I just finished reading an interesting book on the history of Triumph cars in America which was written by a retired manager of JRT (Jaguar/Rover/Triumph). One thing I learned was that BMW owns the rights to several British car marques including Triumph and Austin Healey. Back in 1993, BMW bought the financially strapped Rover Group which included Land Rover, Rover cars, Triumph, Morris, Austin Healey, Mini, etc. They were mainly after the Land Rover SUVs and tried to make a profitable go of them but never were successful (and the effort supposedly brought about the resignation of a previous BMW chairman). Land Rover had serious sourcing and labor problems which BMW was unable (or unwilling) to sort out.

Finally, they sold Land Rover at a loss to Ford back in 2000 but still retained the British car brands including Mini and Triumph. We see what they have done with the Mini name. A very successful line of upscale sub compacts with a cult following. I wonder if they will just keep the Triumph and Healey brands forever in the vault never to see the light of day or if there may someday be a BMW built Triumph. Perhaps that could be their avenue to a lower priced 2 seat sportscar to compete direcly with the Miata without involving the BMW badge and without directly competing with their own Z4.