15 of the best classic Rovers

Rover bowed out as a marque with the exceptionally handsome and capable 75 saloon, the last example of which rolled off the production line in 2005.

Before that, though, the British marque had given us a string of highly distinctive, prestigious and exciting vehicles over its long history. Highlights include two European Car of the Year winners and two absolute off-road legends.

Here are our favourite Rovers of all time. These are all important cars from a hugely significant British brand – and all now deserve the protection of classic car insurance.

Rover 12 (P1 & P2) (1934-1948)

The Solihull-based Rover Company introduced a new range of cars at the end of August 1933, and the 12 was one of the most notable models. This smart new saloon featured a brand new 1496 cc, four-cylinder engine that could produce 53bhp– a fairly potent unit for its time.

Early cars featured a 112-inch wheelbase – however, that was quickly increased to 115 inches, to allow more legroom for rear passengers. Don't let anyone tell you 1930s motoring couldn't be a comfortable experience.

Prices? You were looking at £278 for the standard saloon, or £298 for the Sports Saloon with a small external boot.

By 1937, the P1 evolved into the P2, which featured a stiffened chassis, while Girling rod brakes replaced the original hydraulic system. Some 24,000 of the P1 and P2 were made across the cars' 15-year lifespan.

Rover 60 & 75 (P3) (1948-1949)

After the Second World War, Rover cars went upmarket – in terms of both their fit and finish, and their engine capacities. The pair of cars known internally as the P3 were proper executive models, featuring a number of up-to-the-minute technical advances including independent front suspension. The cars also featured a noted improvement in ride comfort over their P1 / P2 predecessors.

Engine-wise, the 60 got a 1.6-litre, four-cylinder unit, and the 75 a 2.1-litre straight-six. The cars had a short life, in fact, lasting from spring 1948 until the summer of the following year. However, the 60 lived on in one key form. Its engine found its way into Rover's next production car, a certain agricultural vehicle known as the…

Land Rover series (1948-1985)

Yes, the next car to come from the Rover company almost immediately after the 60 / 75 duo was something much more recognisable to modern eyes.

The iconic Land Rover was inspired by the Willys MB Jeep that had so recently been one of the most familiar sights of World War II. The brilliant Land Rover, however, cut its own swathe through automotive history. For one thing, it was the very first civilian four-wheel-drive car to feature proper, full-height doors, as well as (if specified) a hard roof.

One factor that seemed, initially, to hamper the Landie turned out very much in its favour. A shortage of steel in the years immediately after the war meant that the car had to be built from aluminium alloy instead. This, however, proved to be something of an ace card, as it meant that Land Rovers were far less prone to rust than many of their contemporaries.

Indeed, as late as 1992, Land Rover was able to claim that 70% of all the vehicles it had built since that 1948 debut were still in use. And, if you own one of these redoubtable vehicles, you will know that rust is not something to fear. Of course, other things need looking after over time, and some specialist classic car insurance for your rover or vintage vehicle is a must for the long-term care of your Landie.

Rover P4 (1949-1964)

You can detect a definite evolution of style from the P3 cars of 1948-49 to their P4 successors, even though the latter emerged just a few months after the P3 was retired.

Making its debut at the Earls Court Motor Show in September 1949, the P4 was a real step forward. The car was designed by Gordon Bashford, who also played a major role in some other icons from the brand including the Land Rover and, much later, the P6 and SD1 executive cars.

Buyers would have referred to their P4 by its various market names, which included the 60, 75, 90 and 100. In fact, the terminology over the car's 10-year lifespan can get quite confusing: suffice to say that performance ranged from the two-litre, four-cylinder 60, all the way up to the 2.6-litre, straight-six 100.

Stately in looks yet athletic in performance, the P4 found plenty of illustrious buyers, including actress Grace Kelly and King Hussein of Jordan.

There was a replacement in 1958 – the P5, as you may have guessed. However, the handsome and popular P4 soldiered on right up until the launch of the P6, or 2000, in 1964.

Rover P5 (1958-1973)

Bigger and more luxurious than its P4 predecessor, the P5 probably represented the peak of Rover's prestige. This large, comfortable and (especially in 3.5-litre guise) potent saloon became the official car for a string of UK Prime Ministers including Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, James Callaghan and, for the first few years of her tenure, Margaret Thatcher.

Yes, if you were in charge of the country during the late 1960s and 1970s, it would be a Rover P5 ferrying you from factory opening to diplomatic drinks party.

Indeed, the cars were deemed so suitable for prime ministerial use that the last batch of P5s were purchased by the British government in 1973 and put into storage, so that they could be deployed whenever required. The Queen also favoured the big Rover, owning a small fleet of cars for her own personal motoring.

Always a good-looking car, the P5 even got a rakish coupe variant later on in its lifetime.

All that prestige has made the P5 a hugely sought-after vintage Rover in modern times. Any survivors will be beautifully maintained – and given long-term protection through some specialist classic car insurance.

Rover P6 (1963-1977)

The wedge-shaped P6 is notable on all sorts of levels. For one thing, it was the last car launched by Rover as an independent marque, before the company was subsumed into the British Leyland empire in 1967. That gives it a certain 'last true Rover' cachet.

Then there is its impressive status as winner of the first ever European Car of the Year award, back in 1964. We talk a little more about that feat, and about some of our other favourite winners of this annual award, in this feature.

Last but not least, we think, are those strikingly purposeful, aggressive looks. Its predecessor, the P5, was a handsome enough beast in a very late 1950s / early 1960s kind of way, but the P6 looked like something from the future when it arrived in 1963. The P6, of course, was Rover's own internal designation for the car – it was more commonly known to owners as the 2000, 2200 or 3500, according to engine size. The 3500, with its lusty V8 engine, was the one to go for if you wanted the performance to match the looks.

A P6 of any engine displacement is now a revered classic – and a prime candidate for classic car insurance.

Range Rover Classic (1969-1996)

By the time the Range Rover made its astonishing entrance in 1969, Rover was a fully paid-up member of the British Leyland empire. The car's roots, however, clearly date back to the pre-1967 Rover Company era. Indeed, Rover had decided early on that it wanted to produce a larger and more luxurious version of the utilitarian Land Rover.

Two exploratory prototypes, the Road Rover Series I and II, were produced in the mid-1950s, and can be seen today at the excellent British Motor Museum. Should you need more reasons to visit that excellent museum, by the way, we have laid out some for you here.

Big, commanding, comfortable, and able to negotiate a ploughed field without a murmur, the Range Rover was an instant icon. Indeed, soon after its launch Paris' world-famous Musée du Louvre exhibited a Rangie as an "exemplary work of industrial design".

These days, of course, we think of the Range Rover as the ultimate big luxury vehicle, but early cars featured somewhat basic interiors: the vinyl seats and plastic dashboards could be hose-washed after a particularly challenging day's off roading. Some of the features we now associate with the car – carpets, air conditioning, cloth or leather seats, power steering – were later additions.

That rugged, unfussy ethos is part of the reason that the 'Classic' Range Rover has won a huge cult following today. It is, indeed, an absolute classic, and deserving of some specialist classic car insurance.

Rover SD1 (1976-1986)

Impressively, the Rover SD1 was the marque's second big executive to scoop a European Car of the Year title. The Ferrari Daytona-inspired exec express took the award in 1977, 13 years after its predecessor, the P6.

The SD1 went on to sell in big numbers, in the UK. Indeed, anyone who spent some time on Britain's roads in the 1980s will have been familiar with the sight of the big, swoopy Rover. That performance, indeed, made the car a favourite for UK police forces – indeed, it became one of the most recognisable police cars down the years.

Options started with the four-cylinder 2000 car, going up through the 2300, 2600 and diesel 2400 right up to the V8 3500. You may also remember the top-of-the-range Vitesse – which was the 3500 V8 in a higher state of tune. There was no outrunning one of these on the motorway…

Older Rover SD1s will now qualify for road tax exemption, being more than 40 years old. We explain the rules around road tax exemption in this article. Be sure to factor in some classic car insurance among your outgoings, though.

Rover 200 (1984-1999)

The 200 went through a few different guises during its 15-year lifespan – and indeed, it lived on into the 21st century as the Rover 25.

The car's first generation of 1984 to 1989, was a direct replacement for BL's Triumph Acclaim – and, like that car, shared much of its DNA with a Honda, in this case the second generation of the Ballade. Handsome in a boxy kind of way, the 200 looked a little like an Austin Montego, though it was oddly both slightly smaller and more upmarket than the latter.

The second generation of 1999 onwards, meanwhile, was a hatchback, and more of a replacement for the outgoing Austin Maestro. Finally, from 1995 through to 1999, the 200 downsized, as a replacement for the long-serving Metro. This car was born into different times from its predecessors: although Rover and Honda did work together on some of the designs, by the time the third-generation 200 hit showrooms the two companies had parted ways, and Rover was now under the control of BMW.

Rover 800 (1986-1999)

Of the four big flagship saloons that Rover produced across its final decades, the 800 is perhaps, by a shade, the least remarkable. After all, the P6 was extremely handsome and a genuine break with the past; the SD1 was futuristic-looking, and hugely popular; and the 75 was a glorious swansong. None of this should detract, though, from the 800's many talents.

In coupé (or 'fastback') guise, for example, it retained much of the low-slung cool of its SD1 predecessor. Whether you opted for a fastback or a saloon, however, you'd get yourself a large, good-looking executive car. A saloon, what's more, that was made in Britain – at the Cowley plant near Oxford, which was also building Austin's Maestro and Montego duo at the time.

The 800 also continued British Leyland's platform-sharing partnership with Honda, which had famously begun in 1981 with the Triumph Acclaim / Honda Ballade duo.

Like its SD1 predecessor, the 800-saw service in various British police forces. Notable owners, meanwhile, included Tony Blair and Alan Partridge.

Rover Metro (1990-94)

British Leyland's popular supermini started life, in 1980, as the Austin Metro. And what an iconic car that became – simply one of the most recognisable small cars of its era. And that, in an age that also included such talented superminis as the Ford Fiesta, Fiat Uno, VW Polo and Peugeot 205, was an impressive achievement indeed.

Soon enough, some of the higher-performance variants got labelled as MG Metros, evoking that marque's sporting heritage. Then, at the end of 1987, British Leyland decided to drop the Austin brand, and for a couple of years the Metro was known as just that: a model name, with no marque in front of it.

Finally, from 1990, the car got a redesign, and was now known as the Rover Metro. It looked generally like its Austin predecessor: a few obvious visual changes included new plastic front and rear bumpers plus new front wings, headlamps and bonnet.

Interestingly, a much more adventurous replacement for the Metro (dubbed the 'AR6') had been planned. It never saw the light of the day, with BL opting for this gentler evolution instead. However, you can read more about the AR6 on the excellent AROnline website.

Rover 400 (1990-1999)

Rover was still in full Honda collaboration mode when the time came to produce a small new family saloon for the 1990s.

In fact, the first-generation 400, which hit UK showrooms in April 1990, was effectively a saloon version of the Mk2 200 hatchback, which had appeared six months previously. Both shared much of their DNA with the Honda Concerto, and both were built at Rover's vast Longbridge plant in Birmingham.

The 400, indeed, shared the same core structure and mechanical underpinnings as the Honda, but had its own distinctive rear end design.

The Rover 400 seemed to straddle two classes of car. In terms of size, it clearly belonged to the 'small family car' class being dominated, at the time, by the likes of the Ford Escort, Vauxhall Astra, and VW Golf. However, Rover – who still retained some of the prestige of earlier models such as the P5 and SD1 – priced the car in the same range as larger cars such as the Vauxhall Cavalier and Ford Mondeo.

Rover 200 Coupé (1992-1998)

We've given this a separate mention to the rest of the 200 family, as it seemed to have an altogether different aura about it: different looks, different target market, the works. The slinky Rover 200 Coupé was based on the second-generation 200: however, most of the car's body panels were bespoke.

Known as 'Tomcat' during its development phase, the 200 Coupé was launched at the 1992 Paris Motor Show. It's a rather nice-looking car, with that swooping rear windscreen giving it the grace and athleticism of something a little further upmarket.

You could get your 200 Coupé with a 1.6-litre engine (the 216 model) or, if you needed a little more grunt, a 2-litre unit. This 16-valve engine was good for 134bhp – or, in turbocharged guise, an eyebrow-raising 197bhp. The latter car is notable for becoming, at the time, the fastest and most powerful production Rover ever built.

Whether turbocharged or naturally aspirated, the two-litre cars got rear disc brakes and an anti-lock braking system to hold all that power in check. Early two-litres could even be specified with a Torsen limited-slip differential, a favourite gadget of the sporting driver, which we explain in more detail in this piece.

Rover 600 (1993-1999)

Rovers of the 1990s went up in increments of 200: you had the 200 hatchback, the 400 small saloon, the 800-executive car… and, slotting in just underneath the latter, the 600. This last was a rival to large family cars such as the Ford Mondeo and Vauxhall Vectra.

And, as with these other cars, the 600 owed much of its identity to Rover's then-close ties with Honda. In this case, the car was a cosmetically different, but mechanically similar cousin to the Honda Accord. Indeed, the basic core structure, as well as most of the oily bits, were the same across the two cars.

A small team of Rover designers joined the Honda team in Japan for the design stage. The two cars were assembled, meanwhile, back in England: The Rover at Cowley and the Honda (in its European guise) at the marque's new plant in Swindon.

The 600 priced itself against other large family cars such as the Mondeo. In fact, given Rover's tradition for good quality interiors and generous amounts of kit, the car represented a sound purchase at this price. Unusually, no estate 600 was offered: the next, and final, Rover estate would be the Tourer version of the 75, launching in 2001.

Rover 75 (1999-2005)

Like its flagship Rover predecessors, the P6 and SD1, the big, handsome 75 occupies an important place in motoring history. Where the P6, for example, was Rover's last car before it became a part of the wider BL family, the 75 was the marque's last completely new car, full stop.

Yes, the 75 appeared just as things were winding down for Rover – and, poignantly, was an eye-catching symbol of what the marque was capable of. For one thing, it was great to look at. Indeed, the automotive press went for the 75's aristocratic looks in a big way, famously dubbing it one of the most beautiful cars ever made on its launch in 1999.

The car also drove extremely well, powered by a range of engines including a smooth 2.5-litre KV6 and a 2.0-litre CDT which had already proved a huge hit in the BMW 3 Series. If you're looking to acquire a 75, the early ones – before owners BMW pulled out of Rover – are best. The car's age, meanwhile, now qualifies it for classic status under the Government's benefit in kind scheme. We would also be glad to provide classic car insurance for one of these stylish final Rovers.

Protect your Rover with classic car insurance

We've singled out a few of the great Rovers here for the classic car insurance treatment. The truth is, though, that all these cars would make great candidates for this specialised form of car insurance.

And, indeed, whatever vintage vehicle you own or hanker after, there's a very good chance that we can provide the right classic car insurance for you. Our decades of experience and extensive contacts in the sector mean that we can arrange insurance for a huge variety of vehicles from our motoring past.

Why not contact us today for a classic car insurance quote?