On the way home from Sunday morning’s church service, we spotted two unique vehicles at Signature Motors near Grand River, Ohio. They always seem to have something a little different sitting out front facing Lakeshore Blvd. The car that got my attention today was … “Look it’s a Citroen! Wait a minute, that’s not a Citroen, what is it? We’re stopping!” It wasn’t until I read the name above the bumper that I remembered why it looked familiar. Do you know what it is?
It’s two things.
The Rover SD1, or 3500.
And it’s proof that US headlight regulations really did screw up many car designs. 🙂
It’s an early 1980’s Rover 2500 or 3000 or 3500 or whatever the number was (they were all the same, different displacement). Look at the clumsy US-spec bumper and those silly “every-car-must-have-the-same-headlights” recessed lights. No wonder they didn’t sell here in the US.
You got it! It’s a Rover 3500. The headlights thing was a US regulation as I recall. You had to have sealed beam lights as opposed to the Euro spec lighting like we have now. The look isn’t too bad, but I’m amazed at how many vehicles looked similar in the early 80’s. Cover the hood with your hand and you might think it was a Chevy Citation.
Speaking of cars that look like other, we just took in a 1995 Mercedes-Benz SL500. It looks similar to a mid 90’s … are you ready for this? … a mid 90’s Mustang!
Definitely was a US regulation. Silly.
I saw a number of these in quick succession during the summer of 1984 while I was an intern with the state government here. One of my coworkers, a Nigerian immigrant named Isaak, would seek out these cars if they “wouldn’t go into gear”. He would get them for a low price with this “issue” which 90% of the time was caused by too much junk in the soft leather change storage pouch located alongside the transmission shifter. The pouch would protrude into the path of the linkage and block the car from going into gear. I remember that he had three or four of them during that summer. Isaak wasn’t the most honest person that you’d ever meet, but he had some great stories!