I thought BMW owned Rolls Royce. Am i wrong? What about Bentley?

Also, BMW owns Range Rover don't they?

Anyone know?

Hmm its not quite that straight forward.

AFAICR - There are two "Rolls Royce" companies.

One makes the cars you know as Rolls Royces.

The other owns the rights to the RR name.

VW bought one company and BMW the other.

I think BMW has the company that makes the cars, and VW bought the company with the naming rights [much to BMW's chagrin].

Which is why BMW officially now makes Bentleys and not Rolls Royces as while the RR and Bentley cars used to be pretty much the same, BMW doesn't have the rights to the RR name so cannot sell them as such.

I got all this from a BBC motoring program (The Cars the Star?) a few months back.
I may have got VW and BMW mixed up in their roles and who owns what, but the fact is one company has the factory the other the rights to the name.

Which one of them owns the Rolls Royce engines?

Very odd.

I got the answer to the land rover question. I guess they sold the company to Ford in 2000 cause it was losing $2 mil a day.

Are you sitting comfortably ?

Ford owns Landrover, which includes RangeRover. They bought it from BMW, and the current model RangeRover was largely designed by BMW.

Rolls Royce plc is the aerospace company, and builds those very fine jet engines on your 747.

Rolls Royce plc licenses BMW to use the Rolls Royce name to build Rolls Royce cars. This comes into effect on 1 Jan 2003, and BMW is busy squirreling away at a new car plant in England to build the first BMW-Rolls Royces.

VW bought the Bentley name and the existing Rolls Royce factory and production lines. Up to 31 Dec 2002 all Rolls Royces and Bentleys are built by VW (though if you go to the showroom you are discreetly encouraged to buy the Bentley version rather than the RR version of the car).

From 1 Jan 03 VW will only produce Bentley versions of the existing shape, and are introducing a new, "cheaper" model, which shares a lot of the hi-tech underpinnngs of the new Audi A8 (which VW also owns, along with Lamborghini).

Yeah, Ford has Land Rover and Jaguar (and Volvo, much to my dismay). But Ford has... Austin Martin too, right?

I heard the rumor of a cheap-o Fordified Jag that was pending. What was that Cadaliac back in the day that did that? It was basicaly a Chevy Cavliear with a Caddy sticker on the front? And all the consumers thought, "If I can get a $15,000 Caddy, there's no prestigue anymore." and stopped buying them.

But Ford has... Austin Martin too, right?

They do and are turning out some stunning new cars.

http://www.astonmartin.com/base.html (sorry, typical flash heavy car manufacturer site)

heard the rumor of a cheap-o Fordified Jag that was pending.

That would be the Jaguar X-Type which shares it's underlying platform with the Ford Mondeo, the launch model had 4 wheel drive, but there is a front wheel drive one in the range as well now. The X-Type has be very, very well received by motoring journalists in the UK, I think it has one every group test it has been in.

http://www.jaguar.com/us/

I guess they sold the company to Ford in 2000 cause it was losing $2 mil a day

It's OK, they found it all. It had slipped down the back of the drivers seat.

Rob

But Ford has... Austin Martin too, right?

No.

But they do own a company called Aston Martin..

tanstaafl.

The X-Type has be very, very well received by motoring journalists

I've just brought 2 of my guys, bottom end of the range X types, and I borrowed one most of last week. It is stunning, the handling of a 3 series beamer, with a real quality feel.
If the reliability's good, i'd be worried if I was BMW.

>>It is stunning, the handling of a 3 series beamer

Hmm, at risk of sounding like a complete troll - the handling of the BMW 3 series cars is one reason why I turn them down as company cars. Even my cheapy Golf GTi Turbo drove better, and now I have a Scooby I would definitely never go back.

I mean, BMW's are pretty good if you like a comfy, luxurious interior, but they ain't good for twisty roads until you get to the top end of the range like the M3.

Apologies if I offend any BMW owners - I do actually think they are quite nice, and obviously very smart and prestigious.

Hm, I've driven both and I would go for the beamer every time, it's where rear wheel drive comes in to its own.
When it comes to luxury, the JagX makes a BMW look positively spartan.

I remember watching a tv program about Aston Martin, they were talking to the then owner Victor Gauntlett about the offer that came through from Ford.
He said he thought about it for a second or two then bit thier hands off to the elbow
He was very tricky with the rights to the Aston name though