Top Gear's Worst Car

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

I have been offered for free from a relative an 05 City Rover, its a non runner.

Story is about two years ago it failed to start (flat battery maybe), battery was charged and although engine turned over, it still would not start.

Since then its been untouched and as yet I have no more details, ie mileage, service history, etc, not that would make much difference to its value.

Its 15 miles away from me, my tame recovery man has quoted me £30 to collect it.

My daughter will soon be needing to replace her P reg Clio and although the Tata piece of Shite is probably is beyond economical repair, it may be suitable for a spares car.

Question, just how bad, unreliable, dreadful, would a good one be to run as a daily, about 100 miles a week.

Thanks in advance for any info.

 

[Tayne]

If you have off-street parking then surely its worth £30 to see if you can get it running and have a play?

[Lacquer Peel]

The CityRover's survival rate is pretty good considering they are an unloved orphan, they must be fairly reliable, especially as they're built for India's roads.

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

If you have off-street parking then surely its worth £30 to see if you can get it running and have a play?

 

At the moment I have  nowhere to park it near me for free and no time to diagnose the starting problem.

[vulgalour]

Basic fuel and sparks check needed.  It could be something as simple as a failed ignition component or blown fuse.

 

I want to like Shitty Rovers but I'm yet to learn of any redeeming features they might have.

[The Old Bloke Next Door]

This is cheap for an 04, and very tidy looking.

 

https://www.gumtree.com/p/rover/rover-city-rover-solo-for-sale-/1154144679

[Anglevan]

Didn't these have issues with the immobiliser?

[dollywobbler]

They're not actually bad to drive at all, but the interior build quality is hilariously awful. Coming from a 2CV owner.

[Lukas]

A friend of mine is importing, selling, servicing and repairing the TATA Indica/Indigo and it´s successor, the TATA Indica Vista in Austria since 2007.

 

He has very good things to tell about reliability and built-quality from the mechanical parts and the body. The interieur is a different story though. At least

in the Indica/Indigo. The newer Indica Vista is a lot better inside. 

 

I´ve driven all of them, even did road-tests and it´s not a bad car over all. Especially if you compare it to other small cars with prices under 10.000 Euro. 

 

As a cheap car, they are definately underrated. And the Indica Vista 1.4 Diesel (from Fiat) with 90hp flys. 

[Alexg]

Has any Autoshittist had a CR amongst their ranks yet? If not it's about time.

[Cavcraft]

Have you picked it up yet? I'd bloody love a City Rover.

[inconsistant]

CityRover: the car that even old people with no interest in cars didn't want.

 

I'd love one, they look like a grin.

[sierraman]

The clutches used to go all the time, according to a mate who worked for Rover. The whole assembly wasn't quite up to the job hence used to burn out quite quickly.

[UmBongo]

I saw one in Carlisle some years back.

 

[oldcars]

Get it, you live in Cannock and there is always a sale option 

[omegod]

For the sake of a crank sensor or summat cheap from the scrappy whats to lose ! I think there is one in my local yard, i'll have a peep next time I am there  

[colino]

The immobiliser (one of the few things Rover involved themselves in) is a notorious fail.  So much so, that many companies went to the bother of building bypass devices to sell.  Unfortunately as they cost around £150, that equates to the real value of a City Rover, so they go to scrap.

Try googling City Rover immobiliser bypass and see if anyone is still selling them.

[Austin-Rover]

The immobiliser thing is a cause for concern as others have said. Basically, when new you get three keyfobs with the car, two 'normal' ones that went on your keys and a third fob, which actually had a wire coming out of the back of it and plugged straight in to an ECU under the driver's seat. This fob is called the 'learn' fob and you should avoid buying any CityRover that doesn't come with the 'learn' fob. Every time you need to change batteries in your 'normal' key fob, you'll need to plug the 'learn' fob in to the ECU and follow a (fairly simple) procedure to match the 'normal' fob to the car once more.

 

It's actually a fairly good system as it means you can buy fobs off eBay from other cars and have them locking and unlocking your own car within five minutes - you could have as many key fobs as you like. The downside is that the 'learn' fob is *everything* and without it you'll ultimately need to buy one of the immobiliser bypass set-ups previously mentioned or pillage the 'learn' fob and matched ECU from another car. Thankfully the 'learn' fob and it's ECU aren't then matched to the rest of the car so it is an easy swap to do.

 

This would be my first port of call with the car you are considering. If it has the 'learn' fob, plug it in under the driver's seat, press the 'unlock' button on it (the other button is marked 'learn' rather than 'lock' on the normal fobs) and this will turn off the immobiliser and (everything else being okay) the car should start.

 

Other things to look for are; If you are looking at the Mk1 (Rover-launched) CityRover (with the grey interior plastics) then on the instrument pack, there will be a padlock symbol, and if this flashes then the immobiliser is on. If you are looking at the 'improved' Mk2 (arrived on these shores after Rover went 'pop'. These have black interior plastics) then there is still a red LED to signify the immobiliser being on, and from memory it is in the bottom right of the instrument pack and quite hard to see in daylight hours.

[wuvvum]

Aren't these supposed to be ludicrously thirsty for a small car?  Maybe something to consider if thinking of it as a commuter.

 

Although as others have said, for a net outlay of 30 quid it's well worth a go.

[Austin-Rover]

I've had two of these. The first was an '04' Mk1 Style that I got off an old dear who had given up driving. Sadly, she had driven it in to lots of immoveable objects and it had been driven head on into street lamp or post at some point in its life so the front end panels were all over the place! The lady had also been leaking bodily fluids in to the driver's seat for some time and let me tell you, no amount of cleaning can get that smell out!

 

Interestingly, when I bought that car, the learn fob was plugged in permanently and stuck to the side of the centre console as she had lost the two proper fobs. Detective work trying to find out what it was gave me the whole picture about hos they work.

 

I sold that car on for more than I paid and managed to pick up the '06' example with the money!

 

The '06' one is the improved Mk2 (the interior is black, instead of grey amongst other changes). A small number of the 'Style' models come with this contrasting cream/white seating in either velour or 'leather'. I've only seen two with the 'leather' and had to have this one as it is so unusual, and I think the exterior colour is fab! The picture shows it at Pride of Longbridge last April - and as far as I know this is the first example that anyone has ever taken to that show. I didn't get chased off the field with torch-wielding 'proper' Rover enthusiasts, either!

 

 

[Austin-Rover]

Aren't these supposed to be ludicrously thirsty for a small car?  Maybe something to consider if thinking of it as a commuter.

 

Although as others have said, for a net outlay of 30 quid it's well worth a go.

 

The purple one, above averages 34mpg. Not great for a city car if you compare it to its contemporariness; but don't forget the CityRover is actually the generation before - the Indica came out in 96/97 I think. It has a proper 4cyl engine and the performance to go with it, so fuel consumption isn't going to be anything to write home about.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

These look mega shit, I'd love one, good info on the immobiliser there AR, cheers

[Dave_Q]

Can't help with anything useful but I have been in the back of several "Indicab" versions of these as taxis in India.

 

GR12 for being ragged around Bangalore at night by slightly* mental taxi drivers and a lovely upgrade over an auto-rickshaw.

 

Have you bought it yet?

[jonny69]

I saw one in real life for the first time this week. I didn't know what it was at first.

 

I realise that isn't much help.

[Urko]

I have promised myself one of these one day

[tooSavvy]

..... I reckon epic AS observation skills 'might' liberate a Savvy for c.£30 in the forseeable future

 

Then again, you'd need to own one of each to properly evaluate $hiteworthiness.

 

 

TS

[sierraman]

34 mpg is awful for a car of that size. I'd still have one for curiosity, though when you look at the competition when they were new what they priced them up against the Clio and the Fiesta they were off their heads.

[cms206]

I get 40mpg round the doors in the Pride driving it like its on fire and thats 1980s technology! 1.3 8v 4-pot too so not a tiny engine either.

[Skut]

I drove one just before Rovers implosion. Roomy but rotten interior,  it was a weird poverty mishmash inside.  Went well enough as it had a 1.4 Pug motor. 

[HH-R]

Sounds about right, I could never get more than 37 MPG out of a 1.4 K series and my 1.4 Kia does between 31 and 36 depending on traffic and air con use.