Rover and the motoring media

- R
- rovereab
  
  Contact options for registered users
posted
20 years ago

Sun, Aug 31, 2003 8:01 PM

I often read negative comments about Rover's cars being "retro" in car magazines.

What I cannot understand is why it's OK for Jaguar to be clearly retro in all visual aspects of their cars and wrong for Rover.

I welcome Rover's approach in a world of poorly finished "modern" Mondeos and the like. A journey in a friend's Rover 75 emphasises the real difference to my 2 year old Mondeo. The 75 is so much better finished and has no noise from the doors and windows unlike the Mondeo. Perhaps the handling dynamics of the Mondeo are better but who spends all their driving time going round bends at speed.

I wonder why the media seem to "have it in" for Rover. Any views from you all?

- C
- chrismm
  
  Contact options for registered users
Vote on answer
posted
20 years ago

Sun, Aug 31, 2003 8:40 PM

- P
- Paul Hubbard
  
  Contact options for registered users
Vote on answer
posted
20 years ago

Fri, Sep 5, 2003 6:46 PM

But as I recently pointed out, the build quality in a 25 is not much better, my old 200 was better built than my 25. Basically the 25Td is a good engine/gearbox looking for a car. Rover are not helping themselves by the increasing use of cheaper parts and fixings, and listening to the harmonics of the engine being rebroadcasted by the cheap plastic used in the dashboard is not fun.

The crunch is going to be the new Indycar. If its built in India, where labour wages are bottom line, and the work force skills are about the same, I don't expect the build quality to be of any note, and this will kill Rover. There are a plethora of cheap sub-mark price superminis out there, from Daihatsu upwards (with that legendary japanese reliability), and they tend to do the bottom line far better than Rover who are trying to muscle in on the leaders at the bottom.

The bottom line is that unless Rover buck up their ideas, its RIP.

PDH

- A
- Andrew Murray
  
  Contact options for registered users
Vote on answer
posted
20 years ago

Fri, Sep 5, 2003 7:38 PM

I can't see that CityRover not being a success as it will be cheap and has a massive markup for MG Rover.

The things are rumoured to only cost £1800 to build so after shipping to the UK etc the rest is mostly profit. How many makers are coining in £2-£3k profit on each small car sold.... and from what I've heard Peugeot dealers are lucky to scrape £25 a car on small Pugs!