It was admittedly very much a case of Honda being the dominant partner -
mechanically the Acura and Sterling were very close. But teams of
engineers from both companies worked closely together, developing
components to suit their individual needs, and the bodies and trim were
quite different.
In the UK, the Rover factory at Cowley churned out both Rover 800/
Sterlings and Honda Legends (not sold as Acura outside the USA) whilts
Honda reciprocated in Japan, building Rover 800s for local and
Australian consumption. It is notable however that Rover and Honda did
not build cars for each other to sell in the 'States.
----------
From: J. Adrian Barnes
To: David Knowles
Cc: MGs List
Subject: Re: Midget based on Honda Civic? Not actually true....
Date: 16 October 1997 16:08
I don't know...I had more than one Honda mechanic tell me that the
sterling
and legend were at least close enough to the same to be worked on by
Honda
or Acura people. Also the import place here in town that sold them when
they were new said the same thing, and that they used a lot of the same
parts. The Acura dealer seemed offended when I asked them though, and
wouldn't answer questions.
I'll try to dig up the rover ad that looked just like a rebadged integra
and
scan it.
adrian
David Knowles wrote:
> As far as the Acura Legend/ Sterling was concerned, these cars were
> jointly developed, and it is not strictly correct to say that the
latter
> was just another version of the former. If you saw a Green Integra
with
> a Rover badge, I am surprised; there was an Australian market version
of
> the five-door Honda Quint sold as the Rover Quintet.
>
> Nowadays, MG and Rover are part of the BMW family; Honda ties are
> slipping away, although relationships at engineering level at least
are
> still quite friendly.
--
______________________________________
J. Adrian Barnes
adrian@utk.edu
adrian@icx.net
http://user.icx.net/~adrian/
http://user.icx.net/~adrian/midget/
______________________________________
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