It was partly nationalised in 1975, when the UK government created a holding company called British Leyland, later renamed BL in 1978.

The final surviving incarnation of the company as the MG Rover Group went into administration in 2005,[5] bringing mass car production by British-owned manufacturers to an end.

[3] At the time, LMC was a highly successful truck and bus manufacturer – as well as owning prosperous car brands Triumph and Rover – whilst BMH (which was the product of an earlier merger between the British Motor Corporation, Pressed Steel and Jaguar) was perilously close to collapse.

The government was hopeful LMC's expertise would revive the ailing BMH, and effectively create a "British General Motors".

At the time of its founding, BLMC was the world's fifth largest vehicle manufacturer after General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and Volkswagen.

Although BMH had enjoyed great success in the 1960s with both the Mini and the 1100/1300, both cars were infamously underpriced and despite their pioneering but unproven front wheel drive engineering, warranty costs had been crippling and had badly eroded those models' profitability.

At the same time, a tide of Japanese imports, spearheaded by Nissan (Datsun) and Toyota exploited both BL's inability to supply its customers and its declining reputation for quality.

By the end of the 1970s, the UK Government had introduced protectionist measures in the form of import quotas on Japanese manufacturers to protect the ailing domestic producers (both BL and Chrysler Europe), which it was helping to sustain.

Even before the merger, BMH had included theoretically competing marques that were in fact selling substantially similar badge engineered cars.

This had been done partly to appease poor industrial relations, as decades old rivalries between Austin and Morris workers at Longbridge and Cowley respectively, had persisted after the 1952 merger and creation of BMC.

The upshot was that both plants were producing badge engineered models of otherwise identical Austin and Morris cars so that each dealer network would have a product to sell.

[8] Individual model lines that were similarly sized were therefore competing against each other, yet were never discontinued nor were model ranges rationalised quickly enough; in fact, the policy of having multiple models competing in the same market segment continued long after the merger – for instance BMH's MGB remained in production alongside LMC's Triumph TR6, the Rover P5 competed with the Jaguar XJ, whilst in the medium family sector, the Princess was in direct competition with upscale versions of the Morris Marina and Austin Maxi, meaning that economies of scale resulting from large production runs could never be realised.

In addition, in consequent attempts to establish British Leyland as a brand in consumers' minds in and outside the UK, print ads and spots were produced, causing confusion rather than attraction for buyers.

The Princess (and the Mini, which BL also turned into a marque in its own right) was sold across the Austin-Morris dealership network, making any distinction between the two even more vague to many customers.

However, both these vehicles were saloons when the trend in Europe was moving towards family-sized hatchbacks, typified by the Volkswagen Golf in 1974 and the Simca 1307 (Chrysler Alpine) in 1975.

These internal issues, which were never satisfactorily solved, combined with serious industrial relations problems with trade unions, the 1973 oil crisis, the three-day week, high inflation and ineffectual management meant that BL became an unmanageable and financially crippled behemoth.

Edwardes also took on the militant unions head-on, culminating in the dismissal of chief shop steward Derek Robinson in 1979, who had been seen as the perpetrator of much of the strikes and industrial unrest that had crippled the company throughout the decade.

At the same time the public use of the "British Leyland" name ceased, being abbreviated simply to "BL", whilst the company's "hurricane" logo was redesigned with the central "L" removed.

The Austin-Morris division was given its own unique brand identity with the introduction of the blue and green "chevron" logo, which was later expanded in use when the car manufacturing operations were further consolidated into the Austin Rover Group in the 1980s.

[18] They were held liable for damages as they had failed to take reasonable care, because the costs of the recall were deemed in proportion with the potential risks of injury.

Towards the final stages of the Metro's development, BL entered into an alliance with Honda to provide a new mid-range model which would replace the ageing Triumph Dolomite, but would more crucially act as a stop-gap until the Austin Maestro and Montego were ready for launch.

The Marina was succeeded by the Morris Ital in July 1980 following a superficial facelift, and a year later the Princess 2 received a major upgrade to become the Austin Ambassador, meaning that the 1982 range had just two competitors in this sector.

It subsequently sold the business to BMW, who, after years of investment that ultimately resulted in huge losses, decided to break up the Rover Group, and only retain the Cowley operations and the rights to manufacture the new MINI family of vehicles.

Established in 1981 with state support, ATL only managed to build 2,380 tractors by the time the project was ended in 1990 – less than the planned production for the first two years.

However, any benefits from the broader number of models were far outweighed by higher development costs and greatly reduced economies of scale.