MG Rover’s rebadged version of the Indian-built Tata Indica will be badged CityRover, the company announced on Tuesday. Although it shares its body panels with the Indica, the new Rover ‘citycar’ has a unique grille, tail lamps and bumpers and a more powerful 1.4-litre petrol engine than the Indica.
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The CityRover, about the same size but taller than a Citroen Saxo, one of many targeted rivals, along with the Peugeot 106, Ford Ka, Vauxhall/Opel Agila, VW Lupo and the Fiat Seicento, looks like offering very class-competitive value for money when it goes on sale in the UK in November, priced between £6,500 and £8,500 ($US10,700-$14,000).
MG Rover also reckons that, because of its generous space and power, the CityRover will attract buyers of cars in the supermini category, the next size up, such as the Renault Clio, Toyota Yaris and Fiat Punto. Since there is minimal overlap with Rover 25 pricing, and a substantial difference in size (nearly 300 mm shorter), MG Rover sees the CityRover complementing, rather than competing with, the 25, its current entry-level car.
While most of the rivals have a base engine of one or 1.1-litres, all versions of the new Rover will have a 84bhp, 1.4-litre unit that develops 115Nm of torque at a sensibly low 3,000rpm. The engine has multipoint fuel injection, eight valves and a single overhead camshaft and is coupled to a five-speed manual gearbox.
There is no automatic, but that is unlikely to be a problem in Europe where autoboxes are rare in the supermini class and most manufacturers are instead increasingly offering automated manuals like General Motors’ Easytronic Corsa gearbox.
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Rover engineers have re-tuned the Indica
chassis, which has all-independent coil
sprung suspension (McPherson strut front,
semi-trailing arms at the rear), specifying
larger 14 x 5J wheels and 175/60R 14 tyres,
a lower ride height and revised damper and
spring rates to give an improved ride and
handling balance. Steering is by rack and
pinion, with power assistance standard or
optional according to model. Servo-assisted
braking is via 231mm diameter ventilated
front discs and 200mm diameter rear drums.
Unlike its rivals, the CityRover will come only with five doors. There will be four trim levels in the UK, starting with the Solo, which has a driver’s airbag, front seat belt pre-tensioners, radio/cassette stereo with four speakers, clock, lockable glovebox, variable intermittent wipe, rear wash/wipe, tinted glass with shadeband, cigar lighter, load space lamp, courtesy lamp delay, four-speed heater/ventilation fan with recirculation setting, alloy gearknob and remote releases for tailgate and fuel filler.
So-called ‘sporting features’ of the Sprite model include alloy wheels, leather sports style steering wheel and gear knob, front fog lamps and a rear spoiler. ‘Luxury’ features on the Select model include front and rear electric windows plus air conditioning as standard. The Sprite and Select also have power steering, remote central locking, a tachometer and a CD/radio while the top Style model adds anti-lock braking and a passenger airbag. Paint choices from the Indian factory include two solid colours and eight optional metallic shades.
MG Rover is pitching its new baby into a competitive European market segment that accounted for 1.1 million sales in 2002 but, on paper at least, it looks to have the specification and pricing to meet the 40,000-unit annual sales target. Production in India starts in August, with the launch build programme reportedly supervised by 12 engineers on secondment from the UK.
