After a major restructuring of BL's car manufacturing operations, Jaguar regained its independence (leading to its eventual de-merger in 1984) whilst the Triumph and Morris marques were retired.

The Leyland name had become tainted by the industrial unrest and poor quality cars of the 1970s, and the creation of the Austin Rover brand was intended to present a new public face of the company, although at corporate level it was still known as "BL plc".

However, the huge industrial relations problems, ineffectual management and product duplication that had plagued the company up to the nationalisation continued throughout the late 1970s.

The problems centered on Longbridge union leader and shop steward Derek Robinson (nicknamed "Red Robbo" by the British press).

The incumbent government of the time ran out of patience with Robinson, and appointed South African-born corporate troubleshooter Sir Michael Edwardes to turn BL around.

After discovering Robinson's links with various communist groups, the company amassed sufficient evidence claiming that his actions were intended to deliberately damage both BL itself and the UK economy.

BL pulled out of entire markets – for example the large Leyland tractors range was sold-off wholesale to Marshall, and Jaguar was privatised in 1984.

Many of BL's non-core subsidiaries (such as refrigerator company Prestcold and industrial engine manufacturer Coventry Climax) were also culled during Edwardes' tenure.

Thirdly, he entered into a collaborative agreement with Honda, the first product of this alliance being the Triumph Acclaim, which paved the way for the joint development of a range of cars which spearheaded the company's revival in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Metro, which was launched in 1980, gave the firm a much-needed competitor in modern supermini market and filled a gap in the range vacated by a scaling down of Mini and Austin Allegro production.

This was less of a problem thanks to the follow-up of the Triumph Acclaim with the first generation Rover 200 of 1984 – the second product of the Honda alliance and one of the few strong-selling small family saloons of its era.

It was also sold in America under the Sterling brand, but this project was quickly shelved due to unacceptable product quality issues that led to low sales.

In 1968 British Leyland had created Austin Morris Ltd as an operating company that managed all the previous operations of the British Motor Corporation which it had absorbed, but it was not until 1978 that Austin-Morris was given a formal corporate identity (distinct from the Jaguar Rover Triumph (JRT) arm of the company) with the blue and green "chevron" logo (officially known as the "wing"), which began appearing on Austin and Morris-badged BL cars in that year – the Princess 2 and the van/pick-up versions of the Morris Marina were the first vehicles to wear the logo.