gjm 3258 Report post Posted June 12, 2019 Back in 1998, Bernd Pischetsrieder announced to the Association of Riley Clubs that the Riley marque was to return. As head of BMW (at the time) he instructed Nick Stephenson, Director of Rover Engineering, to start work on the new car. Pischetsrieder is a big fan of Riley and 1998 marked the centenary of the Riley name. He was at the ARC centenary dinner and spent time with Victor Riley, the grandson of founder Percy Riley, and drove the 'White Riley' and a 1934 Brooklands Nine. Sadly, that appears to have been where the revival stopped, as even Rover Group's press team were unaware of the plans. BMW own the rights to a number of historically famous and important marques, including Austin Healey. The BMW Z8, formerly known as the Z07 concept, had been mooted as being released as an Austin Healey, which (as we now know) didn't happen. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aja540i 1906 Report post Posted June 12, 2019 I don't get this fascination with reviving dead brand names. I don't have any issue with the likes of MG, Riley, Rover etc, but they failed. Why would a successful brand like BMW want to trade on the name of a failed car company? I can understand why a new Chinese company with no heritage would want to buy a previously respected brand and use it on their vehicles but who is walking around a BMW dealership thinking "if only it had a riley badge on it". Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jacko 2156 Report post Posted June 12, 2019 5 minutes ago, aja540i said: I don't get this fascination with reviving dead brand names. I don't have any issue with the likes of MG, Riley, Rover etc, but they failed. Why would a successful brand like BMW want to trade on the name of a failed car company? I can understand why a new Chinese company with no heritage would want to buy a previously respected brand and use it on their vehicles but who is walking around a BMW dealership thinking "if only it had a riley badge on it". Its not all bad, means they can do things like this. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aja540i 1906 Report post Posted June 12, 2019 They still could have done that without reviving the Alpine name. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gjm 3258 Report post Posted June 12, 2019 It's an exercise in nostalgia, and provided there is a differentiation between the new parent and the old name, that's fine (with me). You could argue that BMW should have scrapped Bentley and re-badged the cars, but that would probably be a mistake - buyers want a Bentley, not a BMW, regardless of what is under the skin. There have been many attempts over the recent years to revive old names. Bristol, Jensen, (Riley), Austin Healey... Even MG has been resurrected. It's nice, but ooften is just a badge exercise with an XYZ car underneath. Pischetsrieder planned something a little different. BMW running gear, but a definite diversion from typical BMW styling and market focus. Of course, he left BMW 2 years later and went to VW. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
