Square Wheel Award

I scanned this for another forum, and I thought some here might enjoy it too. It's the article from when the AA's Drive magazine gave the 1975 Rover 3500 an award for being... well, not exactly car of the year.

DiwDEfI.jpg


Whole article here: Square Wheel Award

As the owner of a 1975 Rover 3500 I've always quite liked knowing it earned this accolade. We should get some window stickers made!
 
I cannot really understand why a "replacement engine" should have problems, let alone 3 of them in a row.
Weren't they brand new units?
 
And that sums up why the British (BL) car industry largely died out. Great designs, badly made... :(

At a time of near full employment, workers couldn't be bothered (surpliers and asemberlers) about standard of workmanship (not all, but a large section) so the cars were awfully made.

Then to compound the issue, management didn't really care ether, they were simply passing the buck back to the dealers.

When your new BL car is not fit for purpose when you pick it up, then it's no wonder the great British public deserted by buying British and swaped to foreign imports. The cars simply were put together as the designers and engineers intended....

So so sad...
 
That sounds more like the dealer's inability to repair it, rather than a faulty car, you'd think that once the defective parts have been replaced it would be ok, the problem is that once garages get their hands on it, they introduce more faults. It was taxed up to 1984, so someone must have sorted it out though.
 
That sounds more like the dealer's inability to repair it, rather than a faulty car,

I can assure you that wouldn't have been the case. If you read what the owner said the dealer actually comes out of the whole mess quite well. By then BL were on the rocks, and the customer was the test driver, and the dealer wasn't allowed to fix it in case it cost too much. This got even worse when the SD1 came along.
 
So what is noted as "3 replacement engines" is in fact 3 attempts to fix the original faulty unit on a shoestring?
 
I can't remember, but that wouldn't surprise me.
Harvey Hudson tried, unsuccessfully to repair the engine before it had its first replacement and it was sent to British Leyland for a subsequent replacement, so it doesn't look like three unsuccessful attempts.
 
Reading it again it says it had 3 replacement engines, but if that's the case, and if so who fitted them and when, I can't remember.
 
.....its all coming back to me :D I remember this particular case back in the day and given I was in New Zealand and only 14 years old at the time it stood out in my mind as apocryphal of the state of the British manufacturing environment and as Harvey pointed out it only got worse (much worse) with the SD1. Its a stark counter point that in the same year the P6 was voted the worlds safest car...... probably as you dont have to many injury related car accidents if your car is permanently stuck in the workshop :rolleyes:
 
aware of that case. yes was a sigh of the times when very poor quality control mixed with workshy and troublesome issues from workforce and out of date management attitude to its workforce etc all combined to kill off UK motor industry virtually.
having worked for a vehicle manufacturer in Uk for nearly 40 years was keenly aware many issues .unions etc political drive by unions and in many cases a troublesome and workshy labour force.
was not surprised to see Land rover factory close eventually as it always had quality control issues ( work force basically) and yes I have visited Solihull and had the pleasure of being driven around its testing track in a discovery ( very impressive) . a say own rover P6b has now covered around 250 miles in nearly 3 years am aware of the many foibles and issues these machine can give. patience and deep pockets are a god send .
 
Strange, it shows on the Mot site as a 3 litre rover, untaxed since 1984 so lasted well enough for a car.

VYU472M
 
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This letter was received when I'd had the car for two weeks (well actually it was at Seagrave Rd for one of those weeks)
 

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