Honda Concerto TD
When we think of a 1980s or 1990s Honda, three things probably come to mind – the engine, wishbone front suspension and an identifiable engineering purity. Think NSX for the absolute example of what I mean.
So, a Honda Concerto TD would seem to be the exception that proves the rule(s).
In 1981, Honda and what I shall refer to as Rover, for convenience and brevity, entered a joint venture under which Rover would produce a version of the 1981 Ballade (or Civic) saloon as a Triumph, marketed in Europe only under the Triumph Acclaim (above) name. The car was almost totally Honda, – engine, interior, suspension, body, even most of the trim was interchangeable with the Honda.
It was succeeded in 1984 by a version of the 1984 Civic, sold as the Rover 213 with 1.3 litre Honda engine and the 216 with a 1.6 litre Rover engine. Rover had more input into the interior but was still recognisably a Honda. Maybe surprisingly, or maybe because of the Honda link, this car did well enough for the next product under the agreement to become Rover’s key product in the mid-market, in 1989.
This car, badged as the Rover 214 and 216 hatch, and 414 and 416 saloons (also known as 200 and 400 series and known as the R8 internally) were again collaborations with Honda, but with all Rover engines and much more Rover engineering, including the front suspension. The Japanese built Hondas had wishbone front suspension, the UK built Rovers had MacPherson struts. Rover also built the Honda, known as the Concerto, for the European market.
Honda did not have a diesel engine suitable for the car; neither did Rover, even in Europe, where diesel was (and still is) much stronger than in the US or Japan. Rover turned to Peugeot-Citroen for access to the XUD series of diesel engines, and the Honda followed, for Europe only.
So, the Honda Concerto TD did without a Honda engine, Honda’s preferred suspension configuration, was not even built by Honda but by Rover, and to cap it all, didn’t even come with (European market) Honda Concerto specific headlamp, taillights or bumpers, wearing the same as the Rover’s. It was literally a Rover 218SD with a Honda badge. This example, seen in June 2013 in Penne d’Agenais in South West France even appears to have a Rover style wood trimmed interior.
So, wrong engine, wrong suspension, wrong visual details and not much Honda engineering purity either.
I’d honestly forgotten about these “non-Honda” Honda’s. But then again, its been a few years since I’ve seen a Honda Passport in running condition, Honda badges didn’t do anything to improve Isuzu durability.
A shame, when you think of it: Japan, trying to rebuild their motor industry after the war, was reduced (Nissan) to petitioning for a license to the Austin four-cylinder engine. The British motor industry was an acknowledged superior industry…Americans had size and power but the British made the ideal car for the Continent…or the island of Japan.
Forty years later, Rover makes Civic clones under license. The worm turns…
I didn’t know Honda didn’t use MacPherson struts on their suspensions. I had thought the Gen1 Civic had MacPhersons all around, front and rear….
Actually the early Civic and Accord did use MacPherson and Chapman struts but the later generations that established Honda’s performance image had A-arm front suspensions.
True, then they went back to Mac struts as of the 7th gen, I suppose for cost reasons. This may explain the significant road noise on raspy pavements. I’m not happy about it; I thought the wishbone type was better.
Honda also vacillated about the rear suspension; at least one generation had a beam axle. Unsure how much it mattered.
They sold these in Australia but I never saw one. Odd “in-between” market positioning
They were a good car,I had the misfortune to be given an Austin Montego as a works hire car(see worst hire car a few days ago) and after many problems they were replaced with Rover 216s and 416s.Fast comfortable and reliable,and miles better than anything else from British Leyland.
Of course as many remember, we did one of the joint variants in the US, the Sterling 825/7 which has been covered here before.
I have not studied the inner workings of Honda management decisions, and probably fairly little has been written since it is according company and the Japanese are usually tight lipped about airing their laundry. I can only imagine that cost and time probably had to do with a lot of these hybrid ventures. While we only got the Sterling, which was the product of this article’s discussion, other models like the Passport, original Odyssey, and others that had mixed marriages.
On paper it makes sense, any global car manufacturer has to have a presence everywhere. The domestics had subsidiaries with often unique models while the Europeans and Asians tried to sell basically the same car everywhere to varying degrees of success. For whatever reason, Honda seems to have done slightly better in sales with Rover in the UK, than their stand alone product.
Well the rational behind Honda’s joint ventures are sometimes not about making a profit on them. Sometimes setting up shop with a local car maker allows you to get a foothold into that country or market which policy makers or the general public is hostile to that company
Sometimes it helps to ward off loads of tariffs/taxes. The UK like the USA and many other countries sought to levy taxes on foreign car companies to ether chase them out of the market or keep their auto makers competitive. The lawmakers in the USA bowed to the auto union in this country and were too blind and too stupid to figure out that that the reasons that most bought the Japanese cars in the 1970’s-1980’s were the low cost, good fuel economy AND reliability. A person buying a 1987 Corolla could expect to get many years of trouble free driving with just regular maintaining. A person buying a 1987 Caddy(the “you have arrived” division in GM) would be lucky to get 5 years out of the car before issues like timing chains breaking or cracked intake manifolds doomed the car to the junk heap(lovely engine that 4.1). The auto makers howled and Congress acted and foreign light trucks practically vanished in the US until the 1980’s.
Joint venturing with a company in the target market allows them to side step tariffs without having to commit to costly factories(aka VW and the PA plant) to sell or showcase their vehicles.
Sometimes it is a chance for a car maker to try a different direction with type of car/truck and if fails it will not damage the brand due to that failure. It also allows the auto maker to learn about things on how to proceed in the future or how not to proceed. In the 1980’s Rover and Honda paired up and gave the USA the Sterling(a rebadged Rover 800 series(825 for the sedan and 827 for the 5 door hatch) The body and insides(unfortunately including the electrics) were Rover and the power train was Honda. It was a way for Honda to get into the luxury market(people in 1980’s USA saw Honda(and Toyota) as a maker of quality but cheap cars but would never consider Honda a luxury car maker) and allow Rover access into the USA market. Sadly two things happened with that. 1. Lucus made the electronics and everything BUT the engine and trans failed and 2. people accepted the Acura brand that the Legend that was created to showcase the Acura brand.
That Triumph Acclaim(aka the Honda Ballade aka Civic) was the most reliable car Triumph ever made
I kinda wanted a Sterling at one time but now I know that would have been like hitting your finger with a hammer just to see what would happen to the fingernail.
More painful and no where near as much fun as hitting your finger with a hammer!
Strangely enough these Rhondas are still quite common here a 216 ragtop resides nearby, Many get sold cheap due to the nightmare of finding the correct parts when they go wrong, My BIL was a parts manager at Rover while these were current he knows what bits were used but you still have to get them, Mechanical spares are easy enough but try getting a light.
Rover 216 . . . immediately I think of Hyacinth and Richard!!!
Back in the 90’s I thought a Rover 600 – an Accord with Rover style and Rover interior – might be the perfect car. When I eventually got to drive one, it turned out to be a two-pedal car with a stick. The clutch pedal had fallen off, so you had to press down on the spike to which the pedal had been poorly welded. I also drove a nearly-new Rover-built Accord with the fabric peeling off the door cards. Convinced me that whatever Rover built , I wouldn’t buy it.
It’s a rather unfortunate name,would you buy a car named after a dog?Neither did most people and that’s why they don’t make them anymore
Wow-
A 5/8 scale Ford (Merkur) Scorpio!
I was thinking Ford Escort badge job before reading the story…don’t you think it resembles it somewhat?
I thought the same thing.
I’ll forever associate the Rover 216 with the British sitcom, “Keeping Up Appearances.”
A car mag at the time had a waggish article about these cross-breeds and the transparent attempts by marketing to hide their origins, joking about the “Rover Soichiro” and “Honda Churchill”
There was a article in a “Wheels” magazine about these entitled ‘ As British As Tempura And Chips”….
Yep, I remember that article, glad I’m not the only one!
We got all of the Honda-based Rovers and the Concerto here in NZ too – all UK-spec. The Austin-Rover dealer my Dad worked for had also picked up the Honda franchise, so I remember some details when the various models came out. I distinctly remember watching the Concerto TV ad and wondering who the car was actually aimed at – Honda was really pushing the European link with it, and I thought that (and the lashings of fake wood) seemed well out of sync with the rest of their range and their image. We never got the TD version though, for which we’re possibly grateful!
British Motor Holding grabbed the New Zealand Honda franchise actually they were the importers your Dad got dragged along reguardless Leyland was already in the toilet Hondas arrival flushed them once and for all and the Leyland dealer where I used to fuel uo now had new cars in the showroom without oil leaks heady times indeed. My BIL drove Rhonda diesels for years as company cars they were noisy but didnt go wrong like the Honda/Rover petrol models. I have photos of a TD model so yes some did come here.
I LOVE Golden Era Honda, but the 88-91 Civic platform-and Accords pre-1998-had very limited front suspension travel and were under-damped. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rover’s take on the Concerto’s suspension was more well-resolved and less crashy!
In fact, the main criticism of the Honda-derived Rovers in the British press was just that — lack of suspension travel and a resulting deficiency in refinement compared to European competition. Given the state of European back roads — well-maintained but curvy and jumpy — this would probably show up more there than here. It’s the reason Rover took more control over suspension engineering as the joint venture progressed.