Some trends have been around longer than you might think. At the beginning of this century, for example, some models were dressed ‘adventurously’, without necessarily having the technology to really stand their ground in rough terrain. The Rover Streetwise is a good example of this. In that respect it was really an ‘early adapter’.
Plain, rough-edged cars, often referred to as crossovers, may seem like something from the past decade. Still, there were several crossovers much earlier. What about the Volkswagen CrossPolo, the modern Fiat Panda 4×4 (the primal Panda was also already available as a 4×4) and the Citroën C3 X-TR. Before that you also had the Renault Scénic RX4 and what about the much earlier Volkswagen Golf Country? The Rover Streetwise was also one of those, although unlike the Golf Country, for example, it had few technical adjustments compared to the Rover 25 on which it was based.
In fact, the Rover Streetwise was actually no more than a 25 with some exterior adjustments. Okay, he stood a little higher on his legs, 1 cm to be exact. Rover gave it thicker wheels, sturdy bumpers of black plastic that were further decorated with ‘skid plates’ and the Rover was also provided with an extra plastic edge along the wheel arch edges, sills and doors. There were also roof racks. Ready for the adventure, as long as it didn’t get too rough. In the interior, the Streetwise distinguished itself from the 25 by a somewhat different center console and as an option you could get the Streetwise with two individual seats in the back. In addition, the standard equipment was a lot more extensive than in the 25. All in all, according to the marketing department, it had to appeal to ‘hip and especially young people’. The practice was often different.
Perhaps it sounds a bit negative, but such a Streetwise really gets the hands of many here at the editors. After all, it was a nice and special splurge from a brand that went bust not much later and we like that kind of misfits. So it’s great that another one has surfaced, which we can now share with you thanks to AutoWeek reader Koen Smit. It is only with its second owner, who bought it in 2014. Probably an enthusiast, because a somewhat obscure model from a brand that no longer exists generally does not appeal to a wide audience. Incidentally, there are even more in the Netherlands than you might have expected, because according to our data there are still more than 200 Streetwise Rovers registered, while more than 300 have been sold new.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl