What Rovers have you regretted selling or buying

Lewis Stephens

New Member
Hi everyone from Down Under. What's that line from Sinatra's ' My way', ' Regrets, I've had a few....' So in my Rover owning history what are the regrets in selling and and buying that really stand out.
1. At Uni in 1974 I bought a Wedgwood green 1965 S1 2000. My first Rover. I thought it could impress the girls who were not into Holden Sandmans. ( Tarted up panel vans with a mattress in the back ) My Rover 2000 had the reading lights at each corner of the dash board, centre light below the rear vision mirror, rear spare wheel cover with handle, etc. It was bloody tough and I drove it around Australia. Wish I'd kept it to store and restore.
2. In 1980 I bought a 1967 S1 2000 TC. It had been imported from Singapore by its previous owner and was white with the solent blue side flashes and Rostyle wheels. Red leather interior. I maintained it to a high standard by George Gosbell. Australians will know him as the doyen of Rovers in Melbourne. My favourite. It could be driven hard and I drove it from Melbourne to Sydney every fortnight to see a girlfriend. Wish I'd kept it ( the car that is, not the girlfriend )
3. In 1982 I bought my first of many P6B's. It was a NZ 1976 model but sold new by Regent motors in May 1981. French Blue. Mine was a demonstrator car and cost me then $10,000. Loved the car, hated the colour. Wished I had kept it and nurtured it. Had all options fitted as a last of line model. Including SD1 engine.
4. In 1984 I bought a honey cream P6B. NZ model. Unusually for a Australian car it rusted like hell. A regretful buy
5. In 1993 I bought a Spainish Olive 1976 model. Very low mileage. A 86 year old judge sold it to me. Again a parts bin special as it has a mango interior and Huntsman side. I just didn't appreciate how rare this was.
Anyway, what have you regretted ?
 
I regret a couple of sales.. and buying pretty much all of them.

I'm trying to sort the last few P6s out, and make them available for sale. I think that if they're not gone by the end of the year, they'll be parted out and scrapped.
 
I regret a couple of sales.. and buying pretty much all of them.

I'm trying to sort the last few P6s out, and make them available for sale. I think that if they're not gone by the end of the year, they'll be parted out and scrapped.
Not keeping any?
 
My P4, a 110, late last year to a specialist l know who got her running properly then moved her on to a very capable chap known in the owners club who appreciates her originality & has charged in & given her the attention she sorely needed but wasn't getting from me. So she's in very good hands which is what l aimed for when selling. I didn't advertise, l approached.
I've got first refusal if he ever sells her too.

I can't say l regret buying any of my cars though my wife could probably argue a case as to why l shouldn't have. And she does too. ;)
 
I rarely sell, but I sold a couple of nice 3500S and ended up buying them back again. I regretted taking a Mexico 3500 in part-ex for a GSX 750, it owed me about £350, but it drove like a dog, and didn't have enough going for it to be able to break it and make money. So as it had tax and test on it I stuck it in the local paper more in hope than expectation for £375 and a bloke foned and came round, had a look at it and asked if I would take him for a spin round the block in it. Oh well, he won't buy it now..... He must have been deaf, and he said how much he liked it, but he didn't have the full amount in cash. Here we go..... So he says he has £370 in cash, and would I take a postal order for the other fiver. I bit his hand off....
 
1970 V8 auto in ivory white with red vinyl. My first, in Cape Town as a student in 1997. Cost me £600. Took it to Mozambique and back, later through the Eastern Cape, and loved every minute with it. Hated selling but I was leaving.

1973 3500S project, Mexico brown from Portsmouth with the remains of beige leather. Bought for £1(!). Drove it home after master’s studies. Too much to do for me, sold it for £500 locally. Net gains £300 after ferry ticket and petrol.

1973 3500 auto LT77 conversion with Webasto roof. BR green, sandalwood leather. Quite rough, never really took to it. Sold it on happily.

1974 3500 auto in Cape Town, inherited. Blue metallic, black vinyl. Will be selling it in the next year or two, hating that idea as it’s 99 per cent rust free, solid and good looking.

1973 3500S in white. Current car. Keeping it.
 
My first car, a 1968 2000TC, JPR196F. I didn't have any experience with cars, being a biker through and through, but I bought this car as I just thought it looked awesome. I learned to drive in it, drove many many miles in it. Then it failed the MOT on a rust hole in the chassis rail alongside the boot wall. I was told that you couldn't weld a chassis rail and it was scrap. Knowing no better I scrapped it :mad:
 
The only one I regret is a 68/69 NADA TC that I parted out. It had just about every factory option except A/C, but was very rusty. This was before I was really familiar with the cars. Later I learned that the car was most likely a Rover North America demonstrator that toured Canada coast to coast before being sold off in Vancouver.

Yours
Vern
 
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