Rover 75

Avoid the 1.8 like the plague. It's underpowered for such a large car and the engine series as a whole has a track record of cracking blocks.

The 2.0CDI is, IME, a wonderful engine. It's pretty economical (35MPG if you thrash it, lots more if you're nice).

There is a minor niggle which is the rear shock absorbers squeak in the early ones. This is easily taken care of by taking it to a dealer and saying as much as there was a maintenance recall issued for that. The dealers will only fix the fault if it is complained about tho.

The 60k service is painful - £430 or thereabouts. All the other ones up to that point are reasonable (£140-£250).

Dealer parts are, as is normal, extortionate. To supply and fit a set of front brake pads and discs the dealers want to charge the thick end of £400. The parts themselves cost less than £100 if you source them from Partco or your local factors shop.

The spare wheel is only a space-saver which may or may not be OK for you.

Without a reversing aid fitted (available in the "Drivers intelligence pack"

- I think the higher spec models have this fitted as standard) it's a pain to reverse the 75. You lose the last 4 feet of the car because of the body design.

The comfort level in even the base (Classic) spec is remarkable.

It's worth getting one with aircon/climate control if you can as although the standard heater's pretty good (seems to have a Webasto style pre-heater fitted - zero to hot in four minutes flat!) it is useless for cooling the car in hot weather.

Insurance is par-for-the-course for this size of car. I'm paying the same for this as I was for my Discovery and for the Granada before that.

My experience with customer service from the dealers is poor. This may just be my local dealer, but I get very poor service levels from them on the whole.

Do *not* take the Rover finance scheme unless you can't avoid it. It's APR is higher than most credit cards (27%+) and has a bubble payment at the end.

Decent cars can be had for not much. I bought an 18 month old ex-fleet car for £9500 which was less than half price. For some reason Moonstone Green ones seem to hold their value less well than just about any other colour.

P.

As the very proud owner of a 1.8 Moonstone Green 75 I have only a couple of things to say ........

1) Try one and make up your own mind !

2) My 02 car has done 15,000 miles now and apart from a little rattle on the passsenger side dash has been absolutely fantastic.

3) As far as the 1.8 engine is concerned, I find it adequately powerful for my needs ....... Yes some might say it's underpowered, but if I was after a powerful car I would have gone for something other than a 75 in the first place.

4) Servic>

Mine's a CDTi Auto and averages about 37 mpg, which is about the same as my petrol 25 1.8 Steptronic was. I tend to drive the 75 too fast as it cruises at 85 mph!

ken