Rover 75's. Are they future classics?

[egg]

Imagine if they'd built this version though? Cut price Continental for lower division footballers?

 

[dollywobbler]

Do you think that the X Type is or will become a classic car?  I don't really see it myself, even though I own one.   It's a good enough car, and better than the internet Jagdeo blah generally maintains, but I'm not sure that it will ever inspire TEH LOVE.  

 

OK, I agree that any car can potentially be called "classic" if it survives a long while.  A 1980 base model Vauxhall shopping hatchback is now a classic car, of a sort, but that's a different sort of thing. 

 

I don't see it myself either, but fans of the X-Type certainly do. This was a gathering at RAF Cosford last April. About to happen again.

 

Ignore the Red Arrows. I don't remember them turning up. 

[Sir Snipes]

That whole background looks 'shopped. I wouldn't be surprised if that line of cars isn't actually in a Tescos.

 

R75s and X-Types seem to be in the same position Cortinas were in the late 90s, and they seem to fetch reasonable money now.

[dollywobbler]

That whole background looks 'shopped. I wouldn't be surprised if that line of cars isn't actually in a Tescos.

 

 

I was actually at the event. I can confirm it was not fake news.

[John F]

egg, on 22 Mar 2017 - 1:27 PM, said:

Imagine if they'd built this version though? Cut price Continental for lower division footballers?

 

 

That's a very pretty car.

 

Not sure it would have sold well with that badge though.

[Bobthebeard]

That's a very pretty car.

 

Not sure it would have sold well with that badge though.

I would buy it badge regardless. Once it was 15 years old or so....

(I love Rovers me.. Can you tell?)

[John F]

(I love Rovers me.. Can you tell?)

 

Haha, yep... a bit.

 

Interestingly enough, LAND Rovers don't seem to have suffered from association with AR at all. 

[HMC]

^ Burt fishtrousers was a great enthusiast of old British marques and at least in conversation mooted resurrecting 'riley' which would have been probably more suitable than that coupe being a 'Rover'. Trouble is, aside from the likes of us etc the typical man in the street has absolutely no understanding or knowledge of what that brand might mean. BMW looked at the example of Toyota creating Lexus and decided they'd rather buy a marque rather than create one. It turns out that brought along baggage they weren't accounting for. They calculated it would be quicker and cheaper that way. D'oh.

 

Mind you they kept the 'best' bits commercially (mini/ Land Rover- albeit spinning that off eventually)

[alf892]

I love the Rover 75 styling especially when matched with wood and leather with V6 and auto........nearly bought one earlier in the year. Still a maybe...

 

Don't like MG version of 75 at all and would never buy one.

 

So the MG will probably become classic.

[EssDeeWon]

Styling will help these cars appreciate as shortly after these stopped being built it became the norm for car makers to produce cars as gopping and ugly and as angry looking as possible.  The medium to larger car market is now full of utter meh with no real identity or conviction in design, just massive ugly headlights and 18 inch alloys.

 

Its been 18 years since a new car was released and I immediately thought  'I must have one of those one day'

 

That was April 1999, The new Rover 75.  Although the S type also looked great at the time, and early ones still catch my eye.

[Yoss]

I think some people are getting the terms classic and valuable mixed up. A car can be a classic without being worth loadsamoney.

 

I've always tried running old cars as my everyday transport (I don't absolutely need a car for work, it's only two and a half miles away so that helps). When I started driving in 1990 I went through lots of Triumph saloons and BMC Landcrabs. They were already considered classic cars and had a healthy club scene. But they were still cheap as chips.

 

These were all roughly the same age as the 75/ZT are now, maybe a little older but one Dolomite was only twelve years old (though already seemed much older, they were very dated by 1980).

 

The 75/ZT already has a very strong owners club with lots of local meets and a presence at classic car shows and people sourcing spares. It's no different to the Triumph or Landcrab scene of twenty years ago.

 

I took mine along to Pride of Longbridge a couple of years ago and there were 120 cars on the club stand and and many more in the general parking areas. It is already a classic, no question, but that doesn't mean they'll ever be worth anything.

 

[Brodders]

some of it is nostalgia driven as todays 17 / 18 YO's get some coin behind them and in years to come want a nostalgia trip down memory lane - how many would have had an R75 as a first car though? Or even aspired to one as a future car?

 

Ahem

 

 

But granted, no one else my age would ever consider one, which will keep prices down in the future.

 

More choice for me though. Make mine a launch spec 2.5.

[cort16]

I think there'll be an interest in them as there is with SD1's an P6's now. I can't see folk pissing their knickers to spending a fortune on them  (other than the v8's).

I prefer the the ZT's I find the 75's to chintsy.

[tommotech]

The 75 is motorings best kept secret, in terms of being a capable conveyance. This, in my opinion, is due to being sold as a car on its merits and not a fleet steed that needed to appeal to Mondeo man and fleet managers.

 

This makes it a key candidate for solid bangernomics just now. In the future, who knows but P6 Rovers and SD1s are still attainable, unlike some Old Skool Fords.

 

If you want to run around in an affordable, nice looking car then the 75 fits the bill. If you want something that will go from a grand to stupidity then buy a shonky ST170 (while you still can!). My vote goes with the 75, it's an itch I need to scratch at some point.

[sierraman]

Saw an ST170 other day for £500. Looked like it had had a hard life though. Hide it in the garage for 5 years... barn find!!

[tommotech]

Saw an ST170 other day for £500. Looked like it had had a hard life though. Hide it in the garage for 5 years... barn find!!

With added OSFOMG tax.

[Roverageous]

Pretty much agree with what's been said in this thread. Ultimately good ones (diesels?) will sell between £1-2k for the foreseeable and the petrols substantially cheaper. Suits me. They are an excellent car that CAN be run relatively cheaply without skimping. 2 years ago I bought a 2001 diesel with 50k miles on. It's now sitting on 85k and has been used as a modern. Literally fuel, servicing and go. We did have some teething troubles which I suspect was to do with it doing a very low annual mileage and then suddenly being asked to do what every company BMW / Audi is doing on a daily basis. But ultimately it's a 16 year old car which I have no issues relying on for day to day driving - and it drives like a modern which is useful when you just want point-and-squirt go to get you to and from work.

 

I think the design is spectacularly good. It was released as a retro car, however the actual shape of the thing adapted incredibly well to be a 'sports saloon'. Whatever guise they're in they are fabulously good looking. 

 

The (remapped) diesel auto is all the car anyone could want. Plenty of oomph (160ps), good fuel economy, reliable & smooth autobox, solid handling, comfort etc... etc... HOWEVER. The V6 engines suit the car so well. I mean, well, just fucking BRUM.

 

In my little fantasy world, in the late 90's Rover had BMWs funding but without their demands & the group was not split up. They ditched the 25/45 so the lineup (in around 2002) would look like this:

 

Rover:

75

75 Vanden Plas

75 Coupe

 

MG:

TF - Pending replacement / update\

ZT

ZT Coupe

 

MINI:

MINI One

MINI Cooper

 

Land Rover:

Freelander

Discovery

Defender

 

Range Rover:

RR L322

 

Imagine that displayed in a nice, swish, upmarket dealership. That is a fucking strong line up IMO. It also gives the scope for Rover to develop a larger premium car to rival the BMW 7 / Audi A8 / S Class & MG to use the platform for an upmarket GT coupe.

[egg]

BTW howmanyleft says there are still 40,000 left, so by no means yet a rare car. There are fewer Ford Escorts, 31k

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I've never understood why Rover made the 75 too small, the 800 was just about big enough inside, the Granada , Carlton/Senator, 25, XM/605 etc were all much roomier as was the SD1, so to replace it with something smaller made no sense at all. 5ers were always just a little cramped compared to the completion but they got away with it by being sporty and having the option to move up to a 7.

Maybe the Germans had an inflated idea ( encouraged by Towers et al) of the prestige of the Rover brand and that they thought they were above the company car fleet bun flight. This would explain them even considering the XJ/7er competitor 95 that was mentioned in the Autocar feature that I posted on the last 75 appreciation thread.

 

So my opinion is, considering that if a truly innovative , much respected, market defining , high quality icon such as the P6 is worth barely any more now than its new price , there is no way the 75 will ever be regarded as more classic than any Vectras, Lagunas, Mondeos etc that happen to survive.

Saying that , a LWB V8 auto with the full NationalTrust interior with the lairy burgundy leather would find a place in my garage , over an X Type or even an S-Type and I loved the one we had.

[alcyonecorporation]

BTW howmanyleft says there are still 40,000 left, so by no means yet a rare car. There are fewer Ford Escorts, 31k

 

Aye, there are at least 15-20 in my local area, all of them shitters on their last legs. Give it five or ten years for their numbers to thin out and look at that classic status argument again. 

 

Granted, there have been 75s at the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show for several years now; Clarion Events tried to get them out on the basis it felt 75s/ZTs weren't historic vehicles. 

Also, the Roewe 750 only went out of production last year, 

 

Also, I don't understand this 'British marque plus dead [domestically built] badge = classic' policy at smaller shows. I don't consider my MGF VVC classic but it's been waved into so many classic car parks I thought I'd warped into the future. 

[sierraman]

If you only do a few miles the KV6 might be cheaper to run. Probably £500 cheaper to buy and less likely to suffer pump failure etc. Not sure the spectre of HGF affects the KV6 so much.

[Cavcraft]

Rover 75 defo 'future classic' as will probably all cars be, one day. The term when applied to an X-type is cringeworthy though, because they're shit.

[AMC Rebel]

If you only do a few miles the KV6 might be cheaper to run. Probably £500 cheaper to buy and less likely to suffer pump failure etc. Not sure the spectre of HGF affects the KV6 so much.

 

It doesn't, although mine managed it.

[Roverageous]

It doesn't, although mine managed it.

 

 

I think it comes down to the caveat that any car can have HGF, and if you run them low on coolant / with a broken fan / hot for whatever reason HGF is likely. I suspect some KV6's may succumb to this because of a bit of a weak cooling system especially hard-to-notice bits that become knackered and leak coolant everywhere without anyone noticing (thermostat housing for one example). And that the car will only let you know its overheating at 116'c or something like that when it's likely to be too late.

 

Also the KV6s are known for oil cooler failure which can mix oil and coolant - no surprises as to what that gets diagnosed as by some garages!

 

I've had a few in 2.0 & 2.5 guise and found them to be hardy - however its the bits around them that fail and I've had to pay attention to the cooling system on all of them.

[CortinaDave]

they may acquire a following in the way the Figaro has- not genuinely old, but liked because its a bit different.

 

The 75 / ZT is at least that - different. I like that they dont look like anything else on the road, and yet are still a pleasant place to be and easy to live with.

 

I can certainly see me driving one as a "classic" in 20 years.

 

Having said that, the meteoric rise in cortina/capri prices has chased me out of owning one when I always had done... so i kinda hope the ZT stays worthless so paupers like me can still own one!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

^ Burt fishtrousers was a great enthusiast of old British marques and at least in conversation mooted resurrecting 'riley' which would have been probably more suitable than that coupe being a 'Rover'. Trouble is, aside from the likes of us etc the typical man in the street has absolutely no understanding or knowledge of what that brand might mean. BMW looked at the example of Toyota creating Lexus and decided they'd rather buy a marque rather than create one. It turns out that brought along baggage they weren't accounting for. They calculated it would be quicker and cheaper that way. D'oh.

 

Mind you they kept the 'best' bits commercially (mini/ Land Rover- albeit spinning that off eventually)

 

 

 

Rover was ripe for a successful rebirth.Think back to 1994 and Rovers were reasonably well regarded. The Maestegos were on the slab and the 200/400 were very popular. Sadly, BMW fucked it up by not installing key Krauts in important positions with the 'speak softly with a big stick' approach BL needed. Instead they made the dead man a new suit by leaving the hopeless management in place.

 

Had it gone right, Rover group with the Mini, 200, 75, a Triumph coupes, MG sports cars and Land/Range Rover would have been wildly successful, leaving BMW to make what it ought to be making - expensive premium cars for the select few as opposed to rep chariots with dubious reliability built to a cost and sold by the million.

 

Hey ho. 

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Rover 75 defo 'future classic' as will probably all cars be, one day. The term when applied to an X-type is cringeworthy though, because they're shit.

 

 

X Types remind me of grey slip ons and St George flags. Something deeply unappealing about them. Ford really did balls it up with these. What the fuck were they thinking?

Worthy enough but with zero appeal (to me at least) even though they're worth buttons. I might suffer a 3.0 manual S Type if it was virtually free, if there were no E39's or E Class Mercs left.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Pretty much agree with what's been said in this thread. Ultimately good ones (diesels?) will sell between £1-2k for the foreseeable and the petrols substantially cheaper. Suits me. They are an excellent car that CAN be run relatively cheaply without skimping. 2 years ago I bought a 2001 diesel with 50k miles on. It's now sitting on 85k and has been used as a modern. Literally fuel, servicing and go. We did have some teething troubles which I suspect was to do with it doing a very low annual mileage and then suddenly being asked to do what every company BMW / Audi is doing on a daily basis. But ultimately it's a 16 year old car which I have no issues relying on for day to day driving - and it drives like a modern which is useful when you just want point-and-squirt go to get you to and from work.

 

I think the design is spectacularly good. It was released as a retro car, however the actual shape of the thing adapted incredibly well to be a 'sports saloon'. Whatever guise they're in they are fabulously good looking. 

 

The (remapped) diesel auto is all the car anyone could want. Plenty of oomph (160ps), good fuel economy, reliable & smooth autobox, solid handling, comfort etc... etc... HOWEVER. The V6 engines suit the car so well. I mean, well, just fucking BRUM.

 

In my little fantasy world, in the late 90's Rover had BMWs funding but without their demands & the group was not split up. They ditched the 25/45 so the lineup (in around 2002) would look like this:

 

Rover:

75

75 Vanden Plas

75 Coupe

 

MG:

TF - Pending replacement / update\

ZT

ZT Coupe

 

MINI:

MINI One

MINI Cooper

 

Land Rover:

Freelander

Discovery

Defender

 

Range Rover:

RR L322

 

Imagine that displayed in a nice, swish, upmarket dealership. That is a fucking strong line up IMO. It also gives the scope for Rover to develop a larger premium car to rival the BMW 7 / Audi A8 / S Class & MG to use the platform for an upmarket GT coupe.

 

  You forgot the 2004 Triumph GT6.

[sierraman]

Can't stand the leather seats in them though. Saw a really nice 2.0 diesel Connie near me but it had these vile dark blue leather seats in it. Was only £650 as well.

[cms206]

I suspect I'm one of the few on here who don't actually like 75s. I've driven loads as we had a fleet of them on schoolbus duties (still two running actually) but the manual transmission is slow and cumbersome to use and the auto 'box is a bit dim witted. The cream dials may well be retro but the orange backlight is incredibly shit looking at night. They're not all that spacious, not all that comfortable for me and they're claustrophobic. I understand why people like them, but they do nothing for me.

 

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