A Tale of Two Rovers - Return of the Rover

[Roverageous]

Hello Shiters - It's been a while. Due to a recent change in job, which I am really really trying not to be useless at, I have left my collection of Leyland Rust languishing in my Yorkshire homeland while living dahhn sarf. When I moved down here I had my third Rover 75 which was a bit mouldy and had 280,000 miles on. It got me down here alright, but a mixture of regular use and the state of Buckinghamshire's roads got the better of it a bit. It did try to soldier on but when the exhaust fell off, and the stereo could no longer be turned up enough to cover the rattly droplinks and top mounts, I decided it was time to move on before it actually stranded me somewhere.

 

A quick look at the autotrader turned up a very nice silver 75 which I took a short trip over to a NICE* FAMILY RUN CAR SALES place, in Leighton Buzzard, to view. Priced at an attractive £550 it looked good. 99,000 miles, connoisseur spec, diesel, FSH etc... I turned up at Mr Leighton Buzzard's forecourt and I could not see the car in question. There were 5 75s on his lot, and none of them even resembled the one in the advert. Turns out the pictures were of his own car, but with the description of another one on his forecourt - which was even mouldier than my one - and when questioned about 4 service stamps on a 13 year old car was told that "ANYFING OVA 4 STAMPS IS FULL HISTORY EEEENIT?".

 

Oh, but what's this? A nice X registered 75 Connoisseur SE, with just 50,000 miles on, and serviced every 12 months with invoices to prove - I CAN HAZ DIS ONE PLZ?

 

Turns out I CAN HAZ, but for significantly more than £1000 - which I presume is top shiter money. It can't really be described as shite anyway, unless you're one of the ALL ROVAZ R SHITE brigade. I'm well chuffed, and I'm going to bore you all a bit more with my awesome phone photography skills:

 

 

 

 

 

[Lord Sterling]

I simply am just jealous. Here I am stuck with seemingly unsellable Rover 800s when for a little money I could have a nice 75.

 

What happened to your mouldy 75?

[Skizzer]

All Rovaz r indeed shite, but in an entirely good way.  That does look like a particularly excellent one - well bought.  I do miss mine (a bit), even thought it was definitely at the mouldy/no history end of things.

[Bren]

Nice motah.

 

How much more than a grand was it?

 

It goes to show, low mileage full historied cars do sell for decent money, there are'nt many about, and therin lies the problem. Plenty of mouthbreathers still make derisory offers, sometimes better to pay a bit over the odds for a good 'un.

 

Which, incidentally, I have just done, more details at the weekend when I pick it up.

[anonymous user]

Is a former owner David Hasselhof?

[MarvinsMom]

well done that man!

 

that is a sweet looker.... from the thread it sounded like you had gone and done the awful thing and buy some hun trash. a crime such as that has no suitable punishment, but as you've gone and bought a quality 75, i absolve you completely.

[Luxxo Waftybarger]

Is a former owner David Hasselhof?

Don't hassle the Hof. Looks awesome, very tempted by one myself if I can find a v6 in not too knackered state within the next few months.

[EssDeeWon]

Looks nice, is it Diesel?

 

Those Serpant alloys and that wood steering wheel are very sought after by 75 enthusiasts.

 

Your interior is the same as mine, less the wood steering wheel.  A lovely place to be, well bought.

[dollywobbler]

That is by far the best colour for a 75. I hope they called it Claret. Strong money perhaps, but I don't see the market for really nice 75s drying up any time soon. There are ever more shonky ones out there.

[Roverageous]

Thanks for the comments chaps

 

My previous 75 was handed over to Mr Leighton Buzzard Man as deposit for this one. He gave me a little more than scrap value for it, so worth it. He did have it on his lot for £430 - but it seems to have vanished. Not been taxed since the date we did the deal, so I suspect the bridge has OMNOMMED it.

 

This one was actually up for £1995, but I paid £1750 less the £250 he gave me for the old one. So (seeing as the last one cost me nowt) I paid £1500 for this. Strong money for a 2001 plate 75 perhaps, but it is a diesel with less than 120k (that seems to be the general mileage most of these are at now) miles on! That in itself makes it worth it, for me at least.

 

It was not owned by 'The Hoff' until now, for I am him. Or at least that's how my surname is pronounced, if not spelled. The plate was actually an 18th birthday present, and featured on my OMGEBAYSPESHUL 75 V6 that I bought blind (documented somewhere on here). This car was on an 'X' registration, but in actual fact only wore that registration for the first time last year, and for only 3 months as it was originally registered to a dateless plate (two letters, one number) from new.

 

It is a diesel. I wanted an automatic partly because I've never owned an auto before, partly because Aylesbury is a complete ratrace, and also because they seem tougher than the clutch hydraulics on 75s. I decided a 1.8 auto would be too slow, I'm not keen on the idea of a turbo'd K series, and the V6 autos would be a bit juicy for everyday work. The diesel has a nice balance of enough go (160ps) and enough economy (avg. 42mpg so far).

[Roverageous]

Sorry, just to pontificate a bit more. As pointed out, the car features some nice optional extras such as the wood steering wheel and the serpent alloys. This with the fact that it was put straight on to a dateless plate from new tells me that this was someone's pride and joy. Meticulously serviced (with most of the paperwork back to 2001), and judging by the paintwork, garaged. I like that.

[RobT]

That looks lovely. Are the diesels quite refined in these? The idea of a diesel 75 doesn't quite compute with me as the V6 ones are so waftofantastic and suit the car perfectly. Despite the petrol ones not being worth a lot, I still think I was a bit lucky with mine as it only cost £395 with full MoT and history, although the bodywork lets it down a bit with several scrapes and dings here and there.

 

Here's a pic just for the sake of it

 

[dollywobbler]

There's no pretending it's not a diesel, but the noise isn't too obtrusive and hood torque means you don't have to rag it. My manual estate could knock on the door of 50mpg, even with me driving. I'd really like to try a diesel auto.

[dollywobbler]

Good torque even...

[stripped fred]

I like that! Am I right in thinking it has a BMW diesel engine? I've considered getting the tourer version of this. Does anyone know if this engine is likely to have any common midern diesel probkems such as a dpf and injector problems or is it nice and low tech? Also does it have a dual mass flywheel as I've recently been bitten by one of those and it was very painful.

[EssDeeWon]

Yes they use a 2.0 BMW diesel engine.

 

Im with Rob, for me it has to be the smooth wafty nice sounding KV6, but if your eating up the miles then I can understand the attraction of the Diesel.

[jonny69]

That's quite smart. They really did go to town with the interiors on those things, it looks more up-to-date than the current Peugeot range.

 

In terms of sinning forgiveness, I think the Reverend Bluejeans will be able to help so drop him a pm. He's something to do with touching cloth or can he tear a bible in half instead of the usual telephone directory or something?

[cort16]

It's the BMW diesel with a lot of the wanky troublesome bits removed. BMW did it so the 3 series had a power advantage over the 75 but they did it a favour in the long term.

[Roverageous]

As said the diesel is a BMW unit, and while it is obviously diesely, it's not actually intrusive in the cabin. It does give a nice (IMHO) rumble on acceleration - thankfully most unlike the annoying sound of more modern diesels which sound like a midget rattling a tin of broken pringles.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Twiggy]

Slopes off to e bay to look at 75 diesel estates............

[Junkman]

All Rovaz r indeed shite, but in an entirely good way.

 

Yep. Them r shite not shit because them r not Vauxhalls.

[nacho man]

Looks a good buy and I would pay that all day for a really nice one I don't mind driving a shed but I do like a proper clean example of a motor every now and then.

[stripped fred]

Slopes off to ebay to look at 75 diesel estates............

My thoughts too!

[Roverageous]

Right, getting close to having had this car a year now so naturally it's time for an update. Unfortunately it won't be very interesting so if you're not into boring then go read one of the Laguna threads!

 

No FTPs, no non-starts etc... But I have had some work done throughout the year so far - much of it is age related as detailed below:

 

• Feburary 2015 - Car buyage
• April 2015 - MOT passage with no advisories- £45
• June 2015 - New top mounts, drop links and an oil & filter change - £200
• August - New rear tyres - £95
• November - New front tyres & 4-wheel hunter alignment - £205

So a total of £545 in maintenance so far, which works out at just under 2 months of a Zafira Tourer on finance. The car has been 100% reliable and has ferried me to and from work everyday without complaint as well as some longer trips back up north.

 

Here he is looking resplendent one summer's evening:

 

Here's a jolly nice sunrise with added dashboard:

 

And one of Bob on takeaway duty close to Christmas:

 

Most importantly though, here's a reminder of what they look like inside:

 

Anyway. The winter has not been kind to poor Bob, here he is looking a bit forlorn this morning:

 

I do now have a couple of issues that will need seeing to, and I have made an appointment for the 15th of February to have the engine mounts replaced which should cure the resident 'squelch' that you get lifting off the accelerator when it's damp out as well as an autobox fluid change. After that it's another oil change, then MOT, then cooling fan replacement, AND THEN I can finally make a start on the trim and bodywork.

​

[fatharris]

Lovely example, colour is called "Copperleaf Metallic", and looks brilliant in every light!

[oldcars]

Bodywork looks spot on. Love my 75 they really are a nice place to be. Just need to get the boot leak sorted and rear mudflaps fitted. I have had to cut them a bit as the facelift bumper is different. Need Gertrude to pack in then i can get started,

[xtriple]

I really fancy a 75 but scared stiff of the engines/cambelts/hgf. I am, officially, a coward! Yours looks lovely, I am jealous,

[oldcars]

Get a diesel, timing chains no hgf issues.

[dollywobbler]

Still absolutely beautiful.

[Roverageous]

Car has been tucked away for the past three days with Mr AJF Motor Engineers of Westcott, Aylesbury. I feel very looked after and they appear to live up to their excellent reputation around the Rover bods. It turns out the engine mount, although not in tip top condition, was not the culprit for my squelch - but indeed more suspension woes. It's eaten the droplinks I have done in June already and it looks like a rubbish brand was used. I am now substantially lighter financially, but a vastly improved car. Autobox fluid renewal, lower arm bushes, droplinks & rear brake fettlement means its a much nicer drive now. It's also come back with a list of 'advisories' which he did say was down to being a perfectionist, but he also made the point that the car is so good and it would be really good to have it perfect.

 

I'll get there, but in stages. Next it needs new engine fans and control box (which I knew about), engine breather, engine mount, rear spring (current one fractured), and a front outer CV joint. He also picked up on it missing a foglamp surround and battery box - but I'll procure those and lob them on myself.

 

Happy days!