After the Second World War, steel was rationed and destined for export only to get the necessary foreign exchange to the country. Built from 1947, the Land Rover promised to become a major export hit one to two years later. It was not to surpass in simplicity in external design, but mainly made of aluminum sheet. Every a bit manual talented could replace these metal sheets.

From 1948, cars were then again built for the well-heeled middle class, the Rover 60 and 75. Was the focus for Rover at the time: safety, a car for understatement, not too noticeable comfort, quiet and a good, solid workmanship. 1967 Rover slipped under the umbrella of British Leyland (inter alia Jaguar, Austin, Triumph). From this time it also went down with the British car industry. Symptomatic of this is the poor quality of the Rover SD1. Only the models Land Rover and Range Rover were still sold well.

After its collapse and the nationalization of British Leyland, Honda acquired a 20% stake at Rover in 1976. It have been built Rover 400 and 600. In the UK one has privatized during the reign of Margaret Thatcher again many formerly nationalized companies and BMW bought Rover. Honda gave up his plans for further cooperation. BMW has put a lot of money into the company, but the cooperation did not work well. The newly developed Rover 75 e.g. was not particularly successful.

In 2000, BMW decided to sell Land Rover to Ford. The Mini, developed by Rover, one retains. The other parts of the Rover Group, are taken from the Phoenix Venture Group. Although Rover can use the traditional name 'MG' for its sporty cars, the company will fail all efforts again to lead to profitability. 2005 one declares insolvency. The assets go to the Chinese Nanjing Automobile Corporation. Since 2006, Ford has the rights to the name 'Rover' and Tata Motors (India) to the brand.