The Big Picture
Remembering the launch of the 75
PC celebrates 20 years since Rover launched the 75.
This year marks twenty years since the Rover 75 memorably upstaged Jaguar’s S-type at the 1998 Birmingham Motor Show.
Even Jeremy Clarkson – introducing that week’s edition of Top Gear – declared the 75 to be car of the show. ‘It’s as good as a Rolls Royce inside!’ Speaking exclusively to PC, Kevin Jones was PR Manager for Rover at the time. He says the crowds were 20-deep. ‘It was a real scrum! Rover really did have a headline act again.’
However, nobody expected what was to come just hours later, when Bernd Pischetsrieder (then head of BMW Group) made a speech which, to some, undermined the entire day. Having had some disagreements about the future of Longbridge with the UK government of the time, he suggested there was a crisis afoot: ‘Short-term actions are required for the long-term future of the Rover Group. Talks are taking place with the British Government about the whole problem’. There was shock and surprise from onlookers and according to Jones, great annoyance. ‘We’d toiled long and hard to prepare the 75 but no-one had any idea it was to be used as a political device. While it increased the awareness, it did so with detrimental-negativity’.
Jones says the day ended with a sad realisation: ‘It confirmed our fears the marriage was now facing a likely and inevitable divorce from which our fate would most unlikely recover – as it indeed proved to be the case.’