Austin Rover - Rover 800 - Product Insight Video (1986)

Austin Rover - Rover 800 - Technical Insight Video (1986)

Official Austin Rover Technical insight video into the Rover 800, An in depth look at the features of the car, comparison to competitors.

[sarjim]

This was a great opportunity for Rover in the US. Since it was a mechanical twin to the Acura Legend, the Sterling, as it was branded here, attracted buyers looking for British interiors and Japanese reliability. While the mechanical reliability was fine, the poor British assembly and material quality killed off the Sterling.

The paint quality was poor and full of orange peel. Interior trim pieces around the doors regularly fell off because they clips didn't line up with the body. The Lucas electronics also had poor quality control with many failures of dashboard instruments and electronic control modules. Early rusting was due to Rover not rustproofing the body as well as Honda did with the Legend. Many Sterlings has rust showing up in the trunk and hood areas in less than two years. This may have been more tolerable or expected in Britain, but most US car companies were galvanizing bodies by 1987 so this rusting was quite a shock to US buyers. They even managed to screw up the Honda engines with poor assembly controls so parts that didn't fail on the Legend did on the Sterling.

The worst part in the US market were British ideas about how to equip cars, We had no concept about some "Executive" level of cars since the Sterling was just a midsize car here. Apparently it was considered huge in Britain, which I guess is what put it the "Executive" class. Rover, instead of equipping it like a Legend, made things like the sunroof, cruise control, and ABS optional, all of which were expected as standard in high priced cars like the Sterling. On top of that, the Sterling 4 door sedan was priced at $29, 675 while the Legend went for $29, 165 including the sunroof, cruise control, and ABS brakes. The Sterling was approaching $32, 000 for a fully equipped car, the equivalent of $64, 206 today. That price put it squarely in the Mercedes 190-SE range. This was at a time that a top of the line Ford Galaxie went for less than $20, 000. People spent the money for the Sterling because of the panache of being British until the usual British quality problems started to show up. This was going to be the great British car to take on America. Instead, it was the final straw for most Americans for anything British that wasn't a Jaguar or Rolls.

[danieljohnson]

The Rover 800 sounds like a great, nice executive car in Britain. In the USA, we used to see the Sterling 800 on the road...

[mattw]

Those sharp lines fell out of favour in the 1990s but they look good now!

[roverownersclub]

Awesome! finally some 800 vids! looking forward to seeing more

[TheAlien]

a great car my parents had a 820 si for years very reliable car

[tummyfire]

My dad had 2 of them 820i but the 825 & 827 were more reliable for Some reason i think engine were made in Japan i believe, my parent luved them said it was the best cars they had I wished to have one now it would bring back so much good memories of my late father

[TheGalacticEmperorOfLabels]

Love the music. It's like a cross between an old porno and a budget horror movie.

[driver]

Brit car vids, many thanks for uploading all these interesting videos from the past !!

[quirksandfeatures]

Always like the early Rover 800 Sterling with that big impressive Trip Computer and rear electric seats,
Sadly deleted on newer models.
I think it was a pity that it wasn't rear wheel drive and had 5 stud nuts on the hubs like all other big cars.

[musmodtos]

I watched an early one of these (poverty spec' 2.0 in a foul off-gold colour) nearly bankrupt my parents in the early 1990s.

_Very comfortable place to sit and wait for the AA_ as my mum often remarked...

[theKevronHarris]

6:36 The Rover 800 goes from 0-60 in 7.8 seconds,  on the 825i with manual gearbox. Awesome!

[georgeprime]

For looks you can't beat the fastback.

[paulanderson]

I always liked the lines of the pre-facelift model, especially the fastback style. Angular and typically mid 1980's. Less impressive was the reliability, though some people have had very good ownership experiences.

[samjane]

The voiceover sounds a bit like Peter Tomlinson of Blockbusters fame, now a local councillor I hear.

[armjos]

Always liked the 800, but I had the 820 and it was lovely but the engine leaked oil like it was full of holes, why rover had to make leaky engines with bad head gaskets is baffling to me

[doubtingthomas]

Sounds like the voice over to the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy!

[johnj]

My Dad loved his first 825i. It was great until the dealer ruined it by doing a bad service and somehow blocked the cooling system. It was always full of air and overheated after they messed with it. They swapped it for a big bumper version after my Dad kicked up a huge stink. That one was never as nice as the first one somehow though. He later got a fastback Sterling and that was perfect and he kept it for years until rust underneath killed it in the end.

[neilmustow]

The car in the wind tunnel was Registered September 1985

[martinbaldwin]

The Rover 800 fastback, it wasn't a bad car, just not as good as it should have been. My dad had one and it suffered from minor electric problems. If they would have built the 800 and 200 well, and gained a good reputation it could have been a turn around products for this company. The best thing they had was the partnership with Honda, being able to develop new models far cheaper than on their own. I know most cars were rebadged Honda's, but hey what's wrong building something good than building nothing at all...

[PeaveyPV]

A British car, didn't they have honda engines, my dad's rover sure did