Founded in 200 and defunct 5 years later in 2005, MG Rover Group was the last mass-production car manufacturer in Britain which was domestically owned. MG Rover was formed when BMW decided to sell original Rover Group car-making and engine manufacturing assets because of continuous financial losses and a decreasing share in the market. MG Rover was purhcased then for just £10.00 by a consortium known then as the Phoenix Consortium, headed up by ex-Rover chief exec John Towers.

In the company's first year of trading, 2001, they had their best ever year of sales, when they recorded sales figures of 170,000 units. Between then and its final year of production, 2005, the company dropped to sales of around 120,000 units.

In June 2004, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) made clear its intentions to invest £1 billion for a 70% stake in the company. However, this deal was not ratified by the Chinese government, who held the view that if the then owners BMW couldn't make a great success of MG Rover, then SAIC couldn't either. Despite intervention from the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and an offer of a £120 million loan to help keep the deal alive, but SAIC rejected the pleas and MG Rover went into liquidation, meaning the loss of 6000 Rover workers' jobs.