Junkyard Find: 1990 Sterling 827 SL
The first thing we need to make clear when talking about the Sterling 827 is that it is not a Honda. It’s a Rover. Rover!
Well, OK, it’s really a Rover-ized Acura Legend, built in England with Lucas Electrics and legendary British build quality. Run away!
Surprisingly large numbers of Sterlings were sold in America, but almost all of them got crushed during the 1990s. This is the first example I’ve seen in a junkyard (in this case, in California) for at least a decade.
The interior is full of crypto-luxurious (and non-Honda-ish) touches such as this slotted sunroof screen.
The word “Honda” does not appear in any obvious locations on the engine, but we all know what “PGM-FI” means.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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My family's had half-a-dozen Sterlings over a decade from about 1996 to 2008 or so. In 2004, I bought beautiful a one-owner 1990 Oxford Special Edition 827sl with 72,000 miles on it. Over the following 5 or so years that I owned it, I just about doubled the mileage on it and it proved to be a generally reliable car. I think by 1990 Rover had gotten many of the bugs worked out and perhaps they paid a little more attention to details in the Oxford Editions. The problems I had with it included very cheap and flaky power window switches (especially the back ones), electric door locks that randomly locked and unlocked, a dodgy alarm system, and a loose connection in the headlight wiring. Mechanically, it needed an exhaust system replaced, used rack & pinion (from an Acura Legend), rear struts, routine timing belt & water pump replacement, tie rod end, rear wheel bearing, etc. The only time it left me stranded was when the distributor seized up without notice- not a Rover part. Over the 5 years I had it, I amassed quite a stockpile of spare Sterling parts including many replacement electronic modules, sunvisors, front corner lights, and radiator overflow tanks salvaged from a number of other Sterlings found at the self-service junkyards. My family had several Acura Legends during that time as well and I thought my Sterling compared favorably to them in terms of overall reliability. My biggest complaint was probably that the driver's seat sat too high and despite the multiple adjustments, my hair always brushed against the ceiling. I enjoyed driving a unique car and got regular questions and comments on it.
Was the car named Sterling to try and reinforce the fact that it was an "English" car - sterling is an English unit of currency.