The 75 and ZT Owners Club Forums - View Single Post

rob dean · 28th August 2018, 19:37

My feeling is that at the end of the day the products were not what people wanted to buy. When the bubble 200 and second gen 400 were launched, Rover tried to change a premium for a bit of chrome and often fake wood when there was not enough substance to the basic designs for then to be considered 'premium'. Then there was the issue of market positioning - pitching an Escort sized car like the 400 against the likes of the Mondeo as Rover did when it was first launched was never going to work. By the time the 25 and 45 came along, they were repositioned where they belonged, but by then they were very old cars and it was too late. Meanwhile, the 75, whilst a wonderful car, never properly fitted into any one established market segment - bigger than a 3 Series but smaller than a 5 Series didn't really help either. Then there was the question of image - Rover fell in love with 'retro', which was totally at odds with what a lot of the buying public were interested in - how many times have we heard the 75 referred to as an 'old man's car'? Even the poor old 25 didn't escape the twin headlamp and chrome grille treatment, all rather niche and somewhat reminiscent of those funny Japanese Mitsouka cars that were Nissan Micras with a traditional Jag front end grafted on. Meanwhile, the big players like Ford, VW, etc were providing what people wanted in terms of modernity, image and models that fitted into established positioning norms in the market.
That's my two penn'oth on the subject...

28th August 2018, 19:37	#22
rob dean Regular poster xx Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 88 Thanks: 11 Thanked 19 Times in 10 Posts	My feeling is that at the end of the day the products were not what people wanted to buy. When the bubble 200 and second gen 400 were launched, Rover tried to change a premium for a bit of chrome and often fake wood when there was not enough substance to the basic designs for then to be considered 'premium'. Then there was the issue of market positioning - pitching an Escort sized car like the 400 against the likes of the Mondeo as Rover did when it was first launched was never going to work. By the time the 25 and 45 came along, they were repositioned where they belonged, but by then they were very old cars and it was too late. Meanwhile, the 75, whilst a wonderful car, never properly fitted into any one established market segment - bigger than a 3 Series but smaller than a 5 Series didn't really help either. Then there was the question of image - Rover fell in love with 'retro', which was totally at odds with what a lot of the buying public were interested in - how many times have we heard the 75 referred to as an 'old man's car'? Even the poor old 25 didn't escape the twin headlamp and chrome grille treatment, all rather niche and somewhat reminiscent of those funny Japanese Mitsouka cars that were Nissan Micras with a traditional Jag front end grafted on. Meanwhile, the big players like Ford, VW, etc were providing what people wanted in terms of modernity, image and models that fitted into established positioning norms in the market. That's my two penn'oth on the subject... __________________ [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]