(first posted 11/26/2011) We’re close to wrapping up Turkey Week, and so we mustn’t forget Sterling, Rover’s final blow-out in the US. When it comes to persistence (idiocy) in trying to flog dead corpses in the US, Rover absolutely takes the cake. It took three US deaths to finally convince Britain’s once proud maker of fine cars, the favorite of a certain class of British government medium-wigs, to give up the ghost. The last attempt, Sterling, is the classic English car disaster story, with an odd Japanese twist. Despite Rover’s intentions to avoid the usual pitfalls, by building what more or less amounted to a reskinned Honda/Acura Legend, they still managed to create the ultimate rolling clap-trap English nightmare.
Let’s quickly recap Rover’s two previous deaths. Its brilliant, complex and fiendishly unreliable 2000/3500 models of the sixties were overly ambitious, and collapsed around 1971.
Rover exited the US market for almost ten years, but then spent a fortune certifying the SD-1 (3500) for the US market. In what will go down in history as one of the most spectacular failures ever, Rover managed to sell only 800 of the Ferarri Daytona-inspired fastback sedans, beginning in 1980. You would think that the scars from that flogging would be enough to keep them from ever trying again, but let’s not forget, this was now the government-backed British Leyland. Risk analysis is different when the feds are your backstop.
As an already dying entity, Rover wisely hooked up with Honda in a major alliance at the beginning of the eighties. Essentially, Rover handed new-product development over to Honda, and opened up its creaking production facilities for Honda’s European models in exchange. The development of an SD-1 executive sedan replacement was high on the list of priorities, and work started in 1981.
Essentially, the Rover 800 series development was piggy-backed onto Honda’s new V6 Legend (above). Both the Rover and Legend were to be built in Rover’s historic ex-Morris plant in Cowley. An inauspicious beginning, building a new world-class car in the same plant that cobbled together the infamous Morris Marina and other BLMC shit boxes of the seventies and sixties.
The European Rover was called the 800 series, with various-numbered versions depending on the engine. Four cylinders were more common there, but the Rover four was not a Honda unit, rather a development of the BL O-series engine. The 2.5 liter V6 was a Honda, and the main version imported to the US. The Europeans (and a few late-model US cars) later got a 2.7 liter V6 and a VM-Motori diesel engine. In Europe, the Sterling moniker was a top trim level of the notch back sedans; there was also a hatchback, primarily for Europe, whose top trim level was the Vitesse.
Because of the highly acidic aftertaste the name Rover left in the US, it decided to call its 800 import Sterling. It was a reasonably handsome boxy sedan, in the typical idiom of the times. It’s main claim to fame was its luxurious English leather and wood interior; much warmer than the corresponding Legend and the antiseptic German imports. I’m sure the mushrooms are thriving in this one, on all that organic material. Sure enough, most US buyers had no clue this was a Rover, and initial sales were fairly encouraging.
But the 800 was born pre-mature. It suffered from a variety of serious maladies that its Japanese-built Legend was utterly devoid of. Build quality in general was shaky, and trim, electrics and paint quality, along with other gremlins quickly turned out to be highly Roverish. And I almost forgot: rust. The genuine 100% British variety. It all rapidly escalated into a crisis of epic proportions, and furious buyers watched their resale values plummet. Sterling was exposed for what it was, and within a couple of years, Sterling jokes were as almost as common as Yugo jokes. There’s a sucker born in every income class.
I was shocked when one of my tv station sales managers showed up with a new Sterling in 1987. The other one had just bought a new Jaguar a few months before. I learned a lesson: salespeople are often the biggest suckers for others’ sales pitches. I guess it’s just a way to show you truly believe in the religion of sales-speak. I was driving a W124 300E, and I remember way too many trips in it to pick them up at the Jaguar/Sterling dealer in San Jose. Both cars were utter nightmares; but the Sterling well outdid the Jag, if that’s possible. They were lovely cars to sit in; you just had to use your imagination about them actually moving.
Rover went on to patch up the 800 series for domestic consumption, and it underwent one facelift and a re-skin, and plodded along until 1999, when the BMW-designed Rover 75 finally put it down. Sales were primarily to government hacks, where the tradition of riding in Rovers if you didn’t merit a Jag or Daimler date back to the fifties. I haven’t seen a Sterling in ages, but here it sits, in a side yard of a house along the banks of the beautiful McKenzie River; a lovely genuine British lawn ornament.
I was still living in America when the Sterling was introduced, and I remember going to the 1987 car show in Kansas City with my parents. The Sterling looked amazing- totally unlike anything I’d seen, with real wood on the dashboard, and comfy seats. I remember getting yelled at by the salesman, as I opened the glovebox and the mechanism came off in my hand. He said I broke it, which I did not, yet I still got in trouble.
This was my first, but far from last, experience with cheap BL plastics. A couple of years ago, I had my parents down on holiday. I picked them up at the airport in my immaculate 30K mile 1982 Rover SD1 2000. Trying to get the parcel shelf out so they could get their luggage in, my dad snapped the fixing off. He blamed it on the cheap plastic, but I knew better- he broke my car and needed to be grounded.
Hey Dad, what goes around comes around. Sweet!
During the time period that this came out, there was a downtown in my economy caused by the impending departure of my ex wife. I guess I should be thankful for that because this car appealed to me quite a bit. I thought it represented buying a honda and that was good. I had a hard time identifying a 90’s lemon simply because I couldn’t afford to buy one during most of the 90’s.
Hidden blessing?
Actually this seems like the perfect car to give an exwife, the judge will be impressed and she’ll never have anything but trouble with it. LOL.
It is amazing that Honda was not much firmer in overseeing quality control, both design and manufacturing.
Perhaps another reader will have more details on this but I think it is a great story: Some critical electronic components were mounted under the drivers seat. I suppose they needed to be in the cabin for temperature and moisture control. When the power drivers seat was in the lowest possibly position and moved back and forth it would destroy whatever the component was! Unbelievable design flaw!!
Mounting computers under the seat was a common practice on early FI Hondas. Always a pain to do CEL diagnosis since it consisted of looking at the flashing lights on said computer. So step 1 was remove passenger seat.
In the case of the Sterling version I’d have to assume it was due to BL putting their own design seat and/or adjusters in and not checking for proper clearance.
The Acura Legend topped JD Powers customer satisfaction surveys at the same time that the Sterling achored the ratings. Blaming Honda seems…revisionist at best. The Legend was as good as customer satisfaction got until the Lexus LS 400 showed up. Unusually, I saw three excellent condition 1st generation Legends this weekend while in Sonoma.
Paul, can you do a CC on the SD1/3500?
The odds of finding one are very low, but we will write it up one way or another eventually. It’s too compelling of a story not to.
Found one! On the Portland Craigslist though…. You could actually own one these…”treasures”
http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/cto/2684109769.html
AFTER the LUV CC please!
But not before my PV544 request!
Plenty of SD1s alive in NZ Paul never seen the 4 headlight treatment though. The local vintage car garage Meanee motors has one if youd like some pics
That’s because nothing but sealed beam headlights were legal in the US until 1986.
1984, actually. The Lincoln Continental Mark VII was the first car sold in America with composite headlights, and the only model year 1984 car to do so. For ’85, some more models, mostly imports, gained them. Off the top of my head, I can think of the Toyota Cressida, Nissan Maxima, and VW Jetta/GTI (all of which were new for that year). I think other common imports, such as the Toyota Camry and Corolla and the Honda Civic, also got them for ’85.
(/useless car knowledge)
Close – the Civic (at least the sedans) got the non-sealed beam glass composites starting in 1986 (I had four 1986-7 Civics). I know that the Buick H & C bodied cars went to the composites in 1986 as well. I miss glass headlights terribly, since I tend to buy 5-7 year old cars and keep them for another 10-15 years. I’ve already complete replaced the headlight assemblies on my 2001 Buick, and the 2001 Odyssey and ’96 Civic both have fogged lenses now.
Yeah, pretty much all of the Civics through 1985 had the sealed beam headlamps. Even the 85 Accord still had the quad headlight setup.
In fact, I can tell when a Civic or CRX is an 85 or an 86, just by the headlamps as in 86, they all got the composite units.
The 3rd gen accord soldiered on with sealed beam as they went with pop up headlamps through 1990 and composites for the 4th gen models, beginning in 1991.
Generally speaking I’ve always known the official year for composites was 1986.
Concur.
I do the same, but my last two daily drivers have had quad glass, now in a ’95 Z28..
Enjoyed your post, Brian.
Here’s a picture of the oh-so-rare 827 hatchback.
It amazes me how badly the British auto industry can screw something as reliable as a Honda up…..
For the record, compared to other countries’ industrial ability, how do current British-manufactured cars hold up?
And here’s the suprisingly handsome coupe:
Which was designed for the American market, although it never made it because Sterling had closed its doors before it was ready, leaving it the red-headed stepchild in a European market dominated by Mercedes, BMW, and Jaguar coupes.
True – they must have sold (dumped?) an awful lot of the coupes in Japan, as there are loads of secondhand ex-Japan imported ones here in NZ. Always very, very cheap too for what they are. The possibility of mechanical failure makes them way too scary for me – so I’ve settled for the original sales brochure I picked up when the coupe was released here new. The brochure is large and classy, and guaranteed not to break down lol!
Current British-manufactured cars? Well, there’s Morgan…
My sisters Holden was assembled at Elsemere but designed in Germany by Opel.
Jaguar, Land Rover/Range Rover, Bentley, Mini, Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Lotus, MG, Vauxhall, Nissan, Toyota, Honda, McLaren.
Don’t confuse ownership with location. Not many British OWNED car companies left, but still plenty of operational factories.
Good point, I was thinking the same thing. Maybe an engineer can explain how a car that is made up of primarily Honda parts and designed by Honda can be so different? Were some of the parts locally sourced? Was British labor malevolent or careless? Any thoughts?
Leyland had the reverse midas touch everything turned to shit. oops now the Leyland apologists club will attack again.
“current British manufactured cars”? No. Sorry you’ve lost me there. 😉
OK I jest, but in all seriousness there’s remarkably little manufacturing left here.
However for two generations (K11 and K12) Nissan built their utterly bomb-proof little Micras in Sunderland (NE England). Which nicely illustrates that British motor manufacturing can produce solid products… when it’s well managed.
When Nissan moved Micra production to Thailand with the K13 they retained the Sunderland manufacturing base for building the quirky little Juke which (by all accounts) is similarly solidly built.
That’s actually a really nice looking car – what were the production numbers when they were new?
An interesting thing about Sterling, which I read in the Wall Street Journal in the fall of 1990:
Sterling had a tiny advertising budget, and so purchased commercial time on CNN, which was relatively inexpensive at that time (not to mention, relatively unwatched).
During the Gulf war, Sterling actually experienced a modest rise in sales…people were finally starting to see the ads.
Alas, it still wasn’t enough to make a success of Sterling in the United States.
I spent a weekend once with a Rover 820 which was sitting un-loved in the company car-park. It was a really cossetting car, a lovely way to travel. If I’d thought I could make it run on four cylinders rather than three then I might have made an offer for it, but thankfully I wasn’t that stupid. Years later I had a drive of a Rover 600 – essentially a Rover-built Accord with nicer shape and interior. The car had no clutch pedal – just the pointed lever to which the pedal had once been (poorly) welded.
Actually, the Rover 600 was a generally good car (depending on engine). By that time, Honda had tightened the reigns on Rover, and the products were on par with Ford and Vauxhall reliability wise, if nowhere near their Honda twins. For whatever reason, which is a whole article in itself, if a 1980s Rover 213 breaks down with 300,000 miles on the clock, its an indictment of the British motor industry, trade unions, the Labour party and national ownership (although Rover was privatized by then). However, when Vectras have a lifespan of 7-9 years due to various issues, it seems to go unnoticed in the press. Ditto for VW’s and Audis in the UK. Unlike in America, where their quality is all too suspect, here, VAG cars are seen as the pinnacle of reliability, not unlike Honda’s reputation in the US.
For that matter, the bottom of the reliability charts tend to be dominated by Renault. However, although everybody knows their cars are poop, people still buy them by the millions, and yet the company never took as much stick as BL has. Perhaps its just lower expectations. Just like everybody’s cousin who you just assume will be living with his parents until they can no longer care for him, nobody ever expected Renault to build a reliable car, so maybe people just tend to give them a pitying half smile and say ‘awww.’
We’ve had quite a few Renaults in our family. French-built Clios do seem plagued with minor problems, but I’ve inherited a 2006 Modus off my dad & it’s never gone wrong in his or my ownership & still has its original battery. The Modus is Clio-based, but built at Valladolid, Spain.
Spanish Renaults seem to be better built than French Renaults.
The UK media seems to have it in for anything British (not just cars). When UK-manufactured Hondas, Nissans & Toyotas top the reliability & customer satisfaction charts the media will say “JAPANESE cars are top for reliability & satisfaction”. When German, Belgian & Spanish Fords & Opels (sold as Vauxhalls) come bottom, they say nothing about where they’re made, hoping that ignorant people will assume that “Ford Mondeo”, “Vauxhall Corsa” etc. are British!
now i,m gonna defend the rover 2000 and say it was a good car ,it was my auntie had one for years she bought it second hand in 67 and drove it till 1995,it was allway reliable..AS LONG AS IT WAS WELL MAINTAINED AND SERVICE REGULARLY…lol the 2000 was a very advanced car for the day and there are still many on the road..so there,lol even with all of hondas money bl/rover groupe still F….D it all up the sad thing is it seems the swansong of the british car industy were the 60s yet we were still busting with great idea austin 1800 aerodynamic the original desighn for the allegro[wow]..its just the execution of the cars that was so bad..we made lemon after lemon [austin princes,tr7]and we didnt learn from our mistakes why buy an unreliable rover sterling with plummeting resale value..when you can by a super reliable for real honda..that holds its value..and the sad thing is we now dont have a british car industry anymore….well there allways ..morgan….
Almost owned a used one back in ’74. Like you said, the Rover 2000 was a good car. Actually, it was a very good car. The killer for the marque in the U.S. was the (lack of a competent) dealer network. I’ve always had the feeling that getting a Rover dealership back then was like getting a Moto Guzzi dealership: If you had a pulse, a few dollars in the bank, and were willing to pick up a couple of showroom units and a (incredibly small) stock of parts, you were a dealer. No matter how crappy your facilities, attitude, etc. Six months for repair parts was not unusual, so of course the owner would clearly remember any time the car broke down.
Still wish I had bought it. Really loved those cars.
I won’t argue with you there…it seemed that the only part my Rover dealer stocked was the cam cover gasket, and it went through plenty of those. There was just no way to get one of those gaskets to be oil-tight for more than 500 miles or so.
The Ronda we got these cobbled together marvels into the 2000s the Rover 75 and others, headgasket hungry cars from Rovers new owner BMW. My brother in law was a parts manager at a Rover dealership during this time trying to decipher just where to source spare from must have been fun, Who built the engine Honda Peugeot Perkins BMW little wonder it was parcelled up and sold to Chinese interests we havent had them since but the cars are still here no parts backup no dealers buy a Rover you are on your own. Good luck with that
You missed Ford Bryce, as the V8 version of the 75 was Ford’s 4.6L Mustang engine. Jeremy Clarkson has fun in one on Top Gear once – sounded awesome! Very few V8 75s here, but I followed one on the Auckland motorway recently, and another was on trademe.
I didnt know we had any V8 versions. Thats not the first English car built FWD&RWD in the same body. I recall Clarkson hooning one looked like fun
MG-Rover DO still have a dealer network, selling the new models & looking after the ones built up to 2005 through the X-part (servicing & parts) network. I bought one of the last MG-Rover cars new in December 2005, it’s now done 68,121 miles & I’ve had no problems with parts.
Most car parts are not specific to one manufacturer, e.g. batteries, wiper-blades, spark-plugs, tyres, etc..
In the UK there may be a dealer network but nowhere else if anything Rover specific goes wrong you may as well scrap the car it will be worth more to dismantle than as a runner.
My understanding was that in Britain, the popularity of Rover as ministerial transport was less to do with not being high enough on the food chain for a Jaguar as Rover being traditionally more respectably conservative than Jaguar. Jaguar was a little too rakish for your mid-level MP or minister, while a (traditional) Daimler or Rolls would have been above their station. (Of course, Daimler gradually became little more than a Jaguar XJ with a different grille and nicer trim, but that was a little later.) I think the Rover P5 was the default choice — if I recall, even Queen Elizabeth had a P5 3.5 Litre for some years.
I see well-preserved Sterlings around every once in a while. At Queen’s English in 2009, there was even a late-model 827SLi five-door; I wouldn’t think a lot of American luxury buyers would be particularly keen on a five-door hatch.
My best memory of the Sterling was the Car and Driver review – all of one page. They liked the car a great deal, it was comfortable, drove nicely, showed the possibility of being the combination of all that was good in Japanese (mechanical) and British (interior).
And during the test drive, while at highway speed, the electrics just winked out. Cold. Everything. Just prior to this, the car was driving fine and the driver hadn’t touched a switch, jiggled the throttle, etc. Nothing.
Two seconds later the electrics came back on like nothing had happened, never did that again, and nobody could ever figure out why it happened in the first place. C & D’s comment was that the spirit of Joseph Lucas was still alive and well in the British car industry, and perspective buyers should be warned.
Why didn’t you start your Rover look-back with the P3, P4, P5? That were real classy cars. Or didn’t they make their way to the US?
(cf.
P3: http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Rover_P3_ca_1948.jpg&filetimestamp=20080825195649
P4: http://www.google.de/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/Rover_80_built_1960.jpg/250px-Rover_80_built_1960.jpg&imgrefurl=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_P4&h=179&w=250&sz=16&tbnid=4N_nxo09SNzD-M:&tbnh=98&tbnw=137&prev=/search%3Fq%3DRover%2BP4%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=Rover+P4&hl=de&usg=__45e0cNQ05N7QIDwpXlJOGnpK53Q=&sa=X&ei=8HDRTq7JPMyF8gOl2ezMDw&ved=0CGkQ9QEwAg&dur=414
P5: http://www.google.de/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Rover_P5B.jpg/300px-Rover_P5B.jpg&imgrefurl=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_P5&h=225&w=300&sz=24&tbnid=PUNl7iRnE8FuCM:&tbnh=92&tbnw=122&prev=/search%3Fq%3DRover%2BP5%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=Rover+P5&hl=de&usg=__DzbS_rSmC3KGhyn0hXn0gBp7jfk=&sa=X&ei=HXHRToX1B9PL8QO76vTCDw&ved=0CDcQ9QEwAA&dur=154)
These cars were certainly not for “British government medium-wigs”
@Herb this has been turkey week a celebration of some of the least successfull cars Those old P3 P4 P5 dont fit the category they were good
I remember how cool I thought those cars were. In fact, I got my dad to buy one for himself. It was quite nice, and relatively trouble free . All I remember was a bad speedo that was replaced under warranty. Guess he got lucky.
But I loved driving it. Think luxury Legend with butter soft leather and pleasant looking wood.
I have an old Car & Driver 1970 yearbook which contains a road test of the Rover 2000 TC. The authors name was absent from the article, he was obviously smitten with the vehicle judging by his breathless tone of the article, or maybe he had been smoking something illegal. Apparently the over-the-top writing never helped Rover sales, as I have never recalled ever seeing one.
I put this car in there with the Merkur Scorpio, which to me, is what the Taurus should have looked like and XR4Ti. Some really neat-looking, different cars, but vanilla seems to win out every time – just add your favorite toppings and everyone’s happy.
I, too, found the Sterling quite appealing and hoped for the best, but, alas, it was not to be…
I remember when these came out. A win-win, I thought – all of the mechanical integrity of a Honda and all of the old world walnut and leather kind of luxury that only England can provide. Oops.
I think that the last one I saw was in the early 90s and was being driven by a real estate salesman who brought a client to look at a house I was selling. I knew at the time that they had not sold well and had more problems than the corresponding Hondas, but had never paid enough attention to know the magnitude of the failure.
I can only remember seeing these twice. My uncle had an early Sterling in the late 1990s, but got rid of it quickly due to constant electrical problems. The second time I saw one was parked in front of a pharmacy about two years ago, in shockingly good condition. I have never seen one driving around, though, and probably for a good reason.
On fueleconomy.gov, it looks like most Sterlings got an average MPG of 17 or 18, which means they qualified for Cash for Clunkers. That’s probably what the second one was fated for, for better or for worse.
One interesting aspect of the “Sterling” was the fake five-lug-looking plastic cover over the four-lug alloy wheel.
i,m gonna agree with bryce the rover p4 p5 p6 were good cars witch explains there high survival rate the sterling was not and the awfull rover/bmw 75 witch replaced it..wot a f…..g lemon and this time even with all of bmw,s money they f…….d it up,lol they just blew there last chance..there very last chance ..good god how of the beam can you be cars by the late 90s were becomeing very slick indeed all that agresive styling ect ect and rover comes up with the 75..lol octagonal dials ..rushed beige leather and walnut door cappings ,camp dear camp..in a bad taste low rent way..who were they aiming it at ..members of the rotary club .bexhill on sea or edna wyanethrop [miss] head of the over 60s w.i.walmington on sea branch,lol..again they got it so wronge and this time..IT REALY WAS ALL OVER for the british car industry
The retro styling of the 75 was a direct result of BMW’s direction, the then CEO of BMW was (a little too, maybe) keen on vintage British cars.
Still ‘retro’ worked well with the MINI, the 2000 one was a Rover design, signed off just before BMW sold them. Difference was, Mini/MINI was cool to young people, Rover wasn’t.
I remember reading that that when they built the left-hand-drive American versions, they failed to redesign the operation of the outside power mirror. The result was that the driver unable to really adjust the mirror. Not so much testing of the new design
Hood release was on the passenger side as well.
Where can I get one of these, 87-90??? I live in the US.
There must be a way to do a nationwide Craigslist search? I seriously doubt you’d find any listed on Autotrader, and there are none listed on eBay right now.
Bill,
I’m the proud original owner of a ’91 Sterling Si. It was they’re final year sport model: 5-speed manual, 16-inch wheels, suspension, spoiler. My Honda mechanic said it’s faster than Legend he ever drove. They Acura 2.7 engine has been great. I’ll probably go with a Acura TL when I replace this car.
Dave
OK, not good transportation, but if you had to live in your car, these begin to look a whole lot better. I’d take me some luxurious English leather and wood interior
I was born the year this car was introduced so i don’t remember what a failure they were. What I do remember is seeing a few here and there as a kid in the early 90’s. Most vividly, I can recall growing up in Denver, a man a few blocks from me had one of these forever! A light blue example that was actually clean as a whistle and most likely a one owner car. Last time i saw it was about 2004. I wonder if he’s still got it. After all, owning a Sterling in the 21st century is a big sign that your a fan of the design. Great post.
I had a Sterling 825 in the 90s, and I still think of it as one of the nicest cars I’ve driven: It was elegant and pleasant to drive. It offered outstanding handling–similar to, but perhaps even better than the excellent first generation Legend on which it was largely based, and far better than the second generation Legend that I got to replace the Sterling. I still miss the Sterling. It’s reliability didn’t seem out of line with other European cars of the time, though I do recall some electrical problems..
I was so impressed when I saw the interior in these. I knew that it was Honda under the skin, how could the Brits mess that up? I soon learned that they could.
I like a car with a nice interior. Jaguar has had some beautiful interiors in their XJs since the ’90’s. I loved my ’97 XJ6 interior. I found the same interior in my ’05 Navigator. This is what attracts me to modern Lincolns.
I was something of a junkyard hound in the first decade of this century, nearly always sniffing for BMWs, but I swear I saw more Sterlings in yards than I ever saw on the road. I’ve got a pretty good eye for oddball cars, or else I wouldn’t have seen them in the yards. But somehow, I didn’t see them on the road. Maybe Northern California is the secret burial grounds for Sterlings. (shrugs shoulders)
Antique thread, but:
Euro KA1 Legends were also made at Cowley.
Honda had them shipped to a plant in Swindon, where then unmade them and assembled them correctly.
That’s how Honda got started here.
The early Sterling ads promised us British style with Japanese reliability. Instead we got Japanese style with British reliability.
I mentioned a few days ago on the ’61 Rambler American thread that there are some cars you can just tell are designed around the hard points of another, usually older car (or from another manufacturer), and this is one of them. Despite not sharing any body panels or some of its glass, you can just see the Honda/Acura Legend just beneath the surface, with the low hood and cowl, the wide rear door, the low seating position, and narrow overall width. Rover wanted a higher hoodline and longer front suspension travel, but Honda won out with the proportions you see here with the hood just barely over the front wheel openings.
I’m surprised Rover didn’t stick it out one more year in the States which would have brought a new coupe designed for America, a series-wide facelift with a more traditional chrome grille, airbags instead of those nasty motorized shoulder belts, and the return of the Rover name. Still, I think they would have only gotten a one-year uptick in sales – big coupes were on the way out in the ’90s, and the car was getting old compared to the completely revamped Legend and other competition, and a replacement wouldn’t arrive until 1999 with the 75 (which almost resulted in a fourth attempt to sell Rover cars in the US).