Is the Rover 200 / 25 the Mk4 Allegro? Discuss

[idiotboy]

Was out in the foxy potato last night and parked up in the supermarket next to a late 90's Rover 200. I was startled at how similar the two cars are. So could it be that the R3 Rover 200 / 25 is actually the Allegro Mk4?

 

Look at the evidence. Rover had been quite happily copying Honda designs with the Triumph acclaim, Rover 213, and r2 200 series. Suddenly Honda pulls out and Rover need a new motor. It must be then that they looked at the Allegro and thought lets build the Allegro as it should have been. Thus the Allegro Mk4, sorry rover R3 200 was born.

 

Look at it its uncanny. If you painted a 200 Russet brown it would look frightingly similar.

 

 

[Richard]

No discussion to be had, it is. Personally I don't think the Allegro was a bad car but plenty people do. The R8 was perhaps Rover/BL's first successful car since the 1960s, whoever decided it was appropriate to replace it with an Allegro lookalike must have had a vested interest in Rover's demise.

[scruff]

Agreed.

Our 200 was great! TD powah.

[vulgalour]

It's not until you point it out that it's obvious in the styling, how surprising.

[Mr Lobster]

Never noticed it but now you mention it I suppose they do look a bit similar.

[mouseflakes]

No, but the Peugeot 306 was the new Renault 14...

 

 

17 years between these designs...

 

[idiotboy]

Never noticed it but now you mention it I suppose they do look a bit similar.

 

It's spoooooky.

 

The narrow headlights, Cropped off tail, wide C pillar, bulbous styling. Totally different to the Honda derived 200 that went before yet oh so very similar to the Allegro.

 

Now if there are any photoshop wizards out there can they show us what a 200 would look like in Russet or Sandglow with a vinyl roof.

[vulgalour]

Better yet, the boyfriend is buying a 200 (oh the fun I shall have at his expense!) so I have a funny feeling he's going to be keeping me away from paint and vinyl when he and the car are here.

[mouseflakes]

Now if there are any photoshop wizards out there can they show us what a 200 would look like in Russet or Sandglow with a vinyl roof.

 

Crikey!

 

[Jozza]

Now if there are any photoshop wizards out there can they show us what a 200 would look like in Russet or Sandglow with a vinyl roof.

 

 

Hmmm.......I'm tempted to try a Vanden Plas version now.

[Simon M]

No, but the Peugeot 306 was the new Renault 14...

 

Dammit, I was thinking exactly this when I saw the back end of a 306 sticking out in the middle of the road a couple of weeks ago!

 

I've always thought the design of the Allegro was well ahead of its time - if Rover had made it in the 90s, when bulbous cars were in vogue, no-one would've batted an eyelid.

[Jack_Harpers_Teeth]

Even the R200 and the Allegro have their fuel flaps in the same place.....we could be onto something here

 

Surely though the 200 ancestor is the Dolomite. As it goes, Dolomite > Acclaim > Rover 200?

[Jozza]

Surely though the 200 ancestor is the Dolomite. As it goes, Dolomite > Acclaim > Rover 200?

 

I've always thought that instead of badging all their cars as Rovers (with the inevitable combination of overpricing [R8] and brand cheapening [Metro/R100]) the Rover Group should have badged all its cars between the Metro/Mini and the 800 as Triumphs. As well as capitalising on the good work done by the Acclaim in proving that they could make decently reliable cars, it just makes more sense. Triumph had a history of making smaller, cheaper saloons that Rover really didn't. The 200/400 aren't without sporting ability, as the MG Z-Cars proved) so you could offer a complete range of cars from bog-standard shopping trolley to more sporty (Vitesse?) stuff.

[Jack_Harpers_Teeth]

I agree with that. The Rover 620Ti would have been an ideal candidate to have brought the name back (on a limited model basis).

[idiotboy]

Now if there are any photoshop wizards out there can they show us what a 200 would look like in Russet or Sandglow with a vinyl roof.

 

 

Hmmm.......I'm tempted to try a Vanden Plas version now.

 

Christ that's sexy, just needs silver wing mirrors.

[Split_Pin]

Jeez I never thought about this till now but right enough!

 

That last photoshop, if someone just made the wheels a bit smaller it would bear an uncanny resemblance.

[Mash]

Even the R200 and the Allegro have their fuel flaps in the same place.....we could be onto something here

 

Surely though the 200 ancestor is the Dolomite. As it goes, Dolomite > Acclaim > Rover 200?

 

I always thought it was more:

 

Dolomite > Acclaim > Rover 213/216 > Rover 414/416 > Rover 400/45

 

The "Bubble shape" 200 (now I sound like a downmarket car dealer ) is a more Austin-ish than Triumph-ish car and I'd say the evolution went:

 

Allegro > Maestro > Rover 200/25

 

So in answer to the OP question - a firm YES from me!

 

That period around 1981/82 is a strange one in BL history because the new models on the cards were late and save for the Metro, they were still saddled with warmed over 60s and early 70s cars - Maxi, Dolomite, Allegro, Ital. The Ambassador was yet another facelift to keep an ageing model afloat. It really is a wonder they sold any cars at all in this period. I think it was a mistake to badge the Acclaim as a Triumph, not because it's a bad car but more that the one-model, one engine approach didn't really fit the image and it wasn't a worthy successor to the Dolomite range but of course that's all they had at the time. It just wasn't stylish or dynamic enough. The Rover 213 on the other hand is a much more Triumph-esque range as someone else said, so maybe they could have carried on with Rover just for the larger luxury cars. Perhaps then the marque wouldn't have had such a fuddy duddy image by the 90s if we'd still had Triumph.

 

On the other hand there's still the age-old BL problem of too many marque names to muddy the waters - far better to have one make with different trims levels as Vauxhall or Ford or any other maker you car to name. I think the biggest mistake was throwing all that chrome and wood at the cars in the later stages - younger buyers don't generally want that!

[MikeKnight]

Better yet, the boyfriend is buying a 200 (oh the fun I shall have at his expense!) so I have a funny feeling he's going to be keeping me away from paint and vinyl when he and the car are here.

 

Damn right I am.

[idiotboy]

Better yet, the boyfriend is buying a 200 (oh the fun I shall have at his expense!) so I have a funny feeling he's going to be keeping me away from paint and vinyl when he and the car are here.

 

You must let its true Allegroness out...it is its...destiny.

[barrett]

Damn right I am.

 

Quick thread derailment, but now you're 'here' can we see some more of that gorgeous GT6 please?

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Sorry, I don't se a scrap of likeness between the Allegro and the Rover 200. The Maelstrom had more of the Allegros 'dumpy flying saucer' overtones. The 200 looks totally different.

 

Triumph was a dead brand by 1981 because BL had run it into the ground making cars that were either deadly dull and old or profoundly unreliable and old. The Acclaim was a worthy replacement because it both sold to the Old Fart market, and was supremely reliable. They did the right thing by reducing it to Austin, Rover and MG. Reducing it further to just Rover and MG was better still. If only they (and BMW) had stuck to their idea of offering something nicer than the Astra/Escort but for the same price so as to achieve real volume - a winning idea - they would possibly still be around now. Look how well the 200/400 sold in the early nineties. Trying to move Rover upmarket is what bolloxed the whole thing.

[Guest]

ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=261056292442&clk_rvr_id=366329286273#ht_542wt_1189

[Timewaster]

I often thought the 206 looked a bit Allegroid from some angles:

 

Also, isnt the Mk1 Leon very alfasudish?

 

I pointed both these out to a mate at work (who has a leon) and he said I had obviously chosed a time period and had decided to stay in it.

He may have a point.

[Lacquer Peel]

You are the same people who see the face of Jesus in pancakes.

[Micrashed]

So.... Next autoshite project.

 

Who is going to spray one up, chrome the wipers and door handles and vinyl the roof on a 25/200?

...Oh, and rip out the Kettle series and plumb in a rattly A series with twin SU's?

[MikeKnight]

Damn right I am.

 

Quick thread derailment, but now you're 'here' can we see some more of that gorgeous GT6 please?

 

Soon.

 

I'm giving it a wash tomorrow and taking lots of pics. Then some of the shitey Rover 200 (which I like better than my MG TF160, I was horrified at that revelation).

 

Then a proper intro thread.

[vulgalour]

So.... Next autoshite project.

 

Who is going to spray one up, chrome the wipers and door handles and vinyl the roof on a 25/200?

...Oh, and rip out the Kettle series and plumb in a rattly A series with twin SU's?

 

This is precisely the sort of challenge which makes it a good thing I have no money, because you know I would.

[Pillock]

Even the R200 and the Allegro have their fuel flaps in the same place.....we could be onto something here

 

 

Apart from being on the opposite side of the car

 

Not sure on the R200/Aggro myself - the grille helps but not much else. 306/R14 though - wow.

[Mash]

Also, isnt the Mk1 Leon very alfasudish?

 

Definitely with you on that one, I thought that from the moment I saw a Leon for the first time. Even the rear lights are a similar shape. It's uncanny.

[HBR]

I dont see it really, no more resemblance than there is btween a mk2 Escort & a Focus or a Shuvvit & a mk4 Ashtray.

Honda may have pulled out but there was a lot of Honda DNA in the 200/25 & the 400/45, I fitted a towbar to a mate's 200 & it had all the instructions for how to fit it to a Civic too so there must have been a shared floorpan. With the 600 it was very much a reskinned Accord.