^Please supply this evidence that prove this fact because I'm pretty sure some Russian built cars aren't that great
- just look at the latest and all previous JD Powers Dependability results for one - Land Rover always flat bottom.
As to the Russians, firstly there are no real Russian makers. Lada previously built Fiat clones and now AutoVAZ is effectively controlled by and reliant on Renault-Nissan, so current Russian passenger car production is typically no better or worse than European mass maker standards.
But it's funny you should mention Russia, as when Ford bought Jaguar in 1989, Ford's manufacturing experts were reported as saying that on their first visit to the Browns Lane factory - Jaguar's then Coventry base - they could not believe how bad and antiquated it was - still using machine tools pre-dating the War - and that the only thing they were able to compare it to was the then Gorky truck plant with which Ford had historical links and is now the modern-day Nizhny Novgorod base of GAZ.
The Jaguar of 1989 was similar to the JLR of 2013 - a facade - with Sir John Egan's all marketing, no substance operation giving Jaguar a brief sales high-point in the 1980s, especially in the US, which convinced Ford's Dearborn then top brass that they, incredibly stupidly as it turned out of course, must have it.
Ford poured in billions of dollars trying to make world-class Jaguar's abysmal engineering and production resources, over its near 20 year proprietorship. Even then, though, it wasn't enough, as Ford's directors in Dearborn knew that to compete toe to toe with the Germans would mean billions of dollars more, just to make a viable 3-series competitor for example, and ultimately, the valiant attempt to set Jaguar on a level with Mercedes and BMW through the Premium automotive Group, led by Dr Wolfgang Reitzle, ex of ousted from BMW fame, was a failure.
why the £#@€ did BMW buy them?
- the public line on this is that BMW's Quandt family owners wished to keep BMW independent, from any takeover, from the likes of Daimler, and so decided they needed to markedly expand, in terms of output size, market sector coverage and geographical coverage. To this end the BMW directors believed acquiring Rover Group, with its complementary, non competing, mainly FWD architecture, lower price, and UK market predominantly cars would be a first good step in this strategy to quickly expand and achieve sufficient scale, and hence economies, to compete with the likes of not only Daimler but also the aggressive, VW-supported Audi brand.
That's the official line. The more convincing line was that BMW, even in the teeth of the early 90s global recession, post German reunification blues, was loaded and looking to spend, spend, spend, and added to this, more crucially, had a managing director, CEO in today's parlance, one Dr Bernd Pischetsrieder, who was a self-confessed English old car nut, with a particular liking for the Riley marque!, and, a little known fact, a cousin of Sir Alec Issigonis, through Alec's German mother, and was determined to use BMW's bulging 'war chest' to fulfill a personal ambition - that of acquiring the owner of the Riley and other historic English car marques, the then Rover Group, and to be able to say he had bought the company, of which his illustrious cousin had made world-famous with the Longbridge designed and produced Austin Mini.
Basically, Pischetsrieder let his personal and familial emotional thoughts get in the way of BMW's own best interests, and so drove the disastrous acquisition of Rover Group, with its almost incidental - to Pischetsrieder's purposes - Land Rover division.
The Rover purchase caused BMW billions of pounds ultimately in lost money(a 2011 study sourced
here puts the total loss at the equivalent of over 7 billion euros), with a £500m 'dowry' and up to another £500m in unsold finished car stock handed over to the Phoenix Four in 2000. It also cost BMW and the Quandt family one of its most able leaders, and almost certainly future top leader, Wolfgang Reitzle, as he left BMW directly over the Rover debacle, and later went to work for Ford, and then Linde AG.
Whilst BMW had Land Rover, through the ownership of Rover Group, they probably were responsible for Land Rover's finest ever vehicle, the 3rd generation Range Rover, the L322, which BMW engineered to completion, even after they sold Land Rover off to Ford in 2000.
BMW got nothing out of buying Rover Group/Land Rover, thanks to one man's folly, to realise a personal ambition, but Land Rover got a properly engineered, now well-regarded vehicle - except for the Solihull assembly bit - and now we see what happens when that huge engineering competence and big cash spend is taken away, with the lash-up that is the L405 4th gen. R/Rover. In fact, all Land Rover and Jaguar products have suffered post BMW and post Ford ownership, and their respective heavy investments in engineering and production at Jag and L/Rover, with the new R/Rover being worse than the previous one, the Evoque being worse than the Ford-engineered Freelander it's based on, and the 'new' Jag, the F-Type, being worse than the seven yr. old XK it's based on.
Apples with apples in that regard. The day BMW opts for a off-road chassis is the day they REALLY make a REAL SUV and that won't be a BMW no-more. And except for great events like the DAKAR of which BMW has won 2x times already with the MINI-brand, I can't be convinced that bundu-bashing is the ultimate recreational activity and the sole/main reason RR/RR Sport are being purchased for. In that regard I think Toyota's VX Land Cruiser remains a firm favorite.
vs the Euro 
