
Honda Concerto 1,5i
The 'Honda Concerto' was an automobile produced by the
British division of the
Japanese manufacturer, from 1988 to 1994. Like its predecessor, the
Honda Ballade, it shared its platform with a
Rover product, namely the
Rover 200 and
Rover 400. The Concerto was also manufactured and sold in Japan. The Concerto was sold in both
liftback and
sedan form.
Engine choices were:
★ 1.4 L (SOHC carb) with 88 hp
DIN (65 kW)
★ 1.5 L (SOHC SPI) with 90 hp
DIN (66 kW)
★ 1.6 L (SOHC MPI) with 115 hp DIN (85 kW)
★ 1.6 L (DOHC MPI) with 130 hp DIN (96 kW)
★ 1.6 L (DOHC carb) with 106 hp DIN (80 kW)
★ 1.8 TD
turbodiesel,
Peugeot-engined, sold in
France,
Italy and
Portugal only.
In Japan and other Asian/Australasian countries, the Concerto was also available with a SOHC 1.6L dual carb engine. 4WD was also an option in Japan. Interestingly the Concerto range featured a 1.6 16v SOHC engine, quite an unusual design to have sixteen valves on a single cam.
The Concerto was sold internationally on a platform larger than the popular
Civic, it also offered more features than the Civic and was more prestige market. An interesting difference between the British built and Japanese built Concertos was the front suspension - the British ones having
MacPherson struts, the Japanese ones having
double wishbones.
Honda stopped making the Concerto in Great Britain when its partner, Rover, was taken over by
BMW. Up until that point the two companies had been merged up to 20% equally with each other and had collaborated with this model and many others in both companies ranges. The Concerto's replacement in Japan was the Domani, which was the basis for the succeeding
Rover 400 and
45. In Europe, 5-door hatchback and estate variants of the Domani were sold as a Civic, in order to avoid having two different nameplates in the lower midsize segment.