 Ford acquires the rights to the Rover brand name from BMW, though without any immediate plans for using it on production cars.
* 2008 Ford completes the sale of Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors, of India.

List of notable BL and BMC and related models (up to 1986)

# 1948 Land Rover (Rover)
# 1948 Morris Minor (Nuffield)
# 1952 Rover 90 (Rover)
# 1952 Morris Oxford (BMC)
# 1954 Austin Cambridge (BMC)
# 1959 Triumph Herald (Standard-Triumph)
# 1959 Austin Gipsy (BMC)
# 1959 Mini (BMC; Initially badged as the Austin Se7en and Morris Mini-Minor)
# 1961 Jaguar E-type (Jaguar)
# 1961 Riley Elf (BMC)
# 1961 Wolseley Hornet (BMC)
# 1961 Austin Healey Sprite (BMC)
# 1961 MG Midget (BMC)
# 1962 Triumph Spitfire (Leyland-Triumph)
# 1962 Morris 1100 (BMC)
# 1962 MG MGB (BMC)
# 1963 Triumph 2000 (Leyland-Triumph)
# 1964 Mini Moke (BMC)
# 1964 Austin 1800/2200 (BMC)
# 1964 Rover 2000 (Rover)
# 1968 Jaguar XJ6 (BLMC)
# 1969 Austin Maxi (BLMC)
# 1970 Triumph Dolomite (BLMC)
# 1970 Triumph Toledo (BLMC)
# 1970 Range Rover (BLMC)
# 1971 Morris Marina (BLMC)
# 1971 Triumph Stag (BLMC)
# 1973 Austin Allegro (BLMC)
# 1975 Princess (BL)
# 1975 Triumph TR7 (BL)
# 1975 Jaguar XJS (BL)
# 1976–1987: Rover SD1 (BL)
# 1980–1990: Austin Metro (BL)
# 1980–1984: Morris Ital (BL)
# 1981 Triumph Acclaim (BL)
# 1982 Austin Ambassador (ARG)
# 1983 Austin Maestro (ARG)
# 1984 Austin Montego (ARG)
# 1984 Rover 200-series (ARG)
# 1986 Rover 800-series/Sterling (ARG)

Competing models

In some cases, British Leyland continued to produce competing models from the merged companies at different sites for many years. However, any benefits from the broader number of models were far outweighed by higher development costs and greatly reduced economies of scale.

Sadly, potential benefits associated with rationalising parts usage were lost, as for example, the company made two completely different 1.3 litre engines (BMC A series and the Triumph 1.3 litre), two different 1.5 litre engines (BMC E series and Triumph), four different 2 litre engines (4 cylinder O series, 4 cylinder Triumph Dolomite, 4 cylinder Rover and 6 cylinder Triumph) and two completely different V8 engines (Triumph OHC 3 litre V8 and Rover 3.5 litre V8).

Examples of competing cars were:

* Morris Minor and Austin A40/Austin 1100
* Austin 1300 and Triumph Herald/Triumph Toledo
* Morris Marina, Austin Allegro, and Triumph Dolomite
* Triumph 2000, Rover 2000, and Austin Princess
* Triumph Spitfire, MG Midget and Austin-Healey Sprite
* Triumph TR6/Triumph TR7 and MG MGB
* Rover 3500 and Jaguar XJ6.

Badge-engineered models

In contrast to the continued development of competing models, British Leyland continued the practice of badge engineering of models which had started under BMC; selling essentially the same vehicle under two (or more) different marques.

* Riley One-Point-Five/Wolseley 1500
* MG Magnette ZA/ZB/Wolseley 4/44
* MG Magnette ZB/Wolseley 15/50
* Morris Oxford MO/Wolseley 4/50
* Morris Six/Wolseley 6/80
* Austin A99 Westminster/Wolseley 6/99
* Austin A110 Westminster/Wolseley 6/110
* Austin 1800/Morris 1800/Wolseley 18/85/Austin 2200/Morris 2200/Wolseley Six
* Austin A55 Cambridge/MG Magnette Mk. III/Morris Oxford V/Riley 4/68/Wolseley 15/60
* Austin A60 Cambridge/MG Magnette Mk. IV/Morris Oxford VI/Riley 4/72/Wolseley 16/60
* Riley Pathfinder/Riley Two-Point-Six/Wolseley 6/90
* Austin Se7en/Morris Mini-Minor
* Morris Mini Traveller/Austin Mini Countryman
* Riley Elf/Wolseley Hornet
* Austin 1100/Austin 1300/Morris 1100/Morris 1300/MG 1100/Riley Kestrel/Riley 1300/Vanden Plas Princess/Wolseley 1100
* Austin-Healey Sprite/MG Midget.

Related : MG Rover Group
Related : British Leyland

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