My early 90's 'British' tat...

[overheadvalve]

Rover really hit the mark with these and we all thought it was the beginning of Rovers upturn. Then BMW came along and fcuked it.

 

Erm, BMW fucked it? I'm not defending what they did to Rover, but without them there'd have been no 75 and no L322... both the best examples of their type in a long time.

 

Yup. Bernd Pischetsrieder pretty much fucked Rover big time when, at the launch of the 75 he had a massive swipe at Rover staff. As he was boss of BMW at the time, it pretty much blew the actual 75 launch off the front of all the papers and replaced it with "BMW BOSS CALLS ROVER STAFF WANKERS" type headlines. Combined with the K-series being allowed to remain in production without the HG issues being put right and BMW banning Rover from building 4WD cars (or RWD ones whilst in BMW ownership) I'd say they're more to blame for Rovers eventual demise than the people who were designing and building the things.

 

Once they'd ditched Honda, Rover were beginning to make the right type of car again. The 75 could have been brilliant, as could the MGF. They're nice to drive, nice to be a passenger in and reasonably well made. Other than the K/KV6 issues they're not really any worse than anything else built at the time, but everyone expected Rovers to break and they did. The MG skunkworks pulled some pretty impressive rabbits from the hat once BMW left, but other than the ZT 260 they were all based on prehistoric cars so it was never going to be more than a short term solution. The Pheonix consortium didn't have the financial welly to continue the development of decent cars, so finished off the great old Rover brand by sticking badges on a shite Indian import.

 

BMW stripped Rover of all its brands, pinched LRs 4x4 engineering for the dreadful X5 and then sold the lot to a bunch of skint asset strippers. They were furious about the MG stuff as they didn't know about it, or think it would be any good.

The L322 Range Rover improved beyond all recognition once fitted with the Jag V8. Ford stopped the front diffs exploding too, they also admitted there was a problem with the K series in the Freeloader and did something to put it right.

 

So, yeah, BMW fucked Rover.

 

Absolutely fcuking top post, i couldn't agree more! not that you need agreement from me, just agree with you making a point i guess

[mk1_4dr]

Awesome post Pete. Also, quality pics from an epic film. Am I wrong???

[Guest EccentricRichard]

You say that the L322 improved greatly when given the Jaguar AJ-V8 i- was the BMW V8 (or indeed the 3.0 straight-six diesel) not that good?

 

The BMW diesel just simply didn't have the power, torque, smoothness or strength to shift a Rangie in the appropriate manner. They work if you nail the throttle to the floor and just leave it there, but that's not an acceptable way to drive a Rangie. It's ok for an X5, as they're all driven by smug wankers who know no better, but it's not right for the Rangie at all as the Range Rover has class.

 

The BMW V8 never suited the L322, you have to give 'em lots of beans in order to get anywhere. The Jag lump is much smoother, quieter and generally better in every way. In a Jag powered one you don't hear the engine as it doesn't need to be wellied in order to make progress.

 

Whenever I've driven a BMW powered L322 I've been disappointed, whereas the Jag ones make me grin. The supercharged ones make me grin lots.

 

Fair enough. Still, one can but wonder what an early L322 diesel would be like with the newest variant of that engine from the 740d... I don't understand why they didn't turbocharge the BMW V8s to start with. Even now, surely they could stick the turbos off the TDV8 on the petrol V8 and maybe downsize the engine back to 4.2 litres? The extra torque and fuel economy would be welcome, and throttle response/noise isn't exactly a huge priority with the RR either.

[scruff]

Because they have a diesel V8 which isn't appalling on juice and has more than enough torque. This is Autoshite though, not Autocar, so could you please start posting about rubbish old cars and not £60,000+ Range Rovers? Ta