The Rover 2000 came out if that very fertile period that saw the BMC Mini/1100, the Corvair, the “rope drive” Tempest, and others on both sides of the pond. It was a time to shake off the stodgy ’50s, even though the cars of that era were often flamboyant on the surface. The Rover 2000 was technically very ambitious, essentially a British Citroen DS, but it soon got a rep for less than average reliability, especially so in the US, which sunk both the car and the brand.
The 2000TC version injected (through twin carbs and a few other engine changes) some additional performance, presumably to keep up with cars like the BMW and Alfa sedans. Not that it helped much, sales-wise.
There was a trade-off for the extra oomph: the TC engine was noisier and less refined. But it did knock off some 1.4 seconds in the 1/4 mile, added 8 mph to the trap speed, and made the 0-60 sprint in two full seconds less.
There were no changes to the suspension though, which was a complex thing. For a detailed look at it, follow the link to our CC on the 2000TC at the bottom. The result was a plush ride, remarkably so for steel springs. But that was not at the expense of very good control and stability, and the Rover had very high cornering power for a sedan. There was a certain initial “squishiness”, but as more steering lock was added, the car’s response increased, to the point of hanging its tail out gently without provocation. It can be driven at that attitude for brisk cornering, but it’s not necessary to maintain rapid rates of driving.
The interior had the requisite British wood and leather, but somehow surprisingly, it had an excellent ventilation system, at least for a British car.
The Rover offered an unusual mix of qualities, most of them good to excellent, and it made for an excellent long-distance touring car. Obviously that was not enough to entice a sufficient number of Americans to take the plunge, despite the fact that during this time other cars in its class were becoming increasingly popular. The Rover brand had never been well established here, and the 2000 was not able to overcome that hurdle as Americans were snapping up BMWs, Mercedes, Volvos and Saabs.
Related CC reading:
Storage Field Classic: The Very Advanced (But Mostly Forgotten) Rover 2000TC
“Americans were snapping up BMWs, Mercedes, Volvos and Saabs.”
I looked it up, and the new-for-1969 Volvo 164 sold for $3995, or $500 less than this Rover. I think that if I had been in the market at the time, I would have seen the 164 as a better all-around choice.
I assume that the Volvo 144, with same cylinder count as the Rover, sold for even less.
Yup, around $3,100 for the 144S at this point.
If it had been built like a Volvo, it all could have been so different. Obviously, the P6 remained successful in the home market, especially with the introduction of the 3500, but even there, they never did recover the momentum lost against the Germans, especially once the SD1 proved to have the same problems with build quality and reliability.
The reasons for the odd suspension layout, if anyone is wondering, were twofold. First, Rover originally hoped to offer a gas turbine in the P6, and the suspension was designed to provide plenty of clearance for one. Second, while the P6 is essentially a monocoque design, it consists of a unitized “base unit” structure with unstressed exterior panels, and the base unit doesn’t have built-up strut towers the way cars with struts (or high-mounted coils) do, so it was much easier to put the spring loads into the cowl, which was already set to be very strong to keep the engine from going through the firewall in a frontal impact.
R&T later did an owner survey on the Rover P6. It was far and away the most troublesome car whose owners they’d surveyed up to that point. They also said Rover’s US organization seemed unable to get its house in order with regard to parts and service.
In the 1980s and early 1990s I owned 2 of the V8 versions, known as the 3500S, and as a result of driving a P6 daily, my shop ended up working on numerous 2000TC and 3500S Rovers. Except for carburation problems on my 2 Rovers, which I solved by transplanting Buick 215 4 barrel intake manifolds and carbs, my cars were fairly trouble free.
The customer cars we worked on generally had repair needs similar to other 20+ year old European/UK cars. I guess many of the problems found early on were fixed by the time we were working on the cars. As we were not afraid to work on older British cars besides MG and Triumph, we had a good following of Rover owners in the mid-Atlantic area.
Probably the biggest problem was body rust, especially around the horizontal front coil spring assemblies. Once that became a serious problem, owners usually junked their car. I kept a couple of rusted out P6 cars in my “old car junkyard” out behind the shop, so I had quick access to small parts when needed.
In my 20’s, I was the proud owner of a 1969 Rover 2000 TC. It was about a year old when bought it for less than half the price of a new one. I liked it because of its innovative design and sportiness. The interior was one of the nicest of any car I’ve ever owned. I sold it less than a year later because of its unreliability.
Pricing this with a GTO wasn’t going to work in the USA…
The promised links aren’t appearing for me.
A picture of this Rover is in the dictionary under “frumpy,” so it’s strange the engineering was that advanced.
I’m guessing you’re not familiar with the earlier Rover P4 and P5, which were so conservative that the only reason they didn’t come with a black bowler hat was the reasonable assumption that anyone who’d own an “Auntie Rover” already had one. (The P5 was preferred ministerial transport well into the ’80s, and QE2 had a 3-litre.)
These cars were the British equivalent of a 3-Series BMW, appealing to what we’d now call yuppies, and the 3500 version (which had the revived English version of the Buick aluminum 215 V-8) were just a bit raffish, though not as much as a Jaguar.
The P4 and P5 are definitely staid but aren’t chinless wonders like the P6. That and the high cowl make the center section look more bulbous, and then the rear trails off. A touch of the weirdness of the Citroen DS. It also reminds me of the problems of the dowdy ’94 Deville.
It does bulge in the middle, I’ll grant you. Sort of like an automotive Fairey Gannet.
The link is there now.
I often wonder about the larger percentage of income that had to spent on personal transportation in the past. Inflation adjusted this is about a $36k car, a vehicle that would likely be quite worn by 50,000 miles, and require much more frequent service than modern cars. Depreciation was also much higher back then. I would think that real cost per vehicle mile must be less than half of what is was circa 1970, all things considered, including average mpg. Average price of gas for 1969 was 35 cents, inflation adjusted $2.84 today.
Mind you people had the money to spend because higher education, medicine and housing were so much cheaper before policies were put in place to make them expensive. There were also truly affordable cars that lasted twice as long as English imports and that were maintained by mechanics who charged a quarter what service costs today when adjusted for inflation. Cars last longer today (or at least the cars that are now ten or twenty years old did), but there are reasons that car loans last twice as long as they used to.
I love reading old car magazines. The Rover 2000TC caused about as much embarrassment for Road & Track and Car and Driver as endorsing cars like the Renault Alliance and Chevrolet Citation would later on. They both gave the 2000TC glowing reviews, and both created legions of angry readers.
This was my dream car when I was a high schooler.
Many years later, I remember seeing ads from a Rover specialist in San Antonio,TX.
Does anyone remember that business?
The only one I can remember off the top of my head was Rovers West in – Tucson? For the record, I own a ’69 2000TC. There is a smattering of P6’s here in the PNW (one fellow in Portland still owns the pale yellow/black TC that his father bought new), and a number of them in the Northeast/New England (surprise).
In the mid 60s I went to high school in suburban Toronto. A new principal arrived the year I started grade 9. He drove an MGB-GT in BRG. A very cool car, but a couple of years later he replaced it with a Rover 2000 TC which was also seen as cool, but unusual. The school catchment area included a very well off area, so some of the students drove better cars than the teachers, but it was the only Rover. There were lots of MGs, but all convertibles.
Paul,
Thanks so much for the well researched article.
My dad bought a brand new TC 2000 in 1968 in British racing green. It was between that and a Jag XJ. We called his Rover the poor man’s Jaguar. A good friend of his bought a beautiful XJ. That car and my dad’s TC 2000 would spend half their lives in the shop getting repaired. The shop owners knew my dad so well, they would invite him to holiday functions and give him gifts on his birthday. 🙂
You said it right. The Rover was definitely a highly individual car and I think for highly unique individuals. My dad was that. There was only one other Rover in our city, a cool yellow 2000 TC. The guy that owned that became a personal friend of dad’s. It was rare to see other Rovers, so when you did, you’d see hands waving and headlights lights flashing.
My dad and I would regularly work on his car. We’d change and gap spark plugs, change points and condenser, reconnect lose wires, etc.
More times than I can remember my dad would call up to me early in the morning to help push the car down the driveway to do a compression start. One of the car’s achilles heals was the starter bendix. That and the Lucas electrical system in general was a real weak point. That seemed consistent with other Bristish Leyland cars.
My dad kept that car until 1986 when he decided to change religions and nationalities and bought something a bit more reliable, a Honda Accord with a 5 speed.
I’ve had many cars, some fast and sporty and some expensive, but I must say that ’68 Rover was the most unusual car anyone in my family ever owned.