In this video we cover one of the most debated topics regarding the british car industry and its decline the Rover SD1 which some have called one of the worst cars ever made and declared one of the biggest British Leyland disasters.
The Rover SD1 though isn’t a bad car through Motorsport, sales success it proved itself against all odds to be a mainstay of British cars, we cover long forgotten stories from Solihull and analyse the anatomy of what some have called a failure.
Just a note; not all was bad with British leyland and the British car industry isn’t dead it is very much alive. Regarding MG Rover and the many other eras I covered as much as I could in the small recap but longer videos will be produced covering these eras.
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Credits:
AROnline – BL History, Rover SD1
Sound Research – PE166
Rover SD1 Club – SD1 Information
BMIHT – archival photos and videos
If you’d like to read more my sources are linked below:
Sound Research PE166 – http://www.sound-research.co.uk/Rover/cache_sd1_story/2300_2600story.htm
AROnline SD1development – https://www.aronline.co.uk/cars/rover/sd1-development-story/
Rover SD1 Club – http://www.roversd1club.net/home.asp
Oxfordshire old radio broadcasts – https://heritagesearch.oxfordshire.gov.uk/avRecords/eb46f288-bd28-4459-b6cd-3d27f15b831c
source
Red Robbo was working for the Russians and it was his job to sabotage BL. I think that the Russians were jealous of Western manufacturing because that is where we were expressing our souls whereas the so called Marxists behind the Iron Curtain were trying to kill people's souls.
I had a 76/77 car ,a 3.5 V8 (the only one to have )with manual transmission, I love the car and it was quick for the time. But for some reason the gearbox used ATF fluid in the manual transmission this meant if you had a leak it poured out ,Being so thin .this happened to me and the gearbox seized at 100 miles an hour on the motorway. Realistically, my fault for not maintaining it a bit better but certainly .wouldn’t have happened with standard gearbox oil.
All those shortsighted brainless workers managed to achieve by continually striking at the drop of a hat was to bring down the car industry in the UK and completely ruin their own children’s futures. I have no sympathy for them at all.
Some years ago I bought an old 3500 SD1 to use whilst the gearbox was being rebuilt in the car I used for work. I only paid £150 for it and it came with a few months tax on too which was a bonus. I must admit I was quite impressed and almost reluctant to part with it after my regular car had been fixed. Anyway I had no room for two cars so advertised it in my local newspaper for £300 and the first phone caller bought it and paid the full £300. 👍😀
sd1 in gold – as a young man I considered a used example…
I wrote off my father's 2.6 sd1 in 1989. He wasn't happy
one of the few cars, that i have journeyed in ( i'm a non driver ) that i have felt safe in, and would have slept in, if needed. has a teen entering the workforce in the 80's and attending training over 40 miles from my home town. the taxi company used one. and has a computer geek, seeing the old computers was amazing too
I had a 3500S 30 years ago abandoned in a unit I rented. Sold it for £200. One of my customers was a young BL manager . His factory had a roof leak where rainwater was running down the power cable into their new 260,000 pound crank grinder. Quick as a flash he offered to get on the roof and stem the leak. Can’t do that son said the shop steward that’s a job for maintenance. I’d have to call out the whole factory if you did that. 3 days later roof repaired. Grinder down for 6 weeks. UNIONS ,!!. Equality for all ,everyone on the dole.
I had the misfortune to own an SD1 2600S in the early 80s. On paper, it looked fantastic. The reality was another story altogether. I sold an Australian Ford Fairlane, which I had owned for a few years over fears that something expensive might go wrong with it that I couldn't afford to fix. I replaced the 5.8 litre Ford with a low mileage SD1 from a Rover dealership. The first shock was that the Rover was thirstier than the V8 it replaced, despite being less than half the engine capacity! The Fairlane would easily do 22 mpg, the Rover less than 17! The fact that the exhaust was black, and it could be started and driven off without use of the choke was a clue that the mixture was a bit rich – to put it mildly. I returned it to the dealers for a tune up. They advised me that they had adjusted the ignition timing! "What about the mixture?", I asked. "We're not allowed to touch that, its sealed at the factory!". Sure enough, the SU carbs had tamper-proof plastic seals around the jets. A hammer and chisel soon shifted those! Half an hour with a colourtune had it running much better, but it was still a gutless wonder.
Then came the electric windows and sunroof. If you were doing more than 30mph, the motors were incapable of closing any of them! The first time I left it out in the rain, the glove compartment filled up with water! The paint on the bonnet crazed, and despite a respray, continued to do so.
A few years earlier, I had had a Rover 2000 on loan for a couple of weeks. The build quality was infinitely superior. The suspension was infinitely superior. The engine was infinitely superior. The SD1 felt cheap in comparison.
On the plus side, the steering on the SD1 was pleasantly high geared, the seats were comfortable, and the hatchback made it very useful. But the handling was inferior to the car it was meant to replace, as was the build quality.
After two years, I sold it to a work-mate, who was a Rover fanatic. I warned him that it was more 1950s Triumph that 1980s Rover, but he wanted it all the same. He discovered that the screw retaining the points in the distributor was too long, and was stopping the advance/retard working correctly. After replacing it, I asked him if it improved the performance at all. "Not much!", he replied. He passed it on to another work-mate shortly after, and he scrapped it a short time later.
As for me, I bought another Australian Ford, an LTD, which I kept for fourteen years. I needed a big car to carry around a wife, two boisterous young children, and a grandma. It served that purpose very well…..
My brothers and I drove several P6 200TC and 3500.
In 1984 I bought a 1978 Richelieu red Sd1 3500.
I drove this Sd1 for several years and had to listen to some ridicule from my father-in-law because of the numerous rust spots on the body.
Apart from the fact that this car suddenly stopped for some reason
(the garage looked in vain for the fault), the SD1 was a faithful companion on several trips in Europe.
In 1987 I bought a 1984 SD1 Vitesse.
This car drove fantastically and I still love it today.
Unfortunately I sold this beautiful car in 1992 because the catalytic converter was introduced in Germany and the resulting high tax.
Unfortunately the economic situation in Germany is very bad otherwise I would buy another SD1 Vitesse.
There are beautiful Vitesse for sale in Switzerland for around 20,000 euros.
Greetings from old Germany and please keep reporting your good stories
I was there at the time the brothers fought the managers for basic human rights. Expecting the down trodden to work on a Friday and Saturday was cruel and savage. Especially when Aston Villa were playing at home. Despite all this the managers implemented their ideas of brown interiors that were very brown. The managers also expected the workers to do multi tasking. Not surprising the Eddie Booths of Birmingham rose up. Power to the people. Citizen Smith.
A car that should have saved BL but instead it was so badly built that after waiting many months
i refused to take delivery of a very bad sample,
Even the dealer was embarrassed by it, and gave me my deposit back, unknow of in them days.
Built correctly and in V8 form it should have been a great car, but cost cutting was very evident
and all the boots leaked from day one.
It was firmly rejected as a Prime Ministerial car after Jim Callaghan opened the electric window on his first ride in one, marvelling at the luxury, only for the glass to fall into his lap. When he reached Downing Street, he muttered to his police driver that he didn't want to see that car again. The venerable P5B saw him out and Margaret Thatcher upgraded to Jaguar.
I hadd two 3500ss. Great cars, no problems at all. Maybe I just looked after them better? They went like sh** off a shovel! Drove one of them 1,000 miles non-stop(apart from petrol tops ups.)
Thanks for another great video please keep up the great work
I had a 3500s P6 my brother in law had the SD1 3500 mine was a world away from the SD1 on quality shame the new design was brilliant.
Could have been a great car if it wasn’t for the Unions
The unions in this country destroyed the car industry
Anyone buying a British car up to the present is buying a poorly designed, poorly made product. If you want to know how cars should be made, go look at any Toyota.
Well, I had and still have several of them, mainly Vitesse´s. The paint did not adhere because the company installing the paint bath wired it up the wrong way round… and after two or three years the paint started to flake off… what a mess!
I never had a MK1 model myself, so I can only speak for the MK2 model. Designwise the car is an all time winner! Look at it today and it still is as aggressive and modern as 40 years ago. Lots of space and mechanics extremely durable, solid and easy to fix!
Due to my job (owning a car workshop) I can only emphasize that British cars bulit or constructed at that period of time can be easily fixed. Everything is comparatively straight forward, nothing "sophisticated" in the wrong way and the engineers had the mechanic in mind who needs to fix things later on.
And Hello: I am German!!! Not driving german cars at all except for an E60 BMW M5…
I bought s/h a very early Australian delivery 3500 SD1… it had stromberg carbies…. I then got a much later model 3500 SD1 Vanden Plas…it was immaculate looked factory fresh… great cars… especially my Vanden Plas… they both drove beautifully
I loved my V8. The engine let go by cracking across the crankshaft bearing, I think it was caused from an earlier crash. I put a high compression engine from a P6 in it. Wish I still had it
MY four year old 2600 in 1985 owned for six hellish months was without doubt my worst car ever. Head gasket failure, clutch cylinder spraying my feet in brake fluid, free rainwater in the glove box, mushrooms growing in the wet boot area, exhaust pipe rusted out, rear seat area stank of petrol, rusty sills and wheel arches. What a load of rubbish. The only positive was that it had the world's largest choke lever, a giant thing that was cunningly disguised as a handbrake to fool any thief stupid enough to attempt starting it.
I did my apprenticeship with BL in the 70/80's I remember the production process was very fragmented, the unions killed BL. They had no future vision, the unions used to strike for the most pettiest of things. Spent more time playing cards than producing cars.
The workers back in the day had started putting the nails in the coffin. What’s more what also didn’t help matters was the union at the time.
In. 70’s one of my uncles had a 3500 and a 2600 later on was sold to another member in the family. Here, my uncle had purchased a series one 216 and latterly bought a 214
I can still remember at a young age the shock of the terribly cheap looking interior at a BL event at Goodwood to announce the new car. It wasn't just from comparing it with the wonderful P6, it didn't stand comparison with any cheap car, let alone a luxury one. It beggars belief that management could ever assume it would be acceptable and that seeing them in the showroom, anyone would part with their money. Some obviously did and then regretted it. Such a shame – the design of the whole car was fabulous and it went round Goodwood race track very impressively. The development engineers and designers at BL must have become very demoralised to see their wonderful work ruined by crap management, belligerent unions and rubbish production quality.
I bought a beautiful metallic blue 2600SE in 1986 with every penny I had. She turned heads and we had many wonderful memories. It was absolute luxury inside, the centre console was like the flight deck of Concorde, the engine packed a punch, and the car was totally reliable. On the down side, she managed just 19 MPG (on a good day), tyres cost £80 each (about £300 today), services required a mortgage, and she was depreciating faster than a Maserati. It was a sad farewell in ‘88.
Still a fabulous looking car
Loved my SD1, it was a black 3500SE auto……..only issue I remember having was the park gear cable needed wiggling now n then,
Very informative documentary. My dad wouldnt touch Rovers in the late 70s/ 80s due to reliability issues, same with Jaguar of the time. But the Ford Cortinas/ Granadas were not inpiring at all, but Ghia models were smart. the 70s werent a notable time for reliable cars in general, more renowned for rust!!!