Rodacar
| Rodacar AD
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|---|---|
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| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1994 |
| resolution | 1996 |
| Seat | Varna , Bulgaria |
| Branch | Automotive industry |
Rodacar was a Bulgarian automobile manufacturer. The only model of the company, founded as a joint venture between the British Austin Rover Group and the Bulgarian Daru Group, was the Rodacar Maestro, a version of the Austin Maestro compact car manufactured under license . After only seven months of production, the company ceased operations. The 2200 vehicles produced up to then were exported worldwide. Some of them were available as new vehicles in Great Britain, the country of origin of the Maestro, until 2001.
History of origin
prehistory
In British Leyland and its predecessor companies, it was common for a long time to sell the rights to older vehicles and the production of enterprises in developing countries. For example, the Morris Oxford , the Triumph Herald , the Rover SD1 and a few other vehicles continued to be produced by Hindustan Motors or Standard in India after their production in Great Britain had ceased. After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1990, Austin Rover, the successor to British Leyland , which at the time belonged to British Aerospace , looked for ways to produce older models in Eastern Europe in the future. A role model for this was Volkswagen's commitment to Škoda . The British engine manufacturer Perkins , which supplied Austin Rover with diesel engines, established contact in 1991 with the Bulgarian engine manufacturer Vamo, a licensee of Perkins. In 1991 both companies negotiated a cooperation and published letters of intent; Ultimately, however, the Bulgarian side broke off the talks.
Joint venture with BMW agency
It was only after Austin Rover was taken over by the German manufacturer BMW in 1994 that there was an opportunity to invest in Bulgaria. BMW took up the ideas of the previous owner and brokered the Bulgarian BMW importer, the Daru Group, as a potential partner. Both companies founded Rodacar as a joint venture in which Austin Rover held 51 percent and Daru 49 percent of the shares. The company was to assemble Austin Rover vehicles from supplied parts kits ; After a transition period, it was planned to manufacture a large part of the components on site. The first choice fell on the compact Austin Maestro sedan, which had been manufactured from 1983 to 1994 at the Cowley plant in Oxford , UK .
Rodacar was based in the port city of Varna on the Black Sea coast . The location was chosen with good transport options in mind. Austin Rover invested US $ 20 million in the project. It was the largest single investment in Bulgaria since the fall of the Iron Curtain. The project also included the construction of a new factory, which was opened in September 1995 in the presence of the Bulgarian President Shelju Shelev . It was designed for the production of up to 10,000 vehicles per year.
fail
The project failed early. The production of the Maestro, which had started in September 1995, was discontinued in April 1996. Instead of the 7500 cars planned annually, only about 2200 vehicles were built. Different reasons are given for failure.
- The British side blamed the Bulgarian management, which was not able to meet the requirements for proper operational management.
- In addition, the Bulgarian government had not kept its promise to order several thousand vehicles for use by the authorities; instead she bought new Ladas .
- Other sources indicate difficult economic circumstances. Bulgaria has set higher duties and taxes for the import of CKD components than for the import of complete vehicles.
- The Bulgarian government, on the other hand, pointed out that the maestro was not competitive on the local market and that Rodacar did not have a suitable marketing concept. It is true that Rover prohibited the car from being sold through its own dealer network.
- Other sources are also of the opinion that Austin Rover "did not understand the Bulgarian market": In view of the opportunities to get higher-quality Western used vehicles, the Bulgarian population was very little interested in the very simply equipped, technically outdated Maestro. In addition, the price of the maestro was too high. This corresponds to the fact that Rodacar was only able to sell around 200 maestros on the Bulgarian market in six months, while Škoda sold several thousand new Felicias , which were cheaper than the maestro.
- A member of Project Enterprise stated 20 years later that in November 1995 a member of Rodacar's management was killed in a car accident. He was a "key figure" and the only manager who had direct contact with the Bulgarian government. This gap could not be closed.
Aftermath
The failure of Rodacar has been a topic in business training for years. It is often used as an example of the problems that socio-cultural differences can cause in joint ventures.
Rodacar Maestro
Initial model: the Austin Maestro
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The Austin Maestro was developed by British Leyland from 1975 under the in-house code LC10 (later: LM10). It and the notchback version Montego , which was derived from it , were to replace the Austin models Allegro and Maxi as well as the Morris models Marina and Ital . The designers followed the standard of the compact car class that was customary at the time and declared that they took the VW Golf I as a model. The Maestro was available in Great Britain from 1983 with engines from 1.3 to 2.0 liters displacement as Austin, in a luxury version as Vanden Plas and as a sporty MG Maestro. By the beginning of the 1990s at the latest, the Maestro was out of date and technically outdated. With the introduction of the second series of the Rover 200 from 1989, based on the contemporary Honda Concerto , it was downgraded to the inexpensive base model in the Austin Rover model range. In 1994 the production of the Maestro in Great Britain ended.
The Rodacar version
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The Rodacar Maestro was produced exclusively using the CKD process. The parts came as a complete kit from Cowley to Varna. Here they were put together. The painting also took place in Bulgaria.
The Rodacar Maestro is a standard model with only a few options for additional equipment. Outwardly it corresponds to the basic version of the Austin Maestro sold in Great Britain as Clubman in the last specification of the years 1992 to 1994. Like this one it has black plastic bumpers. The bumpers painted in the body color of the higher-quality British versions are not available from Rodacar. The car is powered by the 1.3-liter inline four-cylinder of the BMC-A series, the first version of which appeared in 1950. All vehicles were delivered without a catalytic converter . The power is transmitted by a manual five-speed gearbox from Volkswagen, which was also installed in the British Maestros. The gear ratio of the Rodacar versions does not correspond to that of the British Maestro five-door, but that of the Maestro Delivery Van. In the opinion of the designers, it was more suitable for the hilly parts of Bulgaria. In order to adapt the car to the difficult road conditions in Bulgaria, the suspension of the heavier Maestro Diesel is built into the Rodacar Maestro. In conjunction with the light A-Series gasoline engine, it leads to higher ground clearance.
All Rodacar maestros are left-hand drive ex works .
production
Rodacar produced around 2200 maestros in just under seven months. Only 200 of them were sold in Bulgaria. The majority of the Rodacar Maestros were exported. 550 vehicles were delivered to Uruguay , 400 to Argentina . Other export markets were Macedonia , Syria and Lebanon . There are also some Rodacar Maestros in Russia .
Rodacar Maestros in Great Britain
Some of the Bulgarian maestros returned to the UK after Rodacar closed. Apple 2000 Ltd., based in Bury St Edmunds ( Suffolk ) . In 1996, through the intermediary Alstone Marketing, took over some maestros that had already been completed in Varna in 1995 and had since been on a dump. Apple 2000 sold them as new from 1996 to at least 1999. Most of them were previously converted to right-hand drive; however, the windshield wipers and mirrors remained in the left-hand drive version. The converted model was £ 4,500 without and £ 4,995 with a warranty. Some vehicles were sold unchanged as left-hand drive. Their price was £ 3,995. At the time, they were the cheapest new cars in this vehicle class on the British market.
The Parkway Maestros
Another batch of Maestros related to Rodacar came onto the British market from 1997 without going through Bulgaria. By the time Rodacars ceased operations in the spring of 1996, Austin Rover had made more CKD kits in Cowley than Rodacars could buy. The remaining kits were initially stored. In February 1997, a total of 621 of these kits, declared as "canceled export order", were offered for sale in a small advertisement in the Sunday Times newspaper . 438 of them were five-door station wagons, 138 were two-door vans. A complete kit should cost £ 2000. The trading company Trans European Trading bought the kits and gradually had them completed by Parkway Services in Ledbury ( Herefordshire ) . They were sold new in the UK until 2001 at a price of £ 4,995. The finished vehicles are considered kit cars in Great Britain ; The manufacturer is neither Austin Rover nor Rodacar. In enthusiastic circles they are alternatively known as Parkway Maestros or Lebury Maestros . They are among the most sought-after examples of the Maestro.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ There incorrectly referred to as Vammo. See the story of Rodacar at http://maestro-special.tripod.com (accessed April 5, 2019).
- ^ A b c Russell Hotten: Bulgaria hits back at Rover. www.independent.co.uk, April 9, 1996, accessed April 6, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d Keith Adams: The cars: Rodacar's Bulgarian Rover Maestro. www.aronline.co.uk, March 23, 2019, accessed April 6, 2019 .
- ↑ a b N.N .: Loneley Maestros seek builders (GSOH req) , in: Car, Heft 1997.
- ^ Leslie Hamilton, Philip Webster: The International Business Environment , OUP Oxford, 2012, ISBN 9780199596829 .
- ^ History of the Austin Maestro on www.aronline.co.uk (accessed April 6, 2019).
- ↑ Classic Sports Car, August 1, 2018.
- ↑ a b History of Rodacar at http://maestro-special.tripod.com (accessed April 5, 2019).
- ↑ a b History of the Austin Maestro on the Maestro & Montego Owners Club website (accessed April 5, 2019).
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