After the conservative Government had overtaken BLMC and had become enough sticking so much money into the shattered company, they wanted to sell the whole lot, but not to American Companies (GM and Ford applied themselves) therefore it went to British Aerospace without further ado for an incredible low price.
At least, Aerospace decided that only one competent partner from the automotive engineering was able to push forward the developing of new models - Honda.
The Japanese had already been part of the game 1981, as they launched the last car bearing the Triumph logo - the Triumph Acclaim. It was up to the time, sporty and reliable - but it was definitely no Triumph.
Because there was no reason keeping two brands alive, Triumph next to the Rover marque - there was only one to survive - and that was Rover.
With the next facelift, the Acclaim became the Rover 200 and Triumph past away, after building all sorts of cars for over 62 years.
Rover 100
A further anecdote in the eventful Rover history was the “Metro”. today, especially on the Continent it is hardly remembered as a Rover which is no wonder, but ultimately it was a success, after British Leyland presented the Metro 1980.
1987, after many modifications and failing successors, Rover had the honour to go on developing the Metro, so it was added to the Rover portfolio 1990, as the Rover 100. As MG-Metro it took part at many national and international Rallye Events. (Some sort of a British Golf Gti)
Equipped with the famous K-engine, new gearbox, modified shell, and a convincing gas spring suspension, the old Metro survived until 1996.
To the bitter end at a Crash Test wall: Whatever was left from the Rover 100, it was torn apart by the omnipresent media, definitely.
These Rovers were the Rover counterparts to the Honda Legend.
The engines were the 4 valve engines from the M and O series, the home made K series engine had an excellent smooth running and were very economical vehicles.
Rover 600
The closeness of the 600 to the Honda Accord is visible, sharing the same floor pan and a similar engine capacity. The 600 SDI used a direct injection system already before Audi and VW.
But Honda left only little design options for Rover, the more convincing was the result: Only few panels had been changed compared with the Accord, but a very distinctive character was the result.
Rover 400
The first Rover 400 was almost identical with the Honda Concerto, which was called “Roverization”, that meant interchanging nameplates, and later - from 1995 equivalent to the Civic series.
But, Rover also produced a quite independent model, a Tourer, which never found its way into Austria.