What cars appeal to Rover owners

like all things, those things that are most unatainable are those that we want most.
I will have to look at that trademe site again, some of those classic Brit car sites are very depressing, so many good cars but so far away and so over priced, I see a few cheap Rollers on TM lol

Graeme
 
Who designed the K series engine ? If it was in the days of the Honda partnership , you'd think they'd build a good engine
Or is it all down to bad maintenance ?
A lot of 800's with the V6 went back to the factory for major engine work and it's meant to be a good engine now but 6hours+ labour for a cam belt is no joke. Why can't they all be as easy as a Ford Pinto ?
 
Fairly sure the K series was purely Rover or "Powertrain" as they called the division.
They used some of the Honda engines as well, 2.7 Legend lump in the 800, 1.6, 1.8, 2ltr in 200/400/600, interesting crossover on the 200/400 some had a K series some had the honda lumps. Also on the 600 the basic 2ltr was the Honda engine, the 2ltr Turbo was the Rover T16, oh and they also used a 2.3 honda engine in the 600.

KV6 in the 800 is another example of Rover getting the customers to do the development work for them, heavily revised for the 75, but they didn't iron out all the problems. A lot of K series problems come down to a failure elsewhere in the cooling system that doesn't get picked up quickly enough, one minor overheat and it's game over. That's why I'm fitting a coolant level sensor in the wife's 216 :roll:
 
I do wish people (Richard) wouldn't keep referring to the T16 and K series as Rover engines! They're not! They're Austin's! And BMC had nicked the badge in a last attempt to make them feel upmarket at the expense of the old Rover Co. The last Rover engines are the 2200 and the V8.

By all accounts The Chinese are now producing the fully sorted versions of both the K 1.8 and the K V6 that Powertrain had already developed but failed to put into production. Grrr!

Chris
 
Maybe no-one ever thought they might overheat or spring a leak .Like a lot of modern engines they have no/little tolerance of neglect/abuse / component failure. I'm sure most of us have had cars that boiled dry and were as right as rain after a refill. Bring back iron blocks and iron heads ?
 
Neglect is a key word here. My dad (being old school mechanic) kept checking regularly the engine in his 214 R8, without having the remotest suspision of the inherent weaknesses of the K series. Once he spotted that something was not very well with how the coolant looked (started to mix with oil). He proceeded to a head gasket change without delay and since then all is well.
On the other hand i know of a person that not only he did not check the engine at all in his 416, he ignored repeatedly overheating issues and did not even stop when the red hot sign of the temperature gauge was accompanied by serious misfires. Result? A very "solid" engine!
 
Lets be fair the vast majority of people are not going to know what they are looking for are they. They buy a new car and expect to drive it for half a dozen years with no problems. Then in relatively expensive cars the egine is cattle trucked. I remember seeing about 5 years ago garages awash with Freelanders, MGF's, and the complete range 25, 45, 75 all with the same problem.

Lets face it, all of these cars are nice to look at, notably the 75 as stated at begining of thread, but it is DISGUSTING that a company allowed this to happen. All of us know of the problems they had, as did the vast majoirty of the general public. I would have bought a car off of the Phoenix Group ... now we have nothing. The only Chinese investment ill make is chicken chow mein delivered to my door!
 
Maybe it's my age but I grew up to believe cars needed routine maintenance . On any car how hard is it to lift the bonnet , check the levels , check the tyres etc ? I thought this had been introduced into the thoery part of the driving test
Are people just too lazy now ?
 
I study social economics, and I think it's important to bear in mind the business forces at work in car production.

It's no denying that the average car life - i.e. the time it resides with it's first owner - has gone down during the last 40 years. This has to do with a general increase in purchasing power combined with cost-cutting mechanization in the manufacturing process (I've been to Wolfsburg and seen them assemble 4 Seats in an hour :shock: ).

When my family bought our first VW Passat in 1986 we seriously planned to keep it for 10 years (ended up serving 13). The next Passat, bought in 1999, was planned to last 6 years before replacement.

Of course this shapes the car producers' frame of mind. If you can make a car that any dolt can enjoy for 6 years with a reasonable amount of servicing, then you've done a good job. And if you fit it with A/C and some other gadgets it can be expected to fetch fair prices on the secondhand market even though it's really past its lifespan.

The only evidence to contradict my theory is Japanese cars from the 70's - already then the Japanese changed cars every 5 years, and they had much fewer production faults than contemporary British or American vehicles. Maybe this had to do with their struggle to establish themselves in hostile foreign markets?
 
Common sense prevails that you service your car every year, usually when MOT is up. A set of plugs and a gallon of oil is quite acceptable. A new K series engine after a couple of head gasket changes is not acceptable.
 
Over the last 10 years I've had a whole sequence of company cars of various makes and models. Some were crap, some were very good, but not a single one gave me any sense that it was built to last in the same way that a Rover P6 was.
 
At least the Rover K series follows on from the Hillman Imp and Triumph Stag in having engines that boil and are b*ggered
 
Wish (mixed) List:
'R' Type Bentley or a MK1 Bentley Continental if money no watsit ---------
P5b - of Course - prefer saloon -
1967 Shelby Mustang Fastback - for wild days out -
Range Rover Sports for upsetting the neighbours and family outings -
MKVI Golf GTi for work
60s vintage Humber Hawk Estate for going fishing
Custom Hotrod for the shows - perhaps a '58 Apache............
zzzz
zzz
zz
z
note: I've had a Honda Civic in the past and they are soooo reliable
 
I suspect I'm slightly unusual over here, as I've only previously owned Volkswagens.

My P6 is the first watercooled car I've owned, but I've hankered after one for a while.

I also own a 1966 VW Beetle, and my everyday car is a 1971 VW Microbus (8 seater).

:shock:

Quite interesting, the Rover/Honda tie-in, I've not really considered ever owning a significantly more modern Rover or Honda. I do like some of the 1960s era of Hondas though, for sure.
 
Passed test in 1963. 1st car second hand A35, then old Ford popular van (flat in London cost money so no choice but social life great - partied all weekend every weekend!, then morris 1000, healey frogeye (brother in law had tr2 which did 140mph on the straight mine went better on the bends) loved the frogeye, healey mark 2 sprite - loved that as well, children arrived , second hand morris traveller estate, more children, Morris traveller and old frogeye sprite (rebuilt it totally from a wreck could not have afforded it and the children and the traveller otherwise, wolseley 18/85 (100 plus on M1at last! nothing like this since someone elses Jag in 1964 at 125mph, rover p6 (same one as now), Morris Ital (rubbish but new and new marque at time all I could afford as the school fees go up and up!) kept p6, more children (4 now), new Countryman 2000 7 seater estate went well but some trim fell off and it developed rust but cruised nicely and kept up nicely with big volvos which I did not buy o/a lip into rear area - countryman was flat, children grown up so bought BMW 3181 and still have P6 plus and bought new 206 for wife - could have shared and had new 320i or M instead - big mistake!, still Val did 135 in BMW in Yorkshire thinking she was doing 70 or 80 - a great car and it came with allows, power roof, dark windows and all the other extras, but it blew hair at speed so part exchanged at Mercedes forgot a mercedes main dealer for a W202 2000 saloon with tiptronic - great car, very comfortable (e series better but would not fit in garage - and P6 is now 28 years old and has lived outside all its life poor thing, 9 years later still have the mercedes and the P6 is now 37 years old, bought val a new Peugeot Sport great little car -same spec as cc but has a proper roof - no accidental hair blowing at the press of a button. The mercedes has been great and it came with a 30 year parts guarantee, a thirty year rust corrosion warranty, and free mobilo roadside help from mercedes for thirty years. It has been very reliable but caught the dreaded rust bug at 8 years. This was all to do with the early switch to water based paint and an apparent cost saving by having paint with less pixels but the rust guarantee came into play here and all 4 wings, the inside of a door and the boot lid were stripped, repaired and rust proofed and resprayed with a few more pixels in the paint at Mercedes expense. Luckily I have always had it maintained by Mercedes as otherwise the 30m year rust guarantee is voided. One service by them every 2 years is enough but thank goodness I kept an eye on the bodywork and caught it early. No other problems with the car at all and its nearly 10 years old now. I find that incredible. BMW best drivers car but Mercedes and P6 most cost effective on problems and maintenance. P6 has its 38th birthday soon! I would like a Maserrati but think I would still keep the P6 if it keeps going. Still use it every day for local journeys. Plan to keep Mercedes till it is 15 years old and then get another but may change my mind. Now that is a boring lot of cars is it not.

Cheers

Tony Bunting
 
Car Mechanics magazine has been running articles about rusty Mercedes C + E class cars for a few months .It has been said that Merc quality is not what it used to be
 
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