Rover cars for sale

Overview

Rover built comfortable, well-engineered British saloons for the professional classes — the P4, P5 and P6 are the cars the marque is remembered for. Its most consequential act, though, was almost accidental: in 1948 it launched a stopgap agricultural vehicle called the Land Rover, which outlived everything else it ever made.

History

Founded in 1878 by John Kemp Starley and William Sutton as a bicycle maker; Starley’s 1885 safety bicycle is the direct ancestor of the modern bicycle. Motorcycles followed around 1902 and cars from 1904.

Two decisions shaped the modern company. The Land Rover of 1948 became unexpectedly its most successful product. And Rover bought the rights to a Buick aluminium V8 that General Motors had abandoned — an engine that went on to power the P5 and P6, the Range Rover, and a generation of British specialist cars. Leyland Motors acquired Rover in 1967, folding it into British Leyland in 1968; the marque passed through British Aerospace, BMW and MG Rover before the name came to Jaguar Land Rover under Tata in 2008.