Honda Concerto

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 hatchback and saloon 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 an 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 which was larger than the popular Civic, it also offered more features than the Civic and was more prestige market.

One difference between the British built and Japanese built Concertos was that the front suspension - versions built in Swindon had MacPherson struts unlike their Japanese counterparts which had double wishbones.

Honda stopped manufacturing the Concerto in Great Britain when its partner, Rover, was taken over by BMW in 1994.

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.