Rovervitis

[Motown]

 

Symptoms include: Divorce. Multiple Rovers. Empty bank accounts and hoarding of parts from years 1977 to 2005. 

My Rovervitis is so bad i am now buying back cars i previously sold...

So a few years ago i rescued this Rover 45 Saloon it was a 1.8 CVT of which they were only known to be three of on the road with this colour and interior. I remember at the time a chap called Craig Cheetham had the V6 model and he wrote an article on the car. it was one of the first cars off the production line and was a press car for its model. It had the rarest of the personal line interiors catkin green valour and an exterior colour celadon green pearl of which only featured on Rovers 45s for the first four months of production making it quite rare in its own right.

It had been sat in a yard in Birmingham for a few years and was in a very bad state mechanically so when i bought it i had a partial restoration done just to get it back on the road. However on the way home from Birmingham the engine blew up pistons one and four if i remember rightly straight through the block. Once the RAC got it home after a four hour wait on the hard shoulder i spent the next few months fully restoring it new engine box the works i did the lot below is a picture of the car when it was finished.

When it was finished i drove the car regularly and in that time it earnt the name Christine due to it giving my wife static shocks when getting in and out of the car and it not starting occasionally whenever she decided to drive it. The car also decided to spin out on a roundabout once at 40mph for no apparent reason but never caused me any issues and was a very comfortable reliable and enjoyable car.

 

 

After about two years of ownership i sold it to a chap down south and i never saw it again until last week when it popped up on FB marketplace it was listed as a non runner and its MOT has expired so i bought it back.

It will now be restored for a third time only this time il be keeping the car and will no doubt use it for the 100 mile daily commute to work. Which i am currently doing in an 827 so off the top of my head il cut my fuel consumption in half driving the 45.

[wuvvum]

40 minutes ago, Motown said:

Rover 45 1.8 CVT

That scuffling sound you just heard was @Angrydicky hiding behind the sofa.

[Motown]

On 6/1/2021 at 12:07 AM, wuvvum said:

That scuffling sound you just heard was @Angrydicky hiding behind the sofa.

Oh no what have i missed?

[Skizzer]

8 hours ago, Motown said:

Oh no what have i missed?

It’s still taxed and has since been MOTd again by the person Richard sold it to, so everyone is happy.

[Motown]

14 hours ago, Skizzer said:

It’s still taxed and has since been MOTd again by the person Richard sold it to, so everyone is happy.

My 45 did the same thing after trying and changing many things on the car and the box i narrowed it down to the drive plate. At the time the Rover drive plate was extremely rare (They are now available from Discount MG Rover Spares who imported loads from abroad) and weren't all that reliable if you could find one especially a used one. So i swapped it for a drive plate from Mk1 Ford Fiesta which is an identical fit and i never had any problems after that. The ford drive plate is rare now too so if anybody is looking for one DMGRS is your best bet

[Vince70]

I couldn’t rate the 45/400 highly enough as the example I had really was a reliable car in lovely condition and I let it go for £200 and will say it’s one of those cars I’ve regretted selling since and it’s still on the road doing someone proud when I last looked it up and the old girl was an auto with the Honda lump with relatively low mileage as I think it had 70000 on it at the time.

My one had a few battle scars when I bought it  on two of the doors but I was lucky enough to pick up two doors in exactly the same colour in mint condition off eBay  and once fitted you would never of known that they were off another car as they fitted like a glove .

I also as usual seemed to do all the work on it to bring it up to scratch only to sell it on to someone else to reap the awards of Rover wafting and I’ve never sat in seats that were so comfortable.