The first Rileys were motor tricycles, but motor cars soon followed in 1898. By the late 1930s they were building too few of too many different models. They were also spending a lot of money on motor racing. Riley were subsequently acquired by the Nuffield Organisation in 1938. They started up immediately after the war with the RM series. In 1952 Nuffield merged with Austin to form the British Motor Corporation (BMC) – which later became BL (British Leyland). After having been used purely for up-market version of other corporate models, the marque was dropped in 1969. At one point, when Rover was still owned by BMW, there was a rumour that the Riley name would be used for a new Rover model.