Description
Author: James Taylor, Hardbound, 208 Pages, ISBN: 9781847976857, 2016 Reprint of 2014 Publication
From the moment of its launch in 1998, the Rover 75 caught the public's imagination.
Here, at last, was a car that felt like traditional Rovers and had been designed in Britain, rather than as a joint venture with Honda in Japan. Even though Rover was owned by BMW at the time, the German company had kept its distance during the development period, and the result looked like the start of a new era for the Rover marque.
Sadly, production was just getting into its stride when BMW decided to sell the Rover Group. Profitable Land Rover went to Ford, but Rover Cars (and the MG marque with it) went to a private consortium called Phoenix Venture Holdings. It was always a risk, but there were many customers in Britain who still believed in the Rover marque and who continued their support for the Rover 75.
Rover 75 and MG ZT charts the evolution of the models intended to keep the Rover Group and the MG marque alive.The MG Rover Group (the name given by Phoenix) expanded the Rover 75 range with an estate (Tourer') variant designed under BMW.The Tourer was also joined by performance-oriented MG variants called ZT models. The new focus on performance also led to a muscle-car derivative with a US Ford V8 engine, introduced first as an MG and later as a Rover as well.
Despite the ambitious programme, MG Rover's quest for a partner prepared to make the investment needed to develop new models proved fruitless. Cruelly disappointed at the last minute when an alliance with a Chinese maker fell through, the company ran out of money in 2005.Yet both Rover and MG versions of the 75 were revitalized in China, the Rover under the new name of Roewe, and both continued in production for several more years.
Meanwhile, both Rover 75 and MG ZT models had acquired a strong enthusiast following, and they remain much liked, both as everyday transport and as showpieces. From the start of the project in the early 1990s to the transfer of production to China, this is the whole story of a car that turned out to be even more remarkable than its creators had imagined.
