Rover 75 Retrospective;- Requiem for an Industry

 

 

Anybody with an iota of integrity will admit that the Rover group put out more than its fair share of absolute dross over the years. But it also produced some extremely underrated machinery. 

One car that never really got the recognition it deserved is the Rover 75. OK, it wasn't everybody's cup of tea, but in hindsight the last totally new platform that Rover would ever deliver genuinely was good enough to make you wonder:

What if things had turned out differently?

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Driven #21:- Jaguar S-Type :- Unexplained Attraction

Flaming Hot Monster Munch. Never liked ‘em. I didn’t really like any spicy food much, to be honest, and yet now if a peppered steak appears on the menu I’ll jump right at it, and the nice, gentle Roast Beef Monster Munch no longer hits the spot.

It’s funny how we suddenly take a liking to a taste, a sensation or a product that we previously held with disinterest or contempt. It happens with music, it happens with fashion, and it happens with cars. And yesterday evening, it happened to me with the Jaguar S-Type.

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Driven #18:- 335d SE

The turbocharged, go-faster Volvo 850T-5 caused something of a stir on its release in the early nineties. For a start, it was a Volvo, and Volvo were more associated with ever-so-sensible brick shaped cars best suited for carrying elderly people and antiques. Then there was the power, the modernity, the fact that the car represented totally new ground for the staid old firm. Then, in ’94, Volvo took the 850 racing in the British Touring Car Championship. And, as if looking to take the piss totally, the combatant they fielded was an estate car.

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Driven #14:- BMW E46 320d Compact

Image and looks, two very separate things that just happen to be inextricably linked. See that cool guy over there? The handsome, well dressed guy? And that geek-chic girl he’s with? She’s really hot behind those glasses and the cable-knit sweater. And so it is, we will typically adjust our conceptions of a person’s image, depending on their looks. If a well-dressed man happens to be ugly people will say he’s craggy, or distinctive, or any of a thousand descriptions less insulting than simple ugliness. Ugly Betty, as we know, isn’t ugly at all. She just typically wears horrible clothes.

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