Rover: From P4 to P5

Rover's place in the British automobile market was that of an Executive Car.  That is, larger companies would provide cars to some members of management.  In any case, Rovers were marketed to upper-middle class buyers in the UK, USA and elsewhere.

The first new-design post- World War 2 Rover was the P4 series announced in the fall of 1949.  I wrote about the postwar-design Rover P4 here.

Encouraged by P4 acceptance and buoyed by income from Land Rover sales, Rover added the P5 series for the 1959 model year.  The P5 was an augmentation to the line, not a P4 replacement.  It had more modern styling, was more luxuriously appointed, and was priced higher.

Its styling was the first new-car effort by David Bache, who joined Rover after the P4 was in production and was only able to contribute to a major facelift described in the post linked above.  His P5 was essentially a continuation of P4 themes.  Color images below are of cars listed for sale.

Gallery

A P4 Rover from around 1958 when the P5 was introduced.

Rover P5 in a publicity photo from around 1959.  The grille and fender front designs are nearly the same as in the P4 in the previous image, though the fenders are higher and the hood is comparatively low visually.  The overall design is a squared-off, "three box" affair featuring slab-sided fenders.  The windshield is wraparound, but with normally slanted A-pillars in the mode of contemporary Chrysler cars in America.

Rear quarter view of a 1964 P4, showing features Bache styled after joining Rover.

Rear quarter view of a 1959 P5.  The trunk handle and license plate framing are about the same as on the P4.  Ditto the vertical tail lights.  Even though the shaping differs, the Rover P4 design spirit is retained.

Side view of an early production P5.  Compare to the image below.

In the fall of 1962 a "Coupé" line was added.  Coupés traditionally are sporty two-door cars, so I was puzzled by the Mercedes CLS launched in 2004 that Mercedes-Benz called a coupé due to its racy lines and limited passenger capacity.  Now I find that Rover pulled off that trick more than 40 years earlier.  The car shown is from 1964.  Its roof is slightly lower, the windshield and backlight are reshaped.

Rear quarter view of a Rover P5B Coupé.