97' 214si - My first car (Rover 214 Si)

Name: Superspy

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Product:	Rover 214 Si
Date:	30/11/05 (5889 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Powerful, spacious, comfortable

Disadvantages: Nothing major.

I've currently owned my 1997 214si since May this year after buying it for only £800 from my girlfriends mum, Bev.

Let me start by dispelling a fear that Rover parts will no longer be available as Rover have stopped production - to the best of my knowledge Rover made the cars themselves and another company made the spare parts, I have been told that parts and labour are guaranteed for 12 years. Anyway, on with the car.

As will all things there are 2 sides to a story, a good side and a bad side (normally), in this case the bad side for a first time owner is the insurance tag. Being a newer hatchback model it is insurance group 7, which is a bit of a stinger in comparison with something like a corsa at insurance group 1 or 2. I'm 18 years old with no years no claims, and I'm currently paying £1350 third party fire and theft. If I didn't have Pass Plus this would have been about £2100. The upside to all this is the reason why it has a high insurance group for a small engine...the power. Obviously I had travelled in the car before I owned it as a passenger and Bev treated it... gently I suppose is the appropriate word, so when I first got behind the wheel and put my foot down i was amazed at the throttle response and acceleration. Since then I have become more interested in engines and I can honestly say I have not managed to find another car with a 1.4 engine that accelerates faster than the 214si based on figures (0-60 times, power outputs etc). The models I have looked through are as follows, saxo, 106, 206, 306, punto, fiesta, corsa, astra, clio, megane and others, if I'm wrong feel free to correct me.

The drive itself is a very comfortable one with a good adjustable driving position and there is plenty of room all around the car for passengers too. The car has enough mod-con's to keep the driver happy aswell, including electric windows, electric sunroof, heated rear screen etc. The only things I would say it has missing are air-con and heated mirrors, but I manage fine without them.

I find the car to be quite good in the economy department as well. At the minute I am commuting to University from home, which is a round trip of about 130 miles and if I stick to 70mph on the motorway I can do this trip for £10.

I have heard a lot of people speaking of problems with the k-series engine, things like, "they always blow up" but can honestly say I drive the car hard and have had no problems what so ever with it. In fact the only problem I've had with reliability is a couple of days ago one of my tail lights blew, so I just need to fit the replacement - easy.

If I was to nit-pick there would be 2 things about the car I would change, firstly, the interior, the good old Rover "wooden" look... I hate it. Everything about the interior is fine except for those little strips of wooden effect plastic, which I soon got rid of by colour-coding the whole interior in black and electric-blue. Now I think it looks great, others may disagree. The second thing would be the suspension, under normal everyday driving circumstances there's no problem, but when drivin hard and quick around corners it seems a bit soft and the body has quite a bit of roll, but it's not unbearable and the handling is still good.

All in all the car is a great runner and fantastic for a first time car, even if the insurance is a little OTT for someone on a student budget. My advice to anyone would be if you want a good all-rounder and can afford the insurance then buy one of these cars, they're great.

Summary: Good all round car, it combines power, economy and comfort.

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