FORMER RAC director Jim McDonald has been appointed managing director of Rover Cars UK. McDonald takes over the reins of the company from commercial director Peter Jones, who has left Rover Group to become chief executive of Sanderson Bramall Motor Group. The company did not previously have a managing director.

McDonald joined Rover Cars in 1990 as regional sales director for northern England, taking over responsibility for the Midlands the following year. He went on to become retail sales director of Rover Finance, before becoming Rover Group UK operations director at the end of 1993.

Between 1995 and 1996 he joined the RAC as director of corporate sales and marketing, and from 1996 to 1997 worked for BMW Financial Services Group, where he was a divisional managing director, heading up Rover Financial Services GB.