Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

[Momentum57]

Looking at the thread I am unprepared to take photos and write to the quality of the thread in such a short time. I will do it but my cars too dirty to be in there

 

[Labcoatguy]

How interchangeable are the body panels of a late 80s Rover 216 with its Honda Civic platformmate? Have been thinking about Keeping Up Appearances and how to recreate the Bucket-mobile in the US.

 

[93Flareside]

How interchangeable are the body panels of a late 80s Rover 216 with its Honda Civic platformmate? Have been thinking about Keeping Up Appearances and how to recreate the Bucket-mobile in the US.

Maybe @captain_70s knows?

 

[gaasc]

How interchangeable are the body panels of a late 80s Rover 216 with its Honda Civic platformmate? Have been thinking about Keeping Up Appearances and how to recreate the Bucket-mobile in the US.

Careful though. It begins with you wanting to have a Rover 216, it ends up with you and your SO arrested on a country club with a stolen Bentley in full view of your relatives and acquaintances.

 

[Matt2000]

I don't think they shared much but the mid to late 90s Rover 400 and European Civic did.

 

[rickhamilton620]

How interchangeable are the body panels of a late 80s Rover 216 with its Honda Civic platformmate? Have been thinking about Keeping Up Appearances and how to recreate the Bucket-mobile in the US.

This would be awesome!

 

[Perc]

What about the Rover specific headlights, are they road legal there?

 

[Perc]

The MG5 seems like a competent car. I especially like that it looks like a car inside and out, without gullwing doors or electric door handles.

What I find weird is that they seem to have given it an infotainment screen that’s worse to use than a Windows Mobile PDA phone from 2004. It’s as if good touchscreen hardware and software is hard to come by these days.

 

[CraigB]

What about the Rover specific headlights, are they road legal there?

I'll go out on a limb and say, most likely. Most state inspections don't seem to care what sort of headlight you have, as long as they work. That's if the state even has an inspection.

 

[captain_70s]

How interchangeable are the body panels of a late 80s Rover 216 with its Honda Civic platformmate? Have been thinking about Keeping Up Appearances and how to recreate the Bucket-mobile in the US.

I can't see there being huge differences, the Rover certainly uses unique front wings (bolt on IIRC), front panel, headlights and possibly bonnet but everything aft of that looks pretty much the same as a Civic Saloon.

Issue being is finding bits, that generation of Rover (SD3) is pretty much extinct in the UK because they rust like crazy...

 

[Andeh]

How interchangeable are the body panels of a late 80s Rover 216 with its Honda Civic platformmate? Have been thinking about Keeping Up Appearances and how to recreate the Bucket-mobile in the US.

By the time you've faffed about importing wings and trim, you may as well have just imported the whole thing. They're uncommon, but still old giffers cars, so they do come up in good condition. Quick FB search provided this:

 

[Matt2000]

Wow, look at the space in that engine bay. Brown and cream combo with the chrome peashooter exhaust is excellent, I almost want it.

Finger over the camera lens is the cherry on top.

 

[NooDle]

Why why why would you do that?
I know rare and all, but changing a perfectly fine Honda to a ROVER?

 

[Perc]

Why why why would you do that?
I know rare and all, but changing a perfectly fine Honda to a ROVER?

For the same reason some people put Bora front ends on Golfs and vice versa? Because they can.

 

[captain_70s]

Why why why would you do that?
I know rare and all, but changing a perfectly fine Honda to a ROVER?

BL released a handbook to inform dealers how to downplay the Honda involvement in the Triumph Acclaim while not outright lying about it. At the time there were plenty of people who wouldn't entertain a foreign car, especially one from Japan/Germany/Italy because of The War.

 

[NooDle]

You Brits are proper weird. A domestic car, despite being worse in pretty much every way than its donor car from Japanland, gets sold more because Rule Brittannia, God save the queen, etc. Does not compute

 

[Andeh]

You Brits are proper weird. A domestic car, despite being worse in pretty much every way than its donor car from Japanland, gets sold more because Rule Brittannia, God save the queen, etc. Does not compute

Old people.

 

[Labcoatguy]

You Brits are proper weird. A domestic car, despite being worse in pretty much every way than its donor car from Japanland, gets sold more because Rule Brittannia, God save the queen, etc. Does not compute

This is around the same time that a Chinese guy got killed in Detroit because angry US auto workers thought he was Japanese, so it's hardly unique to the UK. As for why the Rover swap? https://keepingupappearances.fandom.com/wiki/Richard's_Car Unfortunately the contemporary Civics are just as hard to find nowadays.

 

[gaasc]

Why not just save yourself a headache, get a completely new and larger headache and import a Metro?

 

[Perc]

You Brits are proper weird. A domestic car, despite being worse in pretty much every way than its donor car from Japanland, gets sold more because Rule Brittannia, God save the queen, etc. Does not compute

You lot (and we lot) kept buying beetles into the 1970's even though there were far better options available.

edit: The one thing that absolutely does my head in about the Metro and any of its siblings is the oval shaped windscreen. Is it even glued in like on other cars from its era or is it just a rubber gasket?