ROT: Replacing a Rover 75

You can sell the car to any garage in PX for anything, doesn't have to be a rover.

If you fancy a new or used Jag my next door neighbour is the general manager at the Leeds dealer.

He can do mega deals if you are up for it?

Ta

Nige

Options 2 and 3 are effectively the same - the dealer buys out the finance for you and carries forward any equity (positive or negative) into your next finance.

Mid 90's XJ's might scrape into budget and IME are reliable and comfortable long distance. Dealer servicing is horribly expensive, but there are plenty of specialists at more sensible prices.

Volvo 900? Reputed to do monster miles and very comfy. Later V70's also depreciate heavily and are thus good value - mine showed 35% discount from new at a main dealer with only 10K miles and 10 months on it. Outside your budget of course, but I had probably 100 to choose from at the main dealer so they were happy to do deals, so might well fix up your finance for you.

I wouldn't want a Vauxhall or anything French beyond 80,000 miles based on experience.

I wouldn't want a Rover 800, but that's probably because I've driven one....!

Mate has just bought a Lexus 400. He got a very good deal and the car is quite literally showroom fresh despite being nearly 10 years old. Same mate swapped an L reg Granada with all toys for it - that had never let him down and been a really good bus. Again, out of budget, but a cracking car for not much (about 10K I think).

Range Rover VM?

May well be, but I've still got the spend limit. If your mate can help with that then I may be up for it.

As for the PX, the deal there is that as somebody else said a Rover dealer will pick up the bubble payment whereas another may not.

P.

As a thought, you could spend £250 or so on a 12 month aftermarket warranty and add double that on the sale easily.

Fair choice, but V8 a bit thirsty and 2.0TD sluggish.

Interior trim (especially rubber mats on dash cubbyholes) very poorly fitting, an air of "Halfrauds tuning" about it.

Ugly, 2.3 underpowered and thirsty as a result, A4LD autobox is one of the most unreliable automatic boxes ever designed. But big, comfy and pretty well put together.

As above, but not ugly!

Keep taking the tablets.

Nice cars, especially honda v6 engined versions, but look out for weird and wonderful electrical gremlins - lots of!

As above.

Cost you a fortune in suspension bushes and bearings, xjs floorpans rot at rear radius arm mounts, aircon rarely works on either, heavy on tyres and fuel.

Rust, rust and more rust, more's the pity. If you can get a rust free one, expect the odd electrical fault now and again. Oh, and budget for a new camshaft and followers unless recently done.

Rust, heavy on fuel, unreliable. Makes you look like a Sweeney reject!

Yes, see below.

Ok, you say BMW headroom is insufficient - I am 6'2", and had an E39 5 series, a 1999 523 (2.5 ltr) to be precise. 170bhp and 0-60 in 8.6 seconds. It returned 33/34mpg on my daily commute, quite excellent from such a large car. There was more than sufficient headroom as it had aircon (no sunroof) and my proverbial bad back was quite happy with the std fit seating on a 540 mile journey from the North of Scotland to Peterborough.. It meets all your criteria with consummate ease, all except price that is, although I have seen '98 model manuals with high miles go for around £5000. bear in mind residuals for when you come to sell, the BM will hold its value better than most you mention. Inspection 2, the biggy at around 55-60,000 miles, will cost around £350 at a main dealers or £120 if you buy the parts (widely available) and do it yourself. There is a well established network of non-franchise specialists who will cosset your car and look after it in a way that no dealer could even understand! Parts (in many cases original suppliers) are widely available as well, mail order being an excellent method. In addition to your criteria, if you get an SE model your aircon will be the full twin climate control job and you will also get cruise control, traction control and possibly park distance control as well. You may even find one with satnav, but unlikely at that price.

Badger.

On or around Sat, 19 Mar 2005 21:42:13 +0000 (UTC), "Badger" enlightened us thusly:

but lovely motors, especially the XJS ragtop

one of my pipe dreams is to have an XJ saloon. Always liked 'em.

but expensive to maintain and run, certainly.

I used to have an XJ6c many years ago, the most beautiful pillarless coupe ever built. 4.2 bored to 4.5, holbay cams, triple carbs, manual o/d box and powr-lok diff. Cost a fortune to keep on the road and feed with fuel, but I loved it. Don't like the XJS quite the same, I always wanted one - until I sat in one and felt my head was way too close to the top of the screen, because of the rake on the "a" pillars. Badger.

(snip)

Something Audi. Superb build quality, fast, discrete and much less chav than old BMW's.

In news: snipped-for-privacy@snoopy.intra.geekstuff.me.uk, Paul S. Brown decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

Yup

Yup

Yup, but the 2.3 isn't V6, it's the I-4 lump with a balancer shaft. Quite good really.

Nice, but the suspension isn't upto much.

As above

Don't go for the XJ-S, I've owned two, both awful.

I've had lots of these, great cars. The 2.8i manual is remarkably good.

I love my Merc 260E.

SD1 Vanden Plas, cheaper than the Vitesse, most have leather, all have AC.

On or around Sun, 20 Mar 2005 00:28:10 +0000 (UTC), "Mike Buckley" enlightened us thusly:

hmmm. good point. If you want big, you should get a pretty good Audi 100 for the sort of money. Not sure when the A6 started, but you might get into the first of them.

Paul, talking to my next door neighbour yeasterday they have a 04 plate Jaguar X-type in at around £11k. They get all manner of stuff in trade in.

If you are after anything specific let me know & I'll have a word for you.

Ta

Nige

-- Subaru WRX (The Bitch)

Series 3 Landrover 88" (Albert)

"Christ's fat c*ck"

In news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Austin Shackles decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

Indeed they did, the 2.4 V6 (bloody awful thing) replaced the 2.3 in around

The I-4 2.3 is the same one used in the Galaxy, based on the RS2000 Mk5 motor, taken out to 2.3 and with balancer shafts. Much better than the 2.3 V6.

Well, been doing the runaround on this one.

Had a look at a Rover 75 Connoisseur with everything I wanted, but the nasty rattle off the waterpump and various other creaks, grinds and groans scared me away a little.

Went to have a look at a Jag XJ6. Seemed pretty sound other than having a major fuelling problem that wouldn't let it rev above around 3500 revs - it's a Jag with a problem - run don't walk.

Current option looks to be a 1993 Lexus LS400 that drives like a charm and seems to be pretty much intact and is half the price of the Rover I was looking at.

I'll let you know how this one turns out.

P.

On or around Wed, 23 Mar 2005 19:40:54 +0000, "Paul S. Brown" enlightened us thusly:

sposed to be quite decent motors, they. Top end of Toyota, rebranded so as not to sound cheap, innit. Toyota don't have a reputation for s**te motors, recently.

IMO the car which has taken over the mantle of 'indestructible and last forever', recently abandoned by Mercedes.

On or around Thu, 24 Mar 2005 09:59:37 +0000, Tim Hobbs enlightened us thusly:

yeah, I'd heard that MB (or daimler-chrysler as it is now, innit) has some rather serious cracks in their previously-good reputation for quality.

Well,

I've owned some of the cars you mention, and I have to say that they all had their gremlins and costly repairs (Rover 800, great car, nice soft ride, wonderful seats etc. Engine gave up after 80k. Omega 2.5. Interior not as comfy as the 800 but Silky smooth engine, until it ate a camshaft & tappets at 125k. Vauxhall had no idea what was wrong with it, replaced the parts and it did it again almost immediately. New head in the end, cost: nearly £2000 and ended up being oil starvation) Ok, they are the worst two.

I do have to agree with Badger as my current car is an E39 BMW 530d.

I wasn't looking for a BMW at the time, but had heard of the reputation of the BMW diesel and saw one at a local (independent) dealer. Initial opinion: Seats a little hard, ride also a touch hard. I was worried about owning something with a costly reputation. Opinion after nearly 2 years: Cheapest car to run and service (main dealer everythng) I have ever known. Motorway driving is so effortless with the low down torque of the diesel turbo it makes joining the lane to your right so easy and the miles just fly past. Especially when (allegedly) it does 110mph at just 3000rpm!

The slightly harder ride is more than compensated by its confidence inspiring and safe feeling handling (compared to this, the 800 felt like it was about to fall apart as you ventured into the forbidden zone, and dont think about avoiding anything in one)

But for me, the feel of the BMW, the quality, reliability, safe feeling handling & noticeable 'respect' you get from other drivers far surpasses anything I have ever had before. It has 84k on it now, and it still feels and looks excellent. Its probably the first every day car I've owned that I would consider replacing with the same, and in fact, the first car I've ever felt was worth the money (Apart from my Landies that it!)

Cant hurt to take one for a drive!

Darren

P.s. The other half likes it so much, we've just acquired another one for daily use! Although this ones an E28 petrol, still almost pristine after nearly 18 years service, although this now makes us a 6 car family. Anyone got a spare Barn? (seriously! Kent preferably!)

requirements

Well, I got the replacement - a 12 year old Lexus LS400. It's the only car I've ever driven that makes BMWs, Mercs, Jags et.al feel like you're driving a biscuit tin.

If I had the money (somday maybe!) I'd probably buy a current model LS400 or RX330, but for just now other than the pain in the pocket every time I fail to pass a filling station this one will do me.

P.