There's quite a bit to write when it comes to a car, my Rover 25 looks just like the one in the picture although mine is a three door. The wheels in the (Tiny) picture look like mine too which is unusual as I have bought a set of MG ZR alloys.

If you were to look in the auto trader for cars at a similar price to my 2002 (52) Rover 25 you'd find plenty of choice and as much as I can't make your mind up for you I can tell you what I like and dislike about my car.

Starting with outside, there are several colours available but in my opinion there are only two worth considering, the gold which I have and is by far the best and there is a nice, vibrant signal red too. Maybe black or silver isn't too bad but you'd have to be dafter than a parsnip to go for pearl white and the midnight blue and bottle green options are strictly for woodwork teachers as they go really nicely with tweed jackets and mock leather driving gloves!

When Rover went bust there became a vast amount of parts available on the internet and anyone who says to you "Don't by a rover, you won't be able to get parts." is probably the same person that would recommend holidaying in a caravan in Skegness. Parts are easy to get hold of and if anything have gone down in price, there are loads of Rovers on the road and plenty of manufacturers willing to make the parts and earn their cash.

With the abundance of parts on the internet it became possible to buy a set of factory alloys for under £100, without tyres, valves and centers. I settled on 16" MG ZR alloys and the extra grip and improvement in handling is easily noticed from standard steel wheels. I bought a service kit online for under £40 and fitted it myself and anyone could do the same. I got my brake pads and discs for £60 and again fitted them myself, not as easy as the service but still easy.

Now to the engine, the Rover K series engine has been around for ages and as such is pretty good, I wouldn't buy a car with an engine under 1.4l, I'd be bored too quickly! The acceleration is good and the car happily cruises at 80mph, it will make it to 100mph and a bit over but it's revving hard by then, best not to push it!

Some of you will regard the next bit as bad news but not me, my car has just hit the 61,000 mark and the head gasket has gone. Regular checking of the oil has revealed water, which I have been loosing slowly for a month or so and as I have kept my eye on it I have prevented catastrophic failure. So why not bothered!? Well first of all if you are thinking of owning this model then you should know that a head gasket at 60k is normal and as I expected to do the cam belt around 60k as well it's not that much more money to both at once. If you are changing your cam belt make sure you do the water pump at the same time. Parts for these two jobs are available for under £100 on ebay, the other £250 - £300 that I'll have to spend will be for labour, you can't do either for yourself.

The only other things that have gone on the car are bulbs, wiper blades and service parts, I haven't spent a single penny on the car other than for consumables and as such I don't begrudge it a major repair which will keep it going for another 60k.

Lastly the interior, well it's grey cloth! Not exciting! It is comfortable though, the drivers seat has lumbar support and good adjustment, there is plenty of room for rear seat passengers that are of average size and weight, if you are seven feet tall or weigh more than is healthy then maybe you should consider a Transit instead of a small car!?

You can fold the back seats down, not flat but enough to make room for most domestic tasks. I can fit a couple of push bikes in or do a trip to the tip, they supply a space saver wheel as a spare in the boot, throw it away and put in a steel one when you replace them for alloys.

The steering wheel has height adjustment and audio controls and all the buttons are within easy reach, my model has air conditioning and I'm told it's standard if you don't have a sunroof, I'm not promising that though! I've never understood the addition of mock wood panelling, even more so in this car as there's only two bits and it looks naff. It is not enough reason to stop you buying the car though.

I'll stop writing now as this review is getting a bit much but if you are making a large purchase then it's nice to be armed with as much info as possible.... Right!? I love my little car, it looks good and in my opinion the twin headlight model is the most attractive of the Rover 200 / 25 series.