Rover 400 Hatchback
The Rover 400, which was later named Rover 45, was produced by British car manufactures Rover. It is a family car and it first came into market in 1990 with four-door saloon. Due to its small size it was a preferred car mainly due to parking problems in big cities. This car was developed with collaboration with Honda.
The first Rover 400 Hatchback was in the market for five year from 1990-95. Its diesel engine was 1.8 and 1.9 liter normally aspirated configurations. The petrol version had Rover K series engine and MkII 200 in 1.4 liter form. The 1.6 liter models had Honda D series engine and 2.0 liter models had Rover T series engine.
The second generation car in the Rover 400 hatchback series was codenamed Theta or HH-R. It was in market from 1995-99. It was powered by K-Series engine for 1.4 and 1.6-litre version and 2.0 L Rover T Series for petrol engines.
The new generation Rover 400 Hatchback was codename Oyster and was introduced in car market in 1999. It was renamed Rover 45. The same engine was used for 1.4, 1.6 and 1.8-litre petrol versions along with 2.0-litre diesel engines. The 2.0 four-cylinder petrol unit was changed to 2.0-litre V6 from the larger Rover 75.
The Rover 45 initially came with Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) that had oil-cooled laminated steel belt. First purchasing gearboxes from BMW, Rover turned to Ford for gearboxes later on.
Due to intense competition, the sales of Rover 45 dropped and in 2004, it redesigned it with revised suspension setting, re-designed dash etc. In 2005, its production stopped due to bankruptcy.
