Back with one of my favourite subjects today, which concerns the 2004 Rover 45 Club SE I had from 2009 to 2012. Sporting the same 1.4 litre K-series engine (designed in Britain, of course) as the Rover 214 I had immediately before this, she developed around 103 bhp.
The car was never exactly fast, but it had an urgency about the way in which the 16 Valve Twin Cam K-series. This engine was used in MG Rover cars right up until the bankrupcy of the company in April 2005, and a modified 1.8 litre version was used in the MG 6 model from the revived MG Motor UK from 2011 to 2014. As for the Rover 45, it had a complicated history and gestation period.
In 1992, Honda and the Rover Group (as they were at the time) were in a partnership which had been going on for over 10 years and had largely been quite successful. The joint venture Honda Concerto and Rover 200/400 (known as the R8) models had been well received, and the replacement for these would again be co-developed by both companies. However, before Rover had any say in what would happen, Honda launched their 1992 Domani saloon in Japan, and decreed that their joint venture product would have to be based upon it.
The dumpy little Civic-related saloon (which has exactly the same doors as the Rover 45) was quite inelegant, and proved a headache for the British designers. When the new Rover 400 hatchback appeared at the end of 1995, the press were singularly unimpressed with its drab styling and high prices (it was the same size as an Astra, but priced to compete with the Vectra), which was not a good start.
The saloon was better received, but when compared with the British built Honda Civic five door from their Swindon plant, the Rover looked embarrassingly expensive, despite the typical lashings of wood and chrome. Eventually, Rover reduced their prices, but damage had been done. BMW, new owners of Rover from early 1995, didn't much know what to do with all their Honda derived models, and so eventually reduced prices and lightly facelifted them, which did not do much to stem the tide of falling sales.
In March 2000, BMW sold Rover to a management buyout bid known as the Phoenix Consortium, having just facelifted the 400, which became known as the 45. It had some positive changes, and was priced directly against the Astra, where it always should have been. Some elements from the recently launched 75 were also incorporated into the new design, such as new seats and some nice new instrument dials.
By 2004, the Phoenix Consortium (aka MG Rover) had both MG and Rover models on sale, and had managed to somehow not go under, but when they wheeled out mildly facelifted versions of the Rover 25, 45 and 75 as well as the MG ZR, ZS and ZT (essentially three different cars with one sporty version each), the press and public were underwhelmed. It was all over less than a year later.
The 45 by this stage was still a decent car, but it suffered from a terrible image and was by now a very old design. My 2004 Mk2 version had the following equipment:
-Wood inserts
-Climate control
-Parking sensors
-Steering wheel mounted controls
-Traffic Master congestion early warning system (yes, really)
-Alloy wheels
This was not bad for a family car of its age, and the facelift smartened up the design considerably. Part of this was to revise the suspension settings more along the lines of the MG ZS, which meant that the handling was not bad at all. The car was comfortable, with a big boot, reasonable fuel economy, strangely handsome styling and a pretty stylish interior (also revised in 2004) with white dials and a bespoke dashboard. Sadly, it was not all positive.
I lost count of the maintenance bills I had to spend, but by the time I bought in 2009, it had already had a head gasket replacement, and needed even more work. I loved driving it, and the ambience, but it did break down several times and eventually the head gasket went again (along with the exhaust), and so she was put out to pasture for just £350 in 2012. For an eight year old car, which cost around £18,000 new, that was pretty poor depreciation.
