[martieg]

World really goes around.

In the case of Britain, most famous car brands are slowly being acquired by foreign investors.

First were the Germans - BMW bought Rolls Royce and Mini. Bentley is owned by Volkswagen.

Then the Americans - Ford controlled Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover, and AC was bought in 1996 by American investor Alan Lubinsky.

In 2000, Marcos Cars was sold to Canadian investors, and has gone bankrupt.

In 2004, Russian investor Nikolay Smolensky bought TVR.

In 2005 Nanjing Automobile (China) bought what was left of MG Rover Group after it went bankrupt.

In 2007 Westfield Cars was sold to Italy's Potenza Sports Cars.

And now former British colonies are buying some of these companies! Last year, Aston Martin was sold to Kuwaiti investors, and now Jaguar and Land Rover will also change hands - Tata Motors, an Indian company, has announced it will buy them for $2.3 billion.

According to USA Today: "In one of the most significant shifts of clout in the auto industry, Ford Motor will hand over the keys to its high-class Jaguar and Land Rover brands to an Indian conglomerate that wants to be a high-end player." Ford sells Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata

What's happening Britain? Why this decline in the once prosperous British Car industry? Well, there are still some good and legendary brands under British control: Lotus, Caterham, Morgan and of course, McLaren, although this last one is using German engines (BMW and MB).

[karan230]

Doesn't Lotus use Toyota engines for the Elise? =p

-K

[quagmire]

Lotus is owned by Proton a Malaysian maker.

[iatacs19]

It means nothing, those are just brands.

The insurance industry is just one of many British strongholds and that alone is worth trillions of euros.

[martieg]

Originally Posted by quagmire

Lotus is owned by Proton a Malaysian maker.

You're correct! - I missed that one. And Malaysia was also a British colony.

Originally Posted by karan230

Doesn't Lotus use Toyota engines for the Elise?

That is true.

However, if I'm not mistaken, most of these British brands that are no longer owned by British investors continue to be built in the UK.