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Tales of the TataRover (and friend; now with Agila content)


Austin-Rover

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Nice, proper top drawer autoshite. 

 

Got ferried around in a lot of the Tata Indicab version of these while working in Bangalore in 2009. May even have had similar pleather seats. 

 

Actually they are a decent chunk of car and MGR dropped a massive bollock just by making them too expensive.

 

Had they priced them at £5 below whatever the cheapest car on the market was at the time they could have had a noughties Dacia Sandero on their hands, as it was didn't they try to charge £7000 or something for them?

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Top shite.  Wow.  Usually I would only consider older cars 'shite'.  This is the same age as my car, which is not really shite.

 

However, this is definitely shite of the highest order.  Deeply confusing.

 

Yes, It doesn't fit the profile on age, but for everything else... boxes are ticked!

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Skills!!!! Good on you for perservering with these old shitters. Thinking about it I havent seen one on the road for a while now. Tell us about your best encounters with disapproving crusties at car shows!!!! I would love listening to all the incorrect info I would no doubt be subjected to if I rocked up with one of these.

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I can't be arsed to delete loads of text, but it made me smile when the OP said "There's also loads of fun to be had with Rover enthusiasts who by and large take things far too seriously and get totally stressed out and offended by its mere existence"...............not half as stressed and Jag lovers being told their heritage is now owned by the maker of the famous Rover City. Those of us who have owned a leaping cat are only just getting over the constant quip "it's made out of Mondeo parts innit mate"

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Skills!!!! Good on you for perservering with these old shitters. Thinking about it I havent seen one on the road for a while now. Tell us about your best encounters with disapproving crusties at car shows!!!! I would love listening to all the incorrect info I would no doubt be subjected to if I rocked up with one of these.

 

Well, if you go off that notoriously shite website, HowMany(might)BeLeft.com, 2,200 have left the DVLA records in the two years this one has been off the road. Just over 1,000 left now.

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Great news - I've been itching to try one of these ever since the infamous undercover James May review - half of it here

 

and it is on my bucket list.

 

These 'on the boat from Pune when MGR when titzup' Mk2s were all bought for peanuts as a joblot by Motorpoint and were then sold for buttons - see https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/features/cityrover-mark-ii-last-chance-hatchback-for-blighty-5329995.html

 

This and the Streetwise were launched at the same time by MGR in 2003 and both were heavily panned at the time, the CityRover more so due to the Phoenix Four charging way over the odds. A lot more love for Streetwises nowadays, less so CityRovers - as you say Rover-lickers really don't approve, I do as these have shite count of 11/10.

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Excellent. Post of the day I reckon. Not that I've read all the others but I don't see how they can too this.

 

We all know the reputation and target market of these cars but whoever specced this colour and interior combo must have had a sense of humour.

 

Good luck with the MOT, not that you'll need it.

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That’s terrific and the last time I saw a city rover was a yellow one without a straight panel being driven by a little old lady in Bexhill-On-Sea last year.

 

The old girl was trying to park it and was using it as a battering ram on the cars parked in front and behind and I said do you know you’ve just hit both cars and the reply I got was “that’s what bumpers are for” then she started having a go at me.

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Top shite.  Wow.  Usually I would only consider older cars 'shite'.  This is the same age as my car, which is not really shite.

 

However, this is definitely shite of the highest order.  Deeply confusing.

 

Nah it qualifies even on age (if not registration date), given the Indica it was based on was actually on sale in India in 1998. So really, it's a mid 90's design. Probably on 80's tech.

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Easiest way to immediately tell how desperate and moneyless Rover were, without even getting on the car to get a sense of the terrible quality?

 

The steering wheel.

 

When a company is rebadging a car, and can't even stretch to a different centre, so just sticks a badge on top despite the hole for it being the wrong shape, that's when you run.

 

I'm sure it was just a coincidence though that Rover adopted their logo on an oval badge, not like Tata had an oval badge they needed to cover up or....oh

 

Tata_Indica_Facelift_interior_-_PSM_2009

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This is brilliant.  The last CityRover I saw in the wild was abandoned on an industrial estate a few years back, slowly turning green with weeds growing up next to it.  Long gone now.

 

The list price was just greedy though.  £6995 in 2003 equates to over £10.5k nowadays.  Isn't the (far superior/ larger/ safer) Dacia Sandero still £6k?

They were taking the p**s and the writing was on the wall :(

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This is brilliant.  The last CityRover I saw in the wild was abandoned on an industrial estate a few years back, slowly turning green with weeds growing up next to it.  Long gone now.

 

The list price was just greedy though.  £6995 in 2003 equates to over £10.5k nowadays.  Isn't the (far superior/ larger/ safer) Dacia Sandero still £6k?

They were taking the p**s and the writing was on the wall :(

 

Here's a decent article on it

 

https://www.motoringresearch.com/car-news/features/great-motoring-disasters-mg-rover-cityrover/

 

In all honesty, it should have been priced in the mid 4k range.

 

I assume they priced it high out of desperation.

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