1905: Lord Austin founds the Austin Motor Company
1952
Austin and Morris merge to become British Motor Corporation (BMC)
1968
BMC is absorbed into a car-making merger which creates British Leyland
1988
British Aerospace buys the Rover Group, comprising Rover Cars and Land Rover, from the British government in a deal worth about £150 million
1989
Rover sells a 20 per cent stake in its Rover automobile unit to Honda
1994
BMW buys Rover from British Aerospace and Honda for £800 million and assumes another £900 million in debt
2000
March 14 - BMW admits sale of Rover Group, dubbed "The English Patient" by German media, is one of several scenarios being looked at, after Rover losses weigh heavily on BMW's 1999 profits
March 16 - British venture capital group Alchemy Partners says it has reached an outline agreement with BMW to acquire the bulk of the loss-making Rover group, which will be renamed the MG Car company
April 1 - 80,000 march through Birmingham to protest against the Rover sell-off to Alchemy amid fears the sale could affect 50,000 jobs in the Birmingham area
April 14 - BMW says it has a counterbid for Rover from the Phoenix consortium led by John Towers, which is widely welcomed by trade unions opposed to Alchemy's bid
April 28 - Alchemy's talks with BMW unexpectedly collapse over a financial wrangle, leaving Phoenix as the sole bidder. BMW remains sceptical of Phoenix's ability to raise enough money to back its bid
May 9 - Phoenix signs deal with BMW to take over development, production and distribution of Rover Cars
2004
June 18 - MG Rover and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation sign a co-operation agreement to fund new model programmes
October 28 - MG Rover announces a 2003 pretax loss of £77 million
November 20 - Shanghai Automotive and MG Rover say they are in talks to set up a joint venture controlled by the Chinese company
December 16 - MG Rover says it expects to finalise a joint venture with SAIC by January or February 2005
2005
February 22 - British chancellor Gordon Brown travels to China for talks on MG Rover's future
April 2 - The British government says it is considering a bridging loan to support a tie-up between MG Rover and Shanghai Automotive
April 3-4 - British government, MG Rover and Shanghai Automotive hold joint-venture talks in Shanghai
April 7 - MG Rover stops production at its Longbridge plant