I'm sorry Rover, but.....

After a year of driving around in a 25Tid and suffering some aggro plus my first service, I can't say that I'm impressed with Rover build quality.

It's got a great engine, don't get me wrong, but is let down by the general state of the vehicle fittings. My old 200 was held together with nuts, bolts, real screws even, but all I find these days is scrivits scrivits scrivits. The bottom line, its a great engine looking for a car.

By the way, if anybody is wondering why the contents of the washer bottle seems to be going just a bit quicker these days, check the plastic connectors on the water line. They tend to splt right on the moulding pip, and being cheap plastic I suspect they tend to go rather quickly from new. Plastic fish tank air hose works just fine.

Which seesm to sum the whole problem up, cheap and nasty fittings. The dashboard squeaks, the internal door panels flex, I've lost count of the number of times I have had to clip back into place the door handle screw cover. The fuse box cover rattles in tune to the harmonics from the engine because it is so thin and flimsy.

Add to that the aggro over the year with the car eating a battery and poor main electrical connections inside the fusebox due to the use of metal hex bolts securing the cable/main fuse into a plastic fuse box and you can see why after a year of use I feel very fed up with the build quality.

And horror of horror, I'm looking around at other cars from other manufacturers. I know what you are thinking, all cars are made like this these days but during a recent local motor show at Worthing, at which Rover were noticable by their absence, I had the oppotunity to check build quality and quite a few alternatives, including Nissan and Skoda (of all companies) were light years ahead in the care taken during the design, quality and componants used.

All of which bodes badly for the new Indycar. My wife, who until recently worked in vehicle design at TWR (owned by Mr Walkenshaw, who managed to screw up all of his alledged unconnected companies when his F1 aspirations went futt) made the comment that as of late, the Rover range was designed to be assembled by unskilled labour with the miniumum of time expended putting the bits together whilst using the cheapest method and parts. TWR did some of the outbased design for Rover and the emphasis was always on cheap cheap cheap with constant re-designs to get the cheapest possible final product. It does not look good.

Rover, I know margins are tight, parts are expensive etc., I do sympathise with this but if you keep insisting to using the cheapest parts on the market, I can't see you lasting the course and it really will be Rover RIP.

PDH

Reply to
Paul Hubbard
Loading thread data ...

I couldn't agree more. You'd think Rover would have learnt over the years, but your experience and similar complaints prove they haven't made enough effort to improve the build quality. My 1996 214Si has three mysterious rattles/buzzes and a squeaky driver's seat. God knows what's causing the rattles (one in driver's door, one in the roof just in front of the sunroof control, and one somewhere in the dash near the steering wheel). I'm going to fix the squeaky seat this weekend.

Reply to
Mr Greenstone

It would not at all surprise me if you found that a lot of the rattling was due to missing hex bolts and the whole piece of kit was just flopping around inside the void.

I could go further, and I will. I was not that impressed with the service done by the dealers. £310.00 and that did not include replacement of brake pads etc. Two thirds of that was down to nothing more than fancy labour and they didn't even have the manners to at least stamp the service book. At least when I did the servicing on my old 200, it was done to tip top conditions, I only put the car through a dealer as it is under three years old but I really begrudge having to pay that amount for what looks like nothing more than an oil change and a checkover. It really is quite galling.

The car broke down twice over the year, due to the electrical fault and in both cases I had to dip into my pocket to pay for the recovery, the repairs were under warranty but the transportation costs to get the totally undrivable car to the dealer was my liability as Rover are too mean to include this in the cost. I look with envy at the wife's Toyota Yaris TSport, she gets free recovery and her last main service came to around £160 including parts. I hear people say support your local industries and buy British, but I do wonder why, considering the aggro I have suffered over the year and the amount of money I have had to shell out for what amounts to Rovers penny pinching policies. Try getting certain spares when you really need them and see what I mean.

I want something a little bigger as a replacement, for the Rover will be going next year as I have expended too much money for a depreciating return. I was interested in a Freelander, but after driving Ford's (never again, as the advert should say, Ford gives you less) and seeing the recalls for Ford owned Landrover, I'm seriously looking at a Nissan X-Trail diesel as it covers all of my requirements and is really well built. In had the oppotunity to go over one with a fine tooth comb and the build quality really was quite superb.

I will be having a look, first chance, at an Indycar, just to see how bad the build really is.

PDH

Reply to
Paul Hubbard

"Justin Baker ntlworld.com>" I picked up a new MG TF 160 in May. It is not well built, especially

Just recently I have found that looking at new build Rovers is like looking at an old master hanging on a gallery wall. From a distance, they look nice, but look up close and you can see all the cracks on the canvass.

I believe in engineering circles this if often referred to as the ten foot test!

Ford went through this period a few years back, I would not touch a Ford for love nor money having driven one and gone through the pain of expenditure for stupid faults that came down to a poor design. They look better nowadays, I must admit, but that stigma of reliability is still in the back of my mind.

PDH

Reply to
Paul Hubbard

Snip

Ford are yet to be the money behind a new Land Rover. The new model Free Lander was designed during the BMW time and the Free Lander was designed under BAe and then produced under BMW. The Defender is over 30 years old.

Have a look at the figures for the new Range Rover - no problems so far.

The first "Ford" Land Rover will be out next year as the replacement Disco and a baby Range Rover.

"Nissan" X-trail not bad for a Renault!

AJ

Reply to
AJ

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.