(first posted 11/25/2016) The link between Rover and Honda was always a one sided affair: survival and market credibility conferred on one partner, who was unable or unwilling to take anything from the opportunity to develop missing or lost engineering capability, whilst the other gained commercially and strategically. And nothing shows this better than the Rover 400 series, also known as the HH-R, and its later, badge engineered derivative, the MG ZS.
From 1988, Rover had been owned by British Aerospace, (BAe, now BAE Systems). You can speculate why an aerospace and defence giant would want to own a struggling car maker, even if it did include Land Rover. My personal hunch is that Rover was seen as a business with substantial underused property assets, some marketable divisions that could be separated and sold, some cash flow and as a way of working with the Thatcher government in a supportive way.
BAe inherited a plan to launch the Rover 200 and 400 series cars (known as R8) in 1989, a car which had significant showroom appeal and received a strong press welcome, and which had commercial success, with sales still rising when it was replaced. But the replacement was to be different.
The R8 had been funded by the company whilst it had access to government investment but BAe placed tight limits on the funds available for the R8 200/400 replacement. This meant it would have to be a collaborative project with someone, almost certainly Honda. To limit Rover further, Honda were taking a conservative attitude on the replacement of the Concerto in Europe, as this was a key car to building a successful manufacturing presence in Europe, at Swindon. Honda will build a new car and will build a car in a new factory, but not both together. Therefore, Honda were not receptive to the proposal for an all-new car, like the R8 was in 1989, to be the first full volume product from Swindon.
Instead, the plan was to use a derivative of the Asian market only Honda Domani, and sell it under the Civic badge in Europe.
The Domani dated back to 1992, as a derivative of the car that had been the origin of the R8. It was a conservative 4 door saloon, with Honda planned to turn into a hatchback for Europe, with typical Honda wishbone suspension, front wheel drive and advanced engines.
Honda, as the holder of the design rights and the trump cards, rejected Rover’s proposal for a full restyle with a completely revised body shell and insisted on the retention of the central section of the car, just as BMC were limited in developing the Maxi from the Landcrab. Rover were limited to new (outer, not inner) metalwork forward of the windscreen and reshaped rear wings and hatch.
The interior was trimmed by Rover, over the defined Honda hardpoints.
Rover were also able to develop their own four door saloon, using a new longer rear end, which differed from the Domani and was not offered by Honda. All models, hatchback and saloon were to be badged Rover 400 series, the engines were to be Rover’s four cylinder 1.4 or 1.6 litre K series and later the four cylinder 2.0 litre T series, apart from the 1.6 automatic which retained the Honda engine.
The result was a disappointment – visually, in driving standards, and crucially in showroom appeal. Visually, it looked like a mismatch of two styles, which it was – the latest Rover grille and gently curved front grafted onto the rather dumpy Domani centre with its strongly styled doors and the very dumpy short rear end.
The interior lacked the fresh stylish appeal of the R8 as well, looking just like a Honda, which was exactly the same, give or take some colours and trim materials and the wishbone suspension was set for comfort, perhaps more so than the market wanted.
And Rover charged more for it than they did the R8.
Rover had better luck with the four door saloon version of the HH-R. Honda did not plan to offer a saloon in Europe, so were not building one at Swindon and therefore Rover had more freedom in the design, even if they were still stuck with central section and doors of the Domani. The saloon was launched a year later than the hatch and evidently Rover were quite proud of it, even going as far as saying at the launch of the hatchback “wait for the saloon to see the real 400”.
This saloon was significantly more elegant and better balanced, losing the long nose/short tail imbalance that existed on the hatchback. Both shapes were colour sensitive, and the blue car perhaps shows this. Because of the closer involvement of Honda, there were no coupes or convertibles this time, though Rover probably considered the 1994 Rover 200 as the coupe replacement. Strangely, Honda built an estate version for sale in the UK and in Europe and several were converted them into “Rovers”, by adding a new bonnet and grille, and little more. But Rover never officially offered it.
Rover priced and marketed the car as a competitor to cars likes the (still new) Ford Mondeo, the Renault Laguna, Vauxhall/Opel Vectra and Citroen Xantia, rather than its more natural competitors such as the Ford Escort, Vauxhall/Opel Astra, Peugeot 306 and VW Golf. The press were not fooled, and ran comparisons against the similarly sized cars, and found the 400 to be underwhelming, and expensive. CAR magazine actually tagged the 400 hatch as the most disappointing new car of 1995.
In 1999, the car was facelifted (twin round headlamps instead of rectangular ones, revised bonnet and front wing profiles, and some chassis and trim upgrades) to create the Rover 45. The biggest change was the option of the 2.0 litre K series V6 engine, also offered in the new 75 saloon, in place of the older, 4 cylinder T series. This facelift was masterminded by Rover’s new owners, BMW, and coincided with the introduction of the Rover 75 saloon, the front of which the revised car was styled to match. Renaming also allowed Rover to trim the prices, significantly. However, the 45 was now looking very old against the competition, which now included the Ford Focus, another new Astra, and the capable and high quality Golf Mk4.
There is perhaps one key reason for the lack of long term sales success of this car. It was perhaps 15% too expensive, compared with the Ford Escort or VW Golf as Rover priced the car against the larger Ford Mondeo, Citroen Xantia and VW Passat. In 1999, when it was renamed the 45, pricing was reduced markedly, but the car was by then looking old against the VW Golf Mk4 and Ford Focus.
Certainly a first generation R8 400 buyer can be understood for being reluctant when asked to pay significantly more for an HH-R Rover 414 hatch or saloon than he did for his previous car. Equally, it was unlikely to tempt a Mondeo or Xantia buyer – it was too small and Rover was not a brand with sufficient premium to carry it off, in the way that Audi, for example, could sell an A3, based on the VW Golf, for Passat money at volumes and prices Rover could only dream off. It was as if Rover, having made a reasonable fist of, in the UK at least, challenging the image and reputation of the Golf with the R8, tried to take on Audi with the HH-R.
In 2000, BMW’s patience with Rover was exhausted and the company broken up. BMW kept Mini and the Cowley factory, Land Rover was sold to Ford and Rover together with MG and the Longbridge factory was sold to a management consortium, along with the existing car range and engines. The full story of what then happened is for another day, but I guess you know the final answer.
MG-Rover, as the company was now known, was essentially in existence to keep Longbridge working, and would inevitably need a partner. To keep the lights on while this partner was found, the company expanded the model range with MG versions of the Rover saloon range.
The Rover 45 was joined by the MG ZS, by using simple devices like new bumpers and valances, side skirts, wings and spoilers, with an MG B style grille grafted on place of the Rover one, changing no pressings but using just plastic mouldings.
The interiors were all given the typical sports seat and steering wheel treatment, with lots of MG logos. It came as a saloon or hatchback, with a full range of engines from 1.4 litre to 2.5 litre V6 petrol engines, as well as diesels.
One attractive detail was the grille behind the front wheel, seen on the 2.5 litre V6 engined ZS180. Not functional, but it had a certain uniqueness and gave an impression, and was shared with the MG SV X-Power supercar. The 2.5 litre engine was unique to the MG, with the Rover 45 being capped at 2.0 litre
The ZS was perhaps the least successfully commercially of the three MG derivatives but earned better reviews than the smaller Rover 25 based ZR, if not the Rover based MG ZT. Its higher price, the image of the original Rover and the competition from the likes of the rally proven Subarus and Mitsubishis hampered sales, as did its uncompromisingly hard core sports nature in a part of the market that generally wants something a little more family friendly.
The range of options and customisation available was wide, with spoilers ranging up to the size seen here available for example. Inevitably, the car has acquired a certain image which contrasted with that of the Rover 45, but also was perhaps a bit more than MG really wanted. It was seen as more extreme than an Alfa Romeo 147 for example, but also less capable than a VW Golf GTi.
There was one last facelift in the spring of 2004, with new headlights, grilles, bootlids and rear hatches, and new dash board mouldings, on both marques. Somehow, perhaps because VW, GM and Ford gave us brand new Golfs, Astras and Focuses in 2004, this looked even more desperate than it was.
Production of the 45 and ZS ended in April 2005 when MG-Rover collapsed. Honda quickly got into Longbridge and recovered enough tooling to prevent any resurrection in China or elsewhere. Part completed cars were crushed.
The 400, 45 and ZS were cars with a complex background, hampered by parts of that background and the lack of investment, and not helped by the manufacturer’s ambitions for it. It shows, that even with an organisation like Honda behind you, if a manufacturer does not invest in product, the product will reflect that.
And that is something Rover had learnt over the previous thirty years, the hard way.
Was Rover restrained by Honda to stop them retuning the mushy handling of the Honda Domani chassis I would have thought that would have been first order of business in creating a European type car from a Japanese base.
Fascinating insight into management thinking during this messy time. I used to drive past the Swindon plant every day on the way to work (even applied for a job there once), and it’s hard to understate the importance of the plant to the town in the early nineties.
I left the country in 1998 but the Rover name was fully debased by then I think – a brand for old people, and those who didn’t know better. This MG story had passed me by so a very interesting read.
Interesting read. I thought Rover retuned the suspension for the MG ZS models? Something in the back of my mind makes me think that the UK motoring press praised its handling?
Interesting that Honda gutted the tooling from Longbridge, something I did not know, but makes sense.
As an aside, my experience of the mk4 Golf was anything but high quality and capable. Biggest POS car I’ve ever owned, and a hellish 9 months. I think a 45 would have been a better prospect.
The ZS did have a retuned suspension, which helped quite a bit, although it wasn’t nearly as fluid as the 75-based ZT. I think the general consensus was that the ZS tune improved handling, but it felt about as boy racerish as it looked, which was more than a lot of C-segment buyers were interested in tolerating for this kind of money.
Also, I don’t know that the MG versions of these cars were an exception to Rover’s previously demonstrated ability to inject characteristic British quality control into Honda designs, which wasn’t a particular selling point.
The blue subject title car seems desperately trying
to be a contemporary 3-Series Beemer! Round
quartet of headlights, pseudo split-grille, etc.
Not a coincidence. As Roger mentions in the article the quad round headlights were a facelift during BMW’s (brief and troubled) ownership of Rover/MG.
splat:
So BMW’s dna rubbed off on Rover, in
a matter of speaking. 🙂
It still boggles my mind how Rover Group could take a perfectly good Acura Legend and turn it into the boondoggle of the Rover Sterling. We used to have a put-down when we were kids in grade school. “It takes talent!” Indeed!
A friend of mines mother bought a 89 Honda Legend it had several trips back to the dealer to rectify electrical faults under warranty though it has run almost faultlessly since 91 or so, Hondas and the badge engineered Acura were far from perfect as they say here your Honda will run fine untill the scrap by mileage has been accumulated then everything goes wrong at once.
I don’t think Honda has a design studio half as good as Rover, but Rover doesn’t have electronic engineering at all.
Anyway, Rover version looks much better refined on design, I only hope Honda can get a tiny from that.
Only time in living memory (?) that BL/Rover replaced a model before it got too long in the tooth, rather than years too late, and they managed to replace the R8 with something that was objectively worse in pretty much every respect…
One detail, the matt black door handles on the first generation HH-R always screamed at me, they were so obtrusive and off-brand.
I remember when BAe took over Austin Rover in 1988, someone wrote a letter to “Car” magazine stating “If Austin Rover made aeroplanes, would you fly in one?” It’s true these Rovers were priced out of their size and price range, particularly this one and the 200 (25), which was a Corsa at an Astra price, for example. They were costly here in Barbados too, but they had the real wood and leather that their Japanese counterparts didn’t have and sold among a more upmarket clientele, as Honda always has over here. However, unlike the Hondas, there aren’t many of these Rovers left now, and I think some of the existing 200s have had Honda engines fitted as well.
Thats interesting the larger Rovers the 75s are still a common sight in NZ they sold quite well even to the extent of dealers bringing used cars from UK and Japan, My BIL was parts manager at a Rover store during the Rhonda era driving Peugeot diesel powered Rover as his issued vehicles the diesels are noisy to drive due to not enough sound deadening material the Honda engines being silky smooth and not requiring much the base 1700 XUD not being particularly quiet needed more, they were better for reliability than some of their predecessors as far as parts consumption went though nowdays Rovers can be picked up very cheap due to headgasket failures and absolute lack of parts break a light the car is scrap blow a piston thats available somewhere.
As an American, Rover always seemed to me to be the best British car for export to the U.S. The image of Rover (in my mind) was of Rover as an executive’s car – Land Rover for the country house; Rover for the High Street. I don’t think the styling of the P6 suited American tastes but the SD1 with the Rover V-8 was fantastic looking. However, I have never seen one in the sheet metal. I thought that not selling (or not selling many?) in the U.S. was a real missed opportunity. It was definitely a car for the times.
When we finally got the Sterlings, I thought they would be a runaway winner; British taste and elegance with Honda bones… how could it miss? At the time, I was a little too young and poor to have the money for a Sterling, but one of our business associates who regularly came to our company had one. It was beautiful and refined, and for a year or so he loved it. Then, lots of niggling electrical problems, and soon Sterling was dead in the U.S. and British cars were no more.
As for MG; I rather thought the marque was being saved as ‘An Ace In The Hole’: a name with huge recognition in the U.S. to this day, and one that is
fondly rememberedso beloved that even the rubber clown-nosed MG-B’s didn’t hurt their image. I always speculated on MG as the once and future king to be resurrected when the time was right for a return to the U.S. market. Instead, the king was sold into slavery in China.Could it have been different? Could things have been done differently so that instead of my cold German BMW, I could have a wood and leather trimmed Rover snug in my garage waiting to whisk me off to play some tennis this afternoon if the weather stays nice?* I wish….
*Certain factual matters may have been enhanced for dramatic purposes in this example.
The current owner of MG, they seem to know the image of MGB in US and on their North American website, they put a blue metallic MG TF on the career page. But it’s not moving anywhere soon, given their current situation.
The SD1 was available in the USA in limited numbers in a federalized form – round lights and big bumpers – but not many. Seemed to get a bad press for reliability in the USA too but a cool car in it’s day IMHO. All of the 1990s Rovers really tried to bring back the ‘nostalgia’ of the P5 era to raise the brand profile rather than concentrating on the leaps in innovation and design made with the P6 and SD1. Most Rovers of this era should really have had Austin / Morris type badges but there was a move away from those brands as in my view they had been tarnished by dated designs and reliability issues throughout the 1970s. Most were average cars massively underrated and slated by the UK motoring press to oblivion, buyers walked away buying Ford, VW and Peugeots with only diehard union flag-flyers buying Rover. The union with Honda was the best thing that could have happened whereas the BMW deal was just to ransack the decent stuff like take the now very successful ‘Mini’ brand.
Artistic license is alive and well. It’s also what makes this site fun reading! Ditto on the Sterling. I saw a few in the metal, and they looked great, How could they ruin that car?
Replacing the Rover “electric razor” grille with ones that looked derived from the Dodge Stratus (the burgundy car) and BMW (the blue one) was hardly going to help the warmed-over Honda image of these cars.
As for the Sterling, it was warmly pleasant, comfortable and roadable, but problems cropped up in a manner reminiscent of early Jaguar XJ6s. By then, buyers were not willing to put up with that kind of quirkiness any more.
Those are the traditional form of Rover grilles dating back a long way, the designers were probably looking at the Rover 75/80 and P5B for their design inspiration.
I am liking that MG ZS a lot. Too bad it went away with Rover. The other cars are ok, but they just don’t strike me as being special enough to call a Rover.
A Daewoo Leganza Clone >>>>>>>>>>>>>
As a fan of the TV show “Keeping Up Appearances,” I always wondered if the choice for Hyacinth and Richards car was intentional. Although it is marked Rover, it is clearly a Honda at heart. I’ve always felt if the ever status seeking Hyacinth knew of her Rovers humble roots, she’d be mortified. Would anyone know if this was written into the show or just a comic coincidence?
I would think it was chosen simply because it was such a typical car for a couple of that age and attitude.
In addition, although Rover was seen as a brand for the more “mature” driver, so were Japanese brands – Honda perhaps chief among them. Even today, the official car of oldsters is the Honda Jazz (Fit). The Honda connection and roots of 80s/90s Rovers were far from a secret – my great uncle graduated from a Triumph Acclaim (Honda Ballade) to a succession of Hondas for that reason.
I never saw any marques on the Bucket car. It
always looked like a contemporary Civic to me.
It was definitely a Rover 200. In almost every episode, from memory, you could see the Rover logo:
http://imcdb.org/vehicle_29901-Rover-216-SD3-1987.html
I rather liked that show. Very memorable, and one of my Mum’s favourites.
Stopford: Could Honda have sued them for
design infringement? I mean, seriously,
they’re that alike! lol
Well… it was based on a Honda. And Honda always dictated the hard points with their Rover joint ventures. And Honda sold an almost identical version of the 200 in Japan as the Ballade.
Ok that makes sense! So I’m not completely
cuckoo. 🙂 Sort of like when GM and Toyota
went in on the Geo thing in the ’90s. Seeing
a bow-tie Corolla back then really played
with my head!
As a one-time potential Rover customer, after having driven a couple of “British Hondas”, I never saw any point in buying a Honda that was wasn’t built in Japan.
After 2 great R8 Rover 200 (fun to drive, well built, reliable, stylish), this was the car that persuaded me Rover was past it – as our kid says, marketed above where it belonged, dull (at best) to look at, and ancient underneath. Clearly, Honda were doing the least they could get away with, and Rover had no clout in the relationship.
Time to move on, like everybody else, to a mark 4 Golf, and not come back.
Speaking of ‘grilles from he77’…
An American perspective, on the Rover at least: we rented a 45 in England in 2003 and drove it on everything from country lanes, mountains, large cities and motorway. As someone who hadn’t driven an Accord since 1981 nor a Civic since the late eighties, I found the Rover very satisfying. The interior evoked traditional Olde England rather than Japan, and the steering, ride, and gearshift had a continental (Europe, not Lincoln) feel. I really enjoyed it and it helped me feel safe driving on the left and shifting with my left hand. At the time we had a Corolla and a New Beetle at home and the 45 felt more VW than Toyota.
Rover is definitely dead and gone I havent seen a Rhonda in a long time earlier Rovers are still about in the hands of collectors and misty eyed restorers.
MG on the other hand is back with a vengence I see lots of them every day Ive no idea if they are any good or not but they are cheap if you want a shiny new car from China and it seems lots of people here do want one.
I was quite excited to see a new Rover 45 in my neighborhood in Maryland, driven by a British diplomat (diplomat’s cars are one of the few ways to see a new car that isn’t federalized here; I also saw one of the last original Mini’s around this time whose owner took advantage of the “reVINing” loophole, where a new car of a model that’s been in production for a long time is legally an old car that was originally sold here with a whole bunch of new parts). I like it, but I really wanted a Rover 75 which BMW and Rover considered exporting to the States but never did, even though it was designed with US regulations in mind. I thought maybe the later models with RWD and a Ford modular V8 (sold in both Rover and MG guises) would be easier to sell here, but that didn’t happen either. There was talk of MG finally returning to the States with the SV XPower since it had already been federalized as the Qvale Mangusta, but again it was a no-go (Wikipedia says one model did make it here, but that’s the first I’ve heard of that).
Wow—this Rover is what I rented for three days of driving around Birmingham-London-Cotswolds in 2001; I knew nothing of the then-recent history of the Rover, and wouldn’t have guessed at any Honda roots, etc.
The peppy car kept up on the motorways just fine, and I somehow adapted to a 5-speed shifting by my left hand (this American’s first/only bit of left-side driving). Wonderful to hear the backstory, two decades later—thanks!