Project Drive

[midnite]

the last of the line 25s are the worst made, when rover facelifted them, they took all the nicer stuff out of the 25 45 and 75, the interior plastics including seat fabric were dyer, we had them in the showroom next to unfacelifted models and in the 45 in particular it was like they had substituted a honda accord for a citroen ax , it was terrible, and with the daft gsi gxi models, they knew it was all over ages before that, and they just killed the cars, the last 25s 45s 75 mgs etc are all hand made by the chinese at long bridge, infact they literally threw parts at the body shells and hoped they stay in place, absolute fuckin travesty, and if i ever see john towers il strangle the bastard.

[andrew e]

Yup! Took out the passenger side on the M25 by a continental LHD trucker who pulled out, just been serviced and had the belts done.... That hurt my wallet I can tell you!

[andrew e]

Beautiful colour though Firefrost - I tried to buy one pre-reg from the same batch, same spec GSI, same reg number but they wanted another £800 or something like that. Squeak, squeak, squeak.

 

I have the round electric boot key fob still, if you need one.

[dollywobbler]

Must say I prefer the earlier ones myself. Also, you say the handbrake ratchet sounds nasty - you should never hear the ratchet. It's far better to press the button as you lift the handbrake. The ratchet mechanism is just to keep the handbrake on.

[overrun]

Nice little thing

 

Hate the facelifted 45, that boot lid is just bloody horrible.

 

The tailgate was to make it fit in with all of the modified, Max Power shit kicking about at the time, imo.

Saved Mhyneer a job.

[robinmasters]

Must say I prefer the earlier ones myself. Also, you say the handbrake ratchet sounds nasty - you should never hear the ratchet. It's far better to press the button as you lift the handbrake. The ratchet mechanism is just to keep the handbrake on.

Quite. The sound of a handbrake ratchet is like fingernails down a blackboard to me.

[phil_lihp]

Considering how solid and high quality the interior of an R8 is, I'm amazed how cheap and nasty that looks.  Rover used to be so good at interiors.  That leather looks like something out of a National Express coach.  I do prefer the look of the late facelifted range but I think I'd stick with an older model if that's how much they'd gone downhill by then.

[Noel Tidybeard]

Must say I prefer the earlier ones myself. Also, you say the handbrake ratchet sounds nasty - you should never hear the ratchet. It's far better to press the button as you lift the handbrake. The ratchet mechanism is just to keep the handbrake on.

negative moderns need the ratchet in contact at all times or the handbrake will phail and the car will roll down a hill and nuns & kittens etc

[Pillock]

What?

[HH-R]

Some manufacturers now recommend that you yank it up without the button or the handbrake comes off, a la Vectra.

 

I usually pull it all the way up with the button pressed then pull it up another click to make sure the ratchet has ratcheted.

[inconsistant]

I reckon they should add that ratchet noise to electronic handbrakes like they do the fake shutter noise to digital cameras.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

*OT dull-as-ditchwater handbrake ratchet sounds discussion* I like the ratchet noise. My driving instructor used to bang on and on about pushing the button while pulling on the handbrake, (to prevent wear to the mechanism) but I have never EVER encountered or heard of a handbrake ratchet with ANY appreciable wear of any sort. Ratchet away i say, the man was talking out of his arse.

[chodweaver]

^

Rare, I agree, but I have had a car where the ratchet had worn out - I had to find a scrapper for a used gear that had more depth left in the teeth, cos it was dangerous as it was - it just let go whenever it felt like it, so I'm of the hold the button persuasion now!

 

Sent from my GT-S5830i using Tapatalk 2

[oldcars]

I take it project drive was a cost cutting exercise? When did it come about, as my 75 is 2004 and seems to have less stuff than some earlier ones.

[ray]

Here is a link to Project Drive......http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/facts-and-figures/history/history-project-drive/ .

I have owned 2 ZR's both built in 2005,no squeaks,rattles,and the only failure 1 ABS sensor replaced under warranty.(obviously tyres and exhausts as required). The detractors of MGR should just check on the "improvements"  Ford and Vauxhall have made over the years.

.

[Ghosty]

Yes, and it's been around about as long as MGR (about 2000?). As time went on, MGR kept changing little bits here and there to save money. As such, the earlier a Rover the better (something something P6).

ISTR there's a big list somewhere of everything they did to the 75 and about when it was done.

[HH-R]

Project Drive was pretty much the first thing MG Rover group when it came to be in 2000.

 

In the case of the 75, build quality improved with the move from Cowley to Longbridge after B** spat their dummy and wanted to retain Cowley for the BINI. It also gained colour coded sills, apparently there was some technical reason why it couldn't be done at Cowley, and there were some minor detail changes like the big Rover badge on the boot of Cowley 75s was reduced to a smaller one on the chrome handle, the Union Jack was added on the boot, etc. After that, they countered the better build quality with cheapening. Some stuff wasn't really important, like using common components between the cars to reduce costs, like I seem to remember an access panel on the 45 bodyshell that was no longer used was deleted. Some of the main things were changing the real wood dash to plastic on the Longbridge cars, using the smaller mirrors of the 25 and 45 on 75, there were myriad others.

 

Once the facelifts had come in, it was like Project Drive 2.0 and loads of things were cheapened. They moved from using the old Lucas alarm/immobilisers to a Pektron BCU which did loads of stuff, not sure if that was on ground of cost, the new unit could do more, or if it was a cheap way of getting the (at the time) new Thatcham approval - the facelifts do stuff like re lock the doors and re arm the immobiliser if you unlock the car and don't open a door within X seconds.

[Pillock]

How much do you they saved per car on Project Drive then? And how many cars were subjected to the savings?

Reading those bulletins, it all seems a bit desperate.... OK, losing a horn probably saves a couple of quid but then they also took away the caps over the seat belt mounting bolt (a penny or two each?) and various badges. I can see the point in having one mirror type instead of three, but to remove the black decal on the B pillar, or even the one behind the grille that stops the body colour support showing through......?

[wuvvum]

Rare, I agree, but I have had a car where the ratchet had worn out

The ratchet on my A35 has worn out to be fair.  Mind you, that is 56 years old.

[oldcars]

Cheers for the info off to have a read about project drive.

[sierraman]

One of my favourite stories from that time is when they deleted the sound deadening, then offered it as an option called simply the 'acoustic kit'

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Some of the project drive changes are just cringe worthy, they basically show the company acknowledging its obvious lack of a future of any sort.

[oldcars]

I saw a project drive Reliant at the weekend. Person that got me up to see it forgot* to say no engine or interior 

[wuvvum]

One of my favourite stories from that time is when they deleted the sound deadening, then offered it as an option called simply the 'acoustic kit'

Mine doesn't appear to have been specced with the acoustic kit.  It's noticeably noisier and tinnier than the 200s.

[dugong]

Mine doesn't appear to have been specced with the acoustic kit.  It's noticeably noisier and tinnier than the 200s.

But.......that means MGR still had to buy in the materials to install in the cars specified with the kit! What cost saving does that make?

 

IMHO the last MGTFs drove nicer than the earlier models; it had actually softened the suspension to the point of being able to drive one down a road without your spine shattering.

[sierraman]

If you think about it they were including it as part of the price before, now they are getting another say... £150 for the sound deadening as opposed to fitting it for free. By this point however they were in fits of desparation, even deleting the wheel arch liners. I mean what next would it have been? Optional extra for hubcaps? Deleting the carpets?

[They_all_do_that_sir]

It was a long, slow, horrible death for MGR

 

A shame because cars like the R8 really were a step above the opposition at the time. Compared to disastras and escrotes of the period they were far nicer. But didn't they price them to compete with mondeos or something daft?

[wuvvum]

By this point however they were in fits of desparation, even deleting the wheel arch liners.

Just checked and mine has wheel arch liners.  :smug:

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Retrofitted by a previous, astonished owner

[Lacquer Peel]

Wow, they deleted the wheel arch liners?! Front and rear?