Rover · 1976–1988
Rover SD1
The Rover SD1 is an executive car which was manufactured by British Leyland (BL) from 1976 until 1986 and marketed under the Rover marque. Sold with a variety of names, the code name "SD1" refers to the "Specialist Division" of BL (later known as the "Jaguar-Rover-Triumph" division), with the "1" denoting it as the first product of their in-house design team. A large five-door hatchback with fastback styling, the SD1 has a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout and was sold with various petrol engines, including the Rover V8, as well as a diesel engine. The SD1 was introduced as a replacement for the Rover P6 and Triumph 2000 models, and in 1977 it won the European Car of the Year title. It continued to be produced by the Austin-Rover division after BL was reorganised in 1982, and eventually was replaced by the Rover 800 series in 1986. The SD1 was the final Rover-badged vehicle to be produced at Solihull. Future Rover models would be built at the former British Motor Corporation factories at Longbridge and Cowley. It was also produced under licence in Chennai, India as the Standard 2000 from 1985 to 1988.
Text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Generations & variants
Photos
UK vehicles on the road
1,455 licensed and 1,555 SORN (3,010 total) at 2025 Q4.
| Year (latest quarter) | Vehicles |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 2,591 |
| 2015 | 2,649 |
| 2016 | 2,683 |
| 2017 | 2,760 |
| 2018 | 2,804 |
| 2019 | 2,843 |
| 2020 | 2,874 |
| 2021 | 2,909 |
| 2022 | 2,932 |
| 2023 | 2,929 |
| 2024 | 2,973 |
| 2025 | 3,010 |
DfT/DVLA VEH0120 vehicle licensing statistics, source ↗, Open Government Licence v3.0. Small counts are rounded or suppressed at source.
Sources
- Wikidata / Wikipedia profiles — https://models.autoculturesociety.com/cars/Q948391CC0 / CC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_SD1CC BY-SA 4.0 · Intro text © Wikipedia contributors; revision 1375776158 · retrieved 2026-10-03
- DfT/DVLA VEH0120 licensing statistics — https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/vehicle-licensing-statistics-data-tablesOpen Government Licence v3.0
- Car Model Index — https://models.autoculturesociety.com/Compiled record. Sources that do not permit reuse are not copied; this index is credited instead.