Rover was a British automobile manufacturer and later a marque based at the Longbridge plant in Birmingham. In recent years it was part of the MG Rover Group. However, in April 2005, production stopped when the company became insolvent. In July 2005 the Nanjing Automobile Group acquired the assets, with plans to resume production in China, and possibly also at Longbridge, in 2006. On September 18, 2006 Ford bought the rights to the Rover name from BMW for approximately £6 million. [1] Ford had acquired an option of first refusal to buy the Rover brand as a result of its purchase of Land Rover from BMW in 2000.