Everyone knows that the original Mini production line was stopped due to poor crash safety, but there was a casualty from the British motoring garage that quietly wrapped up prior - due to similar concerns. In many ways, it spelled the end for Rover…
Did you know how the Rover 100 was killed off?
Even though the Austin Metro was selling rather well, the famous British ‘Austin’ marque was shelved. With Austin badges stripped from cars, the Metro continued unloved with no embalms other than ‘Metro’, due to Rovers blatant refusal to allow Rover badges on the Montego or Maestro.
However, with the start of the 1990s, executives relaunched the Metro as a Rover model, heavily revising the bodywork and fitting a new range of engines. The ridiculously out-dated A-Series engine, used since the 1950s, gave way to the K-Series offered in 1.1 and 1.4 litre guises. By 1994 the Metro had been renamed the 100, with a diesel engine now thrown into the mix. A further tidy up of the bodywork hid the age of the design, although sadly what happened next couldn’t…
EuroNCap is a European car safety programme based on performance assessment during set speed collisions, founded in 1997 the Rover 100 was one of the first cars to be tested. The aging design gave an extremely poor result, being the only one of the time to receive a one-star safety rating. Rivals received 2 or 3 stars at a minimum.
In a head on collision at 30mph the Rover 100 cabin was severely damaged in terms of structure and fittings, indicating a high risk of injury to all body regions of the driver. A side-impact test also indicated an incredibly high injury risk.
This was the final nail in the coffin for the 100, sales figures were fast falling behind its competitors, the design and build quality were already in question and refinement and specification was poor compared to the market leaders. The cars merits were now completely overshadowed, people forgot that it still provided cheap and mostly reliable transport for £7k – but with a safety report splashing the tabloid headlines for days after the results were published, sales finally dried up.
Rover withdrew the 100 from manufacture, marking the end of almost 20 years of continuous production.
The gap left by the 100 wasn’t filled until 2003 with the arrival of the CityRover, but that is a story for another time…
The Rover 100 isn’t a bad car, despite media reports. But if you fancy going back to where it all began, we have some Metros in need of a new home…