Rover of Doom II

[wuvvum]

I've kind of lost my mojo with the Rover of Doom recently. After almost a year and 12K miles of trouble free service, it's started to have lots of irritating little things go wrong with it recently. It's never broken down, but it's not the car it was when I bought it - the loss of turbo boost was the final straw as it appears to be a problem with the wastegate, which is going to be a cock of a job as it's integral with the turbo and buried right down the back of the engine. The car also runs out of T&T on Tuesday, and needs various jobs doing - at least two tyres, the headlights either replacing or remounting, which involves taking the front bumper off, and a few other bits - and at the moment I can't be bothered to spend much time or money on it.

 

So when this badass mo' fo' came up on eBay for £300 with 10 months' test, I had to have a punt.

 

 

 

 

Yes, it's another scruffy, wheel-trim-less diesel Rover. It's a 420 SDi so it's quite well equipped (electric windows all round, airbags, ABS, aircon etc), and it's a saloon for added shite points (and a massive boot). It's got the same intercooled L-series as the 200 - it's in standard form at the moment, but it still doesn't hang about. I drove it back from Chesterfield last night, and it's a much more refined drive than the 200, and initial impressions are that handling seems crisper too. It hadn't been used for a while when I picked it up, and to start with it was clagging like a Deltic on a cold winter's morning, but it seems to have cleared up a bit with a run. It's done more miles than the 200 (166K), and it isn't perfect - ABS light is currently on (probably because of the car having stood around - I'm assuming it was working OK for the MoT in May) and the battery cage in the remote locking fob has come desoldered so needs to be held together by hand to unlock the car - but for 300 quid it isn't too bad. It seems to be just as good on diesel as the 200 too.

 

Plan is to run it as a daily for a few weeks as it is, and then if it seems like it's going to behave itself it will be getting the Doom treatment and I can go out chasing Audis again.

[cms206]

Top work - I really like the look of these 400s, but oddly enough only as saloons. Fingers crossed it behaves... !

[RedSparrow]

Oh I like. I also think these look good with the wheel trims off.

Black steels yo!

[Lord Sterling]

Brill. I do like these 400 saloons. They look classy with nice rover alloys or stylish trims and some leather. I've never seen a saloon look so plain.

[ashmicro]

Rover. FTW.

[Cavcraft]

The new Doom mobile is ace in an Autoshite way. All you need for it now is some roofbars, preferably some new in the box aftermarket ones with ski attachments. If only we could think of someone selling a set

[Lacquer Peel]

 

Here's my old one with the wrong Rover alloys, bought shortly after the collapse of MGR for the same price as a Mondeo TDCi clutch change. They're decent cars, just a bit cramped inside.

The Rover-only saloon is a prelude to the 75 I think, the rear light treatment is quite similar.

[RobT]

Comfortable old thing is it? I'm thinking of replacing the Montego at some point (bored with chasing the rust) and it's either one of these or a 600. Don't suppose you've had one of those have you Dave?

[wuvvum]

I've had a couple of 600s, including a diesel one - they're not a bad old thing, comfortable and a decent drive, but they're not that much more spacious than a 400 really I don't think. Plus they have an appalling turning circle, which is one thing that really irritates me in a car, although it probably wouldn't bother most people.

 

The 400's comfortable enough, yep. Ride is perhaps a tad firmer than a 600 (or a Montego) but still pretty good. It doesn't feel cramped to me either, although the footwell could perhaps be a couple of inches wider. There's plenty of seat travel though, and there's shedloads of headroom in my non-sunroof-equipped model.

[RobT]

Oh bugger, poor turning circle annoys me too as I have to do plenty of opposite locking to get into my garage. That's the 600 off my list then!

[Guest]

Those 400 saloons with the diesel are great old smokers. Comfortable, economical, reliable, nippy and everyone thinks they're shite.

[dollywobbler]

Oh bugger, poor turning circle annoys me too as I have to do plenty of opposite locking to get into my garage. That's the 600 off my list then!

 

It's alright. I've got the perfect solution Rob! Great turning circle and no steel, so they don't rot.

[Volksy]

Excellent, do you want to borrow my taxi sign?