Rover 800: the Honda-era bridge from the SD1 to the 75, and the Sterling that sank in America (1986–1999)

The Rover 800 is the car that kept Rover in the executive market after the SD1, and the first fruit of the Honda partnership that kept the company alive through the 1980s. It was developed with Honda as Project XX, built at Cowley from July 1986, sold in America as the Sterling, reskinned in 1991 as the R17, and built until the Rover 75 replaced it in 1999: 317,126 cars across thirteen years, in saloon, fastback and coupé forms, with four-cylinder Rover engines and Honda V6s, in trims from the fleet 820 to the leather-and-walnut Sterling and the 200 bhp Vitesse Sport.

It was never loved the way the SD1 was, and for twenty years it was a cheap used car, which is why so few are left; but the survivors are now old enough to be shown rather than driven to work, and the coupé, the Vitesse and the early 827 Sterling have a following among the Rover clubs. This page covers both generations, the engines, the American episode, what to check and what the survivors are worth.

Project XX: the Honda deal and the SD1 successor

Austin Rover could not afford to replace the SD1 alone, and in 1981 it agreed with Honda to develop a large car together: the 800 for Rover, the Legend for Honda, sharing a floorpan, a transverse front-wheel-drive layout and a Honda V6, with each company designing its own body and interior. Roy Axe’s Austin Rover studio drew a crisp, slim-pillared saloon with flush glass, and the 800 was launched on 10 July 1986 at a moment when the company badly needed it. It was built at Cowley, where the Rover 75 would later follow it, and for two years the Cowley line also assembled Honda Legends for the European market beside it.

The first cars were four-door saloons only, the 820 with Rover’s new M16 sixteen-valve two-litre and the 825 with Honda’s 2.5-litre V6, in trims from the plain i and e to the Si, the SLi and the Sterling at the top, named for the American market the car was about to enter.

M16, M8 and the Honda V6

The M16 was Rover’s own, a twin-cam sixteen-valve two-litre with 140 bhp in multi-point-injected 820i form and 120 bhp in the single-point 820e, and it was a good engine that gave the 800 a pace the four-cylinder SD1 never had. A carburetted eight-valve M8 with 100 bhp joined in 1988 for the fleet 820, and a 2.5-litre VM turbodiesel arrived in 1990 for the high-mileage trade. Above them sat the Honda V6: the 2.5-litre 173 bhp unit of the 825 at launch, enlarged to 2.7 litres and 177 bhp in February 1988, when the 825 became the 827. The V6 was smooth, quick and, with Honda’s automatic gearbox, nearly indestructible, and it is the engine the market trusts most.

Fastback, Vitesse and the American Sterling

In 1988 the 800 gained the body the SD1’s buyers had been waiting for: the five-door fastback, with the hatchback tail and the long roofline that gave the car back the SD1’s silhouette, and it took half of British sales from then on. With it came the Vitesse, the 827 fastback with the V6, a manual gearbox, sports suspension and a body kit, which became the motorway police’s car and the fast Rover of the late 1980s.

America was the other half of the plan. The 800 went on sale there in 1987 as the Sterling 825, a new marque for a new market, with the V6 only and a Rover-designed cabin of leather and wood that the American press admired. The first year sold well, and then the early cars’ electrical and build faults caught up with it; the reviews turned, the sales collapsed, and Rover withdrew from the United States in 1991, before the coupé that had been designed with America in mind was launched. It was the last time a Rover was sold there.

R17: the 1991 reskin

On 12 November 1991 the 800 was relaunched as the R17, and it was a different-looking car on the same bones: a longer body with a chrome grille that announced the return of the traditional Rover face, new doors, wings and lights, a new dashboard, and under the bonnet Rover’s T16 two-litre in place of the M16, with 136 bhp naturally aspirated and 180 bhp with a turbocharger in the new 820 Turbo and Vitesse. The V6 continued in the 827, the diesel in the 825 D, and the saloon and fastback carried on as before. The R17 restored the 800’s fortunes at home, and it is the car most people picture when they hear the name.

Coupé, Vitesse Sport and the KV6

Early in 1992 came the coupé, a two-door 800 hand-finished at Cowley with the 2.7 V6 and Sterling trim, the most expensive Rover of its day and the most handsome car the company built in the decade. It later took the 820 Turbo and the four-cylinder engines, and it ran to the end of production. The Vitesse Sport of 1994 to 1996 put 200 bhp through the T16 turbo with stiffer suspension, bigger brakes and its own wheels, and was the fastest 800 built. In 1996 Rover’s own 2.5-litre KV6 replaced the Honda V6, giving the 825 badge a second life in the Sterling saloon, fastback and coupé.

Production ended in 1998, with the last cars registered in 1999, and the Rover 75 took over the Cowley line. The 800 had done the job it was built for: it kept Rover in the executive class for thirteen years while the company changed hands twice.

What it is like to drive and own

An 800 drives like a big front-wheel-drive Honda with a Rover cabin, which is to say quiet, comfortable, quick in V6 or turbo form and undramatic in the rest. The XX has the lighter, more delicate feel and the thinner pillars; the R17 is heavier, more refined and more Rover-like inside. A 827 with the automatic is a relaxed long-distance car, a Vitesse Sport is quick enough to surprise, and a coupé is simply a pleasant place to be. None of them handles like the rear-wheel-drive SD1, and nobody buys one expecting it to.

Ownership is cheap mechanically and awkward otherwise. The Honda V6 and its automatic gearbox are durable and well understood; the T16 is a known quantity with its head gasket and oil leaks; the KV6 needs its timing belts and thermostat attended to; service parts are easy. Body panels, trim and the electronic dashboard parts are not, and the clubs and the breakers are the source. Fuel economy is around 30 mpg for a four-cylinder, the mid-twenties for a V6 and the low forties for a diesel. Every 800 pays tax by engine size; the 1986 cars enter the historic vehicle class in April 2027, the rest follow a year at a time. Almost none of them clears the London ULEZ.

Buying guide: what to look for

Rust first on an XX: the sills, the rear arches, the front wings, the boot floor and the bottoms of the doors, and the front subframe and suspension mountings underneath; early build quality was poor and the cars that survived were garaged. An R17 is better protected but rusts in the same places when neglected, and the coupé’s long doors and rear arches want a close look. Then the engine by type: on a T16 check for head-gasket signs and oil leaks, on a KV6 for timing-belt history and an overheating record, on a V6 for service history and a smooth automatic, and on a diesel expect high mileage and a hard life.

Then the cabin and the electrics, because these decide the price. The electronic instrument packs, the central locking, the electric seats and windows and the air conditioning all fail, and the parts are not made; leather and walnut in good order on a Sterling or a coupé are worth more than a rebuilt engine. A complete, straight, unmodified car with a history file beats anything else, and a low mileage is worth more on an 800 than on most classics because so few have one.

Current value and where it sits

Fifty-three recorded auction sales make a record both small and low, taken this site, at a median of about £1,850, with the middle half between £1,050 and £3,450 and the best result £10,400 for a 1990 827. By version the 827s sit around £3,000 at the median and the Sterlings around £2,900, the 820s around £1,300, and the spread within each is mostly condition. At the time of writing a running 800 sells for £1,000 to £2,500, a good 827, Sterling or Vitesse for £3,000 to £6,000, and the best coupés and Vitesse Sports for £6,000 to £12,000, mostly through the clubs and the classifieds rather than the auctions. Among the Rovers the 800 sits above the 75 at the bottom of the range and far below the SD1 Vitesse, whose best examples now make thirty times an ordinary 800. For the marque as a whole, see the Rover guide.