Thread: Who assembled the Landys in OZ

Originally Posted by landy

Leyland trucks was taken over by DAF (Paccar) who continued to produce Leyland trucks in the short term before producing rebadged DAF trucks for the UK market. Sherper vans (Freight Rover) were rebranded LDV (Leyland DAF vans). Rover as we all know was split and bought by British Aerospace who then split Land Rover and sold to Ford PAG.

Rover along with other marques under the British Leyland conglomerate were de-merged into Austin Rover and sold to BMW, who de-merged Land Rover, used the 4WD technology to develop the X series of SUV and onsold Land Rover to Ford PAG who also owned Aston Martin and Jaguar. Ford PAG couldn't make the British marques work, building a Jaguar on a Ford Lincoln platform, so they demerged and sold the Aston Martin name to joint venture capitalists and the remaining Jaguar Land Rover to Tata Industries of India. IMHO Tata is the best thing that happened to Land Rover since the Wilkes brothers.


BMW also asset stripped Austin Rover, kept the Mini Cooper tradename and renamed the remnants MG Rover, leaving a debt ridden wreck of a company with the traditional midlands factories and their unproductive workforce. MG Rover went into insolvency and the remainiing intellectual property sold to Chery in China. Land Rover however retained the Rover trademark and could, if they wished reintroduce the Rover name onto a range of cars.

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Rover along with other marques under the British Leyland conglomerate were de-merged into Austin Rover and sold to BMW, who de-merged Land Rover, used the 4WD technology to develop the X series of SUV and onsold Land Rover to Ford PAG who also owned Aston Martin and Jaguar. Ford PAG couldn't make the British marques work, building a Jaguar on a Ford Lincoln platform, so they demerged and sold the Aston Martin name to joint venture capitalists and the remaining Jaguar Land Rover to Tata Industries of India. IMHO Tata is the best thing that happened to Land Rover since the Wilkes brothers.


BMW also asset stripped Austin Rover, kept the Mini Cooper tradename and renamed the remnants MG Rover, leaving a debt ridden wreck of a company with the traditional midlands factories and their unproductive workforce. MG Rover went into insolvency and the remainiing intellectual property sold to Chery in China. Land Rover however retained the Rover trademark and could, if they wished reintroduce the Rover name onto a range of cars.

From Wikipedia (so it must be true!):-

in the midst of BL's well-documented business troubles prompted the establishment of a separate Land Rover company but still under the BL umbrella, remaining part of the subsequent Rover Group in 1988, under the ownership of British Aerospace after the remains of British Leyland were broken up and privatised. In 1994 Rover Group plc was acquired by BMW. In 2000, Rover Group was broken up by BMW and Land Rover was sold to Ford Motor Company, becoming part of its Premier Automotive Group. In 2006 Ford purchased the Rover brand from BMW for around ?6 million. This reunited the Rover and Land Rover brands for the first time since 2000 when the Rover group was broken up by BMW.

But my mistake. First bought by British Aerospace then BMW then Ford PAG.

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Not completely correct. Rover Co Ltd contracted Pressed Metal Corporation who already assembled and built bodies for Leyland and AEC buses to assemble Land Rover vehicles but that only happened in about 1956. The factory was at Enfield in the mid western suburbs of Sydney. On Series 1 vehicles you should find a PMC built ID plate, just near the transfer box information plate vehicles, with an LRS or LRL serial number in addition to the chassis number. Land Rover and in fact Range Rover, production continued at Enfield, along with Pugeot until the mid 1980's. Australian Range Rover production ceased in about 1984 with the commissioning of the new Range Rover assembly plant in the UK. After the Enfield plant closed military Land Rovers, including the Parentie were built in the JRA plant at Moorebank.

Prior to PMC assembly, and in this case John's date of 1950 is correct, the Aussie CKD vehicles were assembled at a number of master distributors. Champion's Ltd in Adelaide, Regent Motors in Melbourne, Annand and Thompson in Brisbane and Grenville Motors in Sydney. (In fact the Grenville Motors assembly plant was in Australia Street Camperdown). Whether Faull's Motors in Perth actually assembled vehicles or only distributed them I am unaware.

There were quite some differences in build quality at the different assemblers and such was the quality control that Rover Co Ltd decided to have a single Australian assembly plant which was PMC as above.

Some interesting differences between the various assembly locations. In the 80" models the chassis number was supposed to be stamped on the LHS engine mount top, this was done at assembly and not at chassis manufacture (there is a chassis build number for that purpose). At Annand and Thompson by the 1953 models they had changed the location for the stamp to the top of the chassis rail and this location continue into the 1955 86" models which were supposed to be stamped on the spring hanger but A&T stamped the chassis rail top.

A&T also were the distributor responsible for the paint stenciled Land Rover on the front and rear of their vehicles.

Diana

I've just been to see Graham Jones, as part of the LROC Sydney 50th next year. His recollection is consistent with the above.

It all started in Australia Street. The company concerned was assembling Chevs pre-war. Post war they lost that contract, & the only three franchises on offer were Rover, Mercedes Benz, & Citroen. Not a hard choice in the late 40s.

Initially it was just Rover cars, then Graham helped unpacked the first CKD Series 1. It seems they had no idea what had been sent to them. Land Rover quickly outsold Rover cars, and both streams had different clientele.

They had to move out of Australia St when that was turned over to VW assembly. The building is still there, currently being converted to apartments.

Graham was adamant that a decision was made to concentrate on Pressed Metal Corp, and all the satellite assembly plants interstate were closed. He;s a bit hazy on those details though.

He says that engines, gearboxes, and axles housings were the only components imported in the Pressed Metal era. Bodies, chassis etc were locally made. Gor him, things went downhill after the Leyland takeover and he left after the RR was introduced in 1970.

This thread is not Graham's story I know, and I've left out a hell of a lot. For LROCS members, he'll speak at the anniversary dinner next year and bring his photos of Australia Street. Something to look forward to.

Regards
Max P

Originally Posted by UncleHo

G'day Lotz-A-Landies

G'morning Diana Thanks for that bit of info, that has filled in a little more of the Jigsaw I was not aware that Grenville Motors assy plant was in Australia St, that would be what became "Ausfields" Leyland Aust main distributors, I am aware that PMC is/was a wholly owned subsiduary of Leyland Aust, ad that there were differences in chassis No stampings on Series 1's but not where that originated from, they may have been assembled at A&T's building at Bulimba in Brisbane, which in the 60's was their detailing building.

cheers

Actually and I don't know why I missed this 8 years ago, PMC was a division of LNC (Lark, Neave & Carter) as were Grenville and Regent Motors in the 1950s so the transfer of Land Rover assembly from Grenville and Regents was economies of scale and increased profits for LNC. Rover Co. Ltd. maintained an engineering office initially in Melbourne and later in NSW (and Polo Flat during the early days of the Snowy Scheme) that supervised production and model changes, but the build was a contractual arrangement between the two corporations.

Whether PMC was purchased by Leyland later I am unaware, but PMC production moved from Sydney to Adelaide where they continued to build bus and coach bodies on various manufacturer chassis.

LNC Holdings also took over Annand and Thompson in the 1970s and were subsequently taken over by Permewan Wright. The irony to this is that Permewan Wright (who's principle business was stock and station agents/grocers) were local Land Rover dealers in Bombala, Coonamble and Coonabarabran in the 1950s.

As Diana pointed out, Grenville motors and PMC are effectively the same entity, so it is hardly surprising that it was despatched to Grenville motors but placarded by PMC.

John

I remember there being a paddock full of land rovers at heathcote road Morebank in the middle sixties i think at the leyland?factory as we called it.Also a paddock full of mini's.Dont know if they were assembled there though.I lived across the road.

Originally Posted by lewy

I remember there being a paddock full of land rovers at heathcote road Morebank in the middle sixties i think at the leyland?factory as we called it.Also a paddock full of mini's.Dont know if they were assembled there though.I lived across the road.

That was the Jaguar Rover Australia assembly plant. Where the Range Rover 2 door and Perentie 110 were assembled.

Hi All,

Thank you to everyone who's contibuted so far .....very interesting read.

Just a note I have a 81 RRC 2 door which was ordered through Winer Bottom Fauls in Perth with a 3 speed auto for the cockys who did'nt want to drive a manual.

Its a Borg Warner 35 3 speed and brochures at the time advertized the 3 speed auto was as quick as the manual.

Speaking with someone on this forum he was good mates with the guy who used to convert them in Eastern states for them.

Just a note .... I thought the term Classic was coined by Landrover to differentiate the shape at the release of the P38 due to Landrover offering both versions for sale and badging the earlier one for its classic shape.

As a 2 door owner one could argue that when Charles Spencer King designed the original RR it was as a 2 door

For that reason I'm comfortable to use the term RRC for my 2 door

Cheers

Baggy