1922: Motorcyclist William Lyons forms the Swallow Sidecar Company in Blackpool, England, building motorcycle sidecars

1927: Lyons enters car-making, crafting a two-seater body for the Austin Seven

1935: Jaguar name first used on a car

1945: Brand name given to the entire company

1947: Maurice Wilkes, technical director for Rover Cars, starts designing British agricultural vehicle based on American army 4x4s

1948: First Land Rover launched at Amsterdam Motor Show; production of 8,000 doubles next year

1949: British Army puts in its first Land Rover order

1966: Jaguar merges with British Motor Corporation

1967: Rover becomes part of Leyland Motors

1968: Leyland Motors merges with British Motor Corp to become British Leyland

1970: Land Rover launches Range Rover, with independent suspension and new V8 engine

1975: British Leyland part nationalised

1984: Britain’s Conservative govt privatises Jaguar

1988: Conservative govt sells Rover Group to British

Aerospace for knockdown price of £150 mn, overlooking rival offer from Ford Motor Co

1989: Ford approaches Jaguar with offer, whicheventually leads to a deal

1994: Germany’s BMW buys Rover Group from British Aerospace for£800 mn and assumes another £900 million in debt

March 2000: BMW admits Rover Group sale (dubbed ‘The English Patient’ by German media) is one of several scenarios being looked at, after Rover losses weigh heavily on BMW’s 1999 profits

May 9, 2000: BMW hands Rover Cars to Britain’s Phoenix consortium, a group of British businessmen led by former Rover chief executive John Towers. Phoenix paid a nominal £10 for Rover in deal sweetened by inclusion of £500 mn loan to new owner May 24, 2000: Ford buys Land Rover for $2.7 bn from BMW; Land Rover’s $465 mn long-term debt retained by BMW

... contd.