AHC: Honda used Rover brand for the U.S. market

[Bongani The Mediocre]

Honda still enter partnership with BL/Rover Group and commited to the plan of launching upscale brand in the U.S. market like IOTL. But here, instead of creating Acura brand, Honda decided to make use of their acquired IP and launch their upscale products with Rover brand instead.

So Acura Legend become Rover 800, while Acura Vigor become Rover 600 and go from there.

A lot of POD may have to happened before the launch in 1988 just to make Rover brand retain enough brand equity to convince Honda that launching their upscale car with Rover brand instead of creating a new one is a better option. What those PODs would be?

Would high-performance Honda vehicles stay Honda in the U.S. ITTL too? So no Acura RSX, only Honda Integra and NSX stay Honda for example. Honda USA may have to bring Mugen stateside to sell and service them, similar to Ford's SVT and Tickford programs.

Lastly, Rover brand ITTL should retain enough equitiy and customer loyalty that when the sedan market collapsed and Honda pulled the brand out or outright discontinue it, customers gather at Swindon complex to mourn the brand's passing. With car clubs and Rover fans on both side of Atlantic look back fondly at the time under Honda administration as the last hurrah of Rover's brand, not slow march to the end IOTL.

 

[Gunner's_Quadrant]

They did this to an extent with the Sterling line. Acura was intended to be the up-scale line owned solely by Honda, while Sterling was the result of the collaboration with British Leyland/Rover and had a more sporty focus. Unfortunately, it undone by the extremely lousy build quality of the vehicles.

 

[Oppo]

They did this to an extent with the Sterling line. Acura was intended to be the up-scale line owned solely by Honda, while Sterling was the result of the collaboration with British Leyland/Rover and had a more sporty focus. Unfortunately, it undone by the extremely lousy build quality of the vehicles.

Interestingly enough, as the Acura Legend was named as the most reliable car, the Sterling was named as the least reliable car.

 

[Gunner's_Quadrant]

What is sad is that Honda built a completely new plant with all the latest automation for the marque, so you couldn't blame the poor quality on the lack of adequate facilities and equipment. The average British autoworker just didn't seem to give a damn at that time or maybe it was the work rules.

I was looking at buying a Sterling but was warned off and instead bought a Legend. That was an extremely nice car at the time.

 

[SwampTiger]

You need to rebuild the British auto industry in the 50's and 60's to have any chance. Besides Jaguar and the BL sports cars, British cars were not selling after the early 60's. Poor quality, horrid electronics, inadequate rust proofing (and I live in Louisiana!) and constant oil leaks all made American buyers leery of British cars. The US industry followed the Brits by about a decade in the collapse of quality. Honda was able to bootstrap on the reliability of their motorcycles and the few small cars imported. Slapping the Rover name on their Acura models would have killed sales. The problem was fairly ingrained due to perception by 1980.

I will say, I would have loved a chance to buy a SD1 in the late 70's and early 80's.

 

[Masked Grizzly]

As SwampTiger as mentioned above, it would have entailed a series of early PODs (IMHO as far back as the 40s via significant investment and modernization at Morris prior to merger with Austin) and even that would have potentially butterflied away the need to create British Leyland let alone collaborate with Morris. (Nissan would have probably been a more suitable partner given the history with Austin, etc.)

Also had Honda and Rover still entered and remained in partnership with each other even with the PODs above, Honda would have needed to develop a V8 version of their 90-degree Honda C-Series V6 engine to get anywhere as a proper replacement of sorts to the Rover V8 used in the Rover SD1. It is not like Honda would have been unique in producing V8-engined FWD/4WD cars in the North American market.