page_title: British Leyland
section_title: 1982-86: Edwardes steps down, Jaguar divested, Austin Rover Group
hierarchical_section_title: British Leyland / History / 1982-86: Edwardes steps down, Jaguar divested, Austin Rover Group
caption_attribution_description: English: Jaguar XJ-S (1978) at Weston Park The absence of a chrome insert on the upper part of the front bumper indicates that this model was produced before July 1981, which was the month of the model's first (not very extensive) facelift
context_page_description: British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd, following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partly nationalised in 1975, when the UK government created a holding company called British Leyland, later renamed BL in 1978. It incorporated much of the British-owned motor vehicle industry, which in 1968 had a 40 percent share of the UK car market, with roots going back to 1895.
  Despite containing profitable marques such as Jaguar, Rover and Land Rover, as well as the best-selling Mini, British Leyland had a troubled history, leading to its eventual collapse in 1975 and subsequent part-nationalisation.
  After much restructuring and divestment of subsidiary companies, BLMC was renamed as the Rover Group in 1986, becoming a subsidiary of British Aerospace from 1988 to 1994, then subsequently being bought by BMW. The final surviving incarnation of the company as the MG Rover Group went into administration in 2005, bringing mass car production by British-owned manufacturers to an end.
context_section_description: By the end of Michael Edwardes tenure as chairman of BL plc in 1982, the company had been restructured into two distinct parts – the Cars Division (which consisted of Austin-Morris, Rover and Jaguar, and was led by Ray Horrocks) and the Commercial Vehicle Division (which consisted of Land Rover, Leyland Trucks, Leyland Buses and Freight Rover) – whose chief executive was David Andrews. The holding company BL plc was now chaired by Sir Austin Bide in a non executive capacity. Around this time, the BL Cars Ltd division renamed itself Austin Rover Group, shortly before the launch of the Austin Maestro and Ray Horrocks was replaced by Harold Musgrove as its chairman and chief executive. The emergence of the Austin Rover brand effectively put an end to the separate Austin-Morris and Jaguar-Rover-Triumph divisions, since by this time, Jaguar  now resided in a separate company called Jaguar Car Holdings and was now led by Sir John Egan, and this was later de-merged from BL completely and privatised in 1984. That same year, with both the Morris Ital and the Triumph Acclaim being discontinued, their respective brands were effectively shelved, leaving only the Austin and Rover marques, whilst Land Rover moved into the Freight Rover Group alongside the light trucks division.  After the divestment of Unipart and the van, truck and bus divisions in 1987 (see below), leaving just two subsidiaries – Austin Rover (volume cars) and Land Rover (SUVs) this essentially remained the basic structure of BL and subsequently the Rover Group until the 2000 break-up.
caption: Jaguar XJ-S
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