Daily telegraph 12.9.2009

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kmneedham

Member
There was an article on the Pheonix four consortium and someone had done a 'demise of rover' timeline across the top of the page. The picture of the P6 was accompanied by the comment that this was once decribed as 'the worst new car for sale in Britain'. There was no source ascribed for the comment however and it is something i have never come across before in respect of a P6 (CityRover-Yes but P6 was always highly regarded in the motoring press)

Anyone else see this or aware of where this comment came from?
 
I can imagine that comment possibly being attributed to the SD1, and definitely the CityRover, but not the P6, more likely the usual standards of research accuracy to be found in the press have resulted in the wrong picture being used........
 
Yes that is mad, maybe for the SD1 but not the p6. In fact on a program I saw a while ago the p6 was described as the last good car rover ever built! And how can the "worst new car" have won the first car of the year and have a very long waiting list on them??? :evil:

Maybe one of the club directors could drop them a line asking for clarification on that statement.
 
kmneedham said:
The picture of the P6 was accompanied by the comment that this was once decribed as 'the worst new car for sale in Britain'.
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I think the reference must be to one particular mid '70s car that "won" a Square Wheel award. Something like several new engines a couple of gearboxes and several electrical faults saw it off the road for most of it's first year. Not a design problem but it says something about BL's other problems at the time
 
You can't denounce a car just because one example was a "Friday afternoon special" No wonder we haven't got a car industry left
I suppose BMW or Mercedes have never built a duff car ? The French build plenty - speaking as a Citroen driver
 
Mmmm Friday afternoon cars do still exist. A good freind recently bought a new 330i BMW (grumble grumble). It had a huge odyssey of problems in its electronics before it was eventually sorted and is now a wonderful motor. The real difference is that BMW were more outraged than their customer and kept donating flash motors, loads of petrol, nice dinners, weekends away etc. He finished up being quite equanomous about the events. Can't see BMC ever having run to that approach.

Chris
 
Mad_Dan_Eccles said:
kmneedham said:
The picture of the P6 was accompanied by the comment that this was once decribed as 'the worst new car for sale in Britain'.
Click to expand...

I think the reference must be to one particular mid '70s car that "won" a Square Wheel award. Something like several new engines a couple of gearboxes and several electrical faults saw it off the road for most of it's first year. Not a design problem but it says something about BL's other problems at the time
Click to expand...

According to James Taylor's book, "Rover P6 - 1963 to 1977 - 2000, 2200, 3500", a Rover 3500 (VYU 472M) won the "AA's Square Wheel Award" in the summer of 1975. A panel judged it to be, and I quote, "worst, most troublesome, new car of the year" The car had 3 new engines, 2 gearboxes, 2 new bellhousings, and a new wiring loom, all before hitting 60K miles. It spent 114 days of its first 165 days off the road needing repairs.

However, this may be a knock-on effect to low morale in the Rover factory after Heath's 3 day working week, which in turn had stemmed from the 70's fuel crisis.

I think it unfair to tar the entire P6 range with the same brush as this particularly troublesome 3500.
 
The car had 3 new engines, 2 gearboxes, 2 new bellhousings,
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Doesn't that suggest the garage was just into fitting big parts under warranty rather than diagnosing the reason behind the first failure ?
 
DaveHerns said:
The car had 3 new engines, 2 gearboxes, 2 new bellhousings,
Click to expand...
Doesn't that suggest the garage was just into fitting big parts under warranty rather than diagnosing the reason behind the first failure ?
Click to expand...

Steady now! :LOL: I've been doing a bit more research on this. Firstly the garage had no say over whether or not new parts were fitted on warranty, and if they try to fit anything that's not required it gets kicked out when the parts go back to BL for inspection and the garage has to foot the bill, so that rarely if ever happenned. As for this particular car it was a P6B, and although the article may have suggested otherwise, was an auto, and also the garage in question was the one I worked at in the 70's. Needless to say all these problems were occurring just before I started, and shortly after my arrival it all seemed to have been sorted out satisfactorily. I suppose that could just be coincidence.......

Details are difficult to find but the car won the AA's "Square Wheel Award" along with an Allegro and a Stag, all 3 cars coming from different garages. It seems if our memories are correct the P6B in question belonged to Marks & Spencer.
 
The book made no reference to it being owned by M&S, or anyone else for that matter.

I'm sure the car was just one unfortunate "bad apple" out of the other thousands of "very good apples".

I know harvey may not have been meaning me but just in case, I meant that it was a 3500 Automatic (To me, 3500 implies an automatic, 3500S implies a manual (unless it's a NADA version!))

I also think harvey made a slight mistake:-
Needless to say all these problems were occurring just before I started, and shortly after my arrival it all seemed to have been sorted out satisfactorily. I suppose that could just be coincidence.......
Click to expand...

Surely you meant
....all these problems were occurring just after I started...
Click to expand...
:p

Just joking! (Putting on suit of armour for the backlash ;) )
 
harveyp6 said:
Details are difficult to find but the car won the AA's "Square Wheel Award" along with an Allegro and a Stag, all 3 cars coming from different garages. It seems if our memories are correct the P6B in question belonged to Marks & Spencer.
Click to expand...

Bit ironic, the Allegro winning a 'square wheel award.'
 
quattro said:
harveyp6 said:
Details are difficult to find but the car won the AA's "Square Wheel Award" along with an Allegro and a Stag, all 3 cars coming from different garages. It seems if our memories are correct the P6B in question belonged to Marks & Spencer.
Click to expand...

Bit ironic, the Allegro winning a 'square wheel award.'
Click to expand...

It wasn't square, it was "Quartic" :LOL:
 
I'm certainly not having a go at anyone but surely 3 new engines, 2 gearboxes, 2 new bellhousings must indicate a lack of proper diagnosis or were parts that bad quality in those days ?
 
DaveHerns said:
I'm certainly not having a go at anyone but surely 3 new engines, 2 gearboxes, 2 new bellhousings must indicate a lack of proper diagnosis or were parts that bad quality in those days ?
Click to expand...

You're going to have to wait for a more definitive answer, because I wasn't there at the time, and the person who I know that was is sure that it didn't have 3 engines, it had one, and two repairs of some description as sanctioned by BL before the change, but as yet we can't get any further info. As for the gearboxes and bell housings we're not sure on that either, but at the time there were several people there who were more than capable of sorting them, but you have to remember that under warranty you can only do work that is authorised by the factory. It's a shame that there isn't more info out there, but that is only likely to be from the AA's viewpoint, and they have their own particular axe to grind.
 
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