Rover 25, any good?

[UltraWomble]

Passed a bubble this morning on my way to work with a for sale sign up the road from me - I'll get a photo tonight on my way home

£200

[inconsistant]

We had 2 of these in the 90s, a new 200vi 3 door then a used 214si 5 door, my wife did high mileage in both and loved them. think their looks have aged really well. Not so much the 25. The vi was fantastic, I'd love another one. The 214 was a real dark horse, comparable in performance to 1600 of the time but with better mpg. No idea how the 200 has fared since but sound like there's lots of good advice here.

 

One day I'm going to surprise the Mrs by coming home in a 200 BRM...

[saucedoctor]

Rover 25's are pretty good. I had one for 14 years. Get one that's had the head gasket done. There isn't really anything else that goes wrong in a big way. 1.4 16v is 84 or 103 BHP, depending on the throttle body that's fitted: the 83 BHP car just has a bump on the throttle cable quadrant that stops it opening fully, and a slightly shorter cable.

 

Strong cars, too: I have photos somewhere taken by a mate of a R3 Rover 200 that was hit head-on by a 7.5 tonner, and then smacked up the arse by an Audi A6. Rover driver got out by himself and said something like "Well that's fucking annoying!"

 

Front wheelarches rot a bit with age, so do the rears, but not as badly. ABS wiring can rub through on the back, but it's an easy fix.

Crank sensors can sometimes give bother, but are easily changed. IACV is a bit shit as well, but again not hard to swap out: if it fails, you can temporarily use the wee screw on the throttle body to make the car idle, albeit a bit fast.

Cars fitted with the 262mm non vented discs can shudder under braking - TADT,S. Put some good quality brake discs on and the problem will go away. Low mileage/short journey cars will have squeaky brakes: the pads glaze a bit. Some left foot braking shuts 'em up.

 

Alternators. Check, regularly, that it's bolted up properly. Every single K Series engine car that I've owned, and that's 10 of them, has had at least one loose-to-the-point-of-falling-out bolt on the alternator. My brand new R8 Rover 214 had the alternator FALL OFF.

 

The trim will rattle. Get used to it, you'll never find them all!

 

Get a decent one and look after it. The K Series doesn't take neglect well, so service it properly and change the coolant regularly. Frequently, what causes HGF if the inlet manifold gasket letting go. One way to tell if it's on the way out is crusty deposits on spark plugs 3 and 4.

 

The K Series has it's own version of the "Pinto Tap". It can sometimes sound like tappets, but is actually piston slap. Nothing to worry about usually. My 25 made the sound for 40K miles and it never got any worse, and the car didn't use oil.

 

Speaking of engines, they're easy to change. I had a 1600 in my car for a while, then a 120BHP 1800, then a turbo 1600 built by a mate for his MG ZR, but that munched gearboxes for fun.

 

A properly maintained Rover 25 is a blast to drive quickly on a twisty road. Hope you find a nice one.

[carlo]

One more question, does anyone know if the automatics are all CVTs, and are they hopeless?

[saucedoctor]

Paging Lord Sward. He knows about this stuff.

[captain_70s]

I've only been in one, a late car with low miles.

 

It was naff and bits of interior were falling off/rattling/failing constantly. In my college group it was the newest car any of us owned but was in far worse condition considering it's mileage. Although in typical British car fashion I suppose it just depends on if the people building/inspecting your car at the factory actually put any effort in...

[Guest Lord Sward]

All autos were CVTs.  The early ones are best, very reliable, very smooth, refined and quick.  Bearings can go, but thats a cheap fix via a specialist.  Later Stepspeed (nee Steptronic) ones aren't as strong as they rattle as they get older and more abused.  They also need a very specialist CVT fluid which you need to get from BMW MINI dealers.  Earlier ones just need any old CVT fluid as the zinc content isn't as critical.  

 

Note, saying all that, replacement boxes are NLA.

[Ghosty]

CVT? Just don't.

[Guest Lord Sward]

CVTs are GR8.  I couldn't tolerate a manual dog box these days.

 

Actually, the whole 25 range is GR8.

[Cavcraft]

[brickwall]

25 is a completely underrated car. I've had two and they were fantastic, especially the 1.4 which had plenty of poke. With seats folded down there was ample  space too.

[Guest Lord Sward]

The handles that folder said seats were soooo good, BMW used them in the MINI for yonks.

[UltraWomble]

As promised

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