Rover 620 SLi | Shed of the Week

Some people would like to forget when the Rover Group was majority owned by BAe and mad as a brush - but not Shed

By Tony Middlehurst / Friday, 19 December 2025 / Loading comments

Yes, Shed knows he brought you a different Rover only two weeks back, but sometimes something comes along that’s just too good to ignore. Even if we set aside this car’s superb condition and history it warrants inclusion on the basis of it being a Shed of the Week debut for the 620, or indeed any Rover 600 series car. Seems almost incredible but there we are.

The 600 was basically a Rover-reskinned Honda Accord. It breezed into view in 1993 on a promise of Japanese reliability plus British poshness. It all sounded too good to be true but, despite some of what you’ll undoubtedly be reading in the forum after this story, it actually was. Shed knows this from personal experience having managed to attach himself to the UK press launch back in ’93 by wearing a curly wig and pretending to be Paddy Hopkirk. It was a lot easier to lig your way into press dos back then.

Shed had a wonderful summer once by renting a tuxedo and standing outside the Dorchester hotel in London whenever there was a press or industry dinner going on there, which was most evenings of the week. When the flow of similarly-attired types arriving for their free wine seemed to be at its peak, he would simply drift in with them and take up station in one of the empty seats. Nobody ever asked for his credentials. He only stopped doing it because after a couple of months the tux didn’t really fit him any more. Plus there were so many stains down the jacket by that stage he was starting to get some funny looks from the other people on whichever table he ended up on.

Anyway, the result of his Rover subterfuge was a very enjoyable afternoon spent hacking around the Oxfordshire countryside in a 620. They gave him a variety of models to try including the 620ti which with its Garrett turbocharged T-series engine was putting out a very respectable for the time 197hp. Before you start scoffing you should be aware that one well-respected British car mag testing the 620ti found it to be as quick in the midrange as a Sierra Sapphire RS Cosworth.

The 620 SLi you’re looking at here came from humbler stock. Its long-stroke 2.0 litre single-cam Honda F20Z1 engine was essentially designed for easy plodding, but as Shed found on that launch it didn’t mind lifting up its skirts and having a go. 129hp went a fair way back then. In this case, where it went was 0-60mph in nine and a bit seconds and on to a top speed of 125mph. Some reviews sniffily suggested that the 620’s ride was a bit rubbish but don’t you believe it. Because of its Honda mechanicals it was by definition one of the most reliable Rovers ever built. If it wasn’t it would have been close to it.

AI says the VED is £360 a year so if that’s wrong blame the robots and not Shed. Shed always gets his specs wrong too but he’s bravely going to say that the SLi was the next most luxurious 600 after the GSi range-topper. That meant its standard equipment included ABS, burr walnut interior trim pieces, electric rear windows, an electric slide and tilt sunroof, twin zorsts for a racy look and even heated mirrors which even now are not on all cars. The spec was gradually twiddled and tweaked over the years. By 1997 the SLi had these nice 7-spoke alloys as standard (Michelin tyres all round on this one too). The sunroof had become an option by then and it looks like this one doesn’t have it but for Shed that’s a point in favour of any old car.

Our shed is from 1999, which was the wind-up year for the 600. All of its 25 years and 78,000 miles have been spent in the company of one clearly enormously proud and fastidious owner. Serviced every year and apparently with everything done as it was needed, it’s just as clean under the bonnet as it is above and behind it. Probably underneath it too if someone could have been bothered to crawl under there with a camera. The next owner will receive a service record with 25 stamps, all the paperwork including confirmation that it’s on its fourth cambelt, a new and squeaky clean MOT certificate and what we’re told is the very rare red ignition key still in its box. We all know how much Shed loves a fresh box.

All in all it looks like an absolute treat. At £1,991 Shed can’t see it hanging around in the Classifieds for long. Whoever has the nuts to buy it can have Shed’s personal guarantee that it will be a belter. To be strictly accurate, they can look at his personal guarantee, but for legal reasons they won’t be able to take it away or photograph it.

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