Rover to honour warranties

By ALASTAIR SLOANE

The existing warranties on Rover cars in New Zealand will continue to be honoured, despite German owner BMW selling its British subsidiary to a London investment company.

"We will stand behind the customers who have bought Rover cars," said Geoff Fletcher, the managing director of BMW and Rover New Zealand.

"We have a responsibility to Rover owners and I recognise that. They have a warranty and service back-up from us and we will continue to honour that until Alchemy Partners [Rover's new owners] clarify what they want to do about distribution of Rover cars in New Zealand."

Rover models sold in New Zealand since BMW's takeover of the British carmaker in 1994 include the 200, 400, 600 series, the MGF sports car and the latest model 75.

The company now has to decide how best to dispose of unsold Rover models, mostly 200s and 75s.

"It will take a lot of time to resolve all the issues and we need to clarify these with Alchemy and our parent in Germany," said Mr Fletcher.

"Alchemy will, once the details are ironed out, take over responsibility for MGF and Rover brands and therefore will have to talk with us about how they want to handle things.

"We will also have to work out with Alchemy and BMW the viability of continuing to look after the Rover parts and service here, whether that be on a short, medium or long-term basis."

The new generation 200 and 400 series models will not be brought to New Zealand by the existing company.

"That will be Alchemy's responsibility," said Mr Fletcher.

Asked if Alchemy would seek to distribute Rover cars through existing outlets, he said: "They might well do, but I would have to say, as far as sales are concerned, they would have to show me it could be done on a profitable basis for us to want to continue with it."