The last word
Brian Gower ultimately couldn’t resist the temptation.
Brian Gower hesitates, then goes back to buy it anyway.
Yes, it looks pretty good, doesn't it? And I'm lucky to have it because it was hiding in full view behind one of my personal blind spots. If something isn't what I want it to be, I pass it with a cursory glance and move on.This one I plucked from a high shelf, confirmed it was the Rover Sterling it appeared to be, noted the window box, peered at the half-open bonnet and door, recoiled at its size and put it back.
This gave me the whole afternoon and evening to reflect, eventually muttering to Wifey, "l should have bought that Rover - it was a thirty-six-year-old Corgi toy, mint in a nice box and who else makes a Rover Sterling? Nobody."
"We can go back tomorrow if you like?" she said, no small concession as the return trip would be to an over-heated seaside town, lurching with tourists, the car parks stuffed by noon - a place we avoid in the summer and had only nipped into for some theatre tickets and a quick stroll along the front to the antiques market. "Well, I should have another look at it" I conceded, like I wasn't really bothered.
The Rover was where I had left it, but can you believe I still hesitated? I opened the box twice, fighting down my reluctance to buy a 1/36 model of great merit for eight pounds.What's wrong with me? Once home, of course, I loved it (better light helped.) The box told me the model was made in 1984, coinciding with the launch of the 800 Series, a joint Rover-Honda enterprise of parallel ranges, the Sterling equivalent being the Honda Legend.
The Sterling was Rover's range-topper and the model reflects this with quite lovely pale green metallic paint, tinted windows, leather seats, a sunroof and special alloy wheels.The engine is probably a two-litre straight-four.TheVitesse that outclassed it in 1986 had Honda's silky 2.5V6.
What the model doesn't replicate is the poor reliability of the early cars, although this didn't prevent good initial sales figures for the first year, after which the 'uninteresting' design was blamed for a loss of favour. It only lost favour with me when I was a passenger in one and inevitably compared it to the P4s and P5s. Even without the driver demonstrating by remote control the various positions my seat could adopt, which was like being pushed and pulled by an aggressive osteopath, indifferent to my yelps of surprise, the car was not comfortable and the various clunks and honks coming from the suspension convinced me that Rovers were no longer available.
I say that the design was deemed 'uninteresting', although I liked the clean lines with a hint of the wedge that the model captures smoothly, despite all the usual hazards of opening doors, bonnet and boot. The small photo shows everything cheerfully agape, Corgi's rendition of the Sterling looks equally svelte with it all shut. Made in Britain, too.
And what if the Rover had already been sold to a less hesitant soul? There would have been no chirpy title about openers on this page, just a brief note, damp with tears - the smudged words saying "Closed for Sulking". DC