Anyone else think that their cars were rubbish and that the company should have been put out of it's misery a long, long time ago? I had a 'K' Reg 214 that was a great little car until the temp sensor for the fan fell out of the radiator causing the temp gauge to shoot into the red.
Luckily I caught it in time but with Rover K series cylinder heads the way they are I could never trust that car again and quickly sold it on.
I too had a 214 'H' reg, two things went wrong ...1, gear linkage broke and
2, flywheel censor got crudded up apart from that agood car....now I have a Pug, the A/C went on it I got rattles in the dash and door sometimes it wont go into reverse...The Rover was Better car , dont knock them...oh hang on we've got to knock them it is a British company.
Got the Honda engined 600 series here. Would have another. Also had a J reg Rover 420 and passed that onto my brother. Does Hull to Pontefract and back 5 days a week without issue.
And I was luckier still as I've never bought one as I worked with them (as a supplier) and have had Rover hire cars and have been to Longbridge numerous times. (Cowley as well, in it's Rover 800 days)
Shame really, another fine British co. bites the dust, especially as other automotives continue to turn out award-winning cars with non-British/European badges. It is possible to make cars AND a profit, but Rover's heritige is also it's downfall as you'll find as many inflexible, unwilling 'jobsworths' in Longbridge alone as Derby, Halewood, Washington, Genk, Saarlouis and Pamplona. Based on my experience of these places.
The next car I'll buy? Actually it is made in Japan and imported here, so it must be possible to make cars efficiently with high labour costs....
Let the flaming begin........!
Adam H
I had an E-reg Rover 800 series Sterling 2.7 Auto and it was excellent. Bought it at 65k and sold it at 147k, only ever doing routine servicing, tyres etc., but no problems at all. In fact, it was so good that I went on to get another one and that was equally as good.
Mogweed.
No, I'm on my second 218 (albeit with a few years between) and it's proved to be an economical, reliable runabout. I like the old 200 series; never did like the "bubble" replacement though.
The message from "gazzafield" contains these words:
They weren't rubbish, just a little dated and suffering from a lack of investment.
The message from Chris Bolus contains these words:
My elderly Montego estate's still trundling about quite happily. In an era of cars you can't fix yourself it has a lot to commend it.
The Auto Express 'Driver Power 2005' driver satisfaction survey had MG ZT in position 15, MG ZS in position 25, Rover75 in position 35 out of 100 cars.
In comparison, Ford Mondeo came in position 52, VW Passat in position 59 and
- wait for it - Vauxhall Vectra in position 67. So there!
The message from Johannes contains these words:
And Fiats and Peugeots well down low.
Is that a surprise?
A Class in position 97, now that's a surprise. Everything was rubbish except it's practicality. The complete opposite of what you would expect.
Very true - although never having had one I cannot comment.
German cars on the whole did very badly in that survey. I do question it though, as skoda did very well - isn't that a rebaged VW? The problem with subjective based tests is the level of expecation that people have.
People will expect a lot from a Audi but less than from a Skoda - hence the skoda does better in the test even though they are broadly the same car. Ok price does come into it, but I bought my VW (and paid the bit extra) knowing that it will depreciate less fast than the Seat not because I thought I was getting a better car by buying a VW. I also prefered the shape.
As an ex 214 owner on a P plate - all I can say was that the build was crap with speakers coming loose etc quite early on, and the head gasket went at
24k and 50k miles. There does appear to be a problem with them judging by what everyone says about them - and the garage I sold it too looked staight at the block to see if headwork had been done before looking at anything else! My dad had a 75 (W plate), he kept it for 2 years, under powered, thirsy, (he had the 2ltr V6) and every panel was out of alignment! S
The Skoda owners were very happy with the dealer network; shows that a car is more than a set of wheels. Cars are also nicely finished and well priced. Still, it might be a slight problem when picking a lady up on a date in a Skoda... You would have to stick something over those Skoda badges :-)
Actually from what I'm told most Mercs after the W124 are no better than any other car.
That's just not true.
They're often considerably worse.
Richard
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.