Rover 400 Series
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Rover 400 | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | MG Rover |
| Also called | Rover 45 |
| Production | 1990—1999 |
| Predecessor | Rover 200 Mark I |
| Class | Small family car |
| Layout | FF layout |
| Similar | Ford Orion Vauxhall Belmont Volkswagen Jetta |
| Rover 400 First generation |
|
|---|---|
| Production | 1990—1994 |
| Body style | 4-door saloon 5-door estate |
| Engine | 1.4 L K-Series I4 1.6 L I4 2.0 L M-Series I4 |
| Related | Rover 200 Honda Concerto |
| Rover 400 Second generation |
|
|---|---|
 |
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| Production | 1995—1999 |
| Body style | 4-door saloon 5-door hatchback |
| Engine | 1.4 L K-Series I4 1.6 L K-Series I4 1.6 L K-Series I4 2.0 L T-Series I4 |
| Related | Honda Domani |
| Rover 45 Second generation (facelift) |
|
|---|---|
 |
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| Production | 1999—2005 |
| Body style | 4-door saloon 5-door hatchback |
| Engine | 1.4 L K-Series I4 1.6 L K-Series I4 1.8 L K-Series I4 2.0 L Diesel I4 2.0 L KV6 V6 |
| Related | MG ZS Honda Domani |
The Rover 400 (later the Rover 45) is a small family car produced by the British automaker Rover from 1990 to 2005. The car was developed during Rover's collaboration with Honda, and all generations of the car were derived from Honda models.
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[edit] Rover 400 Mk I (1990—1995)
The original 400 Series, launched as a four-door saloon in early 1990, was simply a saloon version of the 200 Series hatchback, and like the 200 it was based on the Honda Concerto. It used the same bodywork and mechanicals, and had the same styling characteristics inside and out. The diesel powerplant was supplied by PSA Peugeot Citroën in 1.8 turbodiesel and 1.9 normally aspirated configurations.
[edit] Rover 400 Mk II (1995—1999)
The second generation 400 Series was launched in the summer of 1995 as a hatchback and saloon. This time it was based on the Honda Domani, which had been released in Japan in 1992, as was the European Honda Civic five-door hatchback. It was no longer related to the 200 Series, which was revised independently by Rover. Power came from 1.4 and 1.6-litre K-Series, 1.6-litre Honda D series SOHC (Automatic gearbox only) and 2.0 L Rover T Series petrol engines, as well as a 2.0-litre turbodiesel from the more luxurious 600 Series.
The Rover 400 may have been marketed as a small family car, due to its similarities in size and engine range with models such as the Ford Escort and Volkswagen Golf, but Rover inserted some wood trim in the dashboard and priced the car in the large family car segment. This meant that, despite being moderately successful in its early years, the model would not repeat the sales success of its 200/400 predecessor.
[edit] Rover 45 Mk IIF (1999—2005)
In the autumn of 1999, the 400 Series was facealifted and renamed 45. It was instantly recognisable as the same car which had been marketed as an inexpensive alternative to other large family cars during the later part of the 1990s, but Rover management now realised the error of their previous strategy and it was marketed as a small family car. Since the summer of 2001, a hot hatch version of the Rover 45 was sold as the MG ZS.
The 1.4, 1.6 and 1.8-litre petrol and 2.0-litre diesel engines were carried over from the 400 Series, but the 2.0 four-cylinder petrol unit was replaced by a 2.0-litre V6 from the larger Rover 75 — although this power unit was only available on saloon versions. The 45 came equipped with the better seating of the 75 and whilst the 400 models handled very well, the suspension was tuned to give much better controlled ride characteristics with quicker steering. This gave the 45, especially post-2003 models which shared suspension mods with the MG version, handling as good as most and better than some of its rivals.
The 45 was available with Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) supplied by the German manufacturer ZF Sachs AG which had also been previously used in the MGF. This particular design of CVT consists of an oil-cooled laminated steel belt (with external oil cooler) running on variable pulleys. MG Rover had many failures returned to the German supplier. With the retention of MG Rover's manual gearbox factory by BMW, Rover ended up purchasing their own gearboxes from BMW who hiked up the price so much that Rover subsequently went elsewhere for a supplier. This turned out to be Ford and later Rover 25/45 models up to 1.6 were fitted with a Ford gearbox. With all the changes that MG Rover had made to this model, the later versions had little in common with its Honda origins apart from the body shape.
Initially, the Rover 45 sold reasonably well thanks to its good equipment levels, comfortable interior and reduced prices. While the asking price remained modest, however, the Rover 45 began to lose its popularity in the face of more refined and modern rivals like the Peugeot 307 and Renault Megane — it must be noted that the 45, being based on the 1992 Honda Domani, was a very outdated car in terms of style compared to its contemporaries by this stage, even though its dynamics from a drivers point of view were still equal to and better than some more popular rivals.[citation needed] A facelift in the spring of 2004 was MG Rover's last effort to boost sales of the Rover 45, including a new front and rear end, a re-designed dash, revised suspension settings, improved equipment and lower prices, necessitated by the end of Domani production in Japan. Production of the car stopped in 2005 with the end of trading at Rover.
The Rover 45 design is controlled by Honda, and the company is believed to have seized schematics and tooling relating to the 45 and ZS shortly before MG Rover was sold to Nanjing Automobile Group.
Nanjing revived production of the MG TF range at Longbridge and the MG 7 (previously MG ZT) in China early in 2007. The Rover marque has been sold to Ford. In late 2006, Nanjing announced plans for two new entry-level model ranges to go on sale at the end of 2008. These will be badged as MG and possibly even Austin cars, and will be effective successors to the Rover 25/MG ZR and Rover 45/MG ZS.
[edit] The RDX60
From 2001 MG Rover had been trying to replace the 45 with an all-new model based upon the shortened Rover 75 platform. Codenamed the "RDX60", this vehicle, first seen as the Rover TCV concept, would have been larger than its rivals, and would have shared the Rover 75's praised "luxurious" ride quality.
However during the design process, MG Rover's design partner Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) went into administration — blamed on the financial needs of their Formula One team Arrows. MG Rover lost most of the computer-aided design work for the new vehicle in this set-back and, in simple terms, had lost £100 million overnight. Shocked at having lost so much, MG Rover ended up paying many more millions of pounds to the TWR administrators in order to have all CAD Work returned. However this major set-back made them lose many designers, models and resources, and MG Rover could not afford to start all over again without cutting corners. Although they did not give up, designers from the company retold their stories, saying that the RDX60 progressed very little up until 2005.
However salvation looked possible in 2005 when a joint veture was proposed between SAIC (a large Chinese company) and MG Rover. However, SAIC took over a year to agree a deal and within that crucial time MG Rover had found itself with no money after bad sales of the face-lifted 25/45/75 and the release of the 75 V8.
[edit] External links
- Rover 200/400 (R8) Owners Club - Complete Resource for the Rover 200/400
- Details of the RDX60 Project
