The Rover Car Company was a British manufacturer originally formed in 1904. The company was taken over by Leyland Motors Ltd in 1967.

The Rover Company, though a subsidiary of British Leyland, retained it's own identity throughought up until break up of British Leyland in the 1980s. Rover was then sold on to British Aerospace which in turn sold the company to BMW in 2000.

in 2000 BMW sold off much car side of the Rover Group to the Phoenix Consortium who traded as the MG Rover Group. The Rover brand was retained by BMW and the name was used under licence by rhe MG Rover Group.

In April 2005 production of cars under the Rover brand ceased when the group became insolvent. The assets of the MG Rover Group were purchase by Chinese firm Nanjing Automotive.

In 2006 BMW sold the Rover brand name to Ford who had first option on the brand name since purchasing Land Rover in 2000.

In 2008 as part of the sale of Land Rover and Jaguar the Rover brand was sold by Ford to Indian company Tata.