Spy Shots: Roewe 750E
Wow, that didn't take very long. We just reported on Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp's Roewe brand last night, and today we have new spy shots of this car in testing, via Motor Authority. Nobody can say the Chinese don't think big as SAIC is said to be considering exporting its Rover Roewe 25 and 75 to other markets, including the U.S. Apparently, the new Roewe is much larger than the Rover 75 it is based on, and engine options look to be a choice of 1.8-liter and 2.5-liter Rovers, with the 1.8 possibly sporting a turbocharger.To make a big impact on the market at launch, the Roewe 750E should offer a lot of standard equipment. Even the 1.8 version is expected to come with electric sunroof, 8-way power driver's seat, and electrically powered rearview mirrors as standard. The 2.5-liter model will add a DVD player, Xenon lamps, Bluetooth phone system, and reverse parking sensors. Sounds like a decent first offering for this company.
For those who might not remember, the Roewe saga has been similar to the BMW/VW fight over the bones of Rolls-Royce/Bentley several years ago. Ford had first right of refusal on the Rover name, but didn't exercise it until SAIC had bought the rights to the MG/Rover operations and was salivating at the mouth to purchase the Rover name from BMW. We'll have to wait and see how the Roewe v Rover story unfolds.
[Source: Motor Authority]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Gardiner Westbound 1:06PM (10/13/2006)
Holy Audi, Batman!
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Ray 1:06PM (10/13/2006)
You go first, I'll watch...
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Hung2 1:22PM (10/13/2006)
Absolutely hideous and that interior - sourced from Kia?
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PaceTools - Auto Lifts 1:13PM (10/13/2006)
Not too bad. I would try it out!
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A 1:16PM (10/13/2006)
Im stunned.The dashboard is awesome for what it is.... Im impressed... well doen saic people...
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Kamil 1:18PM (10/13/2006)
I want to see crash test results!
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Pete 1:32PM (10/13/2006)
Nice Chrysler 300C headlights.
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car details 1:29PM (10/13/2006)
It doesn't looks very nice but is OK.
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Brian P 2:24PM (10/13/2006)
That interior wasn't done by Saic. It is almost identical to the orginal Rover Interior.
http://thehollywoodextra.blogspot.com/2006/10/rover-becomes-roewe-no-kidding.html#comments
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DL 2:02PM (10/13/2006)
Let's see a Chinese car call "Wrong Way",
Built off the bones of a dead british company,
Off an outdated japanese design.
Updated with an extended nose,
Give it a nice interior,
Add a sprinkling of ugly German grill.
Success couldn't be more than just a few cut corners away....
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Hamud 2:06PM (10/13/2006)
The interior is neat, but i would like to see a front and side crash test before getting into one oh these...
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Graham 2:16PM (10/13/2006)
It's not "much bigger" than the Rover 75 as it's the same car. Also largely the same interior and front end as the final Rover incarnation, for better or worse. Just some minor tweaks.
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fc 4:25PM (10/13/2006)
Well if it is priced right it doesn't matter how great it looks especially if it is under 25k you cannot beat the equipment for the price, im glad rover is coming back to the states.
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RocketPunch 3:30PM (10/13/2006)
Yup, but it is still better than GM crap and at 1/2 the
price. The domestic automotive industry is as bright as my dog's 5 year old glow in the dark bouncyball chew toy thing.
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Greg A. 3:42PM (10/13/2006)
"SAIC had bought the rights to the MG/Rover operations "
Not according to the Autoblog item that this phrase links to. That item says Nanjing bought MG Rover (the company).
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andybee 3:47PM (10/13/2006)
other than the slight change with the grille, its pure Rover Design
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Aki 7:18PM (10/13/2006)
I'm actually in the minority in that I like Audi's grille... but c'mon, *nobody* should copy that. Especially the Roewe. Looks just like a Rover, except they made it worse. What a shame.
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Derek 8:24PM (10/13/2006)
What a shame that they didn't keep the original grill... the originally Rover 75, when introduced in 1998, was repeatedly voted one of the most beautiful cars of the time. The new Audiesque grill is so contrary to the rest of the styling for this car... it is offensive. I am sure that the interior and mechanical bits are up to snuff, as the original car was developed with heavy BMW influence (as Rover was then owned by BMW), but the grill... yuck!
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Simon 5:12AM (10/14/2006)
DL sorry to argue but umm... no not a lot of Honda in there it was designed and released during the BMW ownership of Rover and was brand new from the ground up albeit with lots of BMW sourced parts (to help lower BMW's components costs trhough volume) and Pete nice Chrysler 300 lights... so the guys in Longbridge got a crystal ball in 1998 looked five years into the future and ripped off the chrysler head lights then did they??? As for audi well the car you see is identical to the car that we had/we refacing at Longbridge and the grille was actually released a couple of months before audi... The car you see is one of the chief reasons MGR fell.. during the last few months we spent all of the scarce money we did have developing products for our new chinese masters... and ended up with nothing left in the pot to defend ourselves or help market product when they pulled out.
n.b. the car is if I remember rightly half way between the standard 75 and the 75 limo that we had been selling in Europe since about 200.... The two cars were about 8 inches apart in length but in typical godilocks style the first one was to small and the second to large and so we had to design a 3rd length for the chinese... in the same way that they wanted a 2 seater sports car but not he TF (then outselling every other 2 seat softtopper in its sector put together!!)
So what we have is a great british car company struggling to survive and eventually brought down by two chinese companies jackalling at the assets until the company went into administration and then picking up the remains for next to nothing...
one p.s. 18 months after MGR went into administration and was sold "entirely" to the Chinese, how come the owners of MGR still have offices at Longbridge and wander into work every week!!!
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Hu 5:23AM (10/15/2006)
http://www.shchery.com/UploadFile/2006-9/200692915233572224.jpg
There is another photo.Look like the sedan run with 2.5 v8.
2.5L V8???
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