Around the 1920s the company produced the Austin 7, an inexpensive, small and simple car and one of the earliest to be directed at a mass market. At one point it was built under licence by the fledgeling BMW.
In 1982, the by now greatly shrunk British Leyland company was renamed Austin Rover Group, with Austin acting as the "budget" brand. However, the continuing bad publicity associated with build and rust problems on the Metro, Maestro and Montego meant that the badge was dropped, and the last Austin-badged car was built in 1987.
The rights to the Austin badge are owned by MG Rover, the current heirs to the empire that was once BMC and BL. There are no plans to resurrect it. Austin's historic assembly plant in Longbridge survives today as MG Rover's sole production facility.
The AustinMotor Company was a British manufacturer of automobiles that rose to be a major motorcar brand, the dominant partner after merger with Morris in 1952 but declining after absorption into the British LeylandMotor Corporation, and its subsequent troubles.
Austin were the dominant partner and their engines were adopted for most of the cars.
The principle of a transverse engine with gearbox in the sump and driving the front wheels was carried on to larger cars with the 1100 of 1963, the 1800 of 1964, the Maxi of 1969, the Allegro of 1973 and the Metro of 1980.
Herbert Austin (1866–1941), later Sir Herbert, the former manager of the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company founded The AustinMotor Company in 1905, at Longbridge, which was then in Worcestershire (Longbridge became part of Birmingham in 1911 when its boundaries were expanded).
With the help of the Seven Austin weathered the worst of the depression and remained profitable through the 1930s producing a wider range of cars which were steadily updated with the introduction of all-steel bodies, Girling brakes, and synchromesh gearboxes but all the engines remained as side valve units.
In 1953 British-built Austins were assembled and sold, but by 1955, the Austin A50 was on the market in Japan.
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