Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Rootes Motors shopping experience:

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2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Rootes Motors? Wrong! If the Rootes Motors is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Rootes Motors then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Rootes Motors? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Rootes Motors and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Rootes Motors wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Rootes Motors then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Rootes Motors site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Rootes Motors, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Rootes Motors, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

The Rootes Group was a British automobile manufacturer, which was based in the Midlands of England. Rootes was the parent company of many well-known British marques, including Hillman, Humber (car), Singer Cars, Sunbeam Car Company, Talbot, Commer and Karrier. The company no longer exists, having been taken over in stages by Chrysler, and subsequently sold to Peugeot and, in part, Renault.

History and corporate development Early history Originally founded in Kent in 1919 by William Edward Rootes, 1st Baron Rootes as a car sales company, Rootes grew and took over other companies, and became one of the earliest advocates of the policy of "badge engineering". Hillman was intended to be the basic brand, Singer slightly more upmarket, Sunbeam was the sports brand, while Humber made luxury models. Commer and Karrier were the commercial vehicle brands, with Commer manufacturing light vans with the Karrier badge appearing on heavy vans and light duty trucks (mainly for municipal use).

Business strategy Rootes was best known for manufacturing solid, dependable, well engineered middle-market vehicles. Famous Rootes models include the Hillman Minx, Singer Gazelle, Humber Super Snipe and the Sunbeam Alpine.

William Rootes built the Rootes Group using specific brands for each market niche.

World War II With the onset of the Second World War Rootes, like most other British car manufacturers, became involved with the production of armaments. In 1940, under the Government's shadow factory scheme, Rootes built its massive assembly plant in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, near Coventry, initially manufacturing aircraft, one of the first types being the Bristol Blenheim. Production included another Royal Air Force heavy bomber, the Handley Page Halifax. Rootes also manufactured military vehicles, based on the Humber and Commer.

Rootes had a rare lapse of business judgement shortly after the end of War II: when he visited the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg to consider its value for war reparations, he considered it – and the Volkswagen Beetle – had no value.

Post-war development Following the war, Rootes also sponsored satellite manufacturing operations around the world, notably in Australasia and the Middle East. The best known example of the latter was the Iranian-built Paykan, based on the Hillman Hunter. In 1950 it acquired Tilling-Stevens, a truck and bus manufacturer based in Maidstone, Kent.

Rootes successfully sold a range of cars which were priced at a slight premium to their major home market competitors, justified on the basis that they offered a level of superiority in design and finish.

Studebaker stylist Raymond Loewy was a design consultant to Rootes; evidence of his influence is most readily seen in the 1956 Rootes Audax range of cars, which included the contemporary Hillman Minx, a model also produced under license by Isuzu of Japan.

Engineering innovation In 1954, Rootes introduced a novel supercharged diesel engine, based on a Sulzer Brothers concept. This was the TS3 2-stroke 3-cylinder engine, with 2 opposed inward facing pistons per cylinder, which drove the crankshaft through rockers. The 3.25 litre engine developed 90 hp, equivalent to contemporary 4-stroke diesel engines of more than twice the capacity.

The engine was used in Commer trucks as well as an industrial engine. Production ceased in 1968 after the Chrysler takeover.

Rootes in competition During the 1950s, Rootes's promotion included a strategy of participation in major UK and European car rallies. Stirling Moss was their top driver, and the Sunbeam Talbot 90's win in the 1955 Monte Carlo Rally was the most significant victory.

In 1968, Rootes entered a factory team in the London-Sydney Marathon, driving a Hillman Hunter. Andrew Cowan gained what was regarded as a surprise victory against stiff competition from factory teams with bigger budgets.

The Sunbeam Tiger During the 1960s, Sunbeam's Alpine convertible was moderately successful in the United States market. Rootes considered that the Alpine's sales would be improved with a more powerful model. As a result, in 1964 they introduced the Tiger — a V8 derivative of the Alpine, powered by a 4.2 litre Ford Motor Company V8 petrol engine. Carroll Shelby was involved in the development of the Tiger prototype.

A 4.7 litre model followed in 1967, but few were built, as it was considered inappropriate for a Chrysler vehicle to be powered by Ford. Consideration was given to installing a Chrysler V8 in the Tiger, but their engines were larger and heavier than the compact Ford power plants.

The Imp and Linwood In 1963, Rootes introduced the Hillman Imp, a compact rear engined saloon with an innovative all- aluminium OHC engine, based on a Coventry Climax engine design (originally used for a fire pump). It was intended to be a response from Rootes to rival British Motor Corporation's popular Mini, and a massive new factory in Linwood in Scotland was built for its assembly The move to Linwood was forced upon the company by the British government, which had introduced the principle of "Industrial Development Certificates" (IDCs). By their use, it was intended to concentrate new factory building in depressed areas of Britain. Thus, Rootes were not allowed to expand their existing Ryton plant, but instead were obliged to build in an area of Scotland where there was a shortage of work. The Linwood plant was a disaster for many reasons — chiefly the Glasgow workforce who had no experience in motor vehicle assembly, and the build quality and reliability of the cars inevitably suffered. Another problem was that the component suppliers were still based in the Midlands, and the company incurred further costs in transporting half-finished engine castings from Linwood to be machined at Ryton and returned to Linwood once they had been assembled — at the same time as completed Imps returned south again, resulting in a 600 mile round trip!

The Imp itself was underdeveloped, and the aforementioned build quality and unreliability problems, coupled with buyer apathy towards the quirky design was reflected in poor sales. After a reasonably successful start in 1963-65, the Imp's fortunes in the marketplace went into terminal decline. Lost production caused by constant strike action by the Linwood workforce only added to the problems, and the mess was further exacerbated by crippling warranty claims. Rootes had no money left to develop its other models, which soon left the company in an uncompetitive position.

The Chrysler years (1967-78) By the mid-1960s, Rootes was progressively taken over by the Chrysler Corporation of the United States, following huge losses amid the commercial failure of the troubled Imp. Chrysler was also only too keen to take control of the struggling firm as it wished to have its own wholly-independent European subsidiaries like arch rivals Ford Motor Company and General Motors Corporation. Chrysler took over Simca of France at the same time, merging it with Rootes (now renamed "Chrysler UK") to create Chrysler Europe. The Rootes name had largely vanished by 1971, and soon its other brand names were progressively phased out as the 1970s progressed. Only Hillman was left by 1977, when it too was shelved in favour of the Chrysler name. The Commer name was also phased out in the 1970s, the group's van and truck models mostly assuming the Dodge nameplate by 1976.

In his autobiography ("Iacocca — an Autobiography") former Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca was disparaging of the Rootes operation, saying Chrysler should never have bought it. Chrysler UK soldiered on with a range of worthy but increasingly outmoded rear-wheel drive family cars like the Hillman Avenger (introduced in 1970) and Hillman Hunter (introduced in 1966), while the Imp – which by now had most of its teething problems ironed out – was largely ignored by the new management.

In the late 1960s, Chrysler endeavoured to market the Rootes cars in the US. These efforts proved unsuccessful. Marketing in the US was impeded by an inability to offer cars for sale during part of 1968, as the Rootes cars could not comply with exhaust emission requirements.

In the early 1970s, with the rise of interest in sub-compact cars, Chrysler offered the Hillman Avenger in North America as the Plymouth Cricket. This attempt was aborted after only two years. At the same time, Chrysler's Dodge Division offered the Dodge Colt as its "subcompact" — sourced from Mitsubishi in Japan. The Colt proved a popular and reliable car, hastening the Cricket's demise.

However, Chrysler of Argentina commenced manufacturing the Hillman Avenger based Dodge 1800, and this car continued in production until 1990. In its last 10 years of production it was badged as a Volkswagen after that firm acquired Chrysler's Argentine business. There was also a Brazilian variant until 1980.

Chrysler UK introduced several new models in the 1970s: a British-assembled Chrysler Alpine (sold in France as the Simca 1307/1308) was introduced in 1976, and the Avenger-based Chrysler Sunbeam 2-door hatchback was introduced in 1977. Also, Chrysler UK made a significant contribution to the design of Chrysler's European range. As well as the Alpine and Sunbeam, there was the saloon derivative of the Alpine – the Talbot Solara – and Chrysler/Simca Horizon. Both of these cars were awarded "European Car of the Year awards, and the Horizon was the basis for the US Plymouth Horizon and Dodge Omni, which were very successful for Chrysler.

The Imp was finally laid to rest in 1976, and the Hunter followed it three years later (although it continued to be produced in Iran). Indeed, componentry for the Iranian version of the car was a successful UK export during the 1980s.

Only the Avenger-based Chrysler Sunbeam hatchback, launched in 1977 kept the Rootes lineage alive, although the Alpine name was still in use and later Alpine and Solara special edition models were given the old Rootes model names, Minx and Rapier. The rights to the Rapier name remained with the successors of the company, and were eventually resurrected again on a few "limited edition" Peugeot models.

Chrysler had spent much of the 1970s unsuccessfully trying to integrate its Rootes and Simca ranges into one, coherent whole. The traditionally-engineered, rear wheel drive cars of the British division had limited appeal outside the UK, although the Avenger was relatively successful in New Zealand, and Hunter production continued in Ireland as well as Iran.

Unfortunately, with its problems in the US, Chrysler did not have the capital to invest in refreshing their entire product range, and sales of the older designs stagnated in the face of more modern competition. Also, the production facilities were outmoded, industrial relations problems were persistent, and the products had a poor reputation for quality.

In the face of massive losses, and the risk of significant unemployment if the factories closed, the Ryton and Linwood factories were the subject of frequent government bail-outs.

Despite the government assistance, the weight of problems bearing on Chrysler Europe resulted in its collapse in 1977, leading to the company's 1978 takeover by Peugeot. PSA soon wielded the axe over the troubled Linwood factory in Scotland, and exhumed the Talbot marque from the pages of Rootes's history to re-badge the former Chrysler models. Whilst Ryton was saved, PSA took little interest in the heavy commercial vehicles and the former Commer/Dodge/Karrier truck and van factory was run in conjunction with the trucks division of Renault. After the withdrawal of the last Dodge-derived trucks (latterly badged as Renaults) it became a production plant for engines for Renault Trucks.

The Peugeot years (1978-2007) The first Rootes model to be killed under Peugeot's ownership was the Hunter in 1979, and its production tooling subsequently went to Iran, where the Paykan went into local production, which continued until 2004. It remains a common sight throughout the Middle East, especially as a taxi. The closure of Linwood in 1981 spelled the end (in Europe at least) for the Avenger. Chrysler had retained the rights to the car, and continued its production in Argentina. The Simca-based models (the Horizon, Alpine and Solara) continued to be built at Ryton using the resurrected Talbot badge for the first half of the 1980s. Eventually however, PSA abandoned the three marque strategy, and the Horizon replacement, developed as the Talbot Arizona became the Peugeot 309 in 1986, and was the first Peugeot badged car to be assembled at the Ryton plant. The Talbot badge was discontinued on passengers cars in 1987 and commercial vehicles in 1995, whilst Ryton went on to assemble the Peugeot 405 and Peugeot 306.

Ryton began assembling its last Peugeot, the Peugeot 206, in 1998. At the height of the car's success, the plant was working at capacity to satisfy demand. Despite this however, Ryton's importance in PSA's overall strategy was always marginal at best — merely being an assembly operation with limited production capacity compared to PSA's main factories in France and Spain. The writing was on the wall for Ryton when Peugeot announced that the new Peugeot 207 would not be assembled at the former Rootes plant, and in April 2006, after years of speculation surrounding Ryton's future, the PSA Group announced that residual 206 production would move to Eastern Europe.

Production at the plant ceased in December 2006. It marked the end of nearly 60 years of car manufacturing at Ryton, and severed the motor industry's final remaining link with the Rootes Group. The plant was formally closed on 8 January 2007, and resulted in the loss of some 2,300 jobs.

The final end of the name The last appearance of the name Rootes was at a garage, still extant in Maidstone, England, which bore the name. On 1 January 2007, in line with the other 40 dealerships within its business group, the name was changed from Rootes Maidstone, to become Robins & Day Maidstone.

External links

• A short history of the Rootes group
• Gallery and timeline
• Rootes-Chrysler resource site

The Rootes Group was a British automobile manufacturer, which was based in the Midlands of England. Rootes was the parent company of many well-known British marques, including Hillman, Humber (car), Singer Cars, Sunbeam Car Company, Talbot, Commer and Karrier. The company no longer exists, having been taken over in stages by Chrysler, and subsequently sold to Peugeot and, in part, Renault.

History and corporate development Early history Originally founded in Kent in 1919 by William Edward Rootes, 1st Baron Rootes as a car sales company, Rootes grew and took over other companies, and became one of the earliest advocates of the policy of "badge engineering". Hillman was intended to be the basic brand, Singer slightly more upmarket, Sunbeam was the sports brand, while Humber made luxury models. Commer and Karrier were the commercial vehicle brands, with Commer manufacturing light vans with the Karrier badge appearing on heavy vans and light duty trucks (mainly for municipal use).

Business strategy Rootes was best known for manufacturing solid, dependable, well engineered middle-market vehicles. Famous Rootes models include the Hillman Minx, Singer Gazelle, Humber Super Snipe and the Sunbeam Alpine.

William Rootes built the Rootes Group using specific brands for each market niche.

World War II With the onset of the Second World War Rootes, like most other British car manufacturers, became involved with the production of armaments. In 1940, under the Government's shadow factory scheme, Rootes built its massive assembly plant in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, near Coventry, initially manufacturing aircraft, one of the first types being the Bristol Blenheim. Production included another Royal Air Force heavy bomber, the Handley Page Halifax. Rootes also manufactured military vehicles, based on the Humber and Commer.

Rootes had a rare lapse of business judgement shortly after the end of War II: when he visited the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg to consider its value for war reparations, he considered it – and the Volkswagen Beetle – had no value.

Post-war development Following the war, Rootes also sponsored satellite manufacturing operations around the world, notably in Australasia and the Middle East. The best known example of the latter was the Iranian-built Paykan, based on the Hillman Hunter. In 1950 it acquired Tilling-Stevens, a truck and bus manufacturer based in Maidstone, Kent.

Rootes successfully sold a range of cars which were priced at a slight premium to their major home market competitors, justified on the basis that they offered a level of superiority in design and finish.

Studebaker stylist Raymond Loewy was a design consultant to Rootes; evidence of his influence is most readily seen in the 1956 Rootes Audax range of cars, which included the contemporary Hillman Minx, a model also produced under license by Isuzu of Japan.

Engineering innovation In 1954, Rootes introduced a novel supercharged diesel engine, based on a Sulzer Brothers concept. This was the TS3 2-stroke 3-cylinder engine, with 2 opposed inward facing pistons per cylinder, which drove the crankshaft through rockers. The 3.25 litre engine developed 90 hp, equivalent to contemporary 4-stroke diesel engines of more than twice the capacity.

The engine was used in Commer trucks as well as an industrial engine. Production ceased in 1968 after the Chrysler takeover.

Rootes in competition During the 1950s, Rootes's promotion included a strategy of participation in major UK and European car rallies. Stirling Moss was their top driver, and the Sunbeam Talbot 90's win in the 1955 Monte Carlo Rally was the most significant victory.

In 1968, Rootes entered a factory team in the London-Sydney Marathon, driving a Hillman Hunter. Andrew Cowan gained what was regarded as a surprise victory against stiff competition from factory teams with bigger budgets.

The Sunbeam Tiger During the 1960s, Sunbeam's Alpine convertible was moderately successful in the United States market. Rootes considered that the Alpine's sales would be improved with a more powerful model. As a result, in 1964 they introduced the Tiger — a V8 derivative of the Alpine, powered by a 4.2 litre Ford Motor Company V8 petrol engine. Carroll Shelby was involved in the development of the Tiger prototype.

A 4.7 litre model followed in 1967, but few were built, as it was considered inappropriate for a Chrysler vehicle to be powered by Ford. Consideration was given to installing a Chrysler V8 in the Tiger, but their engines were larger and heavier than the compact Ford power plants.

The Imp and Linwood In 1963, Rootes introduced the Hillman Imp, a compact rear engined saloon with an innovative all- aluminium OHC engine, based on a Coventry Climax engine design (originally used for a fire pump). It was intended to be a response from Rootes to rival British Motor Corporation's popular Mini, and a massive new factory in Linwood in Scotland was built for its assembly The move to Linwood was forced upon the company by the British government, which had introduced the principle of "Industrial Development Certificates" (IDCs). By their use, it was intended to concentrate new factory building in depressed areas of Britain. Thus, Rootes were not allowed to expand their existing Ryton plant, but instead were obliged to build in an area of Scotland where there was a shortage of work. The Linwood plant was a disaster for many reasons — chiefly the Glasgow workforce who had no experience in motor vehicle assembly, and the build quality and reliability of the cars inevitably suffered. Another problem was that the component suppliers were still based in the Midlands, and the company incurred further costs in transporting half-finished engine castings from Linwood to be machined at Ryton and returned to Linwood once they had been assembled — at the same time as completed Imps returned south again, resulting in a 600 mile round trip!

The Imp itself was underdeveloped, and the aforementioned build quality and unreliability problems, coupled with buyer apathy towards the quirky design was reflected in poor sales. After a reasonably successful start in 1963-65, the Imp's fortunes in the marketplace went into terminal decline. Lost production caused by constant strike action by the Linwood workforce only added to the problems, and the mess was further exacerbated by crippling warranty claims. Rootes had no money left to develop its other models, which soon left the company in an uncompetitive position.

The Chrysler years (1967-78) By the mid-1960s, Rootes was progressively taken over by the Chrysler Corporation of the United States, following huge losses amid the commercial failure of the troubled Imp. Chrysler was also only too keen to take control of the struggling firm as it wished to have its own wholly-independent European subsidiaries like arch rivals Ford Motor Company and General Motors Corporation. Chrysler took over Simca of France at the same time, merging it with Rootes (now renamed "Chrysler UK") to create Chrysler Europe. The Rootes name had largely vanished by 1971, and soon its other brand names were progressively phased out as the 1970s progressed. Only Hillman was left by 1977, when it too was shelved in favour of the Chrysler name. The Commer name was also phased out in the 1970s, the group's van and truck models mostly assuming the Dodge nameplate by 1976.

In his autobiography ("Iacocca — an Autobiography") former Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca was disparaging of the Rootes operation, saying Chrysler should never have bought it. Chrysler UK soldiered on with a range of worthy but increasingly outmoded rear-wheel drive family cars like the Hillman Avenger (introduced in 1970) and Hillman Hunter (introduced in 1966), while the Imp – which by now had most of its teething problems ironed out – was largely ignored by the new management.

In the late 1960s, Chrysler endeavoured to market the Rootes cars in the US. These efforts proved unsuccessful. Marketing in the US was impeded by an inability to offer cars for sale during part of 1968, as the Rootes cars could not comply with exhaust emission requirements.

In the early 1970s, with the rise of interest in sub-compact cars, Chrysler offered the Hillman Avenger in North America as the Plymouth Cricket. This attempt was aborted after only two years. At the same time, Chrysler's Dodge Division offered the Dodge Colt as its "subcompact" — sourced from Mitsubishi in Japan. The Colt proved a popular and reliable car, hastening the Cricket's demise.

However, Chrysler of Argentina commenced manufacturing the Hillman Avenger based Dodge 1800, and this car continued in production until 1990. In its last 10 years of production it was badged as a Volkswagen after that firm acquired Chrysler's Argentine business. There was also a Brazilian variant until 1980.

Chrysler UK introduced several new models in the 1970s: a British-assembled Chrysler Alpine (sold in France as the Simca 1307/1308) was introduced in 1976, and the Avenger-based Chrysler Sunbeam 2-door hatchback was introduced in 1977. Also, Chrysler UK made a significant contribution to the design of Chrysler's European range. As well as the Alpine and Sunbeam, there was the saloon derivative of the Alpine – the Talbot Solara – and Chrysler/Simca Horizon. Both of these cars were awarded "European Car of the Year awards, and the Horizon was the basis for the US Plymouth Horizon and Dodge Omni, which were very successful for Chrysler.

The Imp was finally laid to rest in 1976, and the Hunter followed it three years later (although it continued to be produced in Iran). Indeed, componentry for the Iranian version of the car was a successful UK export during the 1980s.

Only the Avenger-based Chrysler Sunbeam hatchback, launched in 1977 kept the Rootes lineage alive, although the Alpine name was still in use and later Alpine and Solara special edition models were given the old Rootes model names, Minx and Rapier. The rights to the Rapier name remained with the successors of the company, and were eventually resurrected again on a few "limited edition" Peugeot models.

Chrysler had spent much of the 1970s unsuccessfully trying to integrate its Rootes and Simca ranges into one, coherent whole. The traditionally-engineered, rear wheel drive cars of the British division had limited appeal outside the UK, although the Avenger was relatively successful in New Zealand, and Hunter production continued in Ireland as well as Iran.

Unfortunately, with its problems in the US, Chrysler did not have the capital to invest in refreshing their entire product range, and sales of the older designs stagnated in the face of more modern competition. Also, the production facilities were outmoded, industrial relations problems were persistent, and the products had a poor reputation for quality.

In the face of massive losses, and the risk of significant unemployment if the factories closed, the Ryton and Linwood factories were the subject of frequent government bail-outs.

Despite the government assistance, the weight of problems bearing on Chrysler Europe resulted in its collapse in 1977, leading to the company's 1978 takeover by Peugeot. PSA soon wielded the axe over the troubled Linwood factory in Scotland, and exhumed the Talbot marque from the pages of Rootes's history to re-badge the former Chrysler models. Whilst Ryton was saved, PSA took little interest in the heavy commercial vehicles and the former Commer/Dodge/Karrier truck and van factory was run in conjunction with the trucks division of Renault. After the withdrawal of the last Dodge-derived trucks (latterly badged as Renaults) it became a production plant for engines for Renault Trucks.

The Peugeot years (1978-2007) The first Rootes model to be killed under Peugeot's ownership was the Hunter in 1979, and its production tooling subsequently went to Iran, where the Paykan went into local production, which continued until 2004. It remains a common sight throughout the Middle East, especially as a taxi. The closure of Linwood in 1981 spelled the end (in Europe at least) for the Avenger. Chrysler had retained the rights to the car, and continued its production in Argentina. The Simca-based models (the Horizon, Alpine and Solara) continued to be built at Ryton using the resurrected Talbot badge for the first half of the 1980s. Eventually however, PSA abandoned the three marque strategy, and the Horizon replacement, developed as the Talbot Arizona became the Peugeot 309 in 1986, and was the first Peugeot badged car to be assembled at the Ryton plant. The Talbot badge was discontinued on passengers cars in 1987 and commercial vehicles in 1995, whilst Ryton went on to assemble the Peugeot 405 and Peugeot 306.

Ryton began assembling its last Peugeot, the Peugeot 206, in 1998. At the height of the car's success, the plant was working at capacity to satisfy demand. Despite this however, Ryton's importance in PSA's overall strategy was always marginal at best — merely being an assembly operation with limited production capacity compared to PSA's main factories in France and Spain. The writing was on the wall for Ryton when Peugeot announced that the new Peugeot 207 would not be assembled at the former Rootes plant, and in April 2006, after years of speculation surrounding Ryton's future, the PSA Group announced that residual 206 production would move to Eastern Europe.

Production at the plant ceased in December 2006. It marked the end of nearly 60 years of car manufacturing at Ryton, and severed the motor industry's final remaining link with the Rootes Group. The plant was formally closed on 8 January 2007, and resulted in the loss of some 2,300 jobs.

The final end of the name The last appearance of the name Rootes was at a garage, still extant in Maidstone, England, which bore the name. On 1 January 2007, in line with the other 40 dealerships within its business group, the name was changed from Rootes Maidstone, to become Robins & Day Maidstone.

External links

• A short history of the Rootes group
• Gallery and timeline
• Rootes-Chrysler resource site