13 Facts About British Leyland

1.

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.

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2.

BMH and British Leyland Motors had expanded and acquired companies throughout the 1950s and 1960s to compete with one another, with the result that when the two conglomerates were brought together into BL there was even more internal competition.

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3.

The SD1 was actually the first step that British Leyland took towards rationalising its passenger car ranges, as it replaced two cars competing in the same sector, the Rover P6 and Triumph 2000.

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4.

British Leyland Cars was thus renamed BL Cars Ltd, consisting of two main divisions; Austin Morris and Jaguar Rover Triumph .

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5.

British Leyland were aware of the issue but had decided against a recall.

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6.

In December 1978, British Leyland Limited was renamed BL Limited and its subsidiary, which acted as a holding company for all the other companies within the group.

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7.

In 1980, British Leyland was still producing four cars in the large family car sector—the Princess 2, Austin Maxi, Morris Marina, and Triumph Dolomite.

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8.

Around the same time, BL changed its name to Rover Group and in 1987 the Trucks Division – British Leyland Vehicles merged with the Dutch DAF company to form DAF NV, trading as British Leyland DAF in the UK and as DAF in the Netherlands.

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9.

However, now the British Leyland logo is no longer used and the company has been largely Indian in its ownership for over three decades.

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10.

British Leyland is a leader in the heavy transportation sector within India and has an aggressive expansionary policy.

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11.

Today, Ashok-British Leyland is pursuing a joint venture with Nissan and through its acquisition of the Czech truck maker, Avia, is entering the European truck market directly.

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12.

In some cases, British Leyland continued to produce competing models from the merged companies at different sites for many years.

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13.

In contrast to the continued development of competing models, British Leyland continued the practice of badge engineering of models which had started under BMC; selling essentially the same vehicle under two different marques.

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