For Sale: 1995 N-reg Rover 820

[rml2345]

R17 Rover 800s are bloody handsome things in saloon form, and I'd be more than happy paying £300 for that one, even with it being some distance away.

Anyone got £300 spare?

[Lord Sterling]

Felly,

 

As some on here have already pointed out, this is a £300 car. A £300 car is not going to be the best in the world and fault-free, it will have issues, just as most cars that age will. Anyone with an ounce of common sense will know this.

 

As I have already pointed out, the lights are not a major issue, I believe this may have already been sorted. Being a Rover 800 enthusiast I think I know a little more about these cars than your general ignorant naysayers who tarnish the whole brand with the same brush.

 

The reason I put contact details originally was so anyone interested in buying this car could contact the seller and speak to him directly. Any comebacks would be on him as I merely advertised the car on his behalf. I havent done a 125-point check on this car and nor have I said so, I saw/heard as much as I could mostly in the cold dark evening as thats when I work. I have been invited to test drive the car at own pleasure and will do so.

 

The reason the seller is selling his car is because he is buying a car that is acceptable for a new role driving Taxis, I know this is rather too simple for you to accept but not everyone selling a Rover has something to hide.

 

I find it rather strange that you have made your opinion of the vehicle and owners reason for sale based on a half-arsed vague advert and some not very good pictures. You obviously dont like Rovers/800s, not of course that I give a toss, after all, this isnt my car and this is a for sale thread, not a 'free to troll' thread because you dont like this particular car. If you dont like it, move on.

 

Just a note about this forum - Autoshite.com is for those vehicles of which are unpopular/unloved and even hated by the general ignorant masses. Bangernomics is king, cheap unloved cars are whats popular on this site. This is not a "scene" site where cars of certain age/price/marque are rubbished. We love everything, particularly cheap, comfortable sub-£500 barges, these include Rover 800 as there are people that do actually like Rover 800s. If this is difficult for you to accept then maybe this forum isnt for you.

 

Some people here love Rover 800s almost as much as I do, some arent bothered, one or two others hate them having actually owned/driven examples in the past, and that is fine. Those that dont like them tend not to bother trying to spew thier opinions or get offended at a 'for sale' thread that includes a vehicle they dont particularly like, they just simply move on and contribute to other topics that interest them, something you should consider.

 

Getting back to the original point of this thread, if anyone is actually interested in this car, drop me a PM and I shall provide you with the sellers contact details.

 

Also - Thanks to everyone who has contributed with positive comments, I'm only trying sell this car for a mate, I'm not even looking for a drink. Its nice to know a vast majority of us still believe in true Autoshite.

[RoadworkUK]

 

 

 

Hello everybody!

 

Sorry I'm late. The above car could never have been described as a world-leader in any respect, but it appears solid and not a bad place to stick three hundred sovs.

 

Plus, as an 820 it's probably a much more sensible proposition than mine, the M16i has much more accessible power than the KV6 which is quite a highly strung old thing, it even makes quite a nice noise for a four. Add a good level of comfort, a very nice colour and those blinding Alan Partridge pretentions, and, by christ, £300?

 

Sure, it's no Granada or Senator, but surely, for £300 it doesn't need to be?

 

From Chris, Rover 800 Sympathiser.

[Felly Magic]

Right, I'm looking at this from a purely fiscal sense, something none of you seem to be looking at in the slightest. There is a high chance lots could go wrong with this old Rover between now and the end of Jan when the ticket/rent run out, and being an old Rover, bits can be tricky to come by (thus making parts expensive), and breakers yards aren't exactly choc full of em. Scrap prices are starting to nosedive too, so breaking/cashing rent in, then 'over the bridge' with the remains would make the most financial sense. For instance our neighbour got £130 for their Honda Accord that is P reg'd (same platform as the 600), and this time last year I got £200 for a Skoda Fabia with a fecked engine, so weighing in now may fetch a better price than a weigh in next February.

 

Selling something like that 800 (2.0 manual?) at this time of year is also nigh on impossible, simply because most people on a budget of £300 want something that is economical, and cheap to run, and when does go wrong, can be mended with a hammer & string, and not be full of ECU's. One reason why they are worth the square root of nowt. Also, with it being the yearly Hallmark Cards fest, nobody has any money.

 

Also on the taxi front, the Focus is actually a bit small for taxi work, especially if he wants to do the more lucrative airport runs(Local work is cut throat and most towns are now suffering from a glut of taxis).Also the 1.8 TD engine isn't that great a lump. He needs to be looking at a Mondeo or late Vectra at least, (Or an Octavia if he can find a decent one that hasn't been mini-cabbed to within an inch of its life) preferably an estate version of those mentioned. One of my mates works for a Licensed taxi hire company (for cabbies that have non fault accidents, just to keep them on the road), their smallest cars are Insignias, right up to full on lwb Transporters, via the TX, and they dispose of them at between 2 & 3 years old, because of the mileage on them, and the abuse they've had as taxis. Councils are also starting to clamp down on age limits as well. I know one council won't plate anything over 5 years old now, and have been like that since around 2003.

 

And because you didn't like what I said, you go and start trolling. VERY VERY childish of you!

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

To add to Earl's comments, I had owned an 820 for a year and I can vouch for the responsiveness and relative frugality of the engine. Sure, I think the Granada is a much better-made car, but this looks great for the money....

[marcello-gandini]

Selling something like that 800 (2.0 manual?) at this time of year is also nigh on impossible, simply because most people on a budget of £300 want something that is economical, and cheap to run, and when does go wrong, can be mended with a hammer & string, and not be full of ECU's. One reason why they are worth the square root of nowt. Also, with it being the yearly Hallmark Cards fest, nobody has any money.

 

Good luck finding a cheap modern petrol car without any computer control.

[scooters]

I'll go further and say good luck finding an over 15 year old car without some electrical issues...

 

Every pre 2000 car and several post 2000 cars I haVe had have some gremlins including marques like Volvo, saab, Ford, subaru,.....and of course citroen.

 

My experience of ownership is that you need to become as handy with electronics as you are with a spanner if you want to use one as a daily.

 

This Morning I need to fix the heater PCB on the BX, check the lights and fuse box and a suspect earth, replace the dash bulbs and some mechanical work as I have 1000 miles to do in the next three days. Now you could ask me why I'm not taking the ten year younger subaru...well simply cos I've only owned it for a week and until I am confident that it is mechanically and electrically sound I trust the BX over it.

 

Christ if you think a giffer spec 820 lectrics are dodgey you should try a 306 or an xj40 or an xm...

[Wilko220]

To throw In my two-penneth, I don't get the negativity either. I ran two 1994 820s for a total of about three years and, while things went wrong and they required maintenance from time to time, they never seriously let me down or left me stranded. I loved them both (particularly the Vitesse but also my boggo Si) and would have another at the drop of a hat.

[Guest]

800s are a lovely old bus to tootle around in. They're cheap to run and theres nowt scary about maintaining them. Whats the fuss about here?

[Guest]

A hammer and string? Good God.

[Pete-M]

I'll go further and say good luck finding an over 15 year old car without some electrical issues...

 

I've got two. The Jeep and the E39.... The Jag boot lock plays up sometimes.

 

As for the 820 this thread is about. If you like Rover 800s, then this one seems reasonably priced. Run it til the tax runs out, pinch the seats for your office / shed / whatever, send the rest over the bridge of doom.

[Lufthansa-Terminal]

To be fair I can see both sides of the problem but this is a car to be saved and sorted. Not everyones cup of tea for sure but the number of them scrapped in recent years means they are getting rare. I know rare is not in reality a money spinner and you will need an input of cash to keep any old car going but to see any older ( ie 80s or 90s) Rover makes me smile happily these days as they are getting fewer in numbers which is not a good thing. I expect if it was a Jag or Granada it would be long gone.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

You've got to admire Felly on some level at least. Without seeing this car he's already issued his detailed pronunciations on the nature of all the problems with it, how difficult they will be to fix, what will go wrong at the next MOT, how much that will cost to fix, who the prospective buyer is, what alternatives they will undoubtedly have looked at already and what their finances are like at this time of year. Not only that but he can contextualise all this for us against a background of world scrap metal prices and their likley movements over the next few months. On top of that he can advise us all in great detail on the non-suitability of Focus Estates for taxi work due to his insider knowledge of the minicab trade through 'his mate'.

 

I just thought it was a rare old motor being offered for a few beans more than its scrap metal value but I have clearly not got the necessary insight to make even such a basic conclusion as that.

[Cavcraft]

Right, I'm looking at this from a purely fiscal sense, something none of you seem to be looking at in the slightest. There is a high chance lots could go wrong with this old Rover between now and the end of Jan when the ticket/rent run out, and being an old Rover, bits can be tricky to come by (thus making parts expensive), and breakers yards aren't exactly choc full of em. Scrap prices are starting to nosedive too, so breaking/cashing rent in, then 'over the bridge' with the remains would make the most financial sense. For instance our neighbour got £130 for their Honda Accord that is P reg'd (same platform as the 600), and this time last year I got £200 for a Skoda Fabia with a fecked engine, so weighing in now may fetch a better price than a weigh in next February.

 

Selling something like that 800 (2.0 manual?) at this time of year is also nigh on impossible, simply because most people on a budget of £300 want something that is economical, and cheap to run, and when does go wrong, can be mended with a hammer & string, and not be full of ECU's. One reason why they are worth the square root of nowt. Also, with it being the yearly Hallmark Cards fest, nobody has any money.

 

Also on the taxi front, the Focus is actually a bit small for taxi work, especially if he wants to do the more lucrative airport runs(Local work is cut throat and most towns are now suffering from a glut of taxis).Also the 1.8 TD engine isn't that great a lump. He needs to be looking at a Mondeo or late Vectra at least, (Or an Octavia if he can find a decent one that hasn't been mini-cabbed to within an inch of its life) preferably an estate version of those mentioned. One of my mates works for a Licensed taxi hire company (for cabbies that have non fault accidents, just to keep them on the road), their smallest cars are Insignias, right up to full on lwb Transporters, via the TX, and they dispose of them at between 2 & 3 years old, because of the mileage on them, and the abuse they've had as taxis. Councils are also starting to clamp down on age limits as well. I know one council won't plate anything over 5 years old now, and have been like that since around 2003.

 

And because you didn't like what I said, you go and start trolling. VERY VERY childish of you!

 

 

Have to say I think you're completely missing the point here. How many Auoshiters buy cars for a purely fiscal sense? Probably about none. Look around at the cars people on here own, do you think it makes fiscal sense to run a 20/30/40 year old car that constantly wants welding/mechanical or remedial work and is possibly one of the most unloved motors of ever?

That's the whole point of Autoshite (to me anyhow) it's people saving, restoring, running round in old cars that the majority of the 'normal' car buying public absolutely despise.

God help anybody buy a bleeding £300 car for fiscal sense.

 

Scrap prices? Traditionally drop around Christmas (due to the problems getting ships in I'm told) and generally start rising again late January/February. Which, as it happens, is just about when the tax/MOT run out on the Rover.

There ARE people out there who would happily buy a big, unfashionable and not especially economical car. Plenty of people looking for a cheap winter hack or those who have found work and need something to get there, the list is pretty much endless.

Your posts seems not only to fly in the face of what Autoshite is about but also seems a bit belittling as you appear to be telling Lord Sterling what car his mate should get as a taxi. Pretty sure he'll have worked that out for himself really.

 

Conclusion?

A cheap car for someone, bit of a no brainer really. It's firmly in the 'can't go wrong' price range and I'd be amazed if someone bought this and it owed them into three figures when they get rid of it.

[dollywobbler]

^^^ Two very different posts by Bollox and Cavette, which say exactly the same thing. Rightly so. This thread has been quite hilarious in a way.

[trigger]

What a utterly, totally pointless thread. It's a £300 Rover FFS, I can't believe it's even got to 3 pages!

[whitevanman]

well said trigger.....I find autoshite has become a two sided forum, side one run old cars as daily motors and accept there limitations, side two have a modern daily and maybe an old car as a toy....both are compatible to the ethos, so why moan about a cheap car, it was only last month somebody on here said that the days of £200 - £300 chod seemed to have ended...be grateful that it was posted up, if we moan too much nobody will try to sell their cars on here and we might miss out on so much.

[garethj]

Right, I'm looking at this from a purely fiscal sense

Let me stop you there.

[Mr Lobster]

What a utterly, totally pointless thread. It's a £300 Rover FFS, I can't believe it's even got to 3 pages!

 

+1

 

Oh Autoshite, what have you become.

 

Its a £300 car. Most £300 quid cars will be within weeks / months of their date with the weighbridge and have numerous already present faults and probably a few hidden ones as well. But if you needed something to run about in for a few weeks it'd be alright or if you fancied a bit of a project and wanted to throw some £££s at it to make it nice then it doesn't look a bad place to start.

[Justin Case]

What a utterly, totally pointless thread. It's a £300 Rover FFS, I can't believe it's even got to 3 pages!

 

One one level, yes. On another level it has turned into a thread about the meaning of life (well, for a 16 year old Rover 800 at least ) and thatt is why it is well into four pages

 

For some, it is just an old car hanging on by a thread, for others it is a car that is interesting enough in itself to justify spending some time and money on; the return is the pleasure of saving, driving, fettling and enjoying it even if the hard financial facts don't justify it. The world would be a duller place if everything we did was dictated just by logic and money.

[purplebargeken]

Nice old cars, I used to have a 820e (pre-facelift) and loved it. It's a cheap runabout and well worth the price. A days work would see those faults most likely sorted and away you go. Well worth a punt IMHO.

 

Cheers

 

Ken

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Right, I'm looking at this from a purely fiscal sense, something none of you seem to be looking at in the slightest. There is a high chance lots could go wrong with this old Rover between now and the end of Jan when the ticket/rent run out, and being an old Rover, bits can be tricky to come by (thus making parts expensive), and breakers yards aren't exactly choc full of em. Scrap prices are starting to nosedive too, so breaking/cashing rent in, then 'over the bridge' with the remains would make the most financial sense. For instance our neighbour got £130 for their Honda Accord that is P reg'd (same platform as the 600), and this time last year I got £200 for a Skoda Fabia with a fecked engine, so weighing in now may fetch a better price than a weigh in next February.

 

Selling something like that 800 (2.0 manual?) at this time of year is also nigh on impossible, simply because most people on a budget of £300 want something that is economical, and cheap to run, and when does go wrong, can be mended with a hammer & string, and not be full of ECU's. One reason why they are worth the square root of nowt. Also, with it being the yearly Hallmark Cards fest, nobody has any money.

 

Also on the taxi front, the Focus is actually a bit small for taxi work, especially if he wants to do the more lucrative airport runs(Local work is cut throat and most towns are now suffering from a glut of taxis).Also the 1.8 TD engine isn't that great a lump. He needs to be looking at a Mondeo or late Vectra at least, (Or an Octavia if he can find a decent one that hasn't been mini-cabbed to within an inch of its life) preferably an estate version of those mentioned. One of my mates works for a Licensed taxi hire company (for cabbies that have non fault accidents, just to keep them on the road), their smallest cars are Insignias, right up to full on lwb Transporters, via the TX, and they dispose of them at between 2 & 3 years old, because of the mileage on them, and the abuse they've had as taxis. Councils are also starting to clamp down on age limits as well. I know one council won't plate anything over 5 years old now, and have been like that since around 2003.

 

And because you didn't like what I said, you go and start trolling. VERY VERY childish of you!

 

YAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWN.

[Guest]

I don't understand how this has got to four pages if I'm honest.

[CIH]

^^^ Two very different posts by Bollox and Cavette, which say exactly the same thing. Rightly so. This thread has been quite hilarious in a way.

 

Yeah Felly give it a rest will ya ?

[dollywobbler]

I don't understand how this has got to four pages if I'm honest.

 

It might be something to do with the amount of people posting that they can't believe how many pages this thread has got to.

[messerschmitt owner]

 

Christ if you think a giffer spec 820 lectrics are dodgey you should try a 306 or an xj40 or an xm...

oi!

 

buy an SX spec XM as they have sod all electrics to go wrong!

 

I'm one of the chose to drive a banger cos I can run three for the cost of a new car and drive something more interesting. If this old chod was a car I'd drive, I'd buy it ...

[baldrickthecunning]

I'm shocked by the negativity, i've owned MUCH worse and regularly see dirty old mondeo's pootling round the streets of Kent which have much less right to be kept on the road than this. LS sounds like he has been very honest in his wording, mentioning niggly faults that most Autoshiters wouldn't bat an eyelid at. Christ, i've got 21 random wires to deal with on a French car at the moment but it'll get sorted in due course.

[Lord Sterling]

I don't understand how this has got to four pages if I'm honest.

 

Those who know me, know that I'm not usually very rude, I dont wish to cause arguements or disagreements and usually keep out of them. So please accept my apologies if I'm rather rude in summing up of this thread.

 

I advertised a perfectly good and useable car for sale. A couple of funny posts and some negative posts appear, then some wannabe know-it-all decides he doesnt like it and trolls out a long list of why this car shouldnt be bought by anyone without having actually seen the car throwing in a bit of pub-crap talk about electrics, adding something about strings and a hammer or whatever.

 

A good lot of members post up thier reactions in not understanding what all the negativity is about but at the same time adding a more positive light and basically spelling out the simplicity of this thread, but said member still doesnt get it and continues to spews out his tirade of anti-rover 800 crap, then tries to tell me in a rather rude and belittling way what car my work collegue should buying for Taxi work. More members contribute trying to explain what Autoshite is all about.

 

Hence how this has now got to 4, and it will probably go beyond because some people like arguing and pretending they are right. How sad. I couldnt care less to be honest.

 

I'll be expecting a tirade of abuse/telling off/belittling soon probably. Personally I cant be arsed. I cant be arsed to argue, this car has had some interest and may well be seeing a new owner soon, so bollocks to the naysayers. End of story.

[lancashireclamper]

Came to this thread a bit late so apologies if I'm just repeating what has already been said but the day a £300 motor that needs a bit of work is considered beyond repair by a supposed shiteist is the day this forum has no future for 99.9% of its members.

Lore Sterling, I have always enjoyed your posts, you have put across the joys and otherwise of Rover ownership but remained loyal to the marque you chose; never thought I'd see this was debated for one minute never mind 4 pages;

ps about 9 years ago I used an L reg Astra estate for cabbing with, plenty big enough so can't see a Focus being looked down upon by the travelling public, but what would I know, just did the job myself, didn't have a mate in the trade and a knowledge of everything!

[Lord Sterling]

Thanks LC, there has been a lot of positive comments so far, so thanks again to everyone for these. I think it shows the spirit of the autoshite community is still brilliantly alive and well.