The 75 and ZT Owners Club Forums - View Single Post - The Cars that MGRover never made...but should have.

EnEnGee · 1st October 2007, 11:20

Going back a bit further into history, the SD1 estate would have been an interesting piece of machinery. The fact that Michael Edwardes drove round in one of the two runners suggested that the concept was pretty much fixed and could have made production if the will had been there.

Instead, it wasn't produced for various reasons and at that time left the field free to the Volvo 245, Peugeot 505 and Ford Granada which all sold in bucket loads in the UK. In fact the Volvo sold better in this country as an estate than as a saloon and outlasted the 4 door in production by several years.

A huge opportunity lost in hindsight and a gap in the range not properly filled in this class until the 75 Tourer appeared over 20 years later, with only the extremely competent but smaller Montego estate (which rightly or wrongly had inherited a reputation for poor build quality from the saloon) to fill the gap.

I've not counted the 416 Tourer (R8) as this was more an Escort/ Astra estate competitor and a class smaller.

1st October 2007, 11:20	#3
EnEnGee Posted a thing or two CDT Tourer (SORN) & 2.0 V6 Saloon Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Sittingbourne Posts: 1,058 Thanks: 2 Thanked 11 Times in 8 Posts	Going back a bit further into history, the SD1 estate would have been an interesting piece of machinery. The fact that Michael Edwardes drove round in one of the two runners suggested that the concept was pretty much fixed and could have made production if the will had been there. Instead, it wasn't produced for various reasons and at that time left the field free to the Volvo 245, Peugeot 505 and Ford Granada which all sold in bucket loads in the UK. In fact the Volvo sold better in this country as an estate than as a saloon and outlasted the 4 door in production by several years. A huge opportunity lost in hindsight and a gap in the range not properly filled in this class until the 75 Tourer appeared over 20 years later, with only the extremely competent but smaller Montego estate (which rightly or wrongly had inherited a reputation for poor build quality from the saloon) to fill the gap. I've not counted the 416 Tourer (R8) as this was more an Escort/ Astra estate competitor and a class smaller. Last edited by EnEnGee; 1st October 2007 at 11:26..