Street-Spotted: Rover 400

We’ve seen this Rover 400 on the streets of Montreal, Quebec, for a number of years, and we can’t imagine that there’s more than one of these on this continent.

We’ve seen this Rover 400 on the streets of Montreal, Quebec, for a number of years, and we can’t imagine that there’s more than one of these on this continent.

This car masquerades nicely as a Honda, and if you thought it was a ’90s Civic from its profile, you’re not wrong, per se. This unassuming sedan, which we’re pretty sure is the only one in North America — it has to be, right? — is a Rover 400 produced between 1995 and 1999, and it’s not even right-hand drive, indicating that it’s an export version for the European market.

We’ve spotted this car around downtown Montreal for a few years, and it belongs to a foreign diplomatic mission there. You can probably guess which country by the small oval bumper sticker.

But just how a ’90s Honda design came to be badged as a Rover, of all things, requires some explanation.

Honda’s partnership with the Rover Group began in the 1980s; you’ve probably seen the, ahem, fruits of this collaboration in the form of Sterling sedans, which landed in the U.S. in 1987 and promptly fizzled. The Sterling 825 and 827 sold in the U.S. were Rover 800-series cars back home in the U.K., sharing a lot of components with the much more successful (and far more reliable) Acura Legend. But it was by no means the sole collaboration between Honda and Rover. Later on, the two companies worked together on a number of other cars, and as a part of that agreement, Rover built a model based loosely on the Honda Domani and the Euro-market Civic of the day, which was closely related to the Civic we know.

We’ve seen this Rover 400 on the streets of Montreal, Quebec, for a number of years, and we can’t imagine that there’s more than one of these on this continent.

“The elegant Rover 400 Saloons have a touch of class which stands out from the crowd; a style which is guaranteed to attract admiring glances,” the ad copy of the time promised. “Choose the hatchback versatility of the 5-door model, and you also enjoy a car with a look of quality and distinction which no rival can offer.”

Well, no rival except for the Honda Civic, which itself was quite plentiful at the time and managed to score much higher sales volumes across the globe.

“And you’ll enjoy far more. The latest Rover 400 Series offers you luxury in a class of its own. The majority of models are now equipped with air-conditioning as standard; even in the most scorching summers, you’ll travel in cool comfort.”

OK, so Rover grabbed our attention by whispering sweet promises of air conditioning being standard on most models, but we have a feeling Rover engineers’ definition of a scorching summer and Arizona residents’ definition of a scorching summer are a little different. Of course, it wasn’t unusual in the ’90s for Euro-market cars to not offer air conditioning except in the countries of southern Europe. Perhaps the engines in these are something to write home about?

“You’ll have the advantages of Rover’s world class engineering. With a choice of advanced engine, giving you effortless, quiet performance,” Rover said at the time. “The 1.6 litre K-Series engine is exceptionally eager, with its large reserve of torque. The 2.0 litre petrol models give restful motorway cruising, and muscular acceleration.”

We’ve seen this Rover 400 on the streets of Montreal, Quebec, for a number of years, and we can’t imagine that there’s more than one of these on this continent.

Now that we think about it, would these Rovers accept the dizzying variety of performance mods and equipment available for the Civic and Domani of the time?

These 1.6-liter Rover K-Series engines were actually of Rover’s own design, so no luck there, but Honda also offered its own 1.6-liter D-series engine in the car if optioned with a slushbox. A 2.0-liter turbodiesel was on the menu as well, borrowed from the Rover 600 series.

The Rover 400 itself lived on for quite some time, and it was facelifted and renamed the Rover 45 in 1999 and stayed in production until 2005, almost to the point where MG Rover was purchased by a group of Chinese automakers. The larger Rover 75 was one of just a couple of models that, with a few changes, went on to be assembled in China; about a decade ago, we had the chance to see these Rovers, renamed Roewe, firsthand in Shanghai and they seemed pretty impressive at the time, if a little heavy on chrome. The smaller 45 meanwhile, did not make the transition — it was quite old by the time, and Roewe did not seem interested in churning out small, outdated cars.

Now, as to how one keeps such a rare car running in Canada, we have to believe that it all comes down to being careful about carefully maintaining the big systems, like the transmission. Everything else can be ordered via mail from across the pond pretty cheaply, and there is no shortage of parts cars in the U.K. to keep this one running. It’s not unusual for diplomats to bring their own cars to the U.S. and Canada for postings of just a few years, and there are a number of dealerships that have experience working on out-of-market cars. Even in Montreal, which now has a sizable population of JDM machines.

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