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Dollywobbler's Indian Takeaway


dollywobbler

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Short collection caper thread. I caught a 'train.'

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I did a buy. £200 with MOT until Jan.

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It was very close to here.

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Which seemed fitting. I then drove it over 100 miles back to Wales. It drives really well. Plenty of torque and pace, reasonable ride for the class and age, few trim rattles.

Downsides are a knackered stat, so it's running cool. A traffic jam on the M5 was sufficient to get it up to temp and get the cooling fan working. It then ran all the way home and wouldn't stop even when I turned the engine off... Had to pull the fuse.

It's the base Solo, so keep fit everything bar steering. I like it.

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It looked a lot more presentable than expected in the video. The only thing that would annoy me is if that mark on the windscreen is a deep scratch, but hey it’s cheaper than a hire car for a week. The question is that if it had been priced competitively and it’s reputation not completely dominated by where it came from, could it have sold slightly better back in the day. Problem is of course that the competition was ahead on many fronts. I guess Rover did what they could as usual with no development money.

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Coincidentally the Retronahts had an Indian Takeaway last night .Slightly better condition than yours Ian and it was cheaper plus it probably smelt better than the Rover. Good luck with the new car and we look forward to the inevitable highs and lows this steed will bring you. Incidentally on your reveal video at 2.55 I see that someone has stolen the red outer part of the give way sign. Rough in Brum.

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Ha! Who knows. Overall, the impressions are pretty good. Interior plastics are a bit crap, but not early Volvo 740 crap. Drives well, though I find the steering a bit quick - something the Rover engineers changed.

Some things, like the bonnet release, are hilariously flimsy but fundamentally, it is a sound design. Which makes it a proper Rover really.

Styling is by IDEA in Italy, who also styled the Tipo, Tempra and Nissan Terrano II.

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They felt a good ten to fifteen years out of date in 2005, so that and the insane pricing pretty much killed it -unless you were a die hard Rover fan then there was no reason to buy one over a Panda, etc.
They even seemed old fashioned compared to the 25 which had been going since 1995 with a facelift or two.
The quality of Rover's own interiors in the 25 etc were piss poor by then, the CityRover was pretty much on a par, albeit the 25 had less exposed screw heads.
Maybe if they had used Austin as the brand and done a Sandero by selling it as the cheapest thing on 4 wheels they might have sold a few.

 

 

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52 minutes ago, HH-R said:

Maybe if they had used Austin as the brand and done a Sandero by selling it as the cheapest thing on 4 wheels they might have sold a few.

 

That probably should have been the way to go rather than put a (once) premium badge on and try to get top money for them.

 

Rumour would suggest that Rover paid more than the price of a Sandero to Tata for each one.

 

I understand they were desperate, but what were they thinking?

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50 minutes ago, HH-R said:


Maybe if they had used Austin as the brand and done a Sandero by selling it as the cheapest thing on 4 wheels they might have sold a few.

 

 

This would have been the way to go (but I'm not sure if BMW still held the rights to use the other marques or if they reverted to BMW after the collapse).

I thought Rover only paid around £1,000 for each one but could well be wrong.

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Years ago I worked for a while for an ex-Skoda dealer, the small old-fashioned kind who were gradually ditched when VW took over. To keep going they had become Tata dealers, meaning the Loadbeta and Safari, ie niche "niche". Both were pretty terrible tbh, bringing new meaning to the word "sluggish" and constantly coming back for rectification work. There was some excitement when it looked like the Tata Indica was going to be added to the sales lists, giving us a (probably minute) slice of the small hatch market. The proprietor was gutted when it went to Rover instead. Since then I agree I've only seen bad things written about them, usually with the word "avoid" somewhere in the prose. Therefore of course terrific purchase.

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