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Old 2nd January 2019, 22:51   #28
Bolin
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Rover 75 2.5 V6 Connoisseur SE 4dr manual Wedgewood Blue 2 04-05/06/2001

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Good to see this project finished off, the end result looks great.

Orange wires in the interior lamp - Trikey is spot on about the phone, those wires and connector are for the microphone for the phone system, see the 'integrated telephone' in the earliest sales brochure and in the Technical Brochure, which almost made production but was pulled at the last moment. The connector actually has a receptacle in the lamp housing to 'park' when there is no microphone (as is the case with all these early cars), and the microphone was a standard BMW one, like that used later for the SmartNav, and clips in place to the back of the 'grills' in the lamp unit. The microphone wiring was fitted even up to mid-2001, and my car has it despite the cancellation of the telephone over 2 years earlier.

The white connector in the same area was for the front passenger occupancy sensor, which was scheduled for later in 1999 but was also cancelled at the last moment. I believe this would have automatically detected a passenger or child seat to turn the airbag on or off as appropriate. I think it would have 'seen' through the black part of the lamp unit lens, maybe using infra red? The connector is actually listed in the Electrical Library in 2003, although the wiring was only fitted to very early cars.

The roof joint trims - I think these should be completely plain without the bungs for the roof rack attachments, as fitted to other pre-production cars, but finding a plain set would be extremely difficult.

The driver's cupholder - originally this was to be standard on Connoisseur and Connoisseur SE models, and indeed the earliest sales brochures list it, but it was cancelled late on and no production cars had them as standard (they were available as an accessory). As this model is a Classic, I don't think it would have had a driver's cupholder, and that only Connoisseur's were to have it, so it probably never had one originally.

Front seats - these look to be speckle velour? Whereas a Classic should be plain, and the rear seat I think looks plain. Easy to correct if so.

And a good spot with the badge on the wheel trims, didn't know that!
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"...the new Rover 75, which is a fabulous car......I think it looks fabulous....It's like sitting in a Rolls Royce......For me, this is the star of the show.....it looks so good" - J. Clarkson, motoring journalist on the launch of the Rover 75 in 1998.
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