Your prefference

[dhb5610]

It seems to me that Rover P5 owners fall into one of two camps. Those who are coupe fans and others like me who prefer the saloon although I'm not sure why as the are both really nice. In my humble opinion the best of both worlds would of been a saloon with the coupe dash board. Why did Rover build the two models differently? You would of had the extra headroom and the extra finish and apperance. I will leave this open for disscusion

[tonys]

I would imagine it was simply that the coupé was originally seen as the 'sports', or sportier, model, although that might be stretching the word sport somewhat when it was originally applied to the 3-litre. Therefore, a lower roofline, only 2 seats in the rear and sports instrumentation, primarily brought about by the introduction of a rev counter. The 2000TC's main distinguishing feature internally was also the addition of a rev counter (as was the Bentley Turbo, many years later).

Jaguar, of course, one of Rover's main competitors then, all had full instrumentation.

It's probably also fair to say that when the P5s were introduced, quite a few owners had somebody to drive them, or it was a senior execs' company car and they were also provided with a 'driver'. The coupés were less likely to be bought by those who were 'driven', if nothing else due to the (slightly) reduced head / legroom. The internal partition, IIRC, was only ever available on the saloon (and only for a short period of time).

I've seen saloons fitted with coupé instrumentation but I've no idea whether the factory ever supplied any as special order.

Many will say that the saloon has more 'gravitas' but, whether due to numerous magazine articles over the years, the coupés, particularly the P5B, seem to be generally accepted as the more sought-after. It would be interesting to know the age profile of the original buyers, my guess would be that saloon buyers were likely to have been either companies or a few years 'more senior' than the buyers of coupés.

It's testing the grey matter somewhat as well, but I seem to recall that, certainly for the P5B when introduced, the pricing structure was such that the saloon was priced just below some taxation point, whereas the coupé wasn't. But I might have just made that last bit up

Based on those I can recall who bought them new (but a very small sample), the saloons were purchased by a solicitor, a furniture store owner (chauffeur driven), a small business owner and a retired RAF officer (complete with handlebar moustache), whereas the only coupés I can recall was a very much younger professional (I suspect with 'family' help!) and a publican.

[dhb5610]

I agree with a lot of what you have said I guess it was a more sporty car with the extra instrumentation in the coupe but why go to unnecessary expense to build two dash boards especially when you are building a quality car like the Rover. The only criticism of the saloon I have is its slightly austere look without the other gauges under the speedo and the lack of the rev counter. I have enquired about fitting the coupe dashboard but it appears far too complicated and more importantly it would no longer be a true saloon.

[tonys]

I can't imagine that there was a huge expense involved, the body changes were no doubt far more costly. Rover's cars in the 50s were sold to a certain type of customer but things changed in the 60s and no doubt Rover wanted to change their customer profile, hence the coupés and P6, as well as the later not-released 2-door sports (Alvis?).

I can think of a couple of other buyers when new, a judge (P5 saloon) and the widow of a large company's owner (P5B saloon, chauffeur driven), again possibly more akin to Rover's traditional customers. Rolls-Royce changed their approach in the 60s when the Silver Shadow was released, recognising that more of their customers were starting to drive themselves, whereas the earlier Silver Clouds were often chauffeur driven.

I like both styles, although the individual rear seats, extra door wood and extra instruments in the coupé, everything being equal, would tip the balance.

[Brendan69]

Its always been the saloon model for me. If its good enough for Liz and Maggie then its good enough for me. LOL.